Ellen White

Advent Review and Sabbath Herald-3

Come Out From Among Them, and Be Ye Separate

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Never was there a time when this warning was more appropriate than at the present time. Far too large a number of professed Christians are Christians only in name. They have no root in themselves. Their hearts are filled with pride, impurity, unholy ambition, self-importance, and love of supremacy. They may have an intelligent knowledge of the theory of the truth, and prove their doctrines to be sound and Scriptural, but they hold the truth in unrighteousness. By their course of action they deny the Saviour. Their hearts are not sanctified through the truth. They are unholy in heart, and unchristlike in deportment. Unless the spirit and principles that characterized the life of Christ are planted in the heart, they can not control the life. The law of God must be written in the heart, the truth of God must illuminate the soul. Holiness, mercy, truth, love, must be brought into the life. Unless the soul-temple is cleansed from its defilement, unless there is purity of heart, unless earnest efforts are made to meet the standard of God's word, they will never be fitted to be the companions of the pure and holy; they will never wear the white linen which is the righteousness of the saints.

There will always be in positions of trust men who have never overcome self, professors who flatter the pleasure-lover, and court his approval by uniting with him. They determine not to obey the call to come out and be separate, and as a consequence, iniquity abounds. Anything is more acceptable to them than the putting away of the evil thing. They profess to believe the word of God, but they do it not. With a knowledge of sacred truth before them, they cherish sin in the heart. The will of God is known, but rejected, and their hearts become more hard, their consciences more unimpressible, and their ruin more sure than if they had had no knowledge of the truth. These men are not moved by the messages of warning. The terrors of the Lord have no lasting effects upon their minds. The love of Jesus, his pity, his compassion for fallen man, which led him to leave the royal courts and lay aside his robes of honor, for our sake to become poor, that we through his poverty might be rich; his life of self-denial and self-sacrifice, may be presented before them. His entreaties, his invitations, his rich promises, may be repeated to them; but their selfish hearts are proof against them all. They feel that God's claims are arbitrary, and the truth finds no place. Let there be more license, less restraint, pleads the carnal heart. The temple of the soul is used for idols, and the truth of God's word has no power to cause them to turn from sin. The indulgence of self, which keeps them in harmony with the world's customs and practises, has a controlling power upon their lives.

Over the lives of very many professed Christians the power of God has but little control. Innumerable favors are bestowed upon them by the God of heaven, without awakening in them one thought of gratitude in return. The love of Jesus is not a ruling principle in the soul, and therefore can not exercise a constraining power upon the life.

A partial surrender to truth gives Satan free opportunity to work. Until the soul-temple is fully surrendered to God, it is the stronghold of the enemy. This influence is leading souls away from the grand old waymarks into false paths. When the mind becomes confused, when right is considered unessential, and error is called truth, it is almost impossible to make these deceived souls see that it is the adversary who has confused their senses and polluted the soul-temple. A tissue of lies is placed where truth, and truth alone, should be. The word of God is a dead letter to them, and the Saviour's love is unknown.

"Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Will we hear the voice of God and obey, or will we make half-way work of the matter, and try to serve God and mammon? Christ has placed before us the conditions of eternal life. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," he says, "with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." "This do, and thou shalt live." Those who hear from the lips of Christ the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," will be heroic ministers of righteousness. They may never preach a discourse from the pulpit, but, loyal to a sense of God's claims upon them, and jealous for his honor, they will minister to the souls who are the purchase of Christ's blood. They will see the necessity of carrying into their work a willing mind, an earnest spirit, and a hearty, unselfish zeal. They will not study how best they can preserve their own dignity, but by care and thoughtfulness will seek to win the hearts of those whom they serve. On every hand the agents of Satan will seek to induce them to sin, but those who will to love and fear God will stand as firm as a rock to their heaven-inspired purpose. Like Daniel, they will refuse to be moved from their convictions of duty.

The apostle Paul urges upon us the advantages placed within our reach. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved," he says, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." We are to separate from the world in spirit and practise if we would become sons and daughters of God. In his prayer for his followers, Christ asked, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

There is earnest work before each one of us. Right thoughts, pure and holy purposes, do not come to us naturally. We shall have to strive for them. In all our institutions, our publishing houses and colleges, pure and holy principles must take root. If our institutions are what God designed they should be, they will not pattern after any other in the land. They will stand as peculiar, governed and controlled by the Bible standard. They will not come into harmony with the principles of the world in order to gain patronage. No motives will have sufficient force to move them from the straight line of duty. Those who are under the control of the Spirit of God will not seek their own pleasure or amusement. If Christ presides in the hearts of the members of his church, they will answer to the call, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Partake not of her sin.

God has a work for his faithful sentinels to do in standing in defense of the truth. They are to warn and entreat, showing their faith by their works. They are to stand as did Noah, in noble, whole-souled fidelity, their characters untarnished by the evil around them. They are to be saviors of men, as Christ was. The worker who thus stands true to his trust will be exposed to hatred and reproach. False accusations will be brought against him to drag him from his high position. But this soul has his foundation upon the Rock, and he remains unmoved, warning, entreating, rebuking sin and pleasure-loving by his own moral rectitude and circumspect life. -

Home Training

God has given to every man and woman talents to be used to his name's glory. All have not the same gifts; all are not called to do the same work; but to each God has given the ability to do the work appointed him. There are some who think that unless they are directly connected with public religious work, they are not doing the will of God; but this is a mistake. Every one has a work to do for the Master. Just as verily as the minister has his appointed work, the mother has hers. By educating their children to love God, and fear to offend him, parents can just as surely serve God as can the minister in the pulpit.

It is a wonderful work to make home pleasant, and all that it ought to be. If the heart is given to God, the humblest talents will make the home life all that God would have it. In the home a bright light will shine forth as the result of whole-hearted service to God. The mother is to bring her children to Jesus for his blessing. She is to cherish the words of Christ and teach them to her children. From their babyhood she is to discipline them to self-restraint and self-denial, to habits of neatness and order. The mother can bring her children up so that they will come with open, tender hearts to hear the words of God's servants. The Lord has need of mothers who in every line of the home life will improve their God-given talents, and fit their children for the family of heaven.

The Lord is served as much, yes, more, by the faithful home worker than by the one who preaches the Word. Fathers and mothers should realize that they are the educators of their children. Children are the heritage of the Lord, and they should be trained and disciplined to form characters that the Lord can approve. When this work is carried on judiciously and with faithfulness and prayer, angels of God will guard the family, and the most commonplace life will be made sacred. All heaven recognized Abraham's faithfulness in this respect, and he who blesses the habitation of the righteous said, I know Abraham. He is the priest of his household, and patriarch in his home. He will command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.

Symmetry of character is to be restored in men and women, and God calls upon parents with all their capabilities to co-operate with him in this work of restoration. Uncleanness in the home is a great mistake; for it is educating in its effects, and casts its influence abroad. Even in babyhood a right direction should be given to the habits of children. Teach them to keep their bodies clean by bathing in the morning and at night. Show them that uncleanness, whether in body or dress, is offensive to God. Constant vigilance must be exercised, that these habits may become second nature to the youth. There must be no lax methods in the home; for the children will never outgrow what they have become familiar with in their childhood. If they have been trained to habits of neatness and order, untidiness and slackness will be offensive to them; and impurity will be despised, as it should be.

The Lord commanded the children of Israel to wash their clothes, and put away all impurity from their encampment, lest in passing by he should see their uncleanness. God is passing by our homes to-day, and he sees the unsanitary conditions and lax methods of families. Should we not reform, and that without delay? Parents, God has made you his agents, that you may instil right principles into the minds of your children. You have in trust the Lord's little ones, and that God who was so particular that the children of Israel should grow up with habits of cleanliness will not sanction any impurity in the home to-day. And in training your children in habits of cleanliness, you teach them spiritual lessons. They see that God would have them clean in heart as well as in body, and will be led to understand pure principles, which God designs should prompt every act of our lives.

Oh, that all would understand that these apparently small duties are not to be neglected! Children are peculiarly susceptible to impressions; and the lessons which they receive in the early years, they will carry with them through life. All the learning they may acquire will never undo the evil resulting from lax discipline in childhood. One neglect, often repeated, forms habit. One wrong act prepares the way for another. That act, repeated, forms habit. Bad habits are more easily formed than good ones, and are given up with more difficulty. It takes far less time and pains to spoil the disposition of a child than it does to imprint upon the tablets of the soul principles and habits of righteousness. It is only by constantly watching and counterworking the wrong that we can hope to make the disposition right. The Lord will be with you, mothers, as you try to form right habits in your children. But you must begin the training process early, or your future work will be very difficult. Teach them line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Bear in mind that your children belong to God, and are to become his sons and daughters. He designs that the families on earth shall be samples of the family in heaven.

Children should be clad in plain garments without ruffles or ornaments. The time spent in needless sewing, God would have devoted to educating them or in devotional exercises. That garment you are sewing on, that extra dish you plan to prepare, let it be neglected rather than the education of your children. The labor due to your child during the first years of his life will admit of no neglect. No time in his life should the rule be forgotten, Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Parents, the Lord knows what kind of work you are doing in the formation of the characters of your children. Will you consider the responsibilities resting upon you as their natural guardians?

Overindulgence always proves an injury to children. It is the veriest cruelty to allow wrong habits to be formed, to give the lines of control into the hands of the child, and let him rule. Children are not to be taught that everything in the house is their plaything, to do with as they please. Instruction in this line should be given even to the smallest children. God designs that the perversities natural to childhood shall be rooted out before they become habit. In the discipline of your children, do not release them from that which you have required them to do. Do not allow yourself to be so absorbed in other things as to become careless. And do not become weary in your guardianship, because your children forget, and do that which you have forbidden. If you lose your temper, you forfeit that which no mother or father can afford to lose,--the respect of your children. Never scold, nor permit scolding, in the home. Never give your child a passionate blow unless you wish him to learn to quarrel and fight. As parents, you stand in the place of God to your children, and you are to be on guard.

Parents, never act from impulse. Never correct your child when you are angry; for if you do this, you will mold him after your own image,--impulsive, passionate, and unreasonable. You can be firm without violent threatenings or scoldings. I have seen a mother snatch from the hand of her child something that was giving it special pleasure. The child did not know the reason for this, and naturally felt abused. Then followed a quarrel between parent and child, and a sharp chastisement ended the scene as far as outward appearances were concerned. But that battle left on the tender mind an impression that could not be easily effaced. I said to the mother: "You have wronged your child deeply; you have hurt his soul, and lost his confidence. How this will be restored, I know not." This mother acted unwisely. She did not reason from cause to effect. Her harsh, injudicious management stirred up the worst passions in the heart of her child, and on every similar occasion these passions are aroused and strengthened. This is the worst policy that can be used in family government; advanced age and maturity of strength warring against a helpless, ignorant little child confirms rebellion in the heart.

But, you ask, Shall I never punish my child? Whipping may be essential when every other resort fails; but before you cause your child pain, you will, if you are a Christian father or mother, let your erring little one see that you love him. You will manifest real sorrow because you are compelled to cause him suffering. You will bow before God with your child, and with a heart full of sorrow ask the Lord to forgive. You will pray that Satan may not have control of his mind. You will present before the sympathizing Redeemer his own words, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." That prayer will bring angels to your side, and your child's heart will be broken in penitence.

It is a very nice work to deal with human minds. All children can not be treated in the same way; for that restraint which must be kept on one would crush out the life of another. Study the minds and characters of your children. During the first years of their lives is the time to work and watch and pray and encourage every good inclination. This work must go on without interruption. You may be urged to attend mother's meetings and sewing circles, that you may do missionary work; but unless there is a faithful, understanding instructor to be left with your children, it is your duty to reply, "The Lord has committed to me another work, which I can in no wise neglect." You can not overwork in any line without becoming disqualified for the work of training your little ones, and making them what God would have them be. As Christ's co-worker, you must bring them to him, and ask for grace to discipline and train them for the kingdom of heaven.

Both parents and children should be under the government of God. They are to be ruled by him. By combining the influences of authority and affection, parents can rule in their homes after the order of God has given in his word. There should be no ruling by impulse, no parental oppression; but at the same time, no disobedience is to be overlooked. We are not to reach the standard of worldlings, but the standard which God himself has erected. We are diligently to inquire, What hath God said? God's holy word is to be our rule, and from this we must never turn aside. No waywardness must be permitted on the part of the children, no disregard of obligations on the part of the parents. Our motto must be, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." -

Disease and Its Causes--Impure Air

When severe sickness enters a family, there is great need of each member's giving strict attention to personal cleanliness, and diet, to preserve himself in a healthful condition, thus fortifying himself against disease. It is also of the greatest importance that the sick-room, from the first, be properly ventilated. This is beneficial to the afflicted, and highly necessary to keep those well who are compelled to remain a length of time in the sick-room.

It is of great value to the sick to have an even temperature in the room. This can not always be correctly determined if left to the judgment of attendants; for they may not be the best judges of a right temperature. Some persons require more heat than others do, and would be only comfortable in a room which to another would be uncomfortably warm. And if each attendant is at liberty to arrange the fires to suit his idea of proper heat, the temperature in the sick-room will be anything but regular. Sometimes it will be distressingly warm for the patient; at another time too cold, which will have a most injurious effect upon him. The friends or attendants of the sick, who, through anxiety and watching, are deprived of sleep, and are suddenly awakened in the night to attend in the sick-room, are liable to chilliness. Such are not correct thermometers of the healthful temperature of a sick-room. These things may appear of small account, but they have very much to do with the recovery of the sick. In many instances life has been imperiled by extreme changes of the temperature of the sick-room.

In no case should sick persons be deprived of a full supply of fresh air in pleasant weather. Their rooms may not always be so constructed as to allow the windows or doors to be opened without the draft coming directly upon them, thus exposing them to the taking of cold. In such cases windows and doors should be opened in an adjoining room, thus letting fresh air enter the room occupied by the sick. Fresh air will prove far more beneficial to sick persons than medicine, and is far more essential to them than their food. They will do better and will recover sooner when deprived of food than when deprived of fresh air.

Many invalids have been confined for weeks and even for months in close rooms, with the light, and the pure, invigorating air of heaven shut out as if air were a deadly enemy, when it was just the medicine they needed to make them well. The whole system was debilitated and diseased for want of air, and nature sank under her load of accumulating impurities, in addition to the fashionable poisons administered by physicians, until she was overpowered, and broke down in her efforts, and death was the result. These persons might have lived. Heaven willed not their death. They died, victims to their own ignorance and the deception of physicians, who gave them fashionable poisons, and would not allow them pure water to drink, and fresh air to breathe, to invigorate the vital organs, purify the blood, and help nature in her task in overcoming the bad conditions of the system. These valuable remedies which Heaven has provided, without money and without price, were cast aside, and considered not only as worthless, but even as dangerous enemies, while poisons, prescribed by physicians, were in blind confidence taken.

Thousands have died for want of pure water and pure air, who might have lived. And thousands of invalids, who are a burden to themselves and others, think that their lives depend upon taking medicines from the doctors. They are continually guarding themselves against the air, and avoiding the use of water. These blessings they need in order to become well. If they would become enlightened, and let medicine alone, and accustom themselves to outdoor exercise, and to air in their houses, summer and winter, and use soft water for drinking and bathing purposes, they would be comparatively well and happy, instead of dragging out a miserable existence.

It is the duty of attendants and nurses to take special care of their own health, especially in critical cases of fever and consumption. One person should not be kept closely confined to the sick-room. It is safer to have two or three to depend upon, who are careful and understanding nurses, these changing and sharing the care and confinement of the sick-room. Each should have exercise in the open air as often as possible. This is important to sick-bed attendants, especially if the friends of the sick are among the class that continue to regard air, if admitted into the sick-room, as an enemy, and will not allow the windows raised, or the doors opened. In such cases the sick and the attendants are compelled to breathe the poisonous atmosphere from day to day, because of the inexcusable ignorance of the friends of the sick.

In very many cases the attendants are ignorant of the needs of the system, and of the relation that the breathing of fresh air sustains to health, and of the life-destroying influence of inhaling the impure air of a sick-room. In this case the life of the sick is endangered, and the attendants themselves are liable to take on disease, and lose health, and perhaps life.

If fevers enter a family, often more than one has the same disease. This need not be, if the habits of the family are correct. If their diet is as it should be, and they observe habits of cleanliness, and realize the necessity of ventilation, the fever need not extend to another member of the family. The reason of fevers prevailing in families, and exposing the attendants, is because the sick-room is not kept free from poisonous infection, by cleanliness and proper ventilation.

If attendants are awake to the subject of health, and realize the necessity of ventilation for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of the patient, and the relatives as well as the sick oppose the admission of air and light into the sick-room, the attendants should have no scruples of conscience in leaving the sick-room. They should feel themselves released from their obligations to the sick. It is not the duty of one or more to risk the liability of incurring disease, thus endangering their lives, by breathing a poisonous atmosphere. If the sick will fall a victim to his own erroneous ideas, and will shut out of the room the most essential of heaven's blessings, let him do so, but not at the peril of those who ought to live.

The mother, from a sense of duty, has left her family, to administer in the sick-room, where pure air was not allowed to enter, and has become sick by inhaling the diseased atmosphere, which affected her whole system. After a period of much suffering, she has died, leaving her children motherless. The sick, who shared the sympathy and unselfish care of this mother, recovered; but neither the sick nor the friends of the sick, understood that precious life was sacrificed because of their ignorance of the relation that pure air sustains to health. Neither did they feel any responsibility in regard to the stricken flock left without the tender mother's care.

Mothers sometimes permit their daughters to take care of the sick in illy ventilated rooms, and as a result, have had to nurse them through a period of sickness. And because of the mother's anxiety and care for her child, she has been made sick, and frequently one or both have died, or been left with broken constitutions, or made suffering invalids for life. There is a lamentable catalogue of evils that have their origin in the sick-room from which the pure air of heaven is excluded. All who breathe this poisonous atmosphere violate the laws of their being, and must suffer the penalty. -

The Need of Christ in the Soul

By a parable Christ seeks to make known the subtlety and deceptive working of Satan, who holds the bodies and minds of men by his power. "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace," Christ says, "his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." Those who know not God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, are under the rule of the enemy, in bondage to his will. He rules the mind and affections by his spirit. But Christ came into the world to dispute the claims of the enemy, and Satan was made to understand the meaning of the promise given in Eden: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." A stronger than the strong man armed was on the field of battle, one who could dispossess him of his weapons and limit his power.

"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man," Christ continued, "he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first."

There is no such thing as neutrality in the service of God. He can not be satisfied with anything short of entire consecration,--consecration of thought, voice, spirit, every organ of mind and body. It is not enough that the vessel be emptied; it must be filled with the grace of Christ. Every person enlightened by the truth must represent Christ. Christ is to be formed within, the hope of glory. Man can not accept the righteousness of Christ, to be a living, abiding principle in the soul, without a transformation of the entire character. He must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to all who receive it. Those who are convinced that Jesus is the Christ must understand that they are to use all their powers in co-operating with their Redeemer. They are to wear his yoke, and work in his lines.

"He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." Those who wear Christ's yoke of obedience to the commandments of God will gather with Christ. Like the Samaritan woman, as soon as they are convinced that they have found the Messiah, they will work for him and magnify his name. They will be branches of the living Vine. "Abide in me, and I in you," Christ said. "As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit."

When Christ takes possession of the citadel of the soul, the human agent becomes one with him. And he who is one with Christ, maintaining his unity, enthroning him in the heart, and obeying his commands, is safe from the snares of the wicked one. United to Christ, he gathers to himself the graces of Christ, and consecrates strength and efficiency and power to the Lord in winning souls to him. By co-operation with the Saviour he becomes the instrument through which God works. Then when Satan comes, and strives to take possession of the soul, he finds that Christ has made him stronger than the strong man armed.

The garnished house represents the self-righteous soul. Satan is driven out by Christ. But he returns, in the hope of finding entrance. He finds the house empty, swept, and garnished. Only self-righteousness is abiding there. "Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Self-righteousness is a curse, a human embellishment, which Satan uses for his glory. Those who garnish the soul with self-praise and flattery, prepare the way for the seven other spirits more wicked than the first. In their very reception of the truth these souls deceive themselves. They are building upon a foundation of self-righteousness.

The prayers of congregations may be offered to God with a round of ceremonies; but if they are offered in self-righteousness, God is not honored by them. The Lord declares, "I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee." In spite of all their display, Satan comes in with a troop of evil angels, and takes possession of the garnished habitation. The apostle writes, "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."

Those who have not sanctified themselves to the Lord are of the class who profess righteousness, but who do not maintain good works. These are brought to view in the first chapter of second Peter. There are many like the scribes and Pharisees, who, lacking these things, are "blind, and can not see afar off," who have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. Because they do not gather with Christ, they lose their impressions for good. Unfaithful stewards, they do not guard their own house. If those who have been under the special conviction of the Spirit of God, who have known the truth, and understood the reasons of our faith, would be blessed by the means provided at infinite cost, they will not cease their fervent prayers until the Sun of Righteousness abides in their hearts by faith.

The apostle Peter encourages all who are abiding in Christ and seeking a knowledge of his ways. Those "that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God," he calls to an increased growth in the knowledge of God. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you," he says, "through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

If the professed followers of Christ would exercise living faith in a personal Saviour, if they would look to him as their entire dependence, the One in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered, they would be pure, holy, and undefiled. They would walk with God. "We have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

Two classes are set before us in the word of God: those who "follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of," and those who, with Paul, can say, "We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." We are to decide between the false and the true.

God has made his people "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." "By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us." His children will not wear a yoke of bondage, but the yoke of Christ, who said, "I have kept my Father's commandments." He says of his people, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Therefore, "having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. . . . Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering."

May the Lord help his people to have clear discernment, to live and speak and act as children of the light, trying in everything to please him who gave his life that they might become his representatives to the world. -

Disease and Its Causes

The sick, as a general thing, are taxed with too many visitors and callers, who chat with them, and weary them by introducing different topics of conversation, when they need quiet, and undisturbed rest. Many have made themselves sick by overtaxing their strength. Their exhausted energies compel them to cease labor, and they are brought to a bed of suffering. Rest, light, pure air, pure water, and a spare diet, with freedom from care, are all that they need to make them well. It is mistaken kindness that leads so many, out of courtesy, to visit the sick. Often have the sick spent a sleepless, suffering night, after receiving visitors. They have been more or less excited, and the reaction has been too great for their already debilitated energies; and as the result of these fashionable calls, they have been brought into very dangerous conditions, and lives have been sacrificed for the want of thoughtful prudence.

It is sometimes gratifying to the sick to be visited, and to know that friends have not forgotten them in their affliction. But, although these visits may have been gratifying, in very many instances these fashionable calls have turned the scale when the invalid was recovering, and the balance has borne down to death. Those who can not make themselves useful should be cautious in regard to visiting the sick. If they can do no good, they may do harm. But the sick should not be neglected. They should have the best care, and the sympathy of friends and relatives.

Much harm has resulted to the sick from the universal custom of having watchers at night. In critical cases this may be necessary; but it is often the case that more harm than good is done the sick by this practice. It has been the custom to shut out the air from the sick-room. The atmosphere of such rooms, to say the least, is very impure, which greatly aggravates the condition of the sick. In addition to this, to have one or two watchers to use up the little air that may find its way to the sick-room through the crevices of doors and windows, is taking from the sick this means of vitality, thus leaving them more debilitated than they would have been had they been left to themselves. The evil does not end here. Even one watcher will make more or less stir, which disturbs the sick. But where there are two watchers, they often converse, sometimes aloud, but more frequently in whispered tones, which is far more trying and exciting to the nerves of the sick than talking aloud.

Many suffering, wakeful nights are endured by the sick because of watchers. If they were left alone without a light, knowing that all were at rest, they could much better compose themselves to sleep, and in the morning they would awake refreshed. Every breath of vital air in the sick-room is of the greatest value, although many of the sick are very ignorant on this point. They feel very much depressed, and do not know what the matter is. A draught of pure air through their room would have a happy, invigorating influence upon them.

But if they are afraid of air, and shut themselves away from this blessing, the little that is allowed to reach them should not be consumed by watchers or lamplight. Attendants upon the sick should, if possible, leave the sick to rest through the night, while they occupy a room adjoining.

All unnecessary noise and excitement should be avoided in the sick-room, and the whole house should be kept as quiet as possible. Ignorance, forgetfulness, and recklessness have caused the death of many who might have lived had they received proper care from judicious, thoughtful attendants. The doors should be opened and shut with great care, and the attendants should be unhurried, calm, and self-possessed.

The sick-room, if possible, should have a draught of air through it, day and night. The draught should not come directly upon the invalid. While burning fevers are raging, there is but little danger of taking cold. But especial care is needful when the crisis comes, and the fever is passing away. Then constant watching may be necessary to keep vitality in the system. The sick must have pure, invigorating air. If no other way can be devised, the sick, if possible, should be removed to another room, and another bed, while the sick-room, the bed and bedding, are being purified by ventilation. If those who are well need the blessings of light and air, and need to observe habits of cleanliness in order to remain well, the need of the sick is still greater, in proportion to their debilitated condition.

A great amount of suffering might be saved if all would labor to prevent disease, by strictly obeying the laws of health. Strict habits of cleanliness should be observed. Many, while well, will not take the trouble to keep in a healthy condition. They neglect personal cleanliness, and are not careful to keep their clothing pure. Impurities are constantly and imperceptibly passing from the body, through the pores; and if the surface of the skin is not kept in a healthy condition, the system is burdened with impure matter. If the clothing worn is not often washed, and frequently aired, it becomes filthy with impurities, which are thrown off from the body by sensible and insensible perspiration. And if the garments worn are not frequently cleansed from these impurities, the pores of the skin absorb again the waste matter thrown off. The impurities of the body, if not allowed to escape, are taken back into the blood, and forced upon the internal organs. Nature, to relieve herself of poisonous impurities, makes an effort to free the system. This effort produces fevers, and what is termed disease. But even then, if those who are afflicted would assist nature in her efforts, by the use of pure, soft water, much suffering would be prevented. But many, instead of doing this, and seeking to remove the poisonous matter from the system, take a more deadly poison into the system, to remove a poison already there.

If every family realized the beneficial results of thorough cleanliness, they would make special efforts to remove every impurity from their persons and from their houses, and would extend their efforts to their premises. Many suffer decayed vegetable matter to remain about their premises. They are not awake to the influence of these things. There is constantly arising from these decaying substances an effluvium that is poisoning the air. By inhaling the impure air, the blood is poisoned, the lungs become affected, and the whole system is diseased. Disease of almost every description will be caused by inhaling the atmosphere affected by these decaying substances.

Families have been afflicted with fevers, some of their members have died, and the remaining portion of the family circle have almost murmured against their Maker because of their distressing bereavements, when the sole cause of all their sickness and death has been the result of their own carelessness. The impurities about their own premises have brought upon them contagious diseases, and the sad afflictions which they charge upon God. Every family that prizes health should cleanse their houses and their premises of all decaying substances.

God commanded that the children of Israel should in no case allow impurities of their persons or of their clothing. Those who had any personal uncleanness were shut out of the camp until evening, and then were required to cleanse themselves and their clothing before they could enter the camp. Also they were commanded of God to have no impurities upon their premises within a great distance of the encampment, lest the Lord should pass by and see their uncleanness.

In regard to cleanliness, God requires no less of his people now than he did of ancient Israel. A neglect of cleanliness will induce disease. Sickness and premature death do not come without cause. Stubborn fevers and violent diseases have prevailed in neighborhoods and towns that had formerly been considered healthy, and some persons have died, while others have been left with broken constitutions to be crippled with disease for life. In many instances their own yards contained the agent of destruction, which sent forth deadly poison into the atmosphere, to be inhaled by the family and the neighborhood. The slackness and recklessness sometimes witnessed is beastly, and the ignorance of the results of such things upon health is astonishing. Such places should be purified, especially in summer, by lime or ashes, or by a daily burial with earth. -

How Hardly Shall They That Have Riches Enter Into the Kingdom of God

These words of the Saviour are deeply significant, and call for our earnest study. Those who possess ability to acquire money, unless they are constantly on the watch, will turn their acquisitiveness to a bad account, and, falling under the temptation to overreach for sordid gain, they will sacrifice all the generous, noble principles of their manhood.

Many men who possess great wealth have obtained their riches by close dealing, by benefiting themselves at the expense of their fellow men; and they glory in their shrewdness in closing a bargain. Every dollar thus obtained, and the increase of every such dollar, has upon it the curse of God. Acts of oppression or deviation from the right in any way should not be tolerated in men who possess wealth any more than in those who are poor. In the sight of God all the riches that a man may possess will not atone for the smallest sin. Repentance, humility, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit are the offerings that God accepts. Wealthy men are to be more closely tested than they have ever yet been. If they stand the test, and remove the blemishes of dishonesty and injustice from their characters, and as faithful stewards render to God the things that are God's, to them it will be said, "Well done, good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

The world and all that is therein belongs to God. He owns the cattle upon a thousand hills. The inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers before him. Man and his property are the small dust of the balance. God is no respecter of persons. Men of property often look upon their wealth and say, By my wisdom have I gotten me this wealth. But who gave them their wisdom? Who gave them power to get wealth?--It was he who gave his life for them. It is Christ who gives men strength to get wealth; but instead of giving him the glory, they take the glory to themselves. God will prove these men and try them, and he will bring their glorying to the dust. He will remove their strength, and scatter their possessions. Instead of a blessing, they will realize a curse.

Among the professed children of God, there are men and women who love the world, and the things of the world, and these souls are being corrupted by worldly influences. The divine is being dropped out of their nature. As instruments of unrighteousness, they are working out the purposes of the enemy.

In contrast with this class, stands the honest, industrious poor man, who is ready to help those who need help, and willing to suffer wrong rather than manifest the close, acquisitive spirit of the rich. This man esteems a clear conscience and right principles above the value of gold. He is ready to do all the good in his power. If some benevolent enterprise calls for money or for his labor, he is the first to respond, and often he goes far beyond his real ability, denying himself some needed good in order to carry out his benevolent purpose. This man may boast of but little earthly treasure; he may be looked upon as deficient in judgment and wisdom; his influence may not be esteemed of special worth; but in the sight of God he is precious. He may be thought to have little perception, but he manifests a wisdom that is as far above that of the calculating, acquisitive mind as the divine is above the human; for is he not laying up for himself a treasure in the heavens, uncorrupted, undefiled, and that fadeth not away?

"I say unto you," Christ declares, "make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?" If men fail to render back to God that which he has lent them to use to his name's glory, they will meet with failure in this life and in the future life. God has lent them talents, which, by using, they may lay up as treasure in heaven. But if, like the man with the one talent, they hide it in the earth, they will lose not only the increase, but the principal also. Because of their robbery of God, they stand bereft of their earthly riches, devoid of heavenly treasure, with no habitation on earth, and no friend in heaven to receive them into the everlasting abodes of the righteous.

"No servant can serve two masters," Christ said; "for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and mammon." When the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard these things, they derided him. But turning to them, Christ said, "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."

To illustrate this truth, Christ presented before his hearers two characters,--the rich man, who was clad in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, and the beggar Lazarus, sitting in abject poverty at his gate, who pleaded for the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. "It came to pass," Christ said, "that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."

Thus the Saviour estimates character. It is not profession, pharisaism, that God values, but moral worth. A Christian character unspotted by avarice, and possessing the grace of humility, is more precious in the sight of God than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir. Lazarus, though in so mean a condition, possessed true worth, and God regarded him of such value that he lifted him from his despised and suffering condition to exaltation and honor, while the wealthy, ease-loving man, who was devoid of the grace of Christ, was plunged into misery and woe unutterable. All the wealth of the rich man was unable to draw upon him the favor of God; for his character was worthless. And so Christ desires his followers to estimate character. They are not, like the Pharisees, to value men by their worldly possessions; for a man may possess both riches and worldly honor, and yet be worthless in the sight of God. The poor man, despised by his fellows, and loathsome to the sight, was of value with God, because he possessed moral soundness; and these elements fitted him for the society of the holy angels, to be an heir of God and joint heir with Christ.

Writing to his son in the gospel, Paul says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. . . . Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

Paul would impress upon the mind of Timothy the necessity of giving such instruction as would remove the deception which so easily steals upon the rich, that because of their wealth they are superior to their fellow men who do not have such large possessions as themselves. They suppose their gain to be godliness. They flatter themselves that their acquisitive spirit is accounted to them for righteousness. But touch the property of these men, and you will see by their acts that you touch their god. They are not rich in good works. Ready to distribute, willing to communicate!--they scorn the thought, they despise all such teachings. Man may devote his entire life to the object of obtaining riches; but when his time comes to die, of what use to him is the wealth he has amassed? He can not carry it with him. In order to obtain his wealth, he has staked his all. He was determined to be rich. This was his ambition; and in order to reach it, he overlooked eternal considerations. The enemy deceived him into the belief that it was for a good purpose he desired this wealth, and to obtain it he strained his conscience, and pierced himself through with many sorrows. For the sake of riches he sacrificed every noble principle, and gave up the faith.

There are many who deny themselves the comforts and blessings of life that they may add a little more to their earthly store. But it is not for this that God gives men money. He "giveth us richly all things to enjoy." Christ bids us, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." There are high and holy interests which call for our money, and the money invested in these will yield to the giver more elevated and permanent enjoyment than if it were expended for personal gratification, or selfishly hoarded for greed of gain. When God calls for our treasure, whatever the amount may be, the willing response makes the gift a consecrated offering to him, and lays up for the giver a treasure in heaven, where moth can not corrupt, where fire can not consume, where thieves can not break through and steal. The investment is safe. The treasure is placed in bags that have no holes; it is secure.

Disease and Its Causes--Impure Air

Some houses are furnished expensively, more to gratify pride and to receive visitors than for the comfort, convenience, and health of the family. The best rooms are kept dark. The light and air are shut out, lest the light of heaven should injure the rich furniture, fade the carpets, or tarnish the picture-frames. When visitors are seated in these rooms, they are in danger of taking cold, because of the cellar-like atmosphere pervading them. Parlor chambers and bedrooms are kept closed in the same manner, and for the same reasons; and whoever occupies these beds, which have not been freely exposed to light and air, do so at the expense of health, and often of life itself.

Rooms that are not exposed to light and air become damp. Beds and bedding gather dampness, and the atmosphere in these rooms is poisonous, because it has not been purified by light and air. Various diseases have been brought on by sleeping in these fashionable, health-destroying apartments. Every family that prizes health above the empty applause of fashionable visitors, will have a circulation of air and an abundance of light in every apartment of their house for several hours each day. But many follow fashion so closely that they become slaves to it, and would suffer sickness, and even death, rather than be out of fashion. They will reap that which they have sown. They will live fashionably, and suffer with diseases as the result, be doctored with fashionable poisons, and die fashionable deaths.

Sleeping-rooms especially should be well ventilated, and the atmosphere made healthy by light and air. Blinds should be left open several hours each day, the curtains put aside, and the room thoroughly aired. Nothing should remain, even for a short time, which would destroy the purity of the atmosphere.

Many families suffer with sore throat, and lung diseases, and liver complaints, brought upon them by their own course of action. Their sleeping-rooms are small, unfit to sleep in for one night, but they occupy the small apartments for weeks, and months, and years. They keep their windows and doors closed, fearing they will take cold if there is a crevice open to let in the air. They breathe the same air over and over, until it becomes impregnated with the poisonous impurities and waste matter thrown off from their bodies through the lungs and the pores of the skin. Such can test the matter, and be convinced of the unhealthy air in their close rooms, by entering them after they have remained a while in the open air. Then they can have some idea of the impurities they have conveyed to the blood, through the inhalations of the lungs. Those who thus abuse their health must suffer with disease. All should regard light and air as among Heaven's most precious blessings. They should not shut out these blessings as if they were enemies.

Sleeping-apartments should be large, and so arranged as to have a circulation of air through them day and night. Those who have excluded the air from their sleeping-rooms should begin to change their course immediately. They should let in air by degrees, and increase its circulation until they can bear it winter and summer, with no danger of taking cold. The lungs, in order to be healthy, must have pure air.

Those who have not had a free circulation of air in their rooms through the night, generally awake feeling exhausted and feverish, and know not the cause. It was air, vital air, that the whole system required, but which it could not obtain. Upon rising in the morning, most persons would be benefited by taking a sponge-bath, or, if more agreeable, a hand-bath, with merely a washbowl of water. This will remove impurities from the skin. Then the clothing should be removed piece by piece from the bed, and exposed to the air. The windows should be opened, the blinds fastened back, and the air allowed to circulate freely for several hours, if not all day, through the sleeping-apartments. In this manner the bed and clothing will become thoroughly aired, and the impurities will be removed from the room.

Shade trees and shrubbery too close and dense around a house are unhealthful; for they prevent a free circulation of air, and shut out the rays of the sun. In consequence of this, dampness gathers in the house. Especially in wet seasons the sleeping-rooms become damp, and those who occupy them are troubled with rheumatism, neuralgia, and lung complaints, which generally end in consumption. Numerous shade trees cast off many leaves, which, if not immediately removed, decay, and poison the atmosphere. A yard beautified with trees and shrubbery at a proper distance from the house, has a happy, cheerful influence upon the family, and, if well taken care of, will prove no injury to health. Dwellings, if possible, should be built upon high and dry ground. If a house is built where water settles around it, remaining for a time, and then drying away, a poisonous miasma arises; and fever and ague, sore throat, lung diseases, and fevers will be the result.

Many have expected that God would keep them from sickness merely because they have asked him to do so. But God did not regard their prayers, because their faith was not made perfect by works. God will not work a miracle to keep those from sickness who have no care for themselves, but are continually violating the laws of health, and make no efforts to prevent disease. When we do all we can on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will follow; and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health. He will then answer our prayer if his name can be glorified thereby. But let all understand that they have a work to do. God will not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who, by their careless inattention to the laws of health, are taking a sure course to make themselves sick. -

Condemned by the Jews

"Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, and led him away to Annas first; for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. . . .

"The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?"

Simon Peter had followed Jesus, and so had another disciple. That disciple, John, "was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter."

The look of dejection on Peter's face suggested to the woman the thought that this was one of the disciples of Christ. Being one of the servants of Caiaphas's household, she was curious to know; and she said to Peter, "Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee." Peter was startled and confused; the eyes of the company instantly fastened upon him. He pretended not to understand her; but she was persistent, and said to those around her that this man was with Jesus. Feeling compelled to answer, Peter said, angrily, "Woman, I know him not." O Peter! so soon ashamed of thy Master! so soon cowardly to deny thy Lord! The Saviour is dishonored and deserted in his humiliation by one of his most zealous disciples.

Just previously to this, Peter had confidently asserted, "Though all men should forsake thee, yet will not I." "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." Where now was the confidence of this self-assured disciple? where his loyalty to his Master? O Peter, this was the time when thou shouldest have confessed thy Lord, and that without shame and unwillingness. But another opportunity was to be given him.

The palace of the high priest surrounded an open court, into which the soldiers, the chief priests, and the crowd had gathered, and Peter took a place among the throng. Here attention was called to him the second time, and he was again charged with being a follower of Jesus. "This fellow was also with Jesus," said one. Peter now denied the accusation with an oath. The cock crew, but he heard it not; for he was now thoroughly intent upon carrying out the character he had assumed. One of the servants of the high priest, being a near kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked him, "Did not I see thee in the garden with him?" "Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto."

At this Peter, fully to deceive his questioners, and to justify his assumed character, denied his Master with cursing and swearing. "And immediately the cock crew." Peter heard it then, and he remembered the words of Jesus,"Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice."

Jesus was weary and faint from fasting when the words of denial reached him. And while the degrading oaths were fresh on Peter's lips, and the shrill crowing of the cock was still ringing in his ears, the Saviour turned his face from the frowning judges, and looked full upon his poor disciple. At the same time Peter's eyes were involuntarily fixed upon his Master. That face, pale with suffering, those quivering lips, seemed to speak to Peter, saying, Not know me, Peter? In that gentle countenance Peter read deep pity and sorrow; but there was no anger there. That look of compassion and forgiveness pierced his heart like an arrow. He fled from the now crowded court; he cared not whither. At last he found himself in the garden of Gethsemane. In the very spot where Jesus had poured out his soul in agony to his Father, he fell on his face, stricken and wounded, and wished that he might die there. He remembered with remorse that he was asleep when Jesus prayed through those fearful hours. His proud heart broke, and penitential tears moistened the sod so recently stained with the bloody sweat drops of God's dear Son.

"And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth. And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate."

But these priests, scribes, and rulers, so exact in regard to their own maxims and traditions, would not even enter the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, so they might not eat the Passover. The Passover was a ceremony instituted by Christ himself before his incarnation, but he who was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy was among them. Type was meeting antitype in the Son of God, and they had done unto him as Satan had worked upon their hardened hearts to do.

The followers of Christ should bear in mind that the evil speeches made against Christ, the abuse he received, they also, as his followers, must endure for his sake. The piety of the church may professedly be of a high order; but when the truth of the word of God is brought to bear upon the heart, and when conviction of truth is rejected and despised that men may keep in friendship with the majority, they place themselves on the side of the enemy.

"If the world hate you," said Christ, "ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause."

These words of Christ have been fulfilled in the experience of those who have been loyal to the God of heaven according to the light received. "If they have persecuted me," he said, "they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." "All that will live [not merely profess to live] godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known [by an experimental knowledge] the Father, nor me."

As Christ was hated without cause, so will his people be hated because they are obedient to the commandments of God. If he who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good, and only good, in our world, was treated as a base criminal, and condemned to death, his disciples must expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character. Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of goodness and restriction of evil, will be exalted, while God's holy commandments are despised and trampled underfoot. And all who prove their loyalty by obedience to the law of Jehovah must be prepared to be arrested, to be brought before councils that have not for their standard the high and holy law of God.

The same spirit that moved the priests and rulers had moved Cain to slay his brother. It is the apostasy from truth that works in the children of disobedience to silence the voice of those who are calling them to obedience. And to-day this spirit is manifested in the churches that are trampling upon the word of God, transgressing his holy law. They know not what spirit they are of, nor the end of the dark tunnel through which they are passing. Deceived, deluded, blind, they are hastening forward to the first and the second death. The cast tide of human will and human passion is leading to things they did not dream of when they discarded the law of Jehovah for the inventions of men, to cause oppression and suffering to human beings.

The churches have been converted to the world, and they show what they would do in this age of the world if they dared. If Christ were in the world to-day, many would have no more desire for him than had the Jewish nation at his first advent. They would do as did the Jews. Were it in their power, they would crucify Christ because he tells them the truth. Many are being educated up to this point. Rulers and teachers, who have caused souls to stumble over their perverted teachings,--all persons who might have understood the prophecies, but who did not read and search to see if they were applicable to this time, and concerned their individual selves, will be taken in the snare, and suffer eternal loss. They will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. -

Disease and Its Causes--Care of Children

In this age of degeneracy, children are born with enfeebled constitutions. Parents are amazed at the great mortality among infants and youth, and say, "It did not use to be so." Children were then more healthy and vigorous, with far less care than is now bestowed upon them. Yet with all the care they now receive, they are feeble, and wither and die. As the result of wrong habits in parents, disease and imbecility have been transmitted to their offspring.

After their birth, they are made very much worse by careless inattention to the laws of their being. Proper management would greatly improve their physical health. But parents seldom pursue a right course toward their infant children, considering the miserable inheritance already received from them. Their wrong course toward their children results in lessening their hold of life, and prepares them for premature death. These parents have no lack of love for their children, but this love is misapplied.

One great error with the mother in the treatment of her infant is that she allows it an insufficient supply of fresh air, that which it ought to have to make it strong. It is a practice of many mothers to cover their infants' heads while sleeping, and this, too, in a warm room, which is seldom ventilated as it should be. This alone is sufficient greatly to enfeeble the action of the heart and lungs, thereby affecting the whole system. While care may be needful to protect the infant from a draught of air, or from any sudden or too great change, especial care should be taken to have the child breathe a pure, invigorating atmosphere. No disagreeable odor should remain in the nursery, or about the child. Such things are more dangerous to the feeble infant than to grown persons.

Mothers have been in the practice of dressing their infants in reference to fashion instead of health. The infant wardrobe is generally prepared to look pretty, more for show than for convenience and comfort. Much time is spent in embroidering, and in unnecessary fancy work, to make the garments of the little stranger beautiful. The mother often performs this work at the expense of her own health and that of her offspring. When she should be enjoying pleasant exercise, she is often bent over work that severely taxes eyes and nerves. And it is often difficult to arouse the mother to her solemn obligations to cherish her own strength, for her own good as well as for the good of the child.

Show and fashion are the demon altar upon which many American women sacrifice their children. The mother places upon the little morsel of humanity the fashionable dresses which she had spent weeks in making, which are wholly unfit for its use, if health is to be regarded of any account. The garments are made extravagantly long; and in order to keep them upon the infant, its body is girted with tight bands, or waists, which hinder the free action of the heart and lungs. Infants are also compelled to bear a needless weight because of the length of their garments; and thus clothed, they do not have free use of their muscles and limbs.

Mothers have thought it necessary to compress the bodies of their infant children to keep them in shape, as if fearful that without tight bandages they would fall to pieces, or become deformed. Does the animal creation become deformed because nature is left to do her own work? Do the little lambs become deformed because they are not girted about with bands to give them shape? They are delicately and beautifully formed. Human infants are the most perfect, and yet the most helpless, of all the Creator's handiwork; and, therefore, their mothers should be instructed in regard to physical laws, so as to be capable of rearing them with physical, mental, and moral health. Mothers, nature has given your infants forms which need no girts nor bands to perfect them. God has supplied them with bones and muscles sufficient for their support, and to guard nature's fine machinery within, before committing it to your care.

The dress of the infant should be so arranged that its body will not be in the least compressed after taking a full meal. Dressing infants in a fashionable manner, to be introduced into company for visitors to admire, is very injurious to them. The clothing is ingeniously arranged to make the child miserably uncomfortable, and the child is frequently made still more uneasy by being passed from one to the other, being fondled by all.

But there is an evil greater than those already named. The infant is exposed to air vitiated by many breaths, some of which are very offensive and injurious to the strong lungs of older persons. The infant lungs suffer, and become diseased by inhaling the atmosphere of a room poisoned with the tobacco user's tainted breath. Many infants are poisoned beyond remedy by sleeping in beds with their tobacco-using fathers. By inhaling the poisonous tobacco effluvium, which is thrown from the lungs and pores of the skin, the system of the infant is filled with the poison. While it acts upon some as a slow poison, and affects the brain, heart, liver, and lungs, and the infant wastes away gradually; upon others it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, fits, paralysis, palsy, and sudden death.

The bereaved parents mourn the loss of their loved ones, and wonder at the mysterious providence of God which has so cruelly afflicted them, when Providence designed not the death of these infants. They died martyrs to the filthy lust of tobacco. Parents ignorantly, but none the less surely, kill their infant children by the disgusting poison. Every exhalation of the lungs of the tobacco slave poisons the air about him. Infants should be kept free from everything that would have an influence to excite the nervous system, and should, whether waking or sleeping, day and night, breathe a pure, cleanly, healthy atmosphere, free from every taint of poison.

Come Out From Among Them, and Be Ye Separate

The truth as it is in Jesus has shone with great clearness upon God's people. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, the truth has been given. But the light which it has been our privilege to enjoy has not been carefully cherished and carried into practical life. For this reason there is little power among us at the present time.

Many are inquiring, "Why is it that we have so little strength? Is it because heaven is sealed? Is it because there are no precious blessings in store for us? Is it because our source of strength is exhausted, and we can receive no more? Why is it that we are not all light in the Lord? He who was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, is high and lifted up, and the glory of his train fills the temple. Why is this glory withheld from those who are in a world of sin and sorrow, trouble and sadness, corruption and iniquity?"

The trouble lies with ourselves. Our iniquities have separated us from God. We are not filled, because we do not feel our need; we do not hunger and thirst after righteousness. The promise is that if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we shall be filled. The promise is to you, my brethren and sisters. It is to me; it is to every one of us. It is the hungering, thirsting souls who will be filled. We may come to Christ just as we are, in our weakness, with our folly and imperfections, and offer our petitions in faith. In spite of our errors, our continual backsliding, the voice of the long-suffering Saviour invites us, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." To the needy, the fainting, those who are bowed down with burden and care and perplexity, the invitation is, Come. It is Christ's glory to encircle us in the arms of his mercy and love, and bind up our wounds. He will sympathize with those who need sympathy, and strengthen those who need strength.

To the unbelieving, obstinate Pharisees, Christ said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Oh that this may never be said of us! There is life and peace and joy in Jesus Christ. He is the sinner's friend. In him there is power and glory and strength for all. If we believe that this power and glory are ours, and comply with the conditions laid down in his word, we shall be strong in the strength of the Mighty One.

Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that is trailing upon the ground,and entwining its tendrils about the roots an rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." There are conditions to meet if we would be blessed and honored by God. We are to separate from the world, and refuse to touch those things that will separate our affections from God. God has the first and highest claims upon his people. Set your affections upon him and upon heavenly things. Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly. You are exhorted to touch not the unclean thing; for in touching this, you will yourself become unclean. It is impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain pure. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" God and Christ and the heavenly host would have man know that if he unites with the corrupt, he will become corrupt. Ample provision has been made that we may be raised from the lowlands of earth, and have our affections fastened upon God and upon heavenly things.

Will separation from the world, in obedience to the divine command, unfits us for the work the Lord has left us? Will it hinder us from doing good to those around us?--No; the firmer hold we have on heaven, the greater will be our power for usefulness. We should study the Pattern, that the spirit which dwelt in Christ may dwell in us. The Saviour was not found among the exalted and honorable of the world. He did not spend his time among those who were seeking their ease and pleasure. He worked to help those who needed help, to save the lost and perishing, to lift up the bowed down, to break the yoke of oppression from those in bondage, to heal the afflicted, and to speak words of sympathy and consolation to the distressed and sorrowing. We are required to follow this example. The more we partake of the Spirit of Christ, the more we shall seek to do for our fellow men. We shall bless the needy and comfort the distressed. Filled with a love for perishing souls, we shall find our delight in following the footsteps of the Majesty of heaven.

The requirements of God are set plainly before us; the question to be settled is, Will we comply with them? Will we accept the condition laid down in his word -- separation from the world? This is not the work of a moment or of a day. It is not accomplished by bowing at the family altar and offering up lip-service, nor by public exhortation and prayer. It is a lifelong work. Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts, and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting influence.

All our actions are affected by our religious experience. If our experience is founded in God; if we are daily tasting the power of the world to come, and have the fellowship of the Spirit; if each day we hold with a firmer grasp the higher life, principles that are holy and elevating will be inwrought in us, and it will be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness and separation from the world, as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned them. Every one who enters the pearly gates of the city of God will be a doer of the Word. He will be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Probation is about to close. In heaven the edict will soon go forth, "It is done." "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Soon the last prayer for sinners will have been offered, the last tear shed, the last warning given, the last entreaty made, and the sweet voice of mercy will be heard no more. This is why Satan is making such mighty efforts to secure men and women in his snare. He has come down with great power, knowing that his time is short. His special work is to secure professed Christians in his ranks, that through them he may allure and destroy souls. The enemy is playing the game of life for every soul. He is working to remove from us everything of a spiritual nature, and in the place of the precious graces of Christ to crowd our hearts with the evil traits of the carnal nature,--hatred, evil surmising, jealousy, love of the world, love of self, love of pleasure, and the pride of life. We need to be fortified against the incoming foe, who is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; for unless we are watchful and prayerful, these evils will enter the heart, and crowd out all that is good.

Many who profess to believe the word of God do not seem to understand the deceptive working of the enemy. They do not realize that the end of time is near; but Satan knows it; and while men sleep, he works. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life are controlling men and women. Satan is at work even among the people of God, to cause disunion. Selfishness, corruption, and evil of every kind are taking a firm hold upon hearts. With many the precious word of God is neglected. A novel or a storybook engages the attention, and fascinates the mind. That which excites the imagination is eagerly devoured, while the word of God is set aside. It was because they overlooked the word of God that the Jewish nation rejected Christ, demanding that a robber be granted them, and that the Prince of Life be crucified. And in these last days professed Christians are committing the same sin. They are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting because they suffer their minds to be engrossed with things of little importance, while eternal truth is neglected. The truth of God, which would elevate and sanctify and refine, and fit men for the finishing touch of immortality, is set aside for things of minor importance. Oh that this blindness might pass away, and men and women understand the work that Satan is accomplishing among them! -

Disease and Its Causes--Care of Children

Another great cause of mortality among infants and youth is the custom of leaving their arms and shoulders naked. This fashion can not be too severely censured. It has cost the life of thousands. The air, bathing the arms and limbs, and circulating about the armpits, chills these sensitive portions of the body so near the vitals, and hinders the healthy circulation of the blood, thus inducing disease, especially of the lungs and brain. Those who regard the health of their children of more value than the foolish flattery of visitors or the admiration of strangers, will ever clothe the shoulders and arms of their tender infants. The mother's attention has been frequently called to the purple arms and hands of her child, and she has been cautioned in regard to this health- and life-destroying practice; and the answer has often been, "I always dress my children in this manner. They get used to it. I can not endure to see the arms of infants covered. It looks old-fashioned." These mothers dress their delicate infants as they would not venture to dress themselves. They know that if their own arms were exposed without a covering, they would shiver with chilliness. Can infants of a tender age endure this process of hardening without receiving injury? Some children may have at birth such strong constitutions that they can endure this abuse without its costing them life; yet thousands are sacrificed, and tens of thousands have the foundation laid for a short, invalid life, by the custom of bandaging and surfeiting the body with much clothing, while the arms-- which are at greater distance from the seat of life, and for that cause need even more clothing than the chest and lungs--are left naked. Can mothers expect to have quiet, healthy infants, who thus treat them?

When the limbs and arms are chilled, the blood is driven from these parts to the lungs and head. The circulation is impeded, and nature's fine machinery does not move harmoniously. The system of the infant is deranged, and it cries and moans because of the abuse it is compelled to suffer. The mother feeds it, thinking it must be hungry, but food only increases its suffering. Tight bands and an overloaded stomach do not agree. The child has no room to breathe. It may scream, struggle and pant for breath, and yet the mother not mistrust the cause. She could relieve the sufferer at once, at least of tight bandages, if she understood the nature of the case. At length she becomes alarmed, thinks her child really ill, and summons a doctor, who looks upon the infant a few moments, and then deals out poisonous medicines, or something called a soothing cordial, which the mother, faithful to directions, pours down the throat of the abused infant. If it was not diseased in reality before, it is after this process. It suffers now from drug-disease, the most stubborn and incurable of all diseases. If it recovers, it must bear about more or less in its system the effects of that poisonous drug, and it is liable to spasms, heart-disease, dropsy on the brain, or consumption. Some infants are not strong enough to bear even a trifle of drug poisons; and as nature rallies to meet the intruder, the vital forces of the tender infant are too severely taxed, and death ends the scene.

In this age of the world, it is no strange sight to see the mother lingering by the cradle of her suffering, dying infant, her heart torn with anguish as she listens to its feeble wail, and witnesses its expiring struggles. It seems mysterious to her that God should thus afflict her innocent child. She does not think that her wrong course has brought about the sad result. She just as surely destroyed her infant's hold on life as if she had given it poison. Disease never comes without a cause. The way is first prepared, and disease invited, by disregarding the laws of health. God does not take pleasure in the sufferings and death of little children. He commits them to parents, for them to educate physically, mentally, and morally, and to train for usefulness here, and for heaven at last.

If the mother remains in ignorance in regard to the physical needs of her child, and, as the result, her child sickens, she need not expect that God will work a miracle to counteract her agency in making it sick. Thousand of infants have died who might have lived. They are martyrs to their parents' ignorance of the relation which food, dress, and the air they breathe, sustain to health and life. Mothers in past ages should have been physicians to their own children. The time the mother devoted to the extra beautifying of her infant's wardrobe, she should have spent in a nobler purpose--in educating her mind with regard to her own physical needs and those of her offspring. She should have been storing her mind with useful knowledge in regard to the best course she could pursue in rearing her children healthfully, realizing that generations would be injured or benefited by her course of action.

Mothers who have troublesome, fretful infants should study into the cause of their uneasiness. By so doing, they will often see that something is wrong in their management. It is often the case that the mother becomes alarmed at the symptoms of illness manifested by her child, and hurriedly summons a physician, when the infant's sufferings would have been relieved by taking off its tight clothing, and putting upon it garments properly loose and short, thus allowing it the use of its feet and limbs. Mothers should study from cause to effect. If the child has taken cold, it is generally owing to the wrong management of the mother. If she covers its head as well as its body while sleeping, in a short time it will be in a perspiration, caused by labored breathing, because of the lack of pure, vital air. When she takes it from beneath the covering, it is almost sure to take cold. The arms being naked, exposes the infant to constant cold, and congestion of lungs or brain. These exposures prepare the way for the infant to become sickly and dwarfed. -

Come Out From Among Them, and Be Ye Separate

Provision has been made whereby the communication between heaven and our souls may be free and open. Finite man can place himself where rays of light and glory from the throne of God will be given him in abundance. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ may shine upon him. He may stand where it can be said of him, "Ye are the light of the world." Were it not for the communication between heaven and earth, there would be no light in the world. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, all men would perish beneath the just judgment of God. But the world is not left in darkness. The long-suffering mercy of God is still extended to the children of men, and it is his design that the rays of light which emanate from the throne of God shall be reflected by the children of light.

The love revealed in Christ's life of self-denial and self-sacrifice is to be seen in the life of his followers. We are called "so to walk, even as he walked." The cause of our weakness is our refusal to obey this command. On every side opportunities are given us to work for our fellow men, in supplying not only their temporal wants, but also their spiritual necessities. It is our duty to lead souls to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." It is important that we fill aright our position in the world, in society, and in the church; but in order to do this, we must have a firm hold upon righteousness. Our faith must reach within the veil, whither our Forerunner has for us entered. If we would take hold of the eternal promises of God, we must have a faith that will not be denied, a steadfast, immovable faith that will take hold of the unseen.

It is our privilege to stand with the light of heaven upon us. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. It was no easier for Enoch to live a righteous life than it is for us at the present time. The world in his time was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness than it is now. It was by prayer and communion with God that Enoch was enabled to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are living in the perils of the last days, and we must receive our strength from the same source. We must walk with God. A separation from the world is required of us; for we can not remain free from its pollution unless we follow the example of the faithful Enoch. But how many are slaves to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They are not partakers of the divine nature, and therefore they can not escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. They live to serve and honor self. Their constant study is, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal shall I be clothed? You talk of sacrifice, but you do not know what sacrifice means. You have not tasted its first draught. You talk of the cross of Christ, you profess the faith; but you have had no experience in lifting the cross and bearing it after your Lord. If you were partakers of the divine nature, the Spirit that dwelt in Christ would dwell in you. His tenderness and love, his pity and compassion, would be manifested in your life. You would not then wait to have the needy and unfortunate brought to you. You would not need to be entreated to feel for the woes of others. It would be as natural for you to minister to the needs of the unfortunate as it was for Christ to go about doing good.

Those who profess the religion of Christ should understand the responsibility resting upon them. They should feel that this is an individual work, an individual preaching of Christ. If each would realize this, and take hold of the work, we should be as mighty as an army with banners. The heavenly Dove would hover over us. The light of the glory of God would be no more shut away from us than it was from the devoted Enoch.

The command is given, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." But it is not for you to say, I have nothing to do with my neighbor. He is buried in the world; I am not his keeper. For this very reason you should have something to say to him. The light given you, you are not to hide under a bushel. It was not given you for yourself alone. Let your light shine before men, is the command. Will you let it shine? It may be understood that you believe the seventh day is the Sabbath, that you believe in the Lord's soon return; but what good will this do your neighbor unless you carry your belief into your daily life? You may talk of being a follower of Christ; but this will not benefit those around you unless you imitate the great Example. Your profession may be as high as heaven; but this will not save you or your fellow men unless you are Christlike. A pure example will do more to enlighten the world than all your profession. In this way your light will shine, and others, seeing your good works, will glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Oh that the Lord would lead us to feel as we have never felt before! If you knew that you had but one hour more of probation, you would change your course. You would not dare to stand in the position you are in to-day. And yet you do not know that you will live one day longer. You can not call one hour your own. We know not how soon death may feel for our heart-strings. We know not how soon the ax will be laid at the root of the tree, and the sentence go forth, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" Will you pass on in your sinful state, with envy and jealousy and hatred in your hearts? If you think you can lay down the oar, and still make your way up stream, you mistake. It is only by earnest effort that you can stem the current.

How many there are as weak as water who might have a never-failing source of strength. Heaven is ready to impart to us, that we may be mighty in God, and attain to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. What increase of spiritual power have you gained during the last year? Who among us have gained one precious attainment after another, until envy, pride, malice, jealousy, and selfishness have been swept away, and only the graces of the Spirit remain,--meekness, forbearance, gentleness, charity? God will help us if we take hold of the help he has provided.

These words are true, and you need them. Oh that you would arouse, and wrench your souls from the grasp of the enemy! Oh that you would engage in the battle of life in earnest, putting on the whole armor of God that you may war successfully! Satan is already weaving his net about you. He does not wait for his prey to be brought to him. He goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But does he always roar?--No; when it serves his purpose, he sinks his voice to the softest whisper, and, wrapped in garments of light, appears as an angel from heaven. Men have so little knowledge of his wiles, so little understanding of the mystery of iniquity, that he outgenerals them almost every time.

Many who have lived under the blazing light of truth act as if they had nothing to do. God calls upon every one of you to take up life's burdens, to engage in the warfare as you have never done before. You who love to speak of the faults of others, arouse, and look into your own hearts. Take your Bibles, and go to God in earnest prayer. Ask him to teach you to know yourself, to understand your weakness, your sins and follies, in the light of eternity. Ask him to show your yourself as you stand in the sight of heaven. This is an individual work. Every man is to build over against his own house. You have nothing to do with the sins of others, but you have much to do with yourself. In humility send your petition to God, and do not rest day nor night until you can say, Hear what the Lord hath done for me,--until you can bear a living testimony, and tell of victories won.

Jacob wrestled with the angel all night before he gained the victory. When morning broke, the angel said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh." But Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Then his prayer was answered. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob," said the angel, "but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." We need the perseverance of Jacob, and the unyielding faith of Elijah. Time after time Elijah sent his servant to see if the cloud was rising, but no cloud was to be seen. At last, after seven times, the servant returned with the word, "There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." Did Elijah stand back and say, I will not receive this evidence; I will wait till the heavens gather blackness?--No. He said, It is time for us to be going. He ventured all upon that token from God, and sent his messenger before him to tell Ahab that there was the sound of abundance of rain.

It is such faith as this that we need, faith that will take hold, and will not let go. Inspiration tells us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. Heaven heard his prayer. He prayed that rain might cease, and there was no rain. Again he prayed for rain, and rain was sent. And why should not the Lord be entreated in behalf of his people today? Oh that the Lord would imbue us with his Spirit! Oh that the curtain might be rolled back that we might understand the mystery of godliness!

God calls upon you to put all your strength into the work. You will have to render an account for the good you might have done had you been standing in the right position. It is time you were co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels. Will you awake? There are souls among you who need your help. Have you felt a burden to bring them to the cross? Bear in mind that just the degree of love you have for God you will reveal for your brethren, and for souls who are lost and undone, out of Christ. -

Disease and Its Causes--Care of Children

Parents are accountable, in a great degree, for the physical health of their children. Those children who survive the abuses received in their infancy, are not out of danger in their childhood. Their parents still pursue a wrong course toward them. Their limbs, as well as their arms, are left almost naked. Mothers dress the upper part of their limbs with muslin pantalets, which reach about to the knee, while the lower part of their limbs is covered with only one thickness of flannel or cotton, and their feet are dressed with thin-soled gaiter boots.

The extremities are chilled, and the heart has thrown upon it double labor, in forcing the blood into these chilled extremities; and when the blood has performed its circuit through the body, and returned to the heart, it is not the same vigorous warm current that left it. It has been chilled in its passage through the limbs. The heart, weakened by too great labor, and poor circulation of poor blood, is then compelled to still greater exertion, in order to throw the blood to the extremities, which are never as healthfully warm as other parts of the body. The heart fails in its efforts, and the limbs become habitually cold; and the blood, which is chilled away from the extremities, is thrown back upon the lungs and brain, and inflammation and congestion of the lungs or of the brain is the result.

God holds mothers accountable for the diseases their children are compelled to suffer. Mothers bow at the shrine of fashion, and sacrifice the health and lives of their children. Many mothers are ignorant of the result of their course in thus clothing their children. But should they not inform themselves, where so much is at stake? Is ignorance a sufficient excuse for you who possess reasoning powers? You can inform yourselves if you will, and dress your children healthfully.

Parents may give up the expectation of their children's having health while they dress them in cloaks and furs, and load down those portions of the body with clothing where there is no call for such an amount, while leaving the extremities, which should have especial protection, almost naked. The portions of the body close to the lifesprings need less covering than the limbs, which are remote from the vital organs. If the limbs and feet could have the extra coverings usually put upon the shoulders, lungs, and heart, and healthy circulation be induced to the extremities, the vital organs would act their part healthfully, with only their share of clothing.

I appeal to you, mothers; do you not feel alarmed and heartsick in seeing your children pale and dwarfed, suffering with catarrh, influenza, croup, scrofulous swellings upon the face and neck, inflammation and congestion of lungs and brain? Have you studied from cause to effect? Have you provided for them a simple, nutritious diet, free from grease and spices? Have you not been influenced by fashion, in clothing your children? Leaving their arms and limbs insufficiently protected has been the cause of a vast amount of disease and premature deaths. There is no reason why the feet and limbs of your girls should not be in every way as warmly clad as those of your boys. Boys, accustomed to exercise out of doors, become inured to cold and exposure, and are actually less liable to colds when thinly clad than are the girls, because the open air seems to be their natural element. Delicate girls accustom themselves to live indoors, in a heated atmosphere, and yet they go from the heated room out of doors with their limbs and feet seldom better protected from the cold than while remaining in a warm room. The air soon chills their limbs and feet, and prepares the way for disease.

Your girls should wear the waists of their dresses perfectly loose, and should have a style of dress convenient, comfortable, and modest. In cold weather they should wear warm flannel or cotton drawers, which can be placed inside the stockings. Over these should be warm lined pants, which may be full, gathered into a band and buttoned around the ankle, or they may taper at the bottom and meet the shoe. The dress should reach below the knee. With this style of dress, one light skirt, or at most two, is all that is necessary, and should be buttoned to a waist. The shoes should be thick-soled, and perfectly comfortable. With this style of dress, your girls will be no more in danger in the open air than are your boys. And their health would be much better were they to live more out of doors, even in winter, than to be confined to the warm air of a room heated by a stove.

It is a sin in the sight of heaven for parents to dress their children as they do. The only excuse that they can make is that it is fashion. They can not plead modesty in thus exposing the limbs of their children, with only one covering drawn tight over them. They can not plead that it is healthful, or really attractive. Because others will continue to follow this health-and life-destroying practice, is no excuse for those who style themselves reformers. Because everybody around you follows a fashion that is injurious to health, it will not make your sin a whit the less, nor be any guaranty for the health and life of your children. -

As Much as Lieth in You, Live Peaceably With All Men

The plan of redemption was formed to bring unity and peace to men. The world was at war with the law of Jehovah; sinners were at enmity with their Maker; Jesus came to make overtures of peace. At the appointed time angels were commissioned to announce his birth, and give expression to their joy in the salvation of the one lost sheep, the fallen world. To the watching shepherds the message came, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, good will toward men."

Shortly before his crucifixion, Christ bequeathed to his disciples a legacy of peace. "Peace I leave with you," he said; "my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This peace is not the peace that comes through conformity with the world. It is an internal rather than an external peace. Without will be wars and fightings, through the opposition of avowed enemies, and the coldness and suspicion of those who claim to be friends. The peace of Christ is not to banish division, but it is to remain amid strife and division.

Though he bore the title of Prince of Peace, Christ said of himself, "Think not that I am come to send a peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." By these words he did not mean that his coming was to produce discord and contention among his followers. He desired to show the effect his teaching would have on different minds. One portion of the human family would receive him; the other portion would take sides with Satan, and would oppose Christ and all his followers. The Prince of Peace, he was yet the cause of division. He who came to proclaim glad tidings and create hope and joy in the hearts of the children of men, opened a controversy that burns deep, and arouses intense passion in the human heart. And he warned his followers: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." "They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. . . . Ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death."

This prophecy has been fulfilled in a marked manner. Every indignity, reproach, and cruelty that Satan can instigate human hearts to devise, has been visited upon the followers of Jesus. And it will be fulfilled in a yet more marked manner; for the carnal mind is still at enmity with the law of God, and will not be subject to its commands. We have been highly favored in living under a government where we can worship God according to the dictates of our conscience. But human nature is no more in harmony with the principles of Christ to-day than it has been in ages past. The world is still in opposition to Jesus. The same hatred that prompted the cry, "Crucify him, crucify him," still works in the children of disobedience. The same satanic spirit that in the Dark Ages consigned men and women to prison, to exile, and to the stake, that conceived the exquisite torture of the Inquisition, produced the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and kindled the fires of Smithfield, is still at work with malignant energy in unregenerate hearts.

We are required to be Christlike toward those who are our enemies; but we must not, in order to have peace, cover up the faults of those we see in error. The world's Redeemer never purchased peace by covering iniquity, or by anything like compromise. Though his heart was constantly overflowing with love for the human race, he was never indulgent to their sins. He was the friend of sinners, and he would not remain silent while they were pursuing a course that would ruin their souls,--the souls that he had purchased with his own blood. He was a stern reprover of all vice. He labored that man should be true to himself in being all that God would have him, and true to his higher and eternal interest. Living in a world marred and seared with the curse brought upon it by disobedience, he could not be at peace with it if he left unwarned, uninstructed, unrebuked. This would be to purchase peace at the neglect of duty. His peace was the consciousness of having done the will of his Father, rather than a condition of things that existed as the result of not having done his duty.

Those who love Jesus and the souls for whom he had died will follow after the things which make for peace. But they must take care lest in their efforts to prevent discord, they surrender truth; lest in warding off division, they sacrifice principle. True brotherhood can never be maintained by compromising principle. As Christians approach the Christlike model, and become pure in spirit and action, they will feel the venom of the serpent. The opposition of the children of disobedience is excited by a Christianity that is spiritual. At this crisis is the time to decide who are God's faithful servants, who will be true to principle, who will bear in mind that truth is too dearly purchased for its least principle to be surrendered. That peace and harmony which are secured by mutual concessions to avoid all differences of opinion are not worthy of the name. On points of feeling between man and man, concessions should sometimes be made; but never should one iota of principle be sacrificed to obtain harmony. All our words and actions pass in review before God; and if we wish to stand in the Judgment as having done all that we could do to exert a correct influence over our fellow men, we must return kind acts for acts of mischief and malice. Christ is our pattern; we must follow him.

The apostle Paul exhorts us, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Care should be taken by Christians to give no offense, that the truth may not be evil spoken of. But the text suggests that no amount of diligence and care will preserve this harmony in all cases. Dissensions will arise even between church-members, because they are not Christlike in character. In the home they are oppressive and a reproach to the cause of Christ. Their practices are inconsistent with truth and religion, and to retain them in church fellowship would be unfaithfulness to the Master. The church as a body is to do all in its power to promote union and prevent schisms. If unsound doctrine is introduced, the safety of the flock of Christ will be endangered; and it is the duty of those in authority, who are jealous for the truth as it is in Jesus, to make a firm, decided protest.

To those who have been injured without cause these words of Scripture apply, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Their failure to live at peace with all men is not due to the course they themselves have pursued, but to the envy, jealousy, and evil surmising of those who have been in the wrong. A division is caused. How shall it be healed? Shall the man that has been sinned against, misjudged, and maligned, be called to give an account? Shall he seek for something in his past course by which he can humiliate himself? Shall he acknowledge himself in the wrong for the sake of making peace?--No. If he has tried to do his duty, and has been patient under abuse, he is not to humble himself to acknowledge that he is guilty. He does the offenders great wrong thus to take the guilt upon his soul, admitting that he has given them occasion for their course of action. This is very pleasing to those who have done the work of the enemy; but heaven's books record the facts just as they are. Concessions that are not true from the one who has been wrongfully treated gratify the feelings of the carnal heart. The wrongdoers interpret their position as zeal for God, when in truth it is zeal to do the work of the adversary of souls. They do not dig out of their hearts the root of bitterness, but leave the fibers to spring up when Satan shall stir them again to active growth.

There is a work for us to do. We must begin here to cultivate the meekness of Christ. There are stern battles for us to fight against our traits of character that leads us to decisions that make it hard and unfavorable for others. We are not commended by God for a zeal that savors of pharisaism; for this is not of Christ. We are not to go to an extreme in false charity, neither are we to follow a course of unbending severity in cases where kindness and mercy and love would have a telling power. The ax must be laid at the root of the tree. True conversion is needed. Heart work is essential. The nature must be renewed after the divine image, until the work of grace is completed in the soul. -

Christ or Barabbas

God sent his Son into the world to save men, although, because of their sins, they did not deserve such a revelation of love. How did the world treat the One who was "altogether lovely," and "the chiefest among ten thousand"? We read of him at his trial, "The men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him." Prophecy, inspired by Christ himself, had declared the treatment he would receive at the hands of men.

On one occasion Paul was smitten on the mouth. He was indignant at the insult, and said, to the cruel actor, "Sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?" Paul had not then become as meek and lowly as his Master. In spite of the cruel treatment Christ received, he declared, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world;" not to crush, but to heal; not to judge, but to save and uplift, to ennoble and bless.

At the Passover feast, it was the custom to release a prisoner, whom the people might choose. "They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him."

Pilate was not left to grope his way in darkness. Not only was he convinced by the testimony and evidence of the witnesses that the charges brought against Christ were false, but an angel of God communicated light to his wife; and, before the terrible deed was done, she gave this light to Pilate. "When he was set down in the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with this just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." But Pilate was too weak to obey the light.

The Prince of Life, bearing the seal of heaven, was placed before the people, with Barabbas by his side. The contrast between light and darkness, sin and righteousness, truth and falsehood, could be seen by all. Pilate then asked the people, "Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?" With satanic madness the people answered, "Not this man, but Barabbas." They refused to receive the Lord of glory, choosing Barabbas, a robber and murderer, in his stead. By this they showed that they preferred the society of a murderer to that of the One who was sinless, full of goodness, mercy, and truth. Satan was working through the religious element, and bigotry and prejudice prevailed.

"Pilate said unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" And as if inspired with satanic frenzy, the people cried, "Let him be crucified." Their voices sounded like the bellowing of wild beasts. "Why, what evil hath he done?" Pilate asked. "But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified."

"When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it." Did this farce make Pilate guiltless? O Pilate, if you could have washed from your convicted conscience the terrible guilt that will ever oppress your soul because of this cowardly deed, your after-history would not have been laid in such dark colors. When you knew that it was for envy that Jesus was delivered, why did you refuse to listen to the warning from the Lord? Do you think that the act of washing your hands will cleanse you from the sin of condemning a man when your own reason tells you that he was delivered into your power because of envy? You declared him innocent, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person," and yet you delivered him up to his murderers.

Writing of this, John says, "Pilate saith to them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?"

"I have power." By saying this, Pilate showed that he made himself responsible for the condemnation of Christ, for the cruel scourging, and for the insults offered him before any wrong was proved against him. Pilate had been chosen and appointed to administer justice, but he dared not do it. Had he exercised the power that he claimed, and that his position gave him, had he protected Christ, he would not have been accountable for his death. Christ would have been crucified, but Pilate would not have been held guilty.

Listen to the response made when Pilate said to the people, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it:" "Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." He had pronounced him innocent, but still he delivered him up to the most ignominious and cruel death that a man can suffer.

The four evangelists,--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,--all bear record that Jew and Gentile, priest and people, rulers, kings, and governors, all classes and tongues, were represented in rejecting Christ, a man who was innocent, and against whom no proof could be found. He came to this world to live God's law in human nature. He came to testify to the world's unfallen, to seraphim and cherubim, to angels and to men, that Satan's rebellion against God and his law was without foundation or excuse, that in his law God had revealed his character. This character Christ represented by living that law, thus vindicating it, and showing its immutability. This Satan could not tolerate. He could not bear to lose all that he had attempted in heaven, and in attempting which he had lost heaven. He and his evil angels united in a desperate companionship with disloyal and evil men. They resolved to use the whole power of their corrupt energies in putting out of the world the light of truth.

The unfallen worlds and the heavenly universe looked with amazement at the hatred felt and acted toward the only begotten Son of God. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But he who was sent into the world by the Father on an embassage of mercy, bringing a message of love, was not received. Notwithstanding the priceless gift he brought, he was scorned as a deceiver, hunted down as a malefactor, and betrayed and crucified as the worst of criminals. Thus human nature will do when controlled by satanic agencies.

Here we have a picture held up before us. The Light of the world, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, without one charge proved against him, without being convicted of a single crime, was given up by the ruler of the people to a shameful death. But who was responsible? In the day of God, before the assembled universe, who will suffer punishment for this act?--Those who claimed to be the most pious people on the earth. Who crucified Christ?-- "Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people." The people would not then have permitted harm to come to Jesus; therefore the priests must do their work in secrecy.

The religious leaders, the guides and instructors of the people, the men who ought to have pointed the people to Jesus, saying , as did John, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," followed the lead of the enemy of all good. They persuaded the poor ignorant people, who knew not the Scriptures, which testify of Christ, to reject the Son of God, and led them to choose a robber and murderer. "The chief priests and elders persuaded the people that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus." Why did they do this?--Because of envy and jealousy. Prejudice is ever blind, unreasonable, vindictive, and cruel. Under its maddening power people are rendered insane. "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?" -

Disease and Its Causes

My sisters, there is need of a dress reform among us. There are many errors in the present style of female dress. It is injurious to health, and, therefore, a sin for females to wear tight corsets, or whalebones, or to compress the waist. Compressing the waist has a depressing influence upon the heart, liver, and lungs. The health of the entire system depends upon the healthy action of the respiratory organs. Thousands of females have ruined their constitutions, and brought upon themselves various diseases, in their efforts to make a healthy and natural form unhealthy and unnatural. They are dissatisfied with nature's arrangements; and in their earnest efforts to correct nature, and bring her to their ideas of gentility, they break down her work, and leave her a mere wreck.

Many females drag down the bowels by hanging heavy skirts upon the hips. These were not formed to sustain weights. In the first place, heavy quilted skirts should never be worn. They are unnecessary and a great evil. The female dress should be suspended from the shoulders.

It would be pleasing to God if there were greater uniformity in the dress among believers. The style of dress formerly adopted by the Friends is the least objectionable. Many of them have backslidden; and although they may preserve the uniformity of color, yet they have indulged in pride and extravagance, and their dress has been of the most expensive material. Still their selection of plain colors, and the modest and neat arrangement of their clothing, are worthy of imitation by Christians.

The children of Israel, after they were brought out of Egypt, were commanded to have a simple ribbon of blue in the border of their garments, to distinguish them from the nations around them, and to signify that they were God's peculiar people. The people of God are not now required to have a special mark placed upon their garments. But in the New Testament we are often referred to ancient Israel as examples. If God gave such definite directions to his ancient people in regard to their dress, will not the dress of his people in this age come under his notice? Should there not be in their dress a distinction from that of the world? Should not the people of God, who are his peculiar treasure, seek even in their dress to glorify God? And should they not be examples in dress, and by their simple style rebuke the pride, vanity, and extravagance of worldly, pleasure-loving professors?--God requires this of his people. Pride is rebuked in his word.

But there is a class who are continually harping upon pride and dress, who are careless of their own apparel, and who think it a virtue to be dirty, and dress without order and taste; and their clothing often looks as if it flew, and lit upon their persons. Their garments are filthy, and yet such ones will ever be talking against pride. They class decency and neatness with pride. Had they been among that number who gathered around the mount to hear the law spoken from Sinai, they would have been chased from the congregation of Israel, because they had not obeyed the command of God--"And let them wash their clothes,"--preparatory to listening to his law given in awful grandeur.

The ten commandments spoken by Jehovah from Sinai can not live in the hearts of persons of disorderly, filthy habits. If ancient Israel could not so much as listen to the proclamation of that holy law, unless they had obeyed the injunction of Jehovah, and cleansed their clothing, how can that sacred law be written upon the hearts of persons who are not cleanly in person, in clothing, or in their houses?--It is impossible. Their profession may be as high as heaven, yet it is not worth a straw. Their influence disgusts unbelievers. Better if they had ever remained outside the ranks of God's loyal people. The house of God is dishonored by such professors.

All who meet upon the Sabbath to worship God should, if possible, have a neat, well-fitting, comely suit to wear in the house of worship. It is a dishonor to the Sabbath, and to God and his house, for those who profess that the Sabbath is the holy of the Lord, and honorable, to wear the same clothing upon the Sabbath that they have worn through the week while laboring upon their farms, when they can obtain other. If there are worthy persons who, with their whole heart, would honor the Lord of the Sabbath, and the worship of God, and who can not obtain a change of clothing, let those who are able give to such a Sabbath suit, that they may appear in the house of God with cleanly, fitting apparel.

A greater uniformity in dress would be pleasing to God. Those who expend money on costly apparel and extra fixings can, by a little self-denial, exemplify pure religion by simplicity of clothing, and then use the money that they have usually expended needlessly, in aiding some poor brother or sister, whom God loves, to obtain neat and modest apparel. -

Christ or Barabbas? [Concluded]

The scene in the judgment hall in Jerusalem is a symbol of what will take place in the closing scenes of this earth's history. The world will accept Christ, the Truth, or they will accept Satan, the first great rebel, a robber, apostate, and murderer. They will either reject the message of mercy in regard to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, or they will accept the truth as it is in Jesus. If they accept Satan and his falsehoods, they identify themselves with the chief of all liars, and with all who are disloyal, while they turn from no less a personage than the Son of the infinite God.

God has a controversy with those who accept the fallacies of the great apostate, which are prepared to suit every class in the Christian world, and who discard the law of God, pronounced by Inspiration to be "holy, and just, and good." By the death of Christ the changeless character of this moral standard of righteousness is shown. Christ lived the law of God's government; he was an expression of God's character; and he died to save men from the penalty of the transgression of this law. Those who reject God's law crucify the Son of God afresh. They identify themselves with those who crucified him between two thieves on the cross of Calvary.

The world is asleep. The people know not the time of their visitation. To them the words apply; "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." All need to be aroused. We can not afford to be rocked to sleep in the cradle of carnal security or indifference; for we are deciding our eternal destiny. The record of the shameful trial in the judgment hall has passed up to heaven, and is the standard by which all are measured, whether they stand under the blood-stained banner of Christ, or under the black banner of the prince of darkness.

There can be only two classes. Each party is distinctly stamped, either with the seal of the living God, or with the mark of the beast or his image. Each son and daughter of Adam chooses either Christ or Barabbas as his general. And all who place themselves on the side of the disloyal are standing under Satan's black banner, and are charged with rejecting and despitefully using Christ. They are charged with deliberately crucifying the Lord of life and glory.

Each one has an important question to answer for himself: Are you on the side of Satan, a transgressor of God's law, or are you loyal to that God who declared himself to be, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." God's character is here displayed as his glory. God has delivered all judgment into the hands of his Son; and as a righteous judge, Christ must pass sentence on every work whether it be good or bad. Justice is as much an expression of love as mercy.

The world is not improving. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. By rejecting the Son of God, the personification of the only true God, who possessed goodness, mercy, and untiring love, whose heart was ever touched with human woe, and choosing a murderer in his stead, the Jews showed what human nature can and will do when the restraining power of the Spirit of God is removed, and men are under the control of the apostate. Those who choose Satan as their ruler will reveal the spirit of their chosen master.

The world will not improve till God goes out of his place to punish her for her iniquity. Then the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. Christ warned his disciples, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

When Christ was upon this earth, the world preferred Barabbas. And to-day the world and the churches are making the same choice. The scenes of the betrayal, the rejection, and the crucifixion of Christ have been re-enacted, and will again be re-enacted on an immense scale. People will be filled with the attributes of the enemy, and with them his delusions will have great power. Just to that degree that light is refused will there be misconception and misunderstanding. Those who reject Christ and choose Barabbas work under a ruinous deception. Misrepresentation and false witness will grow to open rebellion. The eye being evil, the whole body will be full of darkness. Those who give their affections to any leader but Christ will find themselves under the control, body, soul, and spirit, of an infatuation that is so entrancing that under its power souls turn away from hearing the truth to believe a lie. They are ensnared and taken, and by their every action they cry, Release unto us Barabbas, but crucify Christ.

Even now this decision is being made. The scenes enacted at the cross are being re-enacted. In the churches that have departed from truth and righteousness it is being revealed what human nature can do and will do when the love of God is not an abiding principle in the soul. We need not be surprised at anything that may take place now. We need not marvel at any developments of horror. Those who trample under their unholy feet the law of God have the same spirit as had the men who insulted and betrayed Jesus. Without any compunction of conscience, they will do the deeds of their father, the devil. They will ask the question that came from the traitorous lips of Judas, What will you give me if I betray unto you Jesus the Christ? Even now Christ is being betrayed in the person of his saints.

In view of the history of the life and death of Christ, can we be surprised if the world is hollow and insincere? Can we in our day trust in man, or make flesh our arm? Shall we not choose Christ as our leader? He alone can save us from sin.

When the world is at last brought up for trial before the great white throne, to account for its rejection of Jesus Christ, God's own messenger to our world, what a solemn scene it will be! What a reckoning will have to be made for nailing to the cross One who came to our world as a living epistle of the law. God will ask each one the question, What have you done with my only begotten Son? What will those answer who have refused to accept the truth?-- They will be obliged to say, We hated Jesus, and cast him out. We cried, Crucify him, crucify him. We chose Barabbas in his stead. If those to whom the light of heaven is presented reject it, they reject Christ. They reject the only provision whereby they may be cleansed from pollution. They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. To them it will be said, "I never knew you: depart from me." God will assuredly avenge the death of his Son. -

Disease and Its Causes

Some receive the idea that in order to carry out that separation from the world that the word of God requires, they must be neglectful of their apparel. There is a class of sisters who think they are carrying out the principle of non-conformity to the world by wearing an ordinary sunbonnet, and the same dress worn by them through the week, upon the Sabbath, when appearing in the assembly of the saints to engage in the worship of God. And some men who profess to be Christians view the matter of dress in the same light. These persons assemble with God's people upon the Sabbath, with their clothing dusty and soiled, and even with gaping rents in their garments, which are placed upon their persons in a slovenly manner. This class, if they had an engagement to meet a friend honored by the world, by whom they wished to be especially favored, would exert themselves to appear in his presence with the best apparel that could be obtained; for this friend would feel insulted were they to come into his presence with their hair uncombed, and garments uncleanly and in disorder. Yet these persons think that it is no matter in what dress they appear, or what is the condition of their persons, when they meet upon the Sabbath to worship the great God. They assemble in his house, which is as the audience chamber of the Most High, where heavenly angels are in attendance, with but little respect, or reverence, as their persons and clothing indicate. Their whole appearance typifies the character of such men and women.

The favorite theme of this class is pride of dress. Decency, taste, and order they regard as pride. And according to the dress of these mistaken souls will be their conversation, their acts, and their deal. They are careless, and often low in their conversation at their homes, among their brethren, and before the world. The dress and its arrangement upon the person is generally found to be the index of the man or the woman. Those who are careless and untidy in dress are seldom elevated in their conversation, and possess but little refinement of feeling. They sometimes consider oddity and coarseness humility.

The followers of Christ are represented by him as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Without the saving influence of Christians, the world would perish in its own corruption. Look upon the class of professed Christians described, who are careless in their dress and person; loose in their business transactions, as their dress represents; coarse, uncourteous, and rough in their manners; low in their conversation; at the same time regarding these miserable traits as marks of true humility and Christian life. Think you that if our Saviour were upon earth, he would point to them as being the salt of the earth and the light of the world?--No, never!

Christians are elevated in their conversation; and although they believe it to be sin to condescend to foolish flattery, they are courteous, kind, and benevolent. Their words are those of sincerity and truth. They are faithful in their deal with their brethren and with the world. In their dress they avoid superfluity and display; but their clothing will be neat, not gaudy, modest, and arranged upon the person with order and taste. Especial care will be taken to dress in a manner that will show a sacred regard for the holy Sabbath and the worship of God. The line of demarkation between such a class and the world will be too plain to be mistaken. The influence of believers would be tenfold greater if men and women who accept the truth, who have been formerly careless and slack in their habits, would be so elevated and sanctified through the truth as to observe habits of neatness, order, and good taste in their dress. Our God is a God of order, and he is not in any degree pleased with distraction, with filthiness, or with sin.

Christians should not take pains to make themselves gazingstocks by dressing different from the world. But if, in accordance with their faith and duty in respect to their dressing modestly and healthfully, they find themselves out of fashion, they should not change their dress in order to be like the world. But they should manifest a noble independence, and moral courage to be right, if all the world differs from them. If the world introduces a modest, convenient, and healthful mode of dress, which is in accordance with the Bible, it will not change our relation to God or to the world to adopt such a style of dress. Christians should follow Christ, and conform their dress to God's word. They should shun extremes. They should humbly pursue a straightforward course, irrespective of applause or of censure, and should cling to the right because of its own merits. -

Loyalty or Disloyalty?

In the past the Lord God of ages revealed his secrets to his prophets. The Omniscient looked down the centuries, and predicted through his prophets the rise and fall of kingdoms, hundreds of years before the events foretold took place. The present and the future are equally clear to God, and he shows his servants what shall be. His voice echoes down the ages, telling man what is to take place. Kings and princes take their position at the appointed time. They think they are carrying out their own purposes, but in reality they are fulfilling the word God has given through his prophets. They act their part in carrying out God's great plan. Events fall into line, fulfilling the word the Almighty has spoken.

The unbelieving and godless do not discern the signs of the time. In ignorance they may refuse to accept the inspired record. But when professed Christians speak sneeringly of the means employed by the great I am to make his purposes known, they show themselves to be ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. The Creator knows just what elements he has to deal with in human nature. He knows what means to employ to obtain the desired end. The Christian who accepts the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, will look at Bible history in its true bearing. The history of the Jewish economy from beginning to end, though spoken of contemptuously and sneered at as "the dark ages," will reveal light, and still more light, as it is studied.

Man's word fails; and he who takes the assertions of man as his dependence may well tremble; for he will one day be a shipwrecked vessel. But God's word is infallible, and endures forever. Christ declares, "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." God's word will endure through the ceaseless ages of eternity. God lives and reigns. His glory is not confined to the temple made with hands. He has not closed heaven against his people. As in the past, so in this age, God reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets.

The image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in the visions of the night represents the kingdoms of the world. The metals in the image, symbolizing the different kingdoms, became less and less pure and valuable, from the head down. The head of the image was of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the sides of brass, and the feet and toes iron mingled with clay. So the kingdoms represented by them deteriorated in value.

The result of making void the law of God may be seen in the increasing immorality of these several kingdoms. If the inhabitants had kept the fear of God ever before them, they would have been given wisdom and power, which would have bound them together, and kept them strong. But the rulers of these kingdoms made God their strength only when harassed and perplexed. Failing to get help from their great men, they sought it from men like Daniel, who they knew honored the living God, and were honored by him. To these men they appeal to unravel the mysteries of providence; for they had so far separated themselves from God by transgression that they could not understand his warning. They were forced to appeal for explanation to those illuminated by heavenly light.

When the empire of Babylon was so strong and its influence so far-reaching that seemingly the most powerful foe could not take its scepter, Daniel, a man inspired by God, prophesied that it would pass away, notwithstanding its apparent magnificence, and that a second would succeed it. He prophesied also that the second empire would be succeeded by the third, and that a fourth empire should arise, more fierce, more determined, and more powerful than any kingdom that had preceded it. As strong as iron, this kingdom would subdue and break in pieces all the nations of the world.

In spite of the warning he received, Nebuchadnezzar went on in his own strength, till God took from him the talent of wisdom, that he might be led to see and acknowledge that the God of Israel was able to create and to destroy. The kings who succeeded him failed to profit by his experience, and the kingdom of Babylon passed away because, in their prosperity, her rulers forgot God, and ascribed her honor and glory to human achievement. So to-day, when men forget God and refuse to obey his law, they are humiliated. God tests them, and if they do not humble their hearts and confess their sins, they receive the penalty of transgression.

The Medo-Persian kingdom was visited by the wrath of God because in it his law was trampled underfoot. The fear of God possessed no power among the people. Wickedness, blasphemy, and corruption were the prevailing influences in this kingdom; and the kingdoms that followed were even more base and corrupt. They deteriorated because they cast off God. Forgetting him, they sank lower and lower in the scale. The vast empire of Rome crumbled into pieces. The church of Rome boasts of her infallibility, and of the power of her hereditary religion. But this religion is a horror to all who are acquainted with the secrets of the mystery of iniquity. The priests of this church maintain their ascendency by keeping the people in ignorance of the will of God.

While representing the kingdoms of this earth, the image that was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar also fitly represented deterioration of religion. We grow weak morally and spiritually, just in proportion as we forget God. Those who claim to be Protestants are not today what Luther was. They have left the old landmarks, and have depended on forms, ceremonies, and outward display to make up for the lack of purity and piety, meekness and lowliness, found in obedience to God. Sin is ruining nations to-day just as it has done in time past. Even leaders in the religious world have not a good conscience toward God.

Men need an intelligent knowledge of God's law. There is no true standard of righteousness apart from this law. By obedience to it the intellect is cultivated, the conscience enlightened and made sensitive. Righteousness exalts a nation. The words of the Bible, and the Bible alone, should be echoed from the pulpits of our land. This book is God's great director. It is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. It flashes its light ahead, that we may see the path by which we are traveling; and its rays are thrown back on past history, showing the most perfect harmony in that which, to the mind in darkness, appears like error and discord. In that which seems to the worldling an inexplicable mystery, God's children see light and beauty.

God speaks in his word, and fulfills this word in the world. We need now to seek to understand the movements of God's providence. Said Paul, "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night nor of darkness." God's people are not left to depend on man's wisdom. With prophetic guideposts God has marked out the way he wishes them to take. These great waymarks show us that the path of obedience is the only path we can follow with certainty. Men break their word, and prove themselves untrustworthy, but God changes not. His word will abide the same forever. Those who love and obey the law of Jehovah will meet with trial and temptation; but these are only what Jesus met, and he declares: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." If we hope and pray, and by faith trust his word, we shall be able to say, with Paul, "I am persuaded, that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Have we given ourselves up to do God's will? Are we transformed by the grace of Christ? Some claim to be in Christ, while their special work is to make void the law of Jehovah. Shall we take their word for it? Shall we accept their assertions? How shall we distinguish God's true servants from the false prophets who Christ said should arise to deceive many?--There is only one test of character,--the law of Jehovah.

The Israelites placed over their doors a signature of blood, to show that they were God's property. So the children of God in this age will bear the signature God has appointed. They will place themselves in harmony with God's holy law. A mark is placed upon every one of God's people just as verily as a mark was placed over the doors of the Hebrew dwellings, to preserve the people from the general ruin. God declares, "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." When men say that the law of God is abrogated by the testimony of the Fathers, they are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. Their word is not founded upon the teaching of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ is not the chief cornerstone of their structure. John says, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Those who permit themselves to be deceived will, with the deceiver, feel the wrath of the Lamb.

With God's word before us, with the lesson of instruction we may there learn, there is no need for us to be deceived. We are living in a momentous period of this earth's history. The great conflict is just before us. We see the world corrupted under the inhabitants thereof. The man of sin has worked with a marvelous perseverance to exalt the spurious sabbath, and the disloyal Protestant world has wondered after the beast, and has called obedience to the Sabbath instituted by Jehovah disloyalty to the laws of the nations. Kingdoms have confederated to sustain a false sabbath institution, which has not a word of authority in the oracles of God.

In the record of the vision given to John we read, "The dragon was wroth with the woman [the church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Satanic agencies have made the earth a stage for horrors, which no language can describe. War and bloodshed are carried on by nations claiming to be Christian. A disregard for the law of God has brought its sure result.

The great conflict now being waged is not merely a strife of man against man. On one side stands the Prince of Life, acting as man's substitute and surety; on the other, the prince of darkness, with the fallen angels under his command. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

There will be a sharp conflict between those who are loyal to God and those who cast scorn upon his law. The church has joined hands with the world. Reverence to God's law has been subverted. The religious leaders are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is in this age of the world. But shall the prevalence of disloyalty and transgression cause those who have reverenced the law of God to have less respect for it, to unite with the powers of earth to make it void?--The truly loyal will not be carried away by the current of evil. They will not throw scorn and contempt on that which God has set apart as holy. The test comes to every one. There are only two sides. On which side are you? -

Disease and Its Causes

Women should clothe their limbs with regard to health and comfort. They need to have their limbs and feet clad as warmly as do men. The length of the fashionable dress is objectionable for several reasons:--

1. It is extravagant and unnecessary to have the dress of such a length that it will sweep the sidewalks and streets.

2. A dress thus long gathers dew from the grass, and mud from the streets, which makes it uncleanly.

3. In its bedrabbled condition it comes in contact with the sensitive ankles, which are not sufficiently protected, quickly chilling them, and is one of the greatest causes of catarrh and of scrofulous swellings, and endangers health and life.

4. The unnecessary length is an additional weight upon the hips and bowels.

5. It hinders the walking, and is also often in other people's way.

There is still another style of dress that will be adopted by a class of so-called dress reformers. They will imitate the opposite sex as nearly as possible. They will wear the cap, pants, vest, coat, and boots, the last of which is the most sensible part of the costume. Those who adopt and advocate this style of dress, are carrying the so-called dress reform to very objectionable lengths. Confusion will be the result. Some who adopt this costume may be correct in their views in general upon the health question, but they could be instrumental in accomplishing vastly more good if they did not carry the matter of dress to such extremes.

In this style of dress God's order has been reversed, and his special direction disregarded. "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." Deut. 22:5. This style of dress God would not have his people adopt. It is not modest apparel, and is not at all fitting for modest, humble females who profess to be Christ's followers. God's prohibitions are lightly regarded by all who would advocate the doing away of the distinction of dress between males and females. The extreme positions taken by some dress reformers upon this subject cripple their influence.

God designed there should be a plain distinction between male and female dress, and has considered the matter of sufficient importance to give explicit directions in regard to it; for the same dress worn by both sexes would cause confusion, and great increase of crime. The apostle Paul would utter a rebuke, were he alive, should he behold females professing godliness with this style of dress. "In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." The mass of professed Christians utterly disregard the teachings of the apostles, and wear gold, pearls, and costly array.

God's loyal people are the light of the world and the salt of the earth; and they should ever remember that their influence is of value. Were they to exchange the extreme long, for the extreme short, dress, they would, to a great extent, destroy their influence. Unbelievers, whom it is their duty to benefit, and seek to bring to the Lamb of God, would be disgusted. Many improvements can be made in the dress of women in reference to health, without making so great a change as to disgust the beholder.

The female form should not be compressed in the least with corsets and whalebones. The dress should be perfectly easy, that the lungs and heart may have healthy action. The dress should reach somewhat below the top of the boot, but should be short enough to clear the filth of the sidewalk and street, without being raised by the hand. A still shorter dress than this would be proper, convenient, and healthful for women when doing their housework, and especially for those women who are obliged to perform more or less outdoor labor. With this style of dress, one light skirt, or at most two, is all that is necessary, and that should be buttoned to a waist, or suspended with straps. The hips were not formed to bear heavy weights. The heavy skirts worn by females, their weight dragging down upon the hips, have been the cause of various diseases, which are not easily cured, because the sufferers seem to be ignorant of the cause that produced them, and continue to violate the laws of their being by girding the waist and wearing heavy skirts, until they are made life-long invalids.

Many will immediately exclaim, "Why, such a style of dress will be old-fashioned!" What if it is? I wish we could be old-fashioned in many respects. If we could have the old-fashioned strength that characterized the old-fashioned women of past generations, it would be very desirable. I do not speak unadvisedly when I say that the way in which women clothe themselves, together with their indulgence of appetite, is the greatest cause of their present feeble, diseased condition. There is but one woman in a thousand who clothes her limbs as she should. Whatever may be the length of the dress, women should clothe their limbs as thoroughly as do men. If the limbs and feet are kept comfortable with warm clothing, the circulation will be equalized, and the blood will remain healthy and pure, because it is not chilled nor hindered in its natural passage through the system.

By What Authority Doest Thou These Things?

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that bought and sold in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves."

Christ drove the dishonest traffickers from the temple courts with heaven's authority flashing from his face. His voice spoke to the conscience and soul with the power of God. "Take these things hence," he said; "it is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

As priests and rulers looked upon the face of Christ, terror took possession of them; for divinity was flashing through humanity. This was evidence that they had not looked for. They understood the meaning of his words, and, amazed and terrified, they fled from the humble, travel-stained Nazarene, as if he had been surrounded by an avenging army of heavenly beings. But as they hurried away from the sacred precincts, they found that they had received no bodily harm, and their terror-stricken souls began to recover. They said, We will return to the temple, and demand by what authority he is doing this work. But when they saw the work that Jesus had been doing since their expulsion, they did not confront him with the assurance that they thought they would. They found the Saviour healing the sick and the dying. "The blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them." On their ears fell the sound of rejoicing and the song of praise. In the very temple itself, children who had been restored to health were waving palm branches, and singing hosannas to the Son of David. Baby voices were lisping the praises of the mighty Healer. The people were rejoicing; for those among them who had been sick and dying were now restored to perfect health. But the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep were as music in the ears of the priests when compared with these sounds of rejoicing. Cattle sales meant money to them. But the gladness and joy of the people who had been restored gave them no satisfaction.

"Hearest thou what these say?" they asked Christ; and he answered, "Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?"

The scene at the temple was indelibly impressed upon the minds of the people who had come to attend the feast. What greater evidence than this could Christ give? If this could find no entrance into the hearts of these resisters of light; if such a scene as this did not bring conviction; if this light was not sufficient to drive away their prejudice and jealousy, what evidence could Christ give to pierce their rock-bound hearts?--Nothing that he could say or do would move their stubborn wills.

The night before his work of cleansing the temple courts and healing the sick, Christ had spent in prayer in the mount of Olives. "In the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away." The next morning, on his way again to Jerusalem, he passed the withered fig tree. "And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away. Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done."

The fig tree was covered with promising, pretentious leaves, but was entirely destitute of fruit. It represented impenitent Israel, who had failed to do the work of God's appointment. And not only does this lesson apply to the Jews, but in its terrible significance it reaches to every age, warning each soul of the sure result of profession without practice. Let professing Christians inquire into the meaning of the curse pronounced upon the fig tree. The tree was full of promise, but investigation revealed its barrenness. It bore no fruit; and because of this defect, words were spoken that caused it almost immediately to wither away.

A fig tree is created to bear fruit; and if it does not do this, it is not fit for a place in the orchard. It is treated as a cumberer of the ground. So the Lord created men and women to bear fruit to his glory and for the good of their fellow creatures, and he has provided them with every facility necessary to enable them to do this. By creation and by redemption we are God's. Christ came as our substitute and surety, that we might bear fruit for him. A probation has been granted us that we might not be like the fig tree, full of flourishing leaves, making great pretensions of success, yet destitute of good works.

After this Christ again entered the temple; and as he was teaching, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him with the question, "By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?" They had been given unmistakable evidence of Christ's power. Amazed and terrified, they had fled from his presence, returning to find him healing the sick and the suffering, who were rejoicing, not only in the courts, but in the temple itself. And yet after passing through this wonderful experience, the Jewish rulers could ask Christ, "By what authority doest thou these things?"

Christ answered them by asking a question. "I also will ask you one thing," he said, "which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?"

The priests and rulers were perplexed. "They reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and said, We can not tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

In his wonderful deeds of healing, Christ had answered the question of the priests and elders. He had given them evidence of his authority, which could not be controverted. But it was not evidence that they wished. They were anxious that he should proclaim himself as possessing divine authority, that they might misapply his words, and stir up the people against him. They wished to destroy his influence and put him to death. Christ knew that if this people could not recognize God in him, they would not believe his assurance that he was the Christ. They had seen the sick healed, and the dead raised to life. They had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus after he had been in the grave four days. The moral supremacy of Christ was revealed in all his words, in every work of love and power, but they recognized it not. They thought to take him by guile, and cause him to speak something that they could use to his condemnation. But Christ not only evades the issue they hope to bring about, but turns the condemnation upon them. In the purity and self-denial of John's life, they had felt the power of God. Conviction had been sent to every soul. If they would not heed John's warning, they would not heed the words of Christ.

John had preached the coming of the Messiah. In trumpet tones the words of the forerunner of Christ had rung in their ears: "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 shall make him of quick understanding in 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." "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord."

John came bearing witness of the One whose divinity they were now questioning. Christ himself had gone to the Jordan, not to repent of sin, but to fulfill every specification required of the sinner. The Baptist saw the Saviour walking at a distance, and his face lighted up. "Behold the Lamb of God," he cried, "which taketh away the sin of the world." There Christ stood revealed before the people. The glory of God descended upon him in the form of a dove like burnished gold, and the voice of the infinite One declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Christ reminded the priests and Pharisees of this recognition by God of John's message and work. If you believe John to be a prophet, he said, why do you not believe my testimony? He told you plainly who I am. You have refused to do the work God appointed you in revealing Christ to an apostate world. You refuse to believe in the Son of God. You now ask me for my authority for cleansing the temple courts, which you have defiled. You profess to be anxious to know God's will, but you reject the evidence given in such abundance.

If the rejecters of light in Christ's day had opened their hearts to the appeals of the Spirit of God, they would have sympathized with the purpose and work of Christ. They would have seen in him the antitype of all their sacrificial offerings. They would have been saved from the terrible doom pronounced upon them by the One who gave his life that they might live. Israel would have had a God to deliver them from the bondage of the Roman yoke,--a God who would have done more for them than a loving father could do for his child. Christ wept over the obdurate city, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

We have before us the example of the Jewish nation, who jealously cherished their self-righteousness. They had not that faith which works by love, and purifies the soul from all defilement. Let those who hear the message God sends to-day beware lest they follow the example of the self-exalted Jews. God does not propose to remove from our path everything that will create question in regard to the work of his servants. He gives ground for faith sufficient to convince the candid, sincere mind; but more evidence than this would never change the inward determination to resist light.

The Parable of the Two Sons

"A certain man had two sons," Christ said; "and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not."

By these two sons Christ represented the obedient and the disobedient. The son who refused to obey the command, saying, "I will not," represented those who were living in open transgression, who made no profession of piety, and who openly refused to come under the yoke of service to God. But many of these afterward repented and went. When the gospel came to them in the message of John the Baptist, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," they repented and confessed their sins.

In the son who said, "I go, sir," and went not, the character of the Pharisees was revealed. Like this son, the Jewish leaders were impenitent and self-sufficient. The religious life of the Jewish nation had become a pretense. When the law was proclaimed on Mt. Sinai, God spoke with a voice of divine authority, and all the people pledged themselves to obey. They said, I go, sir; but they went not. Christ had given the Jewish leaders of his day abundant evidence of his authority and divine power; but although they were convinced, they would not receive the evidence. He had shown them that they continued to disbelieve, because they had not the spirit that leads to obedience. He had declared, Ye make void the law of God by your traditions. In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.

In the company before Christ there were scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, and Christ addressed the question to them, "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" Forgetting themselves, the Pharisees answered, "The first." This answer was correct, but they gave it without realizing that they were pronouncing sentence against themselves. Then there fell from Christ's lips the denunciation, "Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."

John came teaching the truth, and by his teaching, sinners were convicted and converted. These would go into the kingdom of heaven before the ones who, in self-righteousness, resisted the warning that abandoned sinners received. The publicans and harlots were ignorant, but these learned men, though they knew the way of truth, refused to walk in the path that leads to the paradise of God. The truth, which should have been to them a savor of life unto life, became a savor of death unto death. Open sinners who loathed themselves could receive baptism at the hand of John; but these men were hypocrites. Their own hearts were the obstacle to their receiving the truth. They resisted the conviction of the Spirit of God; they refused obedience to the commandments of God.

Christ did not say to them, "You can not enter the kingdom of heaven;" but he showed them that the obstacles that prevented them from entering were of their own creating. The door was still open to these Jewish leaders. The invitation was still held out to them. Christ longed to see them convicted and converted.

The priests and elders of Israel spent their life in outward ceremonies, and they regarded these services as too sacred to be united with secular business. Therefore their life was supposed to be wholly religious. But they performed their ceremonies to be seen by men, that they might be thought pious and devoted by the world. While professing to obey, they refused to render to God the obedience he required. They were not doers of the word that they professed to teach to others.

In vision the Lord revealed to his servant Isaiah the true condition of Israel: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."

This chapter faithfully presents the spiritual condition of the once favored people of God. The Lord had called Judah to universal dominion. To the seed of David he had given the scepter. But now he presents them as a people whom he will utterly destroy for their iniquities:--

"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can not away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood."

The work of John the Baptist was foretold by the angel who visited Zacharias in the temple. "Fear not, Zacharias," he said; "for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Christ declared John to be one of the greatest of the prophets, and he showed his hearers that they had had sufficient evidence that John was a messenger from God. The words of the preacher in the wilderness were with power. He bore his message unflinchingly, rebuking the sins of the priests and Pharisees, and enjoining upon them the works of the kingdom of heaven. He pointed out to them their sinful disregard of their Father's authority, in refusing to do the work incumbent upon them. He made no compromise with sin, and many were turned from their unrighteousness.

But the Pharisees and rulers believed not. When John saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Had the conversion of the Jews been genuine, they would have received this testimony of John, and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the One to whom all their sacrificial offerings pointed, and who was the foundation of all their economy. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not produce the fruits of repentance and sanctification and righteousness. They were of the class who said, "I go, sir," but went not.

Christ said to the unbelieving ones, "John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." This unbelief is not an impulse. You criticised John because of his strict, abstemious life and self-sacrificing habits. You find fault with me because I sit at the table with publicans and sinners. The Lord set his seal to the mission of John when publicans and sinners believed him. But you cherished unbelief. You did not repent. "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." You claim to be righteous. Why do you then object to my calling publicans and sinners to partake of the waters of life? The very ones whom you despise are receiving the message, and pressing into the kingdom of heaven before you.

Christ explained why it was that the son who at first refused to comply with the request, afterward repented. The Spirit of God was working in the dishonest hearts, and, under the sharp, clear-cut testimony of John, many sinners were brought to repentance. Publicans and harlots heard and accepted the invitation. When Christ appeared in the garb of humanity, these souls, who were not under the jurisdiction of priests and rulers, heard his word and were converted, and believed and acknowledged him.

This work was foretold by the prophet Isaiah: "Behold," God declared, "I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. . . . Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." -

The Parable of the Two Sons [Concluded]

The history of Israel as presented in this parable should be studied by all who would practice the teachings of Christ. The vineyard represents the church. The two sons are the two classes of men and women in the world. The Lord calls every member of the church to work in his vineyard. We are to understand our relation to Christ. Christ must abide in our hearts that we may keep before us pure principles, high incentives to moral rectitude. Our work is not merely to promise but to do . Honesty and integrity must bind us up with God to fulfill his word to the letter.

Christ did not condemn the first son for refusing to obey his father's command. At the same time he did not commend him. The class who act the part of the son who said, I will not, deserve no credit for holding the position they do. This openness is not to be commended as a virtue. Sanctified by truth and holiness, this element will make a man a bold witness for Christ; but used as it is by the sinner, it is insulting and defiant, and approaches to blasphemy. The fact that a man is not a hypocrite does not make him any less a sinner. When the appeals of the Spirit of God come to the heart, our only safety lies in responding to them without delay. When the call comes, "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard," do not refuse the invitation. Cease working on the enemy's side, and take your position under the blood-stained banner of the Prince of life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. While it is called to-day, "if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." It may be that you will never hear the invitation again. A mere answer in the affirmative is not enough. We are to repent and forsake every sin, and work the works of righteousness. Will the sinner acknowledge God's claims? Will he serve the Lord, or will he continue in sin?

By pledging his own life, Christ has made himself responsible for every man and woman on the earth. He stands in the presence of God, saying, Father, I take upon myself the guilt of that soul. It means death to him if he is left to bear it. If he repents, he shall be forgiven. My blood shall cleanse him from all sin. I gave my life for the sins of the world.

If the transgressor of God's law will see in Christ his atoning sacrifice, if he will believe in him who can cleanse from all unrighteousness, Christ will not have died for him in vain. By giving himself a sacrifice for sin, Christ has given opportunity to every sinner to repent and be converted, and become a laborer together with God.

Self-righteousness is not true righteousness, and those who cling to it, and refuse to give it up, will be left to take the consequences of holding to a deception. Those who claim to keep the commandments of God, but are unsympathetic and cold, self-important and self-centered, have not the love of God in their hearts to flow forth to others. They say, "I go, sir," but they do not go. The open sinner has far better prospects of gaining eternal life than have these pretentious ones. He who sees himself as a sinner, with no cloak for his sin, who sees that he is corrupting soul, body, and spirit before God, becomes alarmed lest he be eternally separated from the kingdom of heaven. He realizes his diseased condition, and finds healing in Christ, who has promised, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." God puts upon the repenting one the robe of Christ's righteousness, and the angels of heaven rejoice over the one soul saved.

No man can accept the gospel of Christ while he refuses the admonitions of the word of God, and follows a way of his own choosing. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin. That walk to go down into Egypt, and that have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." Will there be among the people of God in these last days those who pursue a course of action similar to that of rebellious Israel? Will those who have had privileges and opportunities, and before whom the Lord has worked in a marked manner, oppose righteousness? Shall there be among us those described by the prophet as "rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us"?

The Lord calls upon his people in 1900 to be converted. Great light has come to them, but the principles of the word of God have not been carried into the practical life. If pride and selfishness and covetousness are not eradicated from the heart, they will poison every lifespring of the soul, and true liberality and Christian courtesy can not be exercised. The attributes of the unrenewed heart are cherished. The Lord can not purify the soul until the entire being is surrendered to the working of the Holy Spirit.

Only those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, can understand the Word to the saving of their souls. "The flesh profiteth nothing," Christ said; "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." No man can read the word of God, believing it to be inspired of God, without himself catching the inspiration of the Spirit that inspired the Word. A glory will flash before his eyes. He will learn the mysteries of heaven. Perfect obedience to the Word will bring a sweetness, an assurance and confidence in God, that can not be described.

It is right for us to love the Scriptures. We have for a teacher One who will mold and fashion our hearts and minds to understand the Word in its true light. If we will practice the truth, at whatever self-denial and self-sacrifice, we shall follow on to know the Lord, and we shall know that his goings forth are prepared as the morning. The Bible may be read in such a way as to glorify God. Not one word that has proceeded from the mouth of God will become void until prophecy becomes history, as in the case of the sacrificial offerings that prefigured Christ. Type met antitype in the death of the Son of God. In the cross of Calvary we may read the binding claims of the law of God. God could not change one iota of his law to meet man in his fallen condition; but he "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Those who venture to disregard the claims of the law of God may read their condemnation in the cross of Calvary. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. That which distinguishes God's people from every other people is their obedience to the commandments.

Christ had educated the Israelites while he was their invisible leader in the wilderness. For forty years he had addressed them as his sons, and had commanded them to teach every requirement of the law, both by precept and by example. He taught them that their prosperity and their very life depended on their obedience to all he had given in statutes and judgments. They were to be righteous in all their transactions one with another. It would make every difference with them whether they were obedient or disobedient; for God could not sustain them in transgression.

The children of Israel made a solemn vow to God that they would be obedient; but they disregarded the Lord's requirements. Some remained loyal to God, but the majority disregarded the Word. They set the law of God at defiance, and taught for doctrines the commandments of men. Because of their transgression, the Lord was about to divorce himself from the disobedient nation. He had spoken to them through the prophets, and through Christ, the great teacher, the light of the world. If they desired to do right, the way was plainly revealed to them.

They had before them the example of Nadab and Abihu. The disobedience of these men cost them their lives. Through the use of wine their senses became confused, and they used the common fire instead of the sacred. They were slain before the Lord. Moses looked with agony of soul upon their punishment. He said to Aaron, "This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified."

God forbade any manifestation of grief for Nadab and Abihu, even on the part of their nearest relatives, "lest ye die," he said, "and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled."

There is a lesson to learn from this by all who have anything to do with God's work. They are required to observe habits of strict temperance, to keep soul, body, and spirit under the protecting shield of God. Never tempt the Spirit of God. This has often led to the sin against the Holy Ghost, which has no forgiveness in this life nor in the life to come. Bear in mind that we shall reap that which we sow, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Those who sow to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.

In our day we see the power of the adversary upon the human mind. Many professing godliness openly transgress the law of God. In every congregation there is a mixed multitude. Those who claim to be righteous, while they do not those things that God has commanded, are like the self-righteous Pharisees. They say, and do not. And, like the Pharisees, they stand aloof from their fellow men. Christ gives us the test by which we prove our loyalty or disloyalty. "If ye love me," he says, "keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. . . . He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." -

The Apostle Paul and Manual Labor

Useful manual labor is a part of the gospel. The Great Teacher, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, gave directions to Israel that every youth should learn a trade. Thus they would be enabled to earn their own bread. And knowing how hard it was to obtain money, they would not spend their money foolishly. Therefore it was the custom of the Jews, the wealthy as well as the poorer classes, to train their sons and daughters to some useful employment, so that should adverse circumstances come, they would not be dependent upon others, but would be able to provide for their own necessities. They might be instructed in literary lines, but they must be trained to some craft. This was deemed an indispensable part of their education.

Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, learned the trade of tent-making. There were higher and lower branches of tent-making. Paul learned the higher branches, and he could also work at the common branches when circumstances required. Tent-making did not bring returns so quickly as some other occupations, and at times it was only by the strictest economy that Paul could supply his necessities.

Paul had been educated by the most learned teachers of the age. He had been taught by Gamaliel. Paul was a rabbi and statesman. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, and had been very zealous for the suppression of Christianity. He had acted a part in the stoning of Stephen, and we read further of him, "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." But he was stopped in his career of persecution. As he was on his way to Damascus to arrest any Christians he might find, "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus."

Saul converted was called Paul. He united with the disciples, and was among the chief of the apostles.

After the ascension of Christ, the apostles went everywhere preaching the Word. They bore witness to Christ's work as a teacher and healer. Their testimony in Jerusalem, in Rome, and in other places was positive and powerful. The Jews, who refused to receive the truth, could but acknowledge that a powerful influence attended Christ's followers, because the Holy Spirit accompanied them. This created greater opposition; but notwithstanding the opposition, twenty years after the crucifixion of Christ there was a live, earnest church in Rome. This church was strong and zealous, and the Lord worked for it.

The envy and rage of the Jews against the Christians knew no bounds, and the unbelieving residents were constantly stirred up. They made complaints that the Christian Jews were disorderly, and dangerous to the public good. Constantly they were setting in motion something that would stir up strife. This caused the Christians to be banished from Rome. Among those banished, were Aquila and Priscilla, who went to Corinth, and there established a business as manufacturers of tents. When Paul came to Corinth, he solicited work from Aquila.

The apostles counseled and prayed together, and decided that they would preach the gospel as it should be preached, in disinterested love for the souls who were perishing for lack of knowledge. Paul would work at tent-making, and teach his fellow laborers to work with their hands, so that in any emergency they could support themselves. Some of his ministering brethren presented such a course as inconsistent, saying that by so doing they would lose their influence as ministers of the gospel. The tenth chapter of Second Corinthians records the difficulties Paul had to contend with, and his vindication of his course. God had placed special honor upon Paul. He had given him his credentials, and had laid upon him weighty responsibility. And the apostle writes, "I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you,"--because he humbled himself to do mechanical work,--"but being absent am bold toward you. . . . Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed."

Why did Paul, an apostle of the highest rank, thus connect mechanical labor with the preaching of the gospel? Was not the laborer worthy of his hire? Why did he spend in making tents the time that to all appearance might have been put to better account? Why waste time and strength in tent-making? But Paul did not regard the time he spent in making tents as lost. As he worked with Aquila, he kept in touch with the Great Teacher. He gave to his fellow laborer needed instruction in spiritual things, and he also educated the believers in unity. While he worked at his trade, he gave an example of diligence and thoroughness. He was diligent in business, "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." He and Aquila and Priscilla had more than one prayer and praise meeting with those associated with them in tent-making. This was a testimony to the value of the truth they were presenting.

Paul was an educator. He preached the gospel with his voice, and in his intelligent labor he preached it with his hands. He educated others in the same way in which he had been educated by one who was regarded as the wisest of human teachers. As Paul worked quickly and skillfully with his hands, he related to his fellow workers the specifications Christ had given Moses in regard to the building of the tabernacle. He showed them that the skill and wisdom and genius brought into that work were given by God to be used to his glory. He taught them that supreme honor is to be given to God.

By laboring with his hands, Paul was preaching the Word. And he set an example that spoke against the sentiment, then gaining influence, that the work of preaching the gospel excused the minister from mechanical and physical labor. Paul knew that if ministers neglected physical work, they would become enfeebled. He desired to teach young ministers that by working with their hands they would become sturdy; their muscles and sinews would become strengthened. Paul recognized physical work as composing a part of the education he was to give. He realized that his teaching would lack vitality if he did not keep all parts of the human machinery equally exercised. His labor to support himself and others should have been commended, rather than regarded as belittling to his position as a minister of the gospel.

The apostle states plainly that if a man will not work, if he does not use his physical powers, neither should he eat. The healthful and equal exercise of all the powers of the being is required to keep the living machinery in the best condition. He who would have every part of the system unclogged by feebleness and disease must use every part of the system harmoniously. The muscles are not to be allowed to become weak through inaction, while the brain carries too large a share of the work. Each part of the human machinery is to bear its burden.

After leaving Philippi, Paul went to Thessalonica, on the seacoast. The history of his work there is recorded in the first and second chapters of the Second Thessalonians. He labored in the gospel, working with his hands. "We were gentle among you," he writes, "even as a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God." "Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you."

The Greeks on the seacoast were sharp traders. They had long educated themselves to shrewd practice in deal, and had come to believe that gain was godliness, and that an ability to make money, whether by fair means or foul, was reason why they should be honored. Paul was acquainted with their practices, and he would not give them an opportunity for saying that he and his fellow laborers preached in order to be supported by the gospel. Although it was perfectly right for him to be supported in this way, for the laborer is worthy of his hire, yet he saw that if he was, the influence upon his fellow laborers and those to whom he preached the gospel would not be the best. Paul feared that if he lived by preaching the gospel, he might be suspected of selfish motives in doing the work. He would not give any excuse to depreciate the work of the gospel by imputing selfish motives to those who preached the Word. He would not give any an opportunity to hurt the influence of God's servants. -

The Apostle Paul and Manual Labor [Concluded]

"And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus." Here the apostle remained three years and six months, "disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God." Here he toiled at his craft also. He writes to the Corinthians: "I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labor, working with our hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel."

Lifting up his toil-worn hands, Paul makes his appeal to the elders of Ephesus: "Ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me." Those hands speak to us with remarkable impressiveness. Paul is not speaking mysteries. He is appealing to their knowledge of his manner of life. The great apostle was not ashamed nor afraid of work, and he did not treat this subject as in any way lowering to his work in the ministry.

The opinion of men has, in many minds, changed the order of God, and men have come to think that it is not fitting for a man who works with his hands to take his place among gentlemen. The Lord's purposes are not the thoughts and purposes of men. In the beginning God created man a gentleman, which means a man who can do work cheerfully. Men have worked hard to obtain money; and having gained wealth, they suppose that their money will make their sons gentlemen. But many such men fail to train their sons as they themselves were trained, to hard, useful labor. Their sons spend the money earned, without understanding its value. Thus they misuse a talent that the Lord designed should be used to accomplish much good.

The public opinion is that manual labor is degrading. But men may play as hard as they like at cricket, or baseball, or in pugilistic games, without being degraded! Satan is delighted when he sees human beings using their physical and mental powers in that which does not educate, which is not useful, which does not help them to be a blessing to those who need their help. While they are becoming experts in games that are not of the least value to themselves or others, Satan is playing the game of life for their souls, taking from them the precious talents God has given them, and placing in their stead his own evil attributes, which not only destroy them, but through their influence destroy those who have any connection with them.

Satan's work is to lead men to ignore God, to so engross and absorb the mind that God will not be in their thoughts. The education they have received has been of a character to confuse the mind, and eclipse the true light. Satan does not wish the people to have a knowledge of God; and if he can set in operation games and theatrical performances that will so confuse the senses of the young that human beings will perish in darkness while light shines all about them, he is well pleased.

The word of God lies at the foundation of all true education. Jesus Christ, who offered up his life that he might give to the human family a correct knowledge of God, gave to the church in the wilderness the education that would be for their highest good in this life, and would qualify them for the kingdom of God. He taught them that to love God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man.

The name of the Lord is to be glorified in the virtuous, honest, godly character of those who believe. If men walk humbly and prayerfully with God, co-operating with him in the work of salvation, righteousness will be the fruit they will bear. The apostle in his day regarded idleness as a sin, and those who indulge this evil to-day disgrace their profession, and bring reproach upon the gospel of Christ. Through their influence many are turned away from righteousness and truth. We are warned not to associate with those who by their course of action lay a stumbling-block in the way of others. "If any man obey not our word by this epistle," the apostle Paul says, "note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." If he refuses the admonitions of the Lord's servants, he will bring ruin upon himself, and must bear his own sin.

The custom of supporting men and women in idleness by private gifts or church money encourages them in wrong habits. This course should be conscientiously avoided. Every man, woman, and child should be educated to practical, useful work. All should learn some trade. It may be tent-making, it may be some other business, but all should be trained to use their powers to some purpose. And God is ready to increase the capabilities of all who will educate themselves to industrious habits. We are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." God will bless all who will guard their influence in this respect.

As a child and youth, Jesus worked with his father Joseph, and learned the carpenter's, or builder's, trade. His trade was significant. He was the character builder, and as such all his labors were perfect. At the age of twelve, on his return from his first visit to Jerusalem, his parents lost him, and, returning to Jerusalem, they sought him, sorrowing. They found him in the temple, sitting among the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. He was imparting light to their darkened minds, and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. When his parents saw him, and heard his questions and answers to the dignitaries of the temple, they were amazed, and scarcely knew what to say. His mother said, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." "How is it that ye sought me?" he answered; "wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" As he said these words, he raised his hand to heaven. Divinity flashed through humanity. His countenance was lighted up like the face of an angel. His parents did not understand his words. They were a mystery which they could not fathom, but a solemn awe fell upon them. "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."

The gospel of Christ is an educator. It teaches us not to pamper and indulge self, and waste the money that should be used to extend the triumphs of the cross of Christ. There never lived a more energetic, self-sacrificing disciple of Christ than was Paul. He was one of the world's greatest teachers. He crossed the seas, and traveled far and near, until a large portion of the world had heard from his lips the story of the cross of Christ. But although he had planted many churches, he refused to be supported by them, fearing that his usefulness and success as a minister of the gospel might be interfered with by suspicions of his motives. He would remove all occasion for his enemies to misrepresent him, and thus detract from the force of his message.

The apostle would give an example to his brethren, thus dignifying and honoring industry. When ministers feel that they are suffering hardships and privations in the cause of Christ, let them in imagination visit the workshop of the apostle Paul. While this chosen man of God is fashioning the canvas, he is earning bread that he has justly earned by his labors as an apostle of Jesus Christ. At the call of duty this great apostle would lay aside his business to meet the most violent opponents, and stop their proud boasting, and then he would resume his humble employment.

God never designed that man should live in idleness. When Adam was in Eden, means were devised for his employment. Though the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, yet he that deals with a slack hand will become poor. Those who are diligent in business may not always be prospered; but drowsiness and indolence are sure to grieve the Spirit of God, and destroy true godliness. A stagnant pool becomes offensive, but a pure, flowing brook spreads health and gladness over the land. A man of persevering energy is a blessing anywhere. -

Young Workers to Be Taught by Those of Experience

"This is life eternal," Christ prayed, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." There is in this prayer a greatness that no human language can express. Thousands upon thousands long for a knowledge of God. Some have a partial knowledge of him, but not the fullness of knowledge. Others, filled with unrest, long for something that they have not.

Christ longed to help and save the perishing, and he expressed his longing in the words, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors."

The labor for which Christ saw there was so much need was harvesting. Harvesters are few. The work of gathering in the grain takes tact and skill, that none be lost. Winnowers of souls are needed in every place where the standard of truth, on which is inscribed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, has been uplifted.

"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few." When Christ made this statement, there were scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, in every city and town in the land. But the Saviour saw that these teachers were wholly unfitted to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. "Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God," he said to them. Ye teach for doctrine the commandments of men.

To every one God has committed a work. Each one is invited to take Christ's yoke and learn of him. Intensity is needed in the work of seeking to save those who are perishing out of Christ. Satan is intense in his efforts to deceive souls and gather them under his banner of apostasy and rebellion, and his laborers are without number. The Lord has a great work to be done. He has decisive battles to be fought, and he calls upon young men and young women to fight for him, to consecrate themselves to his work. "I have written unto you, young men," John says, "because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. . . . Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth."

And the apostle Paul wrote, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

God calls upon his aged servants to act as counselors, to teach the young men what to do in cases of emergency. Aged workers are to bear, as did John, a living testimony of real experience. And when these faithful workers are laid away to rest, with the words, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," there should be found in our schools men and women who can take the standard and raise it in new places.

While the aged standard bearers are in the field, let those who have been benefited by their labors care for and respect them. Do not load them down with burdens. Appreciate their advice, their words of counsel. Treat them as fathers and mothers who have borne the burden of the work. The workers who have in the past anticipated the needs of the cause do a noble work when, in the place of carrying all the burdens themselves, they lay them upon the shoulders of younger men and women, and educate them as Elijah educated Elisha.

David offered to God a tribute of gratitude for the divine teaching and guidance he had received. "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth," he declared. Those who in the history of the message have borne the burden and heat of the day, are to remember that the same Lord who taught them from their youth, inviting them, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me," and giving them the light of truth, is just as willing to teach young men and women to-day as he was to teach them.

It is wisdom for those who have borne heavy loads to come apart and rest awhile. These faithful workers should be relieved of every taxing burden. The work they can do as educators should be appreciated. The Lord himself will co-operate with them in their efforts to teach others. They should leave the wrestling to those who are younger; the future work must be done by strong young men. The work is under the control of the Author and Finisher of our faith. He can and will give fitness to men of opportunity. He will raise up those who can fight his battles. He never leaves his work to chance. This work is a great and solemn one, and it is to go forward.

It is not God's will that the fathers in his cause should use up their remaining vitality in bearing heavy loads. Let the young men shoulder every responsibility they can, and fight manfully the good fight of faith. The Lord knows better whom to select to do his work than do the wisest men, however interested they may be. It is God who implants his Spirit in the hearts of young men, leading them to fight for him against great odds. Thus he inspired Paul of Tarsus, who fought with all his intrusted capabilities for heaven's revealed truth, against apostates who ought to have upheld him. God's servants will have to-day to meet the same difficulties that Paul met. This experience some have had who are now raising the banner of truth. It is such men who can stand in defense of the truth. If they continue to be learners, God can use them to vindicate his law.

Let not the aged workers think that they must carry all the responsibilities, all the loads. New fields of labor are constantly opening before us. Let the young men unite with experienced laborers who understand the Scriptures, who have long been doers of the Word, who have brought the truth into the practical life, relying upon Christ day by day, who seek the Lord as Daniel did. Three times a day Daniel offered his petitions to God. He knew that One mighty in counsel was the source of wisdom and power. The truth as it is in Jesus--the sword of the Spirit, which cuts both ways--was his weapon of warfare. In word, in spirit, in principle, the men who have made God their trust are an example to the youth connected with them. These faithful servants of God are to link up with young men, drawing them with the cords of love because they are themselves drawn to them by the cords of Christ's love. -

He That Loveth Not His Brother Abideth in Death

The Lord has a message for all who are in positions of holy trust. He desires them to do honor to him by cherishing tenderness and sanctified love, by showing confidence in their brethren. In the ministration of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord uses diverse gifts; and he has not given any man authority to hold in low esteem the various instrumentalities and gifts of the gospel. He has not given any man the privilege of looking upon the Lord's work through his appointed agencies as inferior, or the privilege of carrying things in his own way because he thinks that way superior. This is dangerous for himself and for all who are connected with him.

"He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."

All these gifts are to be blended in the work of building a spiritual structure on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself is the chief corner stone, "in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." "Fitly framed together." Study these words, and seek to understand all they comprehend. "Fitly framed together," each acting his respective part. Thus we grow "unto an holy temple in the Lord." Have a care how you build. Take heed to the admonitions of the Lord. We are to work to one end, "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Whence comes our power to work? "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

These words need to be closely studied. To those in charge of his institutions God says, You must change in heart and character. You must show that you have yoked up with Christ, to learn of him his meekness and lowliness; that you have opened the heart to the Saviour's love, so that this love may flow forth in pure, rich currents of tenderness, courtesy, and kindly deeds. If the heart is not speedily unlocked, that Christ, the light and life of men, may take possession; if there is not a reformation in the soul, a determination to obey the injunctions Christ gave his disciples, you will lose the attributes he came to give.

There is need of far more childlike sympathy. Addressing his disciples as "little children," Christ said to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." By this manifestation of love "shall all men know that ye are my disciples." This love God now demands his disciples to show for one another. He is greatly dishonored because his professed followers are drawing in selfish lines, closing their hearts to the softening, subduing influence of Christ's Spirit, as if to show love for one another were a species of weakness. Instead of exerting the pure, holy, uplifting influence that dwelt in Christ, many are manifesting Satan's attributes.

My brethren, how long will you be satisfied to imperil your souls by remaining unconverted, unsanctified, unholy? How long are you going to stay as you are? You may have some excellent qualifications; but if you padlock the door of the heart against Christlike love for your brethren, you do not possess the attributes that will give you an entrance into the kingdom of God.

To the church at Ephesus John wrote, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

Why will brethren cherish selfishness and covetousness? Why will they allow the root of bitterness to spring up in their hearts? Would it not be well to take heed to the words of the True Witness, and find out what it is that makes the hearts of brethren as hard as steel toward one another? Shall we not ascertain for ourselves whether we are destitute of love for one another? The Lord is measuring the temple and the worshipers thereof. Will you not heed his warning? He declares, "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."

Read the whole of the third chapter of Revelation, and seek to understand the work to be done. Those whom Christ warns have some excellent qualifications; but these are neutralized by self-love, and self-deception, self-justification for gross neglect to help their brethren in the service of God by encouraging words and deeds. There is a dead fly in the ointment. They are being weighed by One who never makes a mistake. He tells the result of actions that show that the love of Christ is not an abiding principle in the soul. The Holy Spirit has come with convicting power to God's people; but though some stir has been made, the work of true conversion has not been perfected. Self has not yet been crucified; and until it is, hardness of heart, lack of love for one another, will be seen. You will hold to your own opinion, you will not bend from your self-exaltation to study the necessities that you should relieve. Men's hearts become like flint when they seek to grasp all for themselves, refusing to relieve the necessities of those who are doing a severe and trying work.

God calls upon you to put away your faculty for seeing the mistakes of others. Turn your attention to your own defects. Your self-righteousness is nauseating to the Lord Jesus. He declares, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Position does not make character. To all who are in positions of trust Christ says: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This command is an application of the great lesson of love which Christ gave the lawyer who came to him with the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This lawyer had heard the words that just previously to this Christ had spoken to his disciples. The Saviour had been giving those who kept on his track to criticise, cavil, or condemn, unmistakable evidence that he was the Sent of God. He had healed the sick, and worked other miracles; but still the people did not believe in him, and he denounced them for their resistance of light and knowledge.

The seventy disciples, whom Christ had sent "into every city and place, whither he himself would come," had returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Christ answered them with the words, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And he turned unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see; for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."

The lawyer had been deeply convicted by these words; and he came to Christ with the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ answered, "What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou hast answered right," Christ said; "this do, and thou shalt live."

Willing to justify himself, the lawyer asked, "And who is my neighbor?" In answer Christ told him of a man who had been robbed, and then left by the roadside, wounded and half dead. "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side." Those who should have helped him did not. The looked upon their suffering fellow creature, and then passed by on the other side. Thus it is to-day. How many of those whose hearts should be tender and compassionate refuse to admit Christ into their hearts, and therefore fail to speak kindly and tenderly to those who are in trouble. Their brother may be very much in need of encouragement, but they have none to give. They have lost the dear Saviour, if they ever had him. They are strangers to his tenderness and love. A stern, cold, forbidding, steel-like spirit controls them; and works of mercy and love are barred out. All such should remember that they do not belong to Christ's family. He does not acknowledge them as his brethren. Selfishness, self-love, is the controlling element in their lives. They do not represent the Saviour. The image of God is not stamped on the soul. -

He That Loveth Not His Brother Abideth in Death [Concluded]

The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within; when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart, and is expressed in the countenance. There is no such thing as a loveless Christian. It is not possible for the heart in which Christ abides to be destitute of love. The heart that is cold and stern is not catching the bright, softening beams of the Sun of Righteousness.

Hear the testimony of the apostle John: "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. . . . We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

Take the question to your own hearts, and answer it as if before the Judge of all the earth. A reformation must take place in every family, in every institution, in every church. "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." "Let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. . . . Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. . . . If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."

These sacred lessons, if received into the heart, will bring about the reformation essential. Many will lose heaven unless they change their selfish, unlovable, unsympathetic ways, and learn that the Spirit of Christ is not selfish and forbidding, uncourteous and loveless. Unless those who stand in responsible positions in our institutions make decided changes in heart and character, they will be condemned as lukewarm, knowing not that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Unless we practice Christ's ways, and receive his Spirit, we are none of his. He desires us to reveal his love in word and action. All that we do should flow from a deep, abiding principle of love,--a principle that is after the similitude of Christ, who is love and light and peace. But how little, how very little, of Christ's character is revealed! The spirit of self-denial is becoming a rare thing.

Yet there is love in our churches. There are those who love God supremely and their neighbors as themselves. Their prayers and their alms come up before God as a memorial. The Lord does not lose sight of them. He is watching those who are walking in the light as fast as they receive it. They are the objects of his special care.

The law of Christ's kingdom is in every respect to be carried out in this world. The inspired apostle declares, "Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

God desires to bind his family of workers together by common sympathy, pure affection. It is the atmosphere of Christlike love surrounding the soul of the believer that makes him a savor of life unto life, and enables God to bless his work. False philosophy alone is proud, exclusive, favoring only a few. In those who have this spirit the lowly awaken little sympathy. They possess no power nor disposition to uplift the degraded. But Christ binds men to himself, to God, and to one another. True, sanctified philosophy makes all human elements one in Christ. It builds no walls of separation between man and his fellow men. Pure and undefiled religion makes the children of God one family, united with Christ in God. Connected as branches of the parent vine, they bear fruit to God's glory. -

The Death of Sister S. M. I. Henry

We have been made very sad by tidings of the death of our much-beloved Sister S. M. I. Henry. It was our hope that our sister might be able till His coming to continue the work which the Lord had raised her up and miraculously restored her to do in his cause.

Sister Henry's whole soul was enlisted in the work of reform, and her influence was a savor of life unto life. Her personal labors we shall greatly miss. She has borne her testimony unfalteringly, yet judiciously. When convicted of the truth, her soul was glad, and without seeking to make excuse she came thankfully to the gospel feast. She rejoiced in the privilege of receiving precious truth, which makes the soul wise unto salvation, and in gratitude to God for his rich favors she felt herself under obligation to impart to others. As she had freely received, she freely gave. Faithfully did she testify to the truth. And she did this, not merely as a duty, as the work appointed her, but as a great privilege. It was her joy to make His ways known upon the earth, and his saving health among all whom her influence could reach. She was a true missionary, a gospel worker, and in heaven's record her name is written as a laborer together with God. How many souls will be saved through her precious service in drawing with Christ we can not know. The seed she has sown will continue to reproduce itself, and will show a glorious yield in the day of harvest.

Our beloved sister is among those included in the vision of John, those of whom he bears testimony, "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."

We are permitted still to labor in sowing the seed. In the field of the world both good and evil seed are still being sown, and good and evil shall strive against each other until the great harvest. How full of meaning are those words of Inspiration, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." So also these other words, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Day by day we see the opposing workers. In the same field, at the same time, is the work of sowing done, one sowing the seed of evil, the other of good. Those who reject the word of truth are scattering seeds of error. They are working to confuse and darken the understanding, and fasten souls in the snare of Satan. Others, receiving the seed from the great Sower, are revealing Jesus Christ, and are preparing the way for our Lord's second coming.

Let us who have still the privilege of sowing be diligent and faithful. Let us at all times be found co-operating with Christ in sowing the good seed for the saving of many souls unto life eternal.

May we individually be found among that number whom John beheld, and of whom he exclaimed, with joyous triumph, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Feb. 28, 1900 . Ellen G. White. -

Pure and Undefiled Religion

"Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Christ was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. His human life was one long travail in behalf of the inheritance he was to purchase at such infinite cost. He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And in consideration of the value he places upon those who are the purchase of his blood, he adopts them as his children, making them the objects of his tender care; and in order that they may have their temporal and spiritual necessities supplied, he commits them to his church, saying, Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the lest of these my brethren, ye do it unto me. This is to be our watchword; and if we carry it faithfully into our lives, we shall hear the benediction, "Well done, thou good and joy faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Speaking through his prophet of the work to be done by Christ in the world, God says: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law." And Christ himself declared: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."

This is to be the work of every servant of Christ; and his professed followers would do well to ask themselves, Have I the mind of Christ? Have I, with humble heart, sought to help and bless the souls that are oppressed, those who are tempted and tried by poverty and affliction? or have I heard the voice of my fellow men asking for pity, for consideration, and for mercy, and spurned their earnest cry? Have I made it harder for them to place their faith and confidence in a prayer-hearing God? Have I by harsh, unpitying words crushed the wounded spirit, and in hardness of heart quenched the last spark of hope in the soul? In the sight of God the richest treasure is a humble, contrite heart. The name of the Lord is magnified when the heart becomes tender, sensitive to another's woe, and pitiful of his suffering. When the Holy Spirit works upon our hearts and minds, we shall not shun duty and responsibility, and, like the priest and Levite, pass by on the other side, leaving the wounded, helpless soul to its misery. Angels of God stand ready to work with us as we minister to souls.

It is possible for a man to think himself a Christian, and yet have entirely incorrect ideas of Christianity. He may regard himself as a follower of Christ, and think he is doing an essential work, and yet do that work with such a spirit and in such a way as to stir up the worst passions of the human heart. There are many intelligent men who mean to be Christians, but who deceive themselves. Their religion is not after the order of Christ, but is a shadow of some other man's mind, and does great harm to the cause of truth when brought into connection with the work. If these persons would study the works of Christ, they would see that in their lives are revealed the attributes of Satan, rather than the beauty of the meek and lowly Jesus.

There are many who believe the truth, but their faith is not that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. At times they may speak the truth as it is in Jesus. They may be kind, and may deal with equity. They may have right ideas, and at times come to correct decisions in regard to the work. They may have ability to teach others, to educate the young, or to deal with the erring; but self is strong in them, and if in their work something arises which cuts across their plans, they place all the strength of their being on the enemy's side. They become unkind and unfeeling. They make unholy decisions, and act in a way to hurt souls nigh and afar off. They lie against the truth, while claiming to believe. Bitterness is cherished against the souls who are the purchase of the Son of God; and when, through misconception, their own spirit is brought into exercise, their unchristlike disposition manifests itself against those who are innocent. These men misrepresent Christ. By the heavenly universe as well as by men, it is seen that they have not renewed, sanctified hearts, but are coarse in disposition, unsympathetic, unkind, uncourteous, unchristlike.

God has represented this work in his word, saying, "Ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad." This has been the course pursued by many professing Christians. They have driven souls onto Satan's battle ground, to be tempted, to falter, and to fall. For a time the work may not show the result of such a course of action; for God works to preserve the honor of his cause. But when messages of warning and mercy are repeatedly rejected, these defects will become apparent; alienation will be aroused, distrust awakened. Those who have connected themselves with these men will find that they are losing personal piety and faith in Christ, that their characters are becoming molded after a wrong pattern. Temptations will be many and strong to be unmerciful, unsympathetic, untouched by the feeling of others' infirmities. Instead of learning in the school of Christ, they are being educated in wrong ways by teachers whose defects of character will close against them the gates of heaven.

When the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened, these men will be called to account for the blood of souls that is upon their garments. In that day God will ask them, "Who hath required this at your hand?"

No man is to be trusted with high responsibilities who does not take himself in hand daily, and through the grace given set his heart in order. Often those who do the greatest harm are those who accept positions of trust, but who have not inquired at every step, Is this the way of the Lord? The one who allows his heart to become hardened by Satan's temptations, who permits his natural disposition to gain the victory, fails to receive the impress of heaven. He becomes sapless and impoverished, and bears only wild fruit. The professed children of God who refuse the guidance of their Heavenly Father, and disregard God's message and messengers, will mourn too late the blessings they have lost. With anguish of soul they will call to mind the opportunities and privileges that were within their reach, but which they failed to improve, and which are lost to them forever.

Men are slow to learn the lesson that the spirit manifested by Jehu will never bind hearts together. It is not safe for us to bind up our interests with a Jehu religion; for this will result in bringing sadness of heart upon God's true workers. God has not given to any of his servants the work of punishing those who will not heed his warnings and reproofs. When the Holy Spirit is abiding in the heart, it will lead the human agent to see his own defects of character, to pity the weakness of others, to forgive as he wishes to be forgiven. He will be pitiful, courteous, Christlike.

Mark how tender and pitiful the Lord is in his dealings with his creatures. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and he stands ready to receive every wanderer who will return. The ear of the Lord is open to the cry of every one who is poor in spirit. Even before the prayer is offered, or the yearning of the soul made known, the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it. Never has there been a good desire, however weak, never a prayer lifted to God, however faltering, never a tear shed in contrition of soul, but grace from Christ has gone forth to meet the grace working in the human heart.

Our Heavenly Father appreciates his erring child, and encourages him to return. The Father's arm is placed about his repenting son; the Father's garments cover his rags; the ring is placed upon his finger as a token of his royalty. And yet how many there are, themselves needing salvation as much as he, who look upon the struggling soul not only with indifference, but with contempt. Like the Pharisee they say, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, . . . or even as this publican." How hard and ungracious are the thoughts cherished toward the straying sheep! How can God look with pleasure upon men and women who, claiming to be co-workers with Christ, regard the prodigal with contempt; who, while the soul is making its first struggles against the flood of temptation, stand by, like the elder brother in the parable, stubborn, self-willed, complaining? Will he not judge for these things? If those in positions of trust had realized what God expects of them in rescuing the human race, many lambs that have been killed by neglect would now be safe in the fold of God. If one half the time and strength that is now devoted to sermonizing were spent in seeking to win back the straying ones, there would be rejoicing in the heavenly courts. These sermons lived would have a telling influence in winning souls to Christ.

We need to make great changes. We need to hold to pure principles in reverence for Christ and respect for the purchase of his blood. There must be a continual growth in those attributes that tend to perfection of character. When divine grace has opened our hearts, we shall impart to others of the grace we have received. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. -

For a Perpetual Covenant

A powerful foe, who puts on a very inviting appearance, is ever soliciting men and women for their companionship. He presents to them glowing advantages, which he tells them will be theirs if they will follow his advice. As the enemy tempted Eve, so he tempts human begins to-day, promising that in disobedience they will find liberty and freedom, which will make them as gods. Thus thousands upon thousands are drawn into the broad road that leads to destruction.

Satan has endeavored to change God's law by instituting a spurious sabbath, and he uses every device to induce men and women to unite with him in his apostasy; and under his leadership the Christian world has chosen another mark than that of God. I will copy a few lines from an article I have read, called "The Changed Signpost:" "Some years ago, when the world was more boisterous than it is at present [a questionable assertion], it was thought a good joke to turn round a signpost erected at a junction where two roads met. Of course the perplexity and misery which that often caused was great. Once a signpost was erected by God for those who journeyed through this world. The road to happiness was as clearly defined as was the road to the city of refuge under the Jewish dispensation. One finger of the signpost pointed out loving obedience to the Creator as the road to felicity; while the other indicated disobedience, or sin, as the path to misery. In an evil hour for our race, the great enemy turned the signpost round; so that ever since that time, multitudes have mistaken the true road to happiness."

The Lord has stated expressly that life and truth are to be found in the path of obedience. Obedience is the waymark all must follow. God has declared that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. He has exalted this day as a memorial of his work of creation, plainly stating that it is to be a sign between him and his people throughout their generations. Thrice is this repeated in the thirty-first chapter of Exodus, and the speaker is Jesus Christ. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

In these words the Lord has clearly defined the road to the city of God; but the great apostate has changed the signpost, setting up a false one--a spurious sabbath. He says: "I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my delegate, the man of sin, to take down God's memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus will I show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day bearing not the credentials of heaven, a day that can not be a sign between God and his people. I will lead the people who accept this day, to place upon it the sanctify that God placed upon the seventh day. Through my vicegerent I will exalt myself. The first day shall be extolled, and the Protestant world shall receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the non-observance of the Sabbath God instituted, I will bring his law into contempt. The words, 'A sign between me and you throughout your generations,' I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath. Thus the world will become mine. I will be ruler of the earth, prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God's Sabbath shall be an object of contempt. A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws shall be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they will join with the world in transgressing God's law; and the earth will be wholly under my dominion."

The man of sin has instituted a false sabbath, and the professed Christian world has adopted this child of the papacy, refusing to obey God. Thus Satan leads men and women in a direction opposite to the city of refuge; and by the multitudes who follow him, it is demonstrated that Adam and Eve are not the only ones who have accepted the words of the wily foe.

The enemy of all good has turned the signpost round, so that it points to the path of disobedience as the path of happiness. He has insulted Jehovah by refusing to obey a "Thus saith the Lord." He has thought to change times and laws; but has he done this? The words in the thirty-first chapter of Exodus answer this question. With his own finger the Lord wrote the commandments on the tables of stone. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." The Creator has plainly stated that after creating the world, he rested on the seventh day, sanctifying and blessing this day as a memorial of creation, and giving it to his people as a rest day. "that ye may know," he says, "that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Thus he desires to test their loyalty. Shall we set aside the divine command given in such positive language, and follow the path of the transgressor? Who will venture to change the signpost, so that it shall point the wrong way, vindicating the man of sin? It is a terrible thing to place a human institution where the Lord's great memorial should be. It is a terrible thing for men to arrogate to themselves the power to set aside the day that God has sanctified and blessed, declaring it to be his holy day, and put in its place a common working day; to try to compel men to respect and reverence this day.

The Lord's word is truth. It is so plain that we can not mistake its meaning. It is not evidence that people need; for this they have. But they do not desire to walk in the way of the Lord's commandments. The world is walking contrary to the divine will; but God has a people on this earth, and between him and them the Sabbath is a sign, whereby they know that he is the Lord that sanctifies them. Upon them his mark is placed. "They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: . . . thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father."

It is obedience to the word of the living God that brings men into close relationship with Christ. To-day he is saying, as he said to the Jewish people, Oh that "thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace"! And soon will be heard the irrevocable sentence, "But now they are hid from thine eyes." He said, again, as he wept over the devoted city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." It was not that the Jewish people could not receive Christ; they would not. Thus it will be with many in our day.

What does the Lord require of us?--The observance of his Sabbath, "as a perpetual covenant." God wishes every family to bear this sign. Thus we may show that we are loyal and true to his commandments. Look at our world, full of disrespect for God, in open rebellion against him who in a moment could destroy every soul that breathes the breath of life. What has made the world so full of violence?--A disregard of God's law. This was what filled the earth with rebellion and corruption in the days before the flood. See the regard shown to-day for the spurious sabbath. And those who make laws to guard this false rest day make laws also which legalize the liquor traffic, a curse that is brutalizing the beings made in the image of God, by taking away their reason. Knowing full well the sure result, man takes the wages of his fellow man, giving him in return poison that destroys his reason, and sends him from the saloon full of false ideas. He has sold his reason for liquor, and is led into all kinds of violence. Satan presents before his mind things that, though unreal, seem real to him. He is filled with a determination to kill the one who, he supposes, stands in his way. Terrible crime, and sometimes murder, is the result. Yet notwithstanding its fearful effects, the liquor curse is protected by law.

Why do not those who make laws abolish this debasing traffic?--Because they do not bear God's sign. They do not keep his commandments. Therefore they tolerate that which is making the world a second Sodom. As it was in the days of Noah, when the wickedness of men was so great that God swept from the face of the earth every living thing save that which found refuge in the ark, so also shall it be when the Son of man is revealed. Man's theories are exalted, honored, and placed where God and his law should be. But God has not altered the thing that has gone out of his lips. His word will stand fast forever, as unalterable as his throne. When every case is decided in the courts of heaven, this covenant will be brought forth, plainly written with the finger of God. The world will be arraigned before the bar of infinite Justice to receive sentence,--a life measuring with the life of God for obedience, and death for transgression. -

Christian Perfection

"Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

If all could appreciate this great blessing, what an advantage it would be to them! We can obtain like precious faith with Peter and those who were his companions, only through one source,--the righteousness of Christ, who as a sin-bearer stood at the head of humanity, overcoming in our behalf, that we might overcome in his strength. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

If man could appreciate this great blessing, what an advantage it would be to him! He is given the privilege of being a laborer together with God in the saving of his soul. Receiving and believing is his part of the contract. He is to receive Christ as his personal Saviour, and is to continue to believe in him. This means abiding in Christ, showing in him, at all times and under all circumstances, a faith that is a representation of his character--a faith that works by love, and purifies the soul from all defilement. Christ is the author of this faith, and he demands that it be constantly exercised. Thus we receive a continuous supply of grace.

Each person must obtain an experience for himself. No one can depend for salvation on the experience or practice of any other man. We must each become acquainted with Christ in order properly to represent him to the world. "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." None of us need excuse our hasty temper, our misshapen characters, our selfishness, envy, jealousy, or any impurity of soul, body, or spirit. God has called us to glory and virtue. We are to obey the call.

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." How can we escape the power of one who was once an exalted angel in the heavenly courts? He was a being full of beauty and personal charm, blessed with a powerful intellect. Because of his exaltation he thought himself equal with God. He rebelled against his Creator, and by his rebellion he led astray some of the heavenly angels. With these he was cast out of heaven, and then he set up a kingdom of his own, determined that he would allure the world to his apostate banner. How can we discern his false theories and resist his temptations?--Only through the individual experience gained by receiving a knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Without divine aid we could not possibly escape the temptations and snares that Satan has prepared to deceive human minds.

In his prayer to the Father, Christ said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." We must learn of Christ. We must know what he is to those he has ransomed. We must realize that through belief in him it is our privilege to be partakers of the divine nature, and so escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. Then we are cleansed from all sin, all defects of character. We need not retain one sinful propensity. Christ is the sin-bearer; John pointed the people to him, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." And Paul declared. "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Christ says to us, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We are ever to learn of Christ. Yoked up with him in perfect restraint, we are to be learners during our whole lifetime. Then we are indeed "laborers together with God." We can be acceptable teachers only as we learn Christ's meekness and lowliness. Constantly we must learn more and more regarding these attributes. As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of his nature, we co-operate with God in overcoming Satan's temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus. The Saviour declares, "He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." In him there is inexhaustible fullness. As we follow on to know the Lord, we shall lead souls to the living word. With us they will know that his going forth is prepared as the morning.

Why, then, do we not have more of the Holy Spirit?--Because we do not abide in Christ; because we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood. All who eat the heavenly bread will have eternal life. God has given us every facility, every grace. He has provided the riches of heaven's treasure, and it is our privilege to draw continually from this capital. But we do not avail ourselves of this privilege Vanity, evil-thinking, and evil-speaking keep us powerless and inefficient. Self is cherished, petted, exalted; and therefore we can not work out our own salvation in harmony with God's will.

The service of Christ demands prompt obedience. We are to walk as he walked, following closely in his footsteps, manifesting his meekness and lowliness. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked." The service of Christ is pure and elevated. The path he traveled is not one of self-pleasing, self-gratification. He speaks to his children, saying, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." The price of heaven is submission to Christ. The way to heaven is obedience to the command, Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me. As Jesus journeyed, so we must journey. The path he followed, we must follow; for that path leads to the mansions he is preparing for us.

Christian Perfection [Concluded]

"And beside this," the apostle continues, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." As man works on the plan of addition, adding grace to grace, God works on the plan of multiplication. Peter declares, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." But a profession of faith without corresponding works is nothing. "He that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." This is a description of a professed Christian who lives a life of sin. He grieves the Lord Jesus, and puts him to open shame because he manifests a character after the similitude of Satan. He retains the same objectionable traits of character that he had before he claimed to have received Christ. Indulging his corrupt tendencies, he forgets to be a doer of the Word. He does not eat the flesh nor drink the blood of the Son of God. He does not practice Christ's words nor do his works.

Then comes the conclusion: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." This is the life-insurance policy that every one may have. "Wherefore," the apostle says, "I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance."

For a man to be effectually saved, the truth of the Word must be inwrought in the soul. It is a power that works inwardly to bless the soul of the receiver, and outwardly to bless the souls of others. Take the Word just as it reads, and be a doer of it. The Holy Spirit works with the consecrated soul who searches the Scriptures.

Now, just now, is our great opportunity to study the word of life. The hearts of many in this world are hungering for the bread of life and thirsting for the water of salvation. They desire to know the Scriptures; they desire to know what the word of God says to them. The Holy Spirit is impressing their hearts, drawing them to the bread of life. They see everything around them changing. They come to hear the Word just as it reads. They desire to build upon a firm foundation; and therefore Christians are counseled to be always ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear.

A clear, faithful testimony must be borne by every shepherd of the flock of God. The state of the heart is to be our first concern. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Mere speech is nothing. Preaching the Word, and then working contrary to that Word, makes it of none effect. Lip knowledge, forms and ceremonies, are of little value if Christ does not abide in the soul. We are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. We are to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. Then we shall be men and women of faith and prayer and power. There is a great work to be done. The heart must be faithfully sentineled, else pride and rebellion will bear rule within. Evils without will awaken evils within, and the soul will wander in its own homemade fog, all the time charging upon some one else the result of its own unchristian course of action.

The living Word must dwell in us richly, else we can never sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. We must live by the Word, and take self in hand, closely examining ourselves to see whether we love God, or are bound up in our own conceit. Every heart that is not subdued by grace is treacherous, and will lead to ruin.

What privileges are ours if we will only believe and walk humbly before God, ever seeking to learn his will concerning us. The graces of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness--are the fruits that a life hid with Christ in God will produce. As a people who have had great light, we should be far advanced in spirituality and holiness. "Neither pray I for these alone," Christ said, "but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." By manifesting Christlike love we present to the world the credentials that God sent his Son to this earth to save the human race. It is our privilege so fully to partake of the divine nature that we may be one with Christ as he is one with the Father. When this is so, Christ can confess us before God and before the heavenly angels.

Christ prayed for his disciples and for us, "As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." We have need of all the spiritual help that we can obtain in order to do the work to be done in this world. Satan is taking the world captive through the use of tea and coffee, liquor and tobacco. The mind is dulled by the use of narcotics. Can any one make an impression on a man who is drunk? A drunken man is unable to distinguish between right and wrong, because the enemy has control of his brain. He has sold his reason for that which makes him mad. He has no sense of what is right; for the liquor he drinks is so drugged that it makes him insane. Satan spread a net for his feet by tempting him to take the liquor poison, and he knows no more what he is doing than a madman.

The result of liquor-drinking is demonstrated by the awful murders that take place. How often it is found that theft, incendiarism, murder, were committed under the influence of liquor. Yet the liquor curse is legalized, and works untold ruin in the hands of those who love to tamper with that which ruins not only the poor victim, but his whole family.

Intemperance is widespread. How much man's senses are perverted by the use of liquor and tobacco it is impossible to say. Judges, senators, lawyers, the men who frame the laws of the land, are many of them working under the stimulus of liquor. What safety is there in their management? Are the men who command the great ocean steamers, who have the control of railways, strict temperance men? Are their brains free from the influence of intoxicants? If not, the accidents occurring under their management will be charged to them by the God of heaven, whose property men and women are. Liquor-drinkers are under Satan's destroying influence. He presents to them his false ideas, and no confidence can be placed in their judgment.

As the time draws near that is to decide the destiny of every soul, Satan will make strenuous efforts to corrupt the race. But Christ gave his life to save human beings. He pledged his divine word to work in behalf of humanity.

He was Commander of the heavenly host, but he left the royal courts to come to this earth. Laying aside his kingly crown, he stepped from his exalted position, and took upon him our nature, that by his own life he might pay the ransom for every soul.

Yes; Christ gave his life for the life of the world. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He gave his Son to be the propitiation for the sins of men and women. How many appreciate this sacrifice sufficiently to touch not, taste not, handle not, accursed, intoxicating beverages? Who are co-operating with Christ by practicing temperance in their lives, by keeping their tables free from all that will intoxicate?

The Lord calls for workers who are partakers of the divine nature, who have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. He would have every man to step forth in his God-given manhood, every woman in her God-given womanhood. He desires them to stand forth like faithful sentinels, to keep back the tide of moral woe, to break the fetters that are binding human beings in slavery. God calls upon his ministers to do faithful work in presenting the great curse that man himself is manufacturing. From every pulpit the message should be heard, "Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." -

The Call to the Feast

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests."

The king sent his messengers first to those who were called his chosen people. But these, wholly intent on securing worldly gain, sent in their refusal, saying, "I pray thee, have me excused." They did not have sufficient respect for the master of the feast to accept his invitation. They are represented in the words, "Them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him." Thinking their own wisdom sufficient, these have much to say, as if they were oracles of wisdom. The Lord declares, "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit."

When the class that were first called refused the invitation, the king sent his messengers into the highways, where were found those who were not so deeply absorbed in the work of buying and selling, planting and building. "The wedding is ready," the king said, "but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

"And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."

There are those who come in to enjoy the privileges of the banquet of truth who have not eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of God. They claim to believe and teach the word to others, but they work the works of unrighteousness. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Those first called, who refused the invitation, represent God's chosen people. The Lord declares, "Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me." Had they heeded the call which meant so much to them, they could have united with the messengers in giving the invitation. But with one consent they began to make excuse. Still the blessing of truth must be set before them, to give them an opportunity to heed the message.

The invitation neglected by those who had first been bidden, was sent to another class. It was given to the Gentile world. And it was first to be proclaimed, "in the highways,"--to those who had an active part in the world's work, to the leaders and teachers among men. Let the Lord's messengers bear this in mind. It comes to the shepherds of the flock, the teachers divinely appointed, as a word to be heeded. Those belonging to the higher ranks of society are to be sought out with tender affection and brotherly regard. This class has been too much neglected. It is the Lord's will that men to whom he has entrusted many talents shall hear the truth in a manner different from the way in which they have heard it in the past. Men in business, in positions of trust, men with large inventive faculties, and scientific insight, men of genius, are to be among the first to hear the gospel call.

There are men of the world who have God-given powers of organization, which are needed in the carrying forward of the work for these last days. All are not preachers; but men are needed who can take the management of the institutions where industrial work is carried on, men who in our conferences can act as leaders and educators. God needs men who can look ahead, and see what needs to be done, men who can act as faithful financiers, men who will stand as solid as a rock to principle in the present crisis and in the future perils that may arise.

We need and have needed talent that it was the Lord's purpose we should have. But so much selfishness has been woven into our institutions that the Lord has not wrought to connect with the work those who should be connected with it because he has seen that they would not be recognized or appreciated.

There are conscientious men who have not yet seen the light of truth who need to be taught. Those who have labored in the temperance cause, and who in their work have had the Lord behind them, should have had far more labor put forth in their behalf. We need to feel our responsibility in this work. Do not go to those in the higher ranks of life and call them in such a disrespectful manner that they will not listen.

The teachers, the leading men among the people, must be called. To them the invitation must be given. They must be dealt with personally and earnestly; for if one teacher is won to the truth, he will be able to communicate to many others the light received. More work should have been done for those in high places. Those who give the last message of mercy to a fallen world are not to pass by the ministers. God's servants are to approach them as those who have a deep interest in their welfare, and then plead for them in prayer. If they refuse to accept the invitation, tell the Master about it, and then your duty is done.

Lest we should think only of great and gifted men, to the neglect of the poorer classes, those who are in humble circumstances, Christ in the parable of the great supper instructs his messengers to go also to those in the byways and hedges, to the poor and lowly of this earth. Go to those in gross darkness, and as many as you shall find, bid to the feast. This is the work we are to do. Labor is to be put forth for all classes.

The humblest men and women have their appointed work. The most lowly, if they will receive the truth, will be accepted by Christ to do his work. The Lord will do a great work through humble men in reaching humble men. God will accept the talents of the greatest men, but if these refuse to return to him their intrusted gifts, he uses humbler workers. It is God who has given men all the power they possess. Those who refuse to use their gifts in his appointed way will be left to their own finite wisdom, to lose their all. God will accept the patient, loving service of lowly people. Through the skill of a multitude of humble workers he will carry on his work.

From the arrangements made for the building of the tabernacle we see from whence man gets his strength, skill, and education. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel, . . . the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber. . . . And in the hearts of all that are wisehearted I have put wisdom, that they make all that I have commanded thee."

Those in the byways and hedges came in response to the call of the messenger. The servants gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. So those who come to the gospel feast are a mixed company. Some are true believers; others have not on the wedding garment. Some will accept the invitation, and apparently take their stand as believers, who have never put on Christ. But the work of separation is not given to any human being. Yet there is laid upon the church the work of carrying out the Bible rule in regard to disorderly members.

Those who came to the feast had no fitness for it in their common dress; and therefore fitting apparel was provided for them. So before we are ready for the banquet Christ has prepared, we must put on the garment he has provided, the robe of his righteousness.

The man who came in to the feast without the wedding garment, represents those who violate God's law. Christ gave his life to make it possible for God to pardon sin. Violation of the law caused Adam to lose Eden. The disobedient can never enter in through the gates of the holy city. They can never have a right to the tree of life. The Lord has made every provision that no soul need in any way dishonor him. He has provided the wedding garment, and it is essential for each to be clothed in this garment. Those who think they are complete without Christ's righteousness will find in the end that they have lost their souls. Faith is made perfect by works. Those who make no change in character, though claiming the privilege of being called Christians, have not on the wedding garment. They think that in themselves they are good enough, virtuous enough. Without faith in Christ, they rest upon their own merits. True repentance for sin they have never felt. Therefore when Christ comes in to examine the guests, the command goes forth, "Bind him hand and foot, . . . and cast him into outer darkness."

"Many are called, but few are chosen." This is a true statement of the final outcome. Man is very dear to the heart of God, and all are invited to this feast. But many come not having on the wedding garment. They do not accept Christ's righteousness. They have not repented and made peace with God. They have not received his free gift.

Christ must be all and in all to every soul. Those who try in their own strength to solve the mystery of the creation of man, the mystery of redemption, the mystery of eternity, will be baffled. But those who put on the garment provided for them at an infinite cost, find an abundant entrance to the rich feast of spiritual blessings. By receiving this garment they acknowledge that in bestowing it God confers on them a great favor. And as they receive the righteousness of the Saviour, God places his stamp on them.

Only one can bestow this priceless gift, but all may receive it, and thus become entitled to a place at the feast. The call to this feast is a call to partake of the richest spiritual provision. All who respond to this call will find awaiting them an abundant supply of grace, and the more grace they receive, the more they desire. Those who partake of this feast may turn to their heavenly Father, saying, Thou has kept the best wine until now. -

God Loveth a Cheerful Giver

Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the professed people of God withhold from the Lord his own in gifts and offerings, they meet with spiritual loss. The Lord can not reward a stinted offering. Says the apostle, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."

God has made men his almoners, co-partners with himself in the great work of advancing his kingdom of the earth; but they may pursue the course pursued by the unfaithful servant, and by so doing lose the most precious privileges ever granted to men. For thousands of years God has worked through human agencies, but at his will he can drop out the selfish, the money-loving, and the covetous. He is not dependent upon our means, and he will not be restricted by the human agent. He can carry on his own work though we act no part in it. But who among us would be pleased to have the Lord do this?

It were better not to give at all than to give grudgingly; for if we impart of our means when we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock God. Let us bear in mind that we are dealing with One upon whom we depend for every blessing, One who reads every thought of the heart, every purpose of the mind.

The apostle Paul had a special work to present before his Corinthian brethren. There was a famine in Jerusalem, and the disciples, "every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea." They presented the need to the churches, expecting to receive a small sum for the relief of the needy saints; and in prayer they presented before the Lord the necessity. But the Macedonian brethren, moved by the Spirit of God, first made an entire consecration of themselves to God, and then gave all that they had. They felt it a privilege thus to give expression to their trust in God. The Macedonian brethren were poor, but they did not have to be urged to give. They rejoiced that they had opportunity to contribute of their means. Of themselves they came forward and made the offering, in their Christlike simplicity, their integrity and love for their brethren, denying themselves of food and clothing in cases where they had no money. And when the apostles would have restrained them, they importuned them to receive the contribution, and carry it to the afflicted saints.

This self-denial and self-sacrifice far exceeded Paul's expectations, and he was filled with thanksgiving; and taking courage by this example, by epistle he exhorted Titus to stir up the church in Corinth to the same good works. "Moreover, brethren," he wrote to the Corinthians, "we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also."

This movement on the part of the Macedonians was inspired of God to arouse in the Corinthian church the spirit of liberality. Paul sought to uproot the plant of selfishness from the hearts of his brethren; for the character can not be complete in Christ when self-love and covetousness are retained. The love of Christ in their hearts would lead them to help their brethren in their necessities. By pointing them to the sacrifice Christ had made in their behalf, he sought to arouse their love. "I speak not by commandment," he said, "but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Here is the apostle's mighty argument. It is not the commandment of Paul, but of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God had left his riches and honor and glory, and clothed his divinity with humanity, that humanity might take hold of divinity, and become a partaker of the divine nature. He came not to live in the palaces of kings, to live without care or labor and be supplied with all the conveniences which human nature naturally craves. The world never saw its Lord wealthy. In the council of heaven he had chosen to stand in the ranks of the poor and the oppressed, to take his place with the humble worker, and learn the trade of his earthly parent. He came to the world to be a reconstructor of character, and he brought into all his work the perfection which he desired to bring into the character he was transforming by his divine power. Nor did he shun the social life of his countrymen. That all might become acquainted with God manifest in the flesh, he mingled with every class of society, and was called the friend of sinners. In himself Christ possessed an absolute right to all things, but he gave himself to a life of poverty that man might be rich in heavenly treasure. Commander in the heavenly courts, he took the lowest place on earth. Rich, yet for our sake he became poor. Though he was in the form of God, he "thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

How great was the gift of God to man, and how like our God to make it! With a liberality that can never be exceeded he have, that he might save the rebellious sons of men and bring them to see his purpose and discern his love. Will you, by your gifts and offerings, show that you think nothing too good for Him who "gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"? The man who truly loves God will not offer to him lip service merely. He will bring to the treasury his gifts and offerings, that laborers may be sent forth to sow the precious seed.

For a little time the Lord allows man to be his steward, that he may test his character. In that time man decides his eternal destiny. If he works in opposition to the will of God, he can not belong to the royal family. The silver and the gold, which were not his, but the Lord's, he has misapplied. The day of probation granted him he has abused, and he receives the reward of the unfaithful servant.

Evidence of the work of grace in the heart is given when we do good to all men as we have opportunity. The proof of our love is given in a Christlike spirit, a willingness to impart the good things God has given us, a readiness to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice in order to help advance the cause of God and suffering humanity. Never should we pass by the object that calls for our liberality. We reveal that we have passed from death unto life when we act as faithful stewards of God's grace. God has given us his goods; he has given us his pledged word that if we are faithful in our stewardship, we shall lay up in heaven treasures that are imperishable.

Men and women need to understand that the means they are handling are not their own. "Ye are not your own," the apostle says, "for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." To withhold our offerings will not be for our own interest or for the glory of God. The Lord will use all who will give themselves to be used. But he requires heart service. "My son," he says, "give me thine heart." When the heart is given to God, our talents, our energy, our possessions, all we have and are, will be devoted to his service. -

The Camp-Meeting in Victoria

The camp-meeting for the Central Australian Conference was this year held at Geelong, Victoria. This city is about fifty miles southwest from Melbourne, on the same bay, and can be reached from Melbourne by either boat or cars. It ranks third in Victoria for population, and is a prosperous and beautiful town.

For several years there have been a few Sabbath-keepers in Geelong, and they have occasionally been visited by our ministers. About two years ago, in company with Elder A. T. Robinson and others, I spent a few days here, and held meetings with the little company of believers. We also had two public meetings in a large hired hall; but no extended effort has been made in presenting the truth in this place.

Our camp-meeting opened Thursday evening, March 8. The ground is a five-acre paddock, centrally situated, and well sheltered. There were about fifty tents in the encampment, besides the large pavilion, one hundred and four by fifty feet. This was seated to accommodate about fifteen hundred persons, and it was well filled at the opening service.

The meetings have been conducted by Elders Daniells, Farnsworth, and Starr. From one thousand to fifteen hundred persons have been in attendance at the evening services. The word of the Lord has been presented with power, and the people have listened with intense interest.

I have spoken once each Sabbath and Sunday, and have attended some of the morning meetings. At these I have dwelt especially upon faith, the necessity of our taking God at his word, and the duty of cultivating cheerfulness and gratitude. Our voices should be oftener heard in praise and thanksgiving to God. His praise should continually be in our hearts and upon our lips.

This will be a benefit to ourselves. It is the very best way to resist the temptation to indulge in idle, frivolous conversation. We are represented as bearing the insignia of heaven, and by our offerings of prayer and praise we are to show that we are guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Why do we keep so silent in regard to the goodness of the Lord? Why is there so little praise and thanksgiving? How heaven must look upon our ungrateful silence, so like the sullenness of peevish children! All heaven is interested in our salvation. The Lord God himself is our helper. "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem." "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." This is the testimony the Lord desires us to bear to the world.

Such a testimony will have an influence upon others. As we seek to turn men from their errors, we must show them that we have something better. If more joy were revealed in our religious experience, a much more favorable impression would be made. Unbelievers would see the consistency of our faith. If we praised God's name as we should, the flame of love would be kindled in many hearts.

On the Sabbath, March 10, few outsiders came to the camp-ground. But there were present over a hundred of the workers from the Echo publishing house at North Fitzroy, and a goodly number of our brethren and sisters from the suburbs of Melbourne, from Ballarat, and from Adelaide is South Australia. We had excellent meetings. A meeting for the youth and another for the children were held in some of the larger tents. These were continued every day during the week.

On Sunday a large number attended the six o'clock morning meeting. I united with the people in prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I then dwelt upon the necessity of believing that we do receive the blessings for which we ask. "Ask, and it shall be given you," is the promise. Our part is to rest on the word with unwavering faith, believing that God will do according to his promise. Let faith cut its way through the shadow of the enemy. When a questioning doubt arises, go to Christ, and let the soul be encouraged by communion with him. The redemption he has purchased for us is complete. The offering he made was plenteous and without stint. Heaven has a never-failing supply of help for all who are needy.

It is the Saviour's delight to see his followers co-laborers with God, receiving bountifully all the means of fruit-bearing, and giving bountifully, as workers under him. Christ glorified his Father by the fruit he bore, and the lives of his true followers will produce the same result. Receiving and imparting, his workers will produce much fruit. "Hitherto," Christ said to his disciples, "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

On Sunday morning a Sabbath-school convention was held. I spoke in the afternoon on the subject of temperance, taking the first chapter of Daniel as my text. All listened attentively, seeming surprised to hear temperance presented from the Bible. After dwelling on the integrity and firmness of the Hebrew captives, I asked the choir to sing,--

"Dare to be a Daniel,

Dare to stand alone!

Dare to have a purpose firm!

Dare to make it known!"

The inspiring notes of this song rang out from the singers on the stand, who were joined by the congregation. I then resumed my talk, and I know that before I had finished, many present had a better understanding of the meaning of Christian temperance. The Lord gave me freedom and his blessing, and a most solemn impression was made upon many minds.

In our work, more attention should be given to the temperance reform. Every duty that calls for reform involves repentance, faith, and obedience. It means the uplifting of the soul to a new and nobler life. Thus every true reform has its place in the work of the Third Angel's Message. Especially does the temperance reform demand our attention and support. We should call attention to this work, and make it a living issue. We should present to the people the principles of true temperance, and call for signers to the temperance pledge. In other churches there are Christians who are standing in defense of the principles of temperance. We should seek to come near to these workers, and make a way for them to stand shoulder to shoulder with us.

On Tuesday I was attacked with influenza, and was unable to attend meeting again until the next Sabbath. This was a holiday, and there was a large attendance from the city. I was still suffering from the influenza, but the Lord gave me his sustaining grace, and my voice was clear and strong as I spoke from the first chapter of Second Peter. On Sunday afternoon the audience was very large. I spoke from Isaiah 58, explaining every verse, but dwelling especially upon the words, "They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord: and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

Sunday evening the tent was crowded, and hundreds were standing outside. Elder Farnsworth gave a most powerful discourse on the subject of the Sabbath and Sunday. Then he asked for an expression from those to whom the claims of the Sabbath had been made clear. A large number rose to their feet. When the meeting closed, the people gathered in little groups to discuss what they had heard. Our ministers were in the midst of these gatherings, and talked with the people. Some were expressing their astonishment at the truths presented, some with trembling hands were trying to find the Scripture proof for Sunday-keeping. Others declared that the things which the minister had read were not in their Bibles. They felt that the people who had turned the world upside down had come to Geelong. Many seemed to realize their need of Bible instruction. Never before had the gospel of truth come to their ears as they had heard it at this meeting.

The meeting this last Sunday evening surpassed anything we have before witnessed. In some respects it resembled the meetings held in 1843 and 1844.

In the work at our camp-meetings we should give prominence to the truths of the Third Angel's Message. We are in danger of giving this message in so indefinite a manner that it does not impress the people. So many other interests are brought in that the very message which should be proclaimed with power becomes tame and voiceless. While the professed Christian world claim to believe in Christ, they are violating the law which Christ himself proclaimed from Sinai. The Lord bids us, "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." The trumpet is to give a certain sound. Lift up the standard, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Make this the important theme. Then by strong arguments wall it in, and make it of still greater force. Dwell more on the Revelation. Read, explain, and enforce its teachings.

Our warfare is aggressive. Tremendous issues are before us, yea, and right upon us. Our prayers should ascend to God that the four angels may continue to hold the four winds, that they may not blow to injure or destroy, until the last warning has been given to the world. Then let us work in harmony with our prayers. Let nothing lessen the force of the truth for this time. The Third Angel's Message must do its work of separating from the churches a people who will take their stand on the platform of eternal truth.

Our message is a life-and-death message, and we must let it appear as it is, the great power of God. We are to present it in all its telling force. Then the Lord will make it effectual. It is our privilege to expect large things, even the demonstration of the Spirit of God. This is the power that will convict and convert the soul.

From the first of our meeting in Geelong, we have been treated in the most kind and courteous manner by the people of the city. Among the crowds that have come to the camp-ground no disrespect has been shown. Even among the children and youth there has seemed to be no disposition to create disturbance. Our audiences have not been made up of men and women of the baser sort. They have been persons of intelligence. And they have not come in order to gratify curiosity. Very few have been seen strolling about the grounds, observing the homes of the campers. The people made their way directly to the tent. All were quiet, and appeared reverential. There seemed to be as great solemnity as if we were within the walls of a church. The people listened as if for their lives. We have never attended a meeting where there was better order or a greater interest than there has been here.

After the evening meetings the people would linger for half an hour, and often longer, talking together of the things they had heard. Some of our workers would engage in conversation with them, and answer the questions and objections that arose in their minds. Our ministers make it a point, as far as possible, to meet the people at the close of the evening service. They take their hands in a friendly grasp, expressing pleasure at meeting them, and the hope that they will come again. Thus is woven a thread in the tie that binds heart to heart. The social hand-clasp brings a warmth to the heart, and a sense of relationship. "All ye are brethren."

To these advances the people are ready to respond. They promise to come again, saying, "We have never heard such sermons: and all the teaching is from the Bible." Many hearts are stirred, and they are asking, "What must I do to be saved?" "How can I come into harmony with God?"

It was proposed to continue our meeting on the camp-ground over the third Sabbath and Sunday. But there was an appearance of rain, and knowing that the equinoctial storm would soon be due, we decided to transfer our services to a large hall in the city. This hall is the one in which Elder Robinson and I spoke when we were here two years ago. It is well seated, and will accommodate a larger number than the tent. The regular rent is one pound per night, but it has been secured for our meetings as long as we desire it, for half this sum. And we have the hall, free, for Sabbath and Sunday afternoons. We thank the Lord for the use of this large hall in which to continue the work so favorably begun.

Our camp-meeting closed free from debt. Economy has been exercised in all the arrangements, and by earnest effort, sufficient means has been raised to meet expenditures; so there will be no debt from this source to burden the hearts of the workers for the coming year. And a hundred pounds has been pledged for the new Sydney Sanitarium. This is a good donation to come from the little company of believers assembled at this meeting. They have done what they could.

The precious blessing of God has attended our meeting from the beginning to the close. Every meeting has been a victory. We have had evidence that the Lord Jesus and his army of angels were with us. Their presence has been in our tent, and they have encompassed us round about. The peace of heaven has invaded our encampment. The softening, subduing influence of the Holy Spirit has been upon human hearts, and not an inharmonious note has been heard.

Had we needed greater evidence as to the ministry required for giving the last message of mercy to the world, we have had it at this meeting. Thousands of all classes of people have had the word of God opened to them. But for the camp-meeting many of these might never have been reached. Such a solemn awakening has never before been witnessed in this place. Of a truth it could be said, "The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." -

Christ's Ambassadors

As Christ represented the Father to the world, so Christ's followers are to represent the Son. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Christ charges his disciples to shine as lights in the world, reflecting the light of God as they see it in the face of Jesus Christ. Again he compares his people to the salt. "Ye are the salt of the earth," he says; "but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" Unless our daily lives reveal the saving properties of Christ, how can the world have a representation of the truth as it is in Jesus? That religion which has not power to enlighten and save perishing souls, is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.

In his life work and his plans for reaching the people, Christ teaches us how we shall represent him. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," he says. "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding: that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching."

God is the author of our faith, and when we each act our individual part, he perfects the work, glorifying his name in the finishing of it. God sees all the possibilities there are in men to work out his divine end; and those who are called to be laborers together with him, he will instruct to work according to his plans. As co-workers with Christ they will labor for the poor, the outcast, and the depraved. They will not fail nor be discouraged, for, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, they will see hope for the most hopeless. They will work in God's lines, realizing that man must be sought for and labored for in order to be made Christlike.

God never designed that one man's mind or judgment should be a controlling power. Whenever he has had a special work to be done, he has always had men ready to meet the demand. In every age when the divine voice has asked, Who will go for us? the response has come, "Here am I; send me." In ancient times the Lord had connected with his work men of varied talents. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses with his meekness and wisdom, and Joshua with his varied capabilities, were all enlisted in God's service. The music of Miriam, the courage and piety of Deborah, the filial affection of Ruth, the obedience and faithfulness of Samuel,--all were needed. Elijah with his stern traits of character, God used at his appointed time, to execute judgment upon Jezebel.

God will not give his Spirit to those who make no use of the heavenly gift. But those who are drawn out of and away from themselves, seeking to enlighten, encourage, and bless others, will have increased ability and energy to expend. The more light they give, the more they receive. There is nothing isolated or selfish in the religion of Jesus Christ. Every true Christian will feel that he has something to do for the salvation of souls. The ambassadors for Christ, who assume the responsibility of watching for souls, must be closely connected with God. They will feel that they are not their own, but the Lord's, and that God has a right to use all their powers for the honor and glory of his name.

The time is hastening on when those who stand in defense of the truth will know by experience what it means to be partakers in Christ's sufferings. The great oppressor sees that he has but a short time in which to work, that soon he will lose his hold upon man and his power be taken from him, and he is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Superstition and error are trampling upon truth, justice, and equity. Every power that is antagonistic to truth is strengthening. There is a work to be done in the earth, and God calls upon us individually to act a part in unfurling the banner of truth. There is great need of real missionaries and of the real missionary spirit. Many of us are far behind the providences of God. Because we do not see so much accomplished as we hope, we become discouraged. This is not God wills. He desires us to work earnestly, engaging all the tact and wisdom he has endowed us with, and leave the results with him. We must realize that we are co-workers with Christ, and we each must have the faith which will take hold upon omnipotent power, a faith that can not be repulsed or baffled by the obstacles that Satan may oppose.

Paul was a living example of what every true Christian should be. He lived for God's glory. His words come sounding down the line to our time: "For me to live is Christ." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." He who was once a persecutor of Christ in the person of his saints now holds up before the world the cross of Christ. Paul's heart burned with a love for souls, and he gave all his energies for the conversion of men. There never lived a more self-denying, earnest, persevering worker. His life was Christ; he worked the works of Christ. All the blessings he received were prized as so many advantages to be used in blessing others.

Christ calls every man and woman to put on the armor of his righteousness and begin to work. I am at your right hand to help you, he declares. Tell all your trials and perplexities to your God. He will never betray your confidence. There is nothing so precious to Christ as his purchased possession, his church, the workers who go forth to scatter the seeds of truth. And none but Christ can measure the solicitude of his servants as they seek to save that which is lost. He imparts his Spirit as the self-sacrificing worker, with earnest, untiring efforts, labors to win souls from sin to righteousness. He is represented as bending earthward, listening to the cry of every needy soul. He is approving or condemning the actions of human beings, and he sends help to every soul who asks in faith. Then do not let your thoughts dwell on self. Think of Jesus. He is in his holy place, not in a state of solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand of heavenly angels who wait to do his bidding. And he bids them go and work for the weakest saint who puts his trust in God. High and low, rich and poor, have the same help provided.

Souls are starving for the bread of life, and unless God's chosen ones are faithful to their trust, these souls will perish. At the judgment bar of God we shall be called to account for every word we might have spoken but did not. Our lips need to be touched with a live coal from off the altar, that when the call comes, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" we may answer, "Here am I, Lord; send me." Chosen of God, and sealed with the blood of consecration, we are to stand pointing souls to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then our words will no longer be cheap and meaningless; for Christ will speak through us.

When Christ's ambassadors present the gospel in its simplicity, and the hearers respond to the word presented, nothing is more gratifying to the heart of Infinite Love than for these souls to come to him confessing their sins and giving expression to their faith; he delights to impart to them his righteousness. And angels rejoice when they see hearts opened to receive the communication of light and pardon and love. When thanksgiving arises from human hearts, heavenly beings take up the song of praise. The prophet Zephaniah represents the joy of Christ over the salvation of a lost soul: "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

And will not the soul redeemed render his tribute of love and homage? Yes, verily. With the psalmist he will sing, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward: they can not be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

"Laborers together with God." How few understand the full meaning of the words! We can not work by ourselves. God works, and we work. Let us study the words of Inspiration. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." The great Architect wants to form us into a holy temple for himself. Only those who are partakers of the divine nature can understand this. Those who walk even as Christ walked, who are patient, gentle, kind, meek, and lowly in heart, those who yoke up with Christ and lift his burdens, who yearn for souls as he yearned for them--these will enter into the joy of their Lord. They will see with Christ the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Heaven will triumph, for the vacancies made in heaven by the fall of Satan and his angels will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord. -

Co-Workers With Christ

When the disciples were disputing as to which should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Christ called a little child to him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh! . . . Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father."

The human agent is a savor of life unto life, or he is a savor of death unto death. He either draws with Christ, or he draws away from Christ. Co-workers with Christ will manifest no harshness, no self-sufficiency. These elements must be purified from the soul, and the gentleness of Christ take possession. Never should unkindness be shown to any soul, for by the grace of God that soul may become an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. Bruise not the hearts of Christ's purchased ones; for in so doing you bruise the heart of Christ.

A soul hurt is often a soul destroyed. Let those who have light and privileges remember that their very position of trust makes them responsible for souls. They will have to meet again around the great white throne the souls whom they have driven from Christ, bruised and wounded to death.

"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees," the apostle writes; "and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." That is, Let not your coldness, your unkindness, turn souls from the path that leads to Christ. There are souls who need your words of encouragement, and these can not be helped by your unfeeling decisions, and words and looks of contempt.

Christ calls men to unity, to bind themselves together in the bands of Christian fellowship. Those who have named the name of Christ he calls to cease their criticism, and bind up with one another and with God. If God's people will work intelligently and harmoniously, he will work with them and through them. But if they spend time and energy in a strife for the supremacy, God will leave them in their weakness; for he will not work with unconsecrated elements. The word of God demands that we be one with Christ, as he is one with the Father, that, Christ says, "ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."

The Redeemer did not shun man as man is inclined to shun his fellow men. When God condemned the guilty sinner because he was deserving of condemnation, the Majesty of heaven came near in all the fullness of the God-head. He looked upon the world in its fallen, corrupted state, and his heart of love was burdened because of the woe of his human creatures. He looked for the central power of all evil, and he beheld the great apostate, the fallen angel who had been expelled from the heavenly courts, and who had assumed the power and throne of God upon the earth. The Son of God read all the purpose of Satan to eclipse God from the view of man. And he knew that by paying the ransom he could end the reign of the enemy, and vindicate the justice of God. Therefore he clothed his divinity with humanity. He stooped to this fallen world that he might restore in man the divine image.

As his prophetic eye saw the results of his sacrifice, Christ exclaimed, "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." In the place where Satan has his seat, there will I set my cross. I will stand at the head of humanity. Through my merits man shall stand on vantage ground. I will be the great center to draw all men to God. As under the rule of Satan evil influences have conspired for the ruin of man, so under my rule the influence of my servants shall form a power to restore. The legions of hell with combine with the prince of darkness to oppose the laws of the kingdom of Christ; but to every man I will give his work, and with his work I will give power to win souls to God. Every human being who will receive and believe in me I will use in winning back the world to God.

The redemption of man means unity with Jesus Christ. The Saviour pledged himself to recover the principles of human dependence upon a plan that could save and reform man. He would make man a laborer together with God. By the sacrifice of himself he would enable every human being to be one with his fellow men and with God. All the elements of the human character he would make sanctified instruments to carry out the Lord's great plan to rescue souls from the snares of the enemy that they might behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

This plan unites the believers to God as one man. One rule of life is the principle of action. A chain of mutual dependence, made fast to the throne of God, passes round every blood-bought soul. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" In the divine economy God has made provision that man may be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Reformative influences destroy the desire to do evil; the holy agencies of heaven sanctify the soul and choose the human agent to do service for God. It is the work of God to expel evil from the soul by connecting humanity with divinity. All difference and disunion are destroyed by a union with the great Center. God's people are made one with Christ, and the Father loves them as he loves his own Son.

Man stands in need of just such a firm, abiding life-principle, a principle which will connect him with God, and through God with his fellow man. And God stands in need of just such workers,--men and women who are pure in spirit, compassionate, humble, men and women who are one with Christ as he is one with the Father. Christ prayed to the Father: "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, . . . that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." When God's people work together harmoniously and intelligently, Christ's request to the Father for them will be fulfilled. -

Caiaphas

With Caiaphas the Jewish high priesthood ended. The service had become base and corrupt. It had no longer any connection with God. Truth and righteousness were hateful in the eyes of the priests. They were tyrannical and deceptive, full of selfish, ambitious schemes. Such ministration could make nothing perfect; for it was itself utterly corrupt. The grace of God had naught to do with it.

Virtually Caiaphas was no high priest. He wore the priestly robes, but he had no vital connection with God. He was uncircumcised in heart. Proud and overbearing, he proved his unworthiness ever to have worn the garments of the high priest. He had no authority from heaven for occupying the position. He had not one ray of light from God to show him what the work of the priest was, or for what the office was instituted.

So perverted had the priesthood become that when Christ declared himself the Son of God, Caiaphas, in pretended horror, rent his robe, and accused the Holy One of Israel of blasphemy.

Many to-day who claim to be Christians are in danger of rending their garments, making an outward show of repentance, when their hearts are not softened nor subdued. This is why so many continue to make failures in the Christian life. An outward appearance of sorrow is shown for wrong, but their repentance is not that which needs not to be repented of. May God grant to his church true contrition for sin. Oh that we might feel the necessity of revealing true sorrow for wrong-doing!

The mock trial of Christ shows how base the priesthood had become. The priests hired men to testify under oath to falsehoods. But truth came to the help of Christ. Pilate declared, "I find in him no fault at all." Thus it was shown that the witness borne against the Saviour was false that the witnesses had been hired by men who cherished in their hearts the basest elements of corruption. It was God's design that those who delivered Jesus to death should hear the testimony of his innocence. "I find no fault in him," Pilate declared. And Judas, throwing at the feet of the priests the money he had received for betraying Christ, cried out, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood."

Previously to Christ's trial, when the Sanhedrin had been called together to lay plans for waylaying Christ and putting him to death, some of the members pleaded with the others to check their passion and hatred. They wished to save Christ from death. In reply Caiaphas said: "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not."

These words were uttered by one who knew not their significance. He had lost the sense of the sacredness of the sacrifices and offerings. But his words meant more than he or those connected with him knew. By them he bore testimony that the time had come for the Aaronic priesthood to cease forever. He was condemning one who had been prefigured in every sacrifice made, but one whose death would end the need of types and shadows. Unknowingly he was declaring that Christ was about to fulfill that for which the system of sacrifices and offerings had been instituted.

"This," adds the evangelist, "spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad."

Caiaphas was the one who was to be in office when type met antitype, when the true High Priest came into office. Each actor in history stands in his lot and place; for God's great work after his own plan will be carried out by men who have prepared themselves to fill positions for good or evil. In opposition to righteousness, men become instruments of unrighteousness. But they are not forced to take this course of action. They need not become instruments of unrighteousness, any more than Cain needed to. God said to him, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." Cain would not hear the voice of God; and as a result, he became his brother's murderer.

Men of all characters, righteous and unrighteous, will stand in their several positions in God's plan. With the characters they have formed, they will act their part in the fulfillment of history. In a crisis, just at the right moment, they will stand in the places they have prepared themselves to fill. Believers and unbelievers will fall into line as witnesses to confirm truth that they themselves do not comprehend. All will co-operate in accomplishing the purposes of God, just as did Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod. In putting Christ to death, the priests thought they were carrying out their own purposes, but unconsciously and unintentionally they were fulfilling the purpose of God. He "revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him."

Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the word of God will fail. It will endure forever. All men, whatever their position, whatever their religion, loyal or disloyal, wicked or righteous, are fitting themselves for a part in the closing scenes of this earth's history. The wicked will trample one another down as they act out their attributes and fulfill their plans, but they will carry out the purposes of God.

Christ, the foundation of the whole Jewish economy, stood before the Jewish rulers, to be condemned by his own nation. With his divinity clothed with humanity, he stood to be judged by the beings he had made. His garment of human flesh was to be torn from him. He could have flashed the light of his glory upon his enemies, but he bore patiently their humiliating abuse.

Our Redeemer humbled himself, fully identifying his interests with the interests of humanity. Look at him girding himself and washing the feet of the disciples. Mark how tenderly he performs his act of ministry, to give them a lesson in true service. He who was one with God, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself, and took upon him the form of a servant. Constantly he ministered to the needy, the sorrowful, the distressed. But in the hour of his need, who was tender and compassionate to him? During his trial, what friend had he who dared to say as much as the heathen judge said, "I find no fault in him"? Christ's divinity was so completely veiled that it was difficult for even his disciples to believe in him; and when he died on the cross, they felt that their hope had perished.

How different was the true High Priest from the false and corrupted Caiaphas. Christ stood before the false high priest, pure and undefiled, without a taint of sin.

Christ mourned for the transgression of every human being. He bore even the guiltiness of Caiaphas, knowing the hypocrisy that dwelt in his soul, while for pretense he rent his robe. Christ did not rend his robe, but his soul was rent. His garment of human flesh was rent as he hung on the cross, the sin-bearer of the race. By his suffering and death a new and living way was opened. There is no longer a wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. "By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." This enabled him to proclaim on the cross, with a clear and triumphant voice, "It is finished." "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." Christ entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." He has qualified himself to be not only man's representative, but his advocate, so that every soul, if he will, may say, I have a Friend at court, a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of my infirmities. -

Kept in Trial

"I say unto you my friends," Christ said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do."

The priests and rulers did all that lay in their power against the only begotten Son of God, and against all who acknowledged him; for they were imbued with the spirit of him who is a liar and a murderer. But though Satan thus vented his spite against the children of God and their great Head, he could not control the conscience nor tarnish the soul. He may cause all the suffering possible to the body, but he can not change the character of the man who conscientiously serves God.

To-day men may persecute even unto death in an effort to make their fellow men worship an idol sabbath, which has been brought into existence by the man of sin, who thinks to change times and laws. But to torture and put to death is all they can do. Satan makes a continual effort to ruin the souls that God is seeking to save. By his masterly inventions and crooked deceptions he seeks to confuse men's minds in regard to the way, the truth, and the life. Under his direction men have inflicted untold pain and misery on their fellow men. But they have never been able to harm the soul.

There is a power that can destroy both soul and body. "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear," Christ said. "Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." The Ruler of the universe bears long with the perversity of men; but he keeps a record of their works, and in proportion as they have caused pain to others, they will themselves be punished. John writes, "I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." No earthly ruler could show himself so jealous of his honor, so interested in his subjects, so kind and tender to those who put their trust in him, as does the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the Ruler high above all rule. He has strictly prohibited all sin, and has strictly enjoined practical obedience. It is Satan who fills man's heart with a desire to do evil. Those who follow him, the busy, incessant worker of evil, are not content with imperiling their own souls. They present every inducement that they think will lead others to imperil their souls. If they can not rule, they seek to ruin. A spirit of exasperation, of revenge and hatred, works in the children of disobedience, as it worked in the first great rebel. He imbues his followers with every species of malignity against those who can not be induced to join his ranks. Gaping prisons are open before them. They are threatened with the chain-gang and the stocks. Thus men treat those who worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Have they forgotten that as they judge and punish, so they will be judged and punished?

God has said, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Men have borne false witness against God's chosen ones. They have bruised their limbs with fetters, and burned them at the stake. The Lord will avenge his children. In proportion as men have carried out the spirit and purposes of Satan in causing pain to human beings, so will they suffer. Thus will they perish who have done all in their power to compel men to transgress the law that God has commanded all to obey. "I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse," John writes; "and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords."

Christ says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" Let the Lord testify in regard to the fruit he bears. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me," he declares; "because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives [not to sentence them to prison and exile, to chain-gangs and stocks], and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." This is the work of Christ. What a contrast to the work of Satan!

The Lord has not forgotten his people who live in this age. He says to them, "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. . . . For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

"Ye shall know them by their fruits." Do those who accuse God's children come under the head of "contrite ones"?--Instead, they show to the world, to angels, and to men, that they have chosen to stand under the banner of the prince of darkness, to swell the number of those who love and make a lie.

We are living in probationary time. There are to-day only two sides, only two parties, in the world. Of those whom God sees that he can trust because they are loyal and obedient, he says: "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."

The Lord makes a covenant with his people. After being tested and tried, those who are loyal to God's commandments are pronounced trustworthy members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King; and of them it is written, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things," "and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem."

"These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience." Does this apply to the men who persecute those who conscientiously keep the commandments of God, who refuse to bow down to an idol sabbath and worship an institution of the papacy? Who is keeping the word of God's patience? This is a question of intense interest,--a question which none of us can afford to ignore; because God has said of those who do keep the word of his patience, "I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation."

The hour of test and trial will surely come; it is even now approaching. Christ declares, "Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Compare these words with the warning, "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. . . .

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them." "I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." -

The Perfect Standard

The law of God is the only true standard of moral perfection. In the life of Christ this law was carried into action, and this is our example. Nothing short of this will meet the requirements of God. We may plead our inability to keep the law, but this will not excuse us. Such a plea is the language of the carnal heart, which is not willing to put forth determined effort in self-conquest. Christ could say, "I have kept my Father's commandments." And the disciple John declares, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

We read the biographies of Christians, and think their experience and attainments entirely beyond our reach. These, we say, are the histories of a few who were specially favored by grace. But these high attainments are for all. Christ died for every soul, and God assures us in his word that he is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. We may be engaged in the common duties of everyday life, but we can make these sacred by simple, earnest faith, and persevering, trusting prayer. God is honored by the steadfast integrity, the holy walk and conversation, of his people, even in the humblest walks of life.

The apostles and prophets and holy men of old did not perfect their characters by miracle. They used the ability given them by God, trusting alone in the righteousness of Christ; and all who will use the same means may secure the same result. It is our privilege to have high spiritual attainments; for God's word has declared it. But these call for faith and labor on our part. We must have an earnest desire for higher and still higher attainments in the Christian life. Paul exhorts us to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." This means a close connection with God, which will give us trust and confidence in him, until we have an experimental knowledge of his divine nature, and are changed into his image. Then we can glorify God by revealing to those with whom we associate the result of the transforming influence of his grace.

There are many whose religion consists in theory. To them a happy emotion is godliness. They say, "Come to Jesus, and believe in him. It makes no difference what you believe so long as you are honest in your belief." They do not seek to make the sinner understand the true character of sin. He is not urged to search the Scriptures on bended knees that he may know what is truth, or to pray that his eyes may be anointed with eyesalve that he may see the grace of Christ. When the lawyer came to Christ, saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" the Saviour did not say, Believe, only believe, and you will be saved. "What is written in the law?" he said; "how readest thou?" The lawyer answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Christ said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." Here the false doctrine that man has nothing to do but believe is swept away. Eternal life is given to us on the condition that we obey the commandments of God.

Satan is willing that every transgressor of God's law shall claim to be holy. This is what he himself is doing. He is satisfied when men rest their faith on spurious doctrines and religious enthusiasm; for he can use such persons to good purpose in deceiving souls. There are many professedly sanctified ones who are aiding Satan in his work. They talk much of feeling; they speak of their love for God. But God does not recognize their love; for it is a delusion of the enemy. God has given these persons light, but they have refused to accept it. With the father of lies, they will receive the reward of disobedience. It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The testimony of John is, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected."

Christ warns his followers, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing; but inwardly they are ravening wolves." He exhorts us not to be deceived when false shepherds present their doctrines. These men tell us that the commandments of God were done away at the death of Christ. Shall we believe them, these men who claim to be sanctified, while they refuse to obey God? They say the Lord has told them that they need not keep the ten commandments; but has the Lord told them this?--No; God does not lie. Satan, who is the father of lies, deceived Adam in a similar way, telling him that he need not obey God, that he would not die if he transgressed the law. But Adam fell, and by his sin he opened the floodgates of woe upon our world. Again, Satan told Cain that he need not follow expressly the command of God in presenting the slain lamb as an offering. Cain obeyed the voice of the deceiver; and because God did not accept his offering, while he showed his approval of Abel's offering, Cain rose up in anger and slew his brother.

We need to know for ourselves what voice we are heeding, whether it is the voice of the true and living God, or the voice of the great apostate. Eternal life is of value to each of us, and we must take heed how we hear. We need sound doctrine, pure faith. We cannot afford to receive the sayings of men for the commandments of God. God declares, "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes."

John gives us the definition of sin. "Whosoever committeth sin," he says, "transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." And this was after the crucifixion of Christ, when, we are told, the law was abolished. When type met antitype in the death of Christ, the sacrificial offerings ceased. The ceremonial law was done away. But by the crucifixion the law of ten commandments was established. The gospel has not abrogated the law, nor detracted one tittle from its claims. It still demands holiness in every part. It is the echo of God's own voice, giving to every soul the invitation, Come up higher. Be holy, holier still. This just and holy law is the standard by which all will be judged in the last day. We need to ask ourselves the question, Are we making void the law of God, or are we standing in vindication of it? We should carefully examine our thoughts and words.

The law has no power to pardon transgression. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ must be exercised. As the sinner looks into this divine mirror, he will see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and will be driven to Christ. Godly sorrow will result from a realization of his frailty and depravity. His faith in the atoning sacrifice will be based on the sacred promise of full and complete pardon in Christ.

Let us earnestly inquire, What is truth? We can not afford to build on a sandy foundation. The doctrines revealed in the word of God are to be the foundation of our faith. It is of the utmost importance that we understand, as far as God has given us capacity for understanding, the principles upon which his government rests; for the principles which we believe and receive into the heart will govern and control the actions. The more clear the understanding of the truth which is in Jesus, the more spiritual will be the religious life, the more holy the affections. -

The Treasures of God's Word

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth it, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."

In his lessons Christ sought to reach the understanding through the actual occurrences and events that take place in this world. Instruction of the highest value is given in the parables by which Christ illustrated the spiritual character of his kingdom. The Great Teacher used the things of nature to reflect the wisdom of the Creator. Human life in all its bearings is similar to nature. Nature and human life obey the commands of God. They answer to his majestic, wonder-working power.

And he who created the world and made the lofty mountains, who opened the fountains of the great deep, who formed the mighty rocks and the lofty trees, has given man power to appreciate these wonders of earth and heaven, power to understand the lessons drawn from them by Christ. But human intelligence could never have originated these lessons, and neither can man understand them only as God by his Holy Spirit sanctifies the observation. When the mind is freed from perverting influences, it can receive and understand these lessons.

The field containing the treasure represents the word of God. As the treasure was found in this field, so by earnest searching, treasure is found in the Scriptures. The Bible is God's great lesson book, his great educator. All true science is contained in the Bible. Every branch of knowledge may be found by searching the word of God. But few are true Bible students. Few understand that it contains instruction not only in spiritual matters, but in all branches of knowledge.

Human reasoning alone can never explain the science of education. Spiritual eyesight is required to understand what the true higher education is. It is the education gained by searching the Scriptures, but it is strangely neglected. If men had closely, earnestly, continuously studied God's word, making the Bible its own commentator, the key with which to unlock Scripture, they would have been as much astonished at the golden treasures revealed as was the man who found the treasure in the field. But men have departed from God's great lesson book, and their senses have become confused.

When the word of God is laid aside for books that do not lead to God and to an understanding of the kingdom of heaven, education is a perversion of the name. Unless men have pure mental food, thoroughly winnowed from the so-called higher education, which is mingled with infidel sentiments, they can not know God. Only those who are co-workers with God can know what true education in its simplicity means.

Too often artificial knowledge is forced into the mind, to the perversion of true education. Little confidence can be placed in human reasoning. Were Christ in the world to-day, the veriest stripling in the schools would prate to him of so-called science. But Christ would answer: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

These are precious lessons. The mountains, the rivers, the stones, are full of truth. They are our teachers. The instant the Lord bids nature speak, she utters her voice in lessons of heavenly wisdom and eternal truth.

But the fallen race will not understand. The laws of nature are supposed to control the God of nature. Correct lessons can not impress the minds of those who know not the truth or the word of God. The teachers in our world have borrowed their opinions. Many have forsaken the fountain of living water, the pure snow-water of Lebanon, to drink at the low, turbid streams of the valley.

Christ gave to the world a lesson that should be engraved on mind and soul. "This is life eternal," he said, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." But Satan works on human minds, saying, Do this or that action, and ye shall be as gods. By deceptive reasoning he led Adam and Eve to doubt God's word, and to supply its place with a theory that led to transgression and disobedience. And his sophistry is doing to-day what it did in Eden. When Christ came to our world, he selected humble fishermen as the foundation of his church. To these disciples he tried to explain the nature of his kingdom and mission. But their limited comprehension imposed a restraint upon him. They had been receiving the sayings of the scribes and Pharisees, and therefore much of what they believed was untrue. And though Christ had many things to say to them, they were unable to hear much of what he longed to communicate.

Christ finds the religionists of this time so full of erroneous sentiments that there is no room in their minds for the truth. With the education given, teachers mingle the sentiments of infidel authors. Thus they have sown tares in the minds of the youth. They give utterance to sentiments that should not be presented to young or old, never thinking of what kind of seed they are sowing, or of the harvest they will have to garner as the result.

How few realize that the Bible is the great instrument of God's government through probationary time! This Word is the direct unveiling of truth, and we need a far greater knowledge of its teachings than we now have. A man may go through all the grades of the schools and colleges of to-day; he may devote all his powers to acquiring knowledge: but unless he has a knowledge of God, unless he understands and obeys the laws that govern his being, he will destroy himself by wrong habits, by using tea, coffee, and strong drink. Thus he thinks to brace himself up, but instead he loses his power of self-appreciation. He loses self-control. He can not reason acutely and correctly about matters that concern him most closely. He is reckless and irrational in his treatment of his body, and by wrong habits he makes of himself a complete wreck. Happiness he can not have; for his neglect to cultivate pure, healthful principles, that he may be a sound man, places him under the control of habits that ruin his peace. For a time he may be elated by the stimulus of alcohol, but this elation is followed by a corresponding depression, and by sluggish movements of the brain. His years of taxing study are lost, for he has destroyed himself. By indulgence he has destroyed the harmonious action of the different parts of the being. He has misused his physical and mental powers, and the temple of the body is in ruins. By acquiring earthly knowledge he thought to gain a treasure; and he laid his Bible aside, ignorant that it contained a treasure worth everything else.

Christ came to our world to reveal God. The gospel is his instrument of redemption. John testifies of Christ, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth."

Christ sought to win the minds of those who were absorbed in earthly things, and teach them of heavenly things. Had the teachers of his day been willing to be instructed by the Great Teacher, had they yoked up with Christ, co-operating with him in sowing the world with the pure seeds of truth, the world would have been converted, and prepared for the society of the royal family in the heavenly courts. Had the scribes and Pharisees united their forces with the Saviour, the knowledge of Christ would have restored the moral image of God in man. The Old and New Testaments would have been the lesson book of every school; for men would have realized that therein is found true science.

Christ's parables are far more than a representation of natural objects. In them is the power of true teaching, which brings conviction to mind and heart. This is not the conviction that logical reasoning produces, but a conviction deeper and more lasting.

The Lord Jesus is the model teacher, and he has given to the world the Old and New Testaments as a text-book. He who created our world, the Father and King of the heavenly world, knows just how to instruct the human family. Satan has been playing the game of life for the souls of men and women; but God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked: and when the Lord of life and glory came to this earth, he came to restore the moral image of God in man, and he left an example in his lessons that he desires all teachers to follow. These lessons teach men how to escape from the degradation of sin, that mind and heart may not be filled with cheap imagery by following the common tread of the world. They are a source of divine knowledge, which will qualify the student for the higher grade. If mind and heart are not perverted by false theories, if the light proceeding from him who is the light of the world is not quenched, students will obtain an education that will be accepted by God. The mass of rubbish that has been presented will be cut away from the education given in our schools.

There is no time now to fill the mind with false ideas of what is called higher education. There can be no higher education than that which comes from the Author of truth. The word of God is to be our study. We are to educate our children in the truths found therein. It is an inexhaustible treasure; but men fail to find this treasure because they do not search until it is within their possession. In this Word is found wisdom, unquestionable and inexhaustible wisdom, that did not originate in the finite mind, but in the infinite mind.

When man is willing to be instructed as a little child, when he submits wholly to God, he will find in the Scriptures the science of education. When teachers and students enter Christ's school, to learn from him, they will talk intelligently of higher education, because they will understand that it is that knowledge which enables men to understand the essence of science.

He who would seek successfully for the hidden treasure must rise to higher pursuits than the things of this world. His affections and all his capabilities must be consecrated to this search. Men of piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but often they fail to understand, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. By many man's wisdom is thought to be higher than the wisdom of the divine Teacher, and God's lesson book is looked upon as old fashioned, so much so indeed as to be thought tame and stale. But by those who have been vivified by the Holy Spirit it is not so regarded. They see the priceless treasure, and would sell all to buy the field that contains it. In the place of bringing into our schools books containing the suppositions of supposedly great authors, they will say, Tempt me not to disrespect the greatest Author and the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, who gave his life for us, that by his death and resurrection we might have everlasting life. He never makes a mistake. He is the great fountain-head, from whom all wisdom flows.

Those who make the word of God their study, who dig for the treasures of truth, will appreciate the weighty principles taught, and will digest them. As a result, they will be imbued with the Spirit of Christ; and by beholding, they will become changed into his likeness. They will teach like disciples who have been sitting at the feet of Jesus, who have accustomed themselves to learn of him, that they might know him whom to know aright is life eternal.

No one can search the Old and New Testaments in the Spirit of Christ without being rewarded. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden," the Saviour says, "and I will give you rest. Take my yoke [of obedience] upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The Great Teacher's invitation is before you. Will you willingly respond to it? You can not draw near, placing yourself as a learner at the feet of Christ, without having your mind enlightened, and your heart quickened with a pure, holy admiration. You will then say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the word of God. Understanding means obedience to God's commandments. Had men been obedient, they would have understood the plan of God's government. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration. Human beings would have been altogether different from what they are now, in form, in speech, in song; for by exploring the mines of truth, men would have been ennobled. The mystery of redemption, the incarnation of Christ, his atoning sacrifice, would not be, as they are now, vague in our minds. They would have been not only better understood, but altogether more highly appreciated.

In eternity we shall learn that which, if we had received the enlightenment that it was possible for us to obtain here, would have opened our understanding. The themes of redemption will employ the hearts and minds and tongues of the redeemed through the everlasting ages. They will understand the truths that Christ longed to open to his disciples, but which they did not have faith to grasp. Forever and forever, new views of the perfection and glory of Christ will appear. -

The Desire of Ages

Let canvassers handle books which bring light and strength to the soul, and let them drink in the spirit of these books. Let them put their whole soul into the work of presenting these books to the people. If they are imbued with the Spirit of God, heavenly angels will give them success in their work, and they will gain a deep, rich experience. God would be pleased to see "The Desire of Ages" in every home. In this book is contained the light he has given on his work. To our canvassers I would say, Go forth with your hearts softened and subdued by reading of the life of Christ. Drink deeply of the water of salvation, that it may be in your hearts as a living spring, flowing forth to refresh souls ready to perish.

Those who will read attentively the words which the human agent has tried to present clearly to enlighten the minds of others, will receive God's blessing. He will be with every one who seeks to understand the truth that he may set it before others in clear lines. Make no delay. God has spoken plainly and clearly, giving instruction to be given to those who need it, that they may be brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Mrs. E. G. White. -

The Lord's Vineyard

"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it; and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country."

A description of this vineyard is given in Isaiah: "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein."

This figure represents the advantages and opportunities given to Israel. To them as his church God committed his oracles. Through Moses they received divine precepts and commandments. Guides and ministers were appointed them. God gave them riches and prosperity. They had every temporal and every spiritual advantage. They were hedged about by the law of ten commandments. This was what distinguished Israel from every other nation on the face of the earth.

The church is God's peculiar treasure, precious in his sight, and dear to his heart of infinite love. Christ gave the parable of the vineyard to set before his hearers the wonderful history of his church. The householder made every provision that the vineyard should receive the best of attention. Nothing was left undone that could be done to make the vineyard an honor to the one who owned it.

"Moreover, brethren," Paul writes, "I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ."

When the children of Israel were in bondage to the Egyptians, God revealed himself as a God above all human authority, all human greatness. The signs and miracles he wrought in behalf of his people show his power over nature, and over the greatest among those who worshiped nature, who ignored the power that made nature. God went through the proud land of Egypt just as he will go through the earth in the last days. With fire and tempest and death the great I am redeemed his people, to make them glorious as his special representatives. He took them out of the land of bondage. He bore them as upon eagles' wings, and brought them unto himself, that they might dwell under the shadow of the Most High.

Christ was the invisible leader of the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, he led and guided them. In their behalf he constantly manifested the riches of his love and patience.

Moses was appointed by God to be the visible leader of the people. He received a special education for this work; and though he had little confidence in himself, he had confidence in God. But often the people whom he was leading lost faith in God. At one time, when Moses was in the mount communing with God, they went to Aaron, saying, "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." Aaron had been left as the guardian of the church; and had he been faithful to his duty, had he held the people to their allegiance, this terrible record of idolatry need never have been written. But he yielded to the clamor of the people. He betrayed sacred trust; and had not Moses interposed in his behalf, death would have been his penalty.

When Moses came down from the mount and saw what the people were doing, he said to Aaron, "What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, . . . we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf."

Once more the Lord showed his forbearance in dealing with his erring people. Opportunity was given for them to save themselves from the punishment that had been ordered. "Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor."

In calling for this division of the people, Moses exposed himself to the wrath of those who would not repent, the boldest and most obstinate, who might have fallen upon him in an attempt to take his life. But God was there to sustain his servant; he placed around him a bulwark of unseen angels.

"And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men." It may seem to us that this punishment was severe. But God pronounced it an act of consecration to put to death all who justified their idolatry. It was not the choice of the children of Levi to do this fearful work; God had said that the unrepenting should be slain.

After the command of the Lord was obeyed, Moses said to the people, "Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--" Here Moses paused, as if not knowing what to say. He knew that the request he had presented was a great one. "And if not," he continued, "blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." Moses was speaking to Jesus Christ, who had given himself as a propitiation for the sins of the world. As he pleaded before his Lord, the depth of his love for his people was revealed. God saw it all, and he was honored by his servant's love and compassion. "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book," he said. "Therefore now go, and lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine angel shall go before thee."

The children of Israel were indeed given great privileges. They witnessed a most wonderful manifestation of God's power when they passed through the Red Sea. And day by day they journeyed under the pillar of cloud, the symbol of the divine presence. Why did they not value the privilege of being taught by the living God? Christ was their instructor. He was their guardian, their shield, their defense. He desired them to render perfect obedience to his commands. This would be a hedge about them, keeping them from destroying themselves by sinful practices. With wonderful patience, Christ strove to educate the people to believe in him as the author and finisher of their faith. He intrusted to them the everlasting principles of truth, justice, and purity.

God desired his people to obey him because they realized that obedience would make them men and women of understanding. He drew the willing and obedient to him with cords of love. He desired his people to go forth conquering and to conquer. It was their privilege to reveal in their lives the character of their leader. The souls of men and women are of infinite value in God's sight, not because, as many declare, they have natural immortality, but because it is possible for them through faith in Christ to gain immortality. Christ only has immortality. Belief in him is to the repentant soul the germ of a new life.

With such a leader, with such manifestations of his greatness and power, the children of Israel should have been inspired with faith and courage to go forward. But they failed to carry out God's purpose. "With many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness." Only two of those who crossed the Red Sea lived to go over into the promised land.

"Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." In the place of offering praise and thanksgiving to God, acknowledging his blessings, calling the attention of those associated with them to him, they drew minds away from him by their wrong course of action.

"Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

We need to beware lest we suffer the same fate as did ancient Israel. The history of their disobedience and downfall has been recorded for our instruction, that we may avoid doing as they did. It has been written "for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." If we pass by these cautions and warnings, developing the same traits of character developed by the Israelites, what excuse can we plead?

The Lord's Vineyard [Concluded]

During the Jewish economy, at appointed times God sent prophets and messengers to receive his portion from the husbandmen. These messengers saw that everything was being appropriated to a wrong use, and the Spirit of God inspired them to warn the people of their unfaithfulness. But though the people were convicted in regard to their unrighteous course, they would not yield, but became more stubborn. Entreaties and arguments were of no avail. They hated reproof.

"When the time of the fruit drew near," Christ said, in giving the parable of the vineyard, "he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise."

Paul records the treatment received by God's messengers. "Women received their dead raised to life again," he declares; "and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

For centuries God looked with patience and forbearance upon the cruel treatment given to his ambassadors, at his holy law prostrate, despised, trampled underfoot. He swept away the inhabitants of the Noachian world with a flood. But when the earth was again peopled, men drew away from God, and renewed their hostility to him, manifesting bold defiance. Those whom God rescued from Egyptian bondage followed in the footsteps of those who had preceded them. Cause was followed by effect; the earth was being corrupted.

A crisis had arrived in the government of God. The earth was filled with transgression. The voices of those who had been sacrificed to human envy and hatred were crying beneath the altar for retribution. All heaven was prepared at the word of God to move to the help of his elect. One word from him, and the bolts of heaven would have fallen upon the earth, filling it with fire and flame. God had but to speak, and there would have been thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and destruction.

The heavenly intelligences were prepared for a fearful manifestation of Almighty power. Every move was watched with intense anxiety. The exercise of justice was expected. The angels looked for God to punish the inhabitants of the earth. But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "I will send my beloved Son," he said. "It may be they will reverence him." Amazing grace! Christ came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

The heavenly universe was amazed at God's patience and love. To save fallen humanity the Son of God took humanity upon himself, laying aside his kingly crown and royal robe. He became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. One with God, he alone was capable of accomplishing the work of redemption, and he consented to an actual union with man. In his sinlessness, he would bear every transgression.

The love that Christ manifested can not be comprehended by mortal man. It is a mystery too deep for the human mind to fathom. Christ did in reality unite the offending nature of man with his own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension he would be enabled to pour out his blessings in behalf of the fallen race. Thus he has made it possible for us to partake of his nature. By making himself an offering for sin, he opened a way whereby human beings might be made one with him. He placed himself in man's position, becoming capable of suffering. The whole of his earthly life was a preparation for the altar.

Christ points us to the key of all his suffering and humiliation,--the love of God. We read in the parable, "Last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son." Again and again the Jewish nation had apostatized. Christ came to see what he could do for his vineyard that he had not done. With his divinity clothed with humanity, he stood before the people, presenting to them their true condition.

How was the Son of God received?--When the husbandmen saw him, they said, within themselves, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." Christ came to his own, but his own received him not. They rewarded him evil for good, and hatred for love. His soul was filled with grief as he saw the backsliding of Israel. As he looked at the devoted city, and thought of the punishment to come upon it, he exclaimed, with weeping, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

Christ was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." By wicked hands he was taken and crucified. Speaking of his death, the psalmist writes: "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled: the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies."

After giving the parable of the vineyard, Christ put to his hearers the question, "When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those wicked husbandmen?" Among Christ's hearers were the very men then planning how they could take his life. But so engrossed had they become in the narrative, that they answered, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." They did not realize that by their denunciation of the husbandmen they had pronounced their own sentence. But Jesus now fastened the guilt where it belonged.

"Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?" he asked. "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."

As Christ made the application of his words, the Pharisees saw the meaning of the parable. His words struck home to their hearts, and they cried out, in dismay, "God forbid." The Lord permitted them to see and realize their peril. They saw a true picture of their condition. They were given a vivid, momentary view of their course of action and its result. But they closed their eyes against light, and hardened their hearts against conviction. They were determined to carry out their satanic purpose.

"And whosoever shall fall on this stone," Christ continued, "shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Those who remain impenitent will understand the meaning of the wrath of the Lamb. The punishment that was to fall upon the Jewish people would be all the more terrible because of the poor return they had made for God's great mercy and love. Not long after this parable was given, the Son of God stood in Pilate's judgment hall, before a human tribunal, and there he was condemned by false witnesses. Though declared innocent by a heathen judge, he was delivered into the hands of the cruelest power that earth can produce,--a mob inspired by Satan.

"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" God asks. "Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes?" When God called for fruit in its season, the Jewish people were surprised that he expected anything of the kind. They professed to be the most pious people on the earth. They had been employed as guardians and almoners of truth, and they should have used the Lord's goods to bless and benefit the world. But they abused the messengers sent to them; and when God sent his Son, the heir to the inheritance, they lifted him upon the cross of Calvary. One day they will see the result of their impenitence. No longer will be heard the pleadings of infinite love; but the wrath of the Lamb, the power they defied, will fall upon them as a rock, grinding them to powder.

"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." But that which would have been their greatest blessing became their condemnation, because they were disobedient, unthankful, unholy.

The Lord declared that he required his husbandmen to give him the returns of his vineyard. Men are not to use their possessions as their own, but only as intrusted to them. The Lord's portion is to be faithfully returned to him. "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed."

The statutes regarding the Lord's portion were often repeated that the people might not forget them. They were to return to God his rental money. This he claimed as his portion. Their physical and mental powers as well as their money were to be used for him. His vineyard was to be faithfully cultivated, so that a large income could be returned to him in tithes and offerings. A portion was to be set apart for the sustenance of the ministry, and was to be used for no other purpose. Gifts and offerings were to be made to relieve the necessity of the church. Means was to be appropriated for the relief of the poor and suffering.

The history of the children of Israel shows us the many privileges they enjoyed. And the richest blessings were in store for them if they kept the Lord's commandments. "Know therefore," God declared, "that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." "Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him." "What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?"

Shall we profit by the teaching of the parable of the vineyard? "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Christ has a church in every age. Obedience to the commandments of God gives us a right to the privileges of this church. There are those in the church who are made no better by their connection with it. They themselves break the terms of their election. If we comply with the conditions God has made, we shall secure our election to salvation. Perfect obedience to his commandments is the evidence that we love God.

"I had planted thee a noble vine," God declares, "wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" The lesson is for us. Paul declares, "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear." This message comes to all who share the privileges once given to ancient Israel. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief." "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." -

God's Estimate of Service

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market place, and said unto them: Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.

"Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

"So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

In this parable Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a man in search of workmen. Those in search of work took their position in the market place, and at different hours during the day the husbandman went there and engaged men. The steward was directed to call them together in the evening, that they might receive their wages. Beginning with those hired last, he paid them all the same sum. This offended those who had begun work early in the day. Had they not worked for twelve hours? they reasoned; and was it not right that they should receive more than those who had worked for only a few hours in the cooler part of the day? "These last have wrought but one hour," they said, "and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day."

"Friend," the householder said to one of them, "I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

On another occasion Christ said, "Which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."

By these parables Christ would teach us a lesson of humble service. He who reads the hearts of all men knew that in the spiritual life of his followers traits of character would appear that would lead them to indulge in proud boasting and in disparaging others, as if they understood the value of soul-service. Those indulging these attributes would regard their work as of much value, while looking upon the work of their fellow laborers as inferior.

The law of nature is that we reap as we sow. But Christ was here laying down the principles of the law of his kingdom. He did not consult the opinions of others regarding him, but steadily worked out his own purpose according to his own standard. The way in which, in the parable, the owner of the vineyard dealt with his workers, represents God's dealing with the human family. God declares, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Christ came to this earth to represent God, and he was not bound about by the actions of any other householder. He worked according to the laws of the kingdom that is not of this world. He did not aim to follow any human standard.

The gospel of the kingdom is not confined by any precise regulations. Christ deals with men in a way that develops their moral and spiritual capabilities. He does not reward his servants according to the amount of labor done, or according to the visible results, but according to the spirit brought into the work. To observers this dealing seems unequal, and their sympathy goes out to those who say, "These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day." But the Lord makes no excuse for this supposed unfairness. "Those who came first," he says, "received the amount for which they agreed to work. The last stipulated no terms. They left the matter of payment with me, having faith that I would do what is right and just."

No one should enter Christ's service in the spirit of a hireling. Such ones work for the remuneration they receive. They think their work is of greater value than the work of those who come in later; and they try to make terms with God, saying that for a stated reward they will do a stated amount of work. Thus did those in the parable who were first called. There are many professed believers who possess a large measure of the hireling spirit. They work for the wages they hope to receive.

Those who came at the eleventh hour were so thankful for an opportunity to work that they left the matter of payment with their employer. They were glad to work at any price. Their hearts were full of thanksgiving, full of love for the one who had accepted them, and they showed their faith in him by asking no questions in regard to reward. When at the close of the day the householder began with them, and paid them for a full day's work, they were greatly surprised. This was unlike any treatment they had ever received. They knew that they had not earned the money given them. The kindness expressed in the countenance of their employer went to their hearts, and filled them with gratitude. They never forgot the goodness of the householder, or the gracious compensation they received.

Thus it is with the poor sinner who knows his unworthiness, who has long neglected to enter the Master's vineyard, but who comes at the eleventh hour. His time of service seems short, and his wages large. He expects very little, and will be satisfied with little, if only Christ will accept him in his service.

Those who make a definite demand receive their wages--nothing more. Does not this teach us that faith is needed in the service of Christ? The humble and confiding, who are willing to accept any sum, however meager, God surprises with a large reward because they bring thankfulness and joy into their work. David declares, "With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory. And the afflicted people thou wilt save; but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou mayest bring them down."

Those who think more of their wages than of the privilege of being honored as servants of the Lord, who take up their work in a self-gratulatory spirit, do not bring self-denial and self-sacrifice into their work. Christ warns those in his service not to bargain for a stipulated sum, as if their Master would not deal truly with them. The last men hired believed the word of the householder, "Whatsoever is right I will give you." They knew that they would receive all that they deserved, and they were placed first because they brought faith into their work. If those who had labored during the whole day had brought a loving, trusting spirit into their work, they would have continued to be first. The Lord Jesus estimates the work done by the spirit in which it is done. At a late hour he will accept penitent sinners who come to him in humble faith, and are obedient to his commandments. -

God's Estimate of Service [Concluded]

Christ gave the parable of the householder that murmurers might not receive sympathy on account of their supposed grievances. Grumblers will always find something to grumble at. Their hearts need to be purified. If the hearts of those first called had been purified, they would have seen only liberality in the action of the householder. Those who are in the service of Christ must have faith in him. The men and women who watch for something in their brethren and sisters of which they can make capital demonstrate before the heavenly universe that to them the goodness of God is an occasion of murmuring.

The disposition to find fault and complain too often finds place among professed Christians. They may be first in enduring hardship, privation, and trial, but the spirit they indulge is unchristlike, and renders them untrustworthy. They think they are entitled to a large reward because of the work they do. Thus it was with the Jews. They depended for reward on the long years of service they had given, believing that a certain amount of work must receive a certain remuneration, and that therefore they would be more highly rewarded than those who had done less.

The gift of God is eternal life on condition of entire obedience. But we should not think selfishly of the reward we are to receive. Of ourselves we have nothing. Our time, our talents, our capabilities, are all intrusted to us by the Lord, to be used in his service, and thus returned to him.

God has given to every man his work. In temporal and spiritual things we are to work for him. Never are we to boast of our endowments. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." The apostle Paul reached the point where faith in God's word had become assurance. He wrote to Timothy, "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." This is the battle cry of one who had been faithful with his Lord's goods, and who was waiting to receive the benediction, "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

In the book of Malachi God specifies the reward to be given to those who are faithful. All nations will see the power of God exercised in behalf of those whom he can safely bless as his chosen ones. "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes," he declares, "and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field. . . . And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land."

There is another class, who complain of God. "Your words have been stout against me," he says. "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." These weigh God's actions in human scales. Their words are stout against him, as they strive to vindicate themselves. By their words and actions they dishonor God, and create an atmosphere of evil about their souls.

In strong contrast to the murmurers are the ones of whom God says, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." The Lord has a people on the earth, and his working with them reveals the supernatural results that are seen when the human will is under the control of the will of God. Of them he says, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

"Many be called, but few chosen." The Lord's invitation continues from early morning till the last hour of the day. But many who accept his invitation possess only the theory of the truth. They have not that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. They think they are entitled to large wages because of their service. They claim to have served God all their lives, as did the Jews; but they reveal a spirit that is querulous and faultfinding. Thus they show that there is no connection between God and their souls. The indulgence of this spirit of exaltation makes those who might have been first last. They will be placed last because self has not been hid with Christ in God. We are not to esteem our work as worthy of large recognition. God will reward us in accordance with the spirit that has characterized our work.

This parable does not excuse those who, after hearing the truth, assent to it, saying, "That is all true," and then fail to comply with it. These refuse to walk in the light, because by so doing they would displease their friends or disturb their own satisfied condition of self-righteousness. The parable does not teach that the Lord will vindicate those who, because they wish their own time and their own way, refuse the first call to work. When the householder went to the market and found men unhired, he said, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" And the reply was, "Because no man hath hired us." None of those called later in the day were there in the morning. They had not refused the call. Those who refuse and afterward repent, do well to repent; but it is not safe to trifle with the first call of mercy. God will not be trifled with.

The Lord requires that sacred fire be used in his service. We are to bear the message of the divine householder to our fellow men. This will impress hearts. In whatever part of the Lord's vineyard men and women are working, they need closely to examine their own hearts.

If they are inclined to exalt themselves and disparage others, their hearts need to be changed, till they shall no longer place their own estimate upon their own work and the work of others.

We need a spirit of love and of true dependence upon God. When we have implicit faith in him who is truth, we shall realize that worry and anxiety are unnecessary.

Whatever work we do, we are to do it for Christ. There are many kinds of temporal work to be done for God. An unbeliever would do this work mechanically, for the wages he receives. He does not know the joy of co-operation with the master worker. There is no spirituality in the work of him who serves self. Common motives, common aspirations, common inspirations, a desire to be thought clever by men, rule in his life. Such a one may receive praise from men, but not from God. Those who are truly united with Christ do not work for the wages they receive. Laborers together with God, they do not strive to exalt self.

In the last great day decisions will be made that will be a surprise to many. Human judgment will have no place in the decisions then made. Christ can and will judge every case; for all judgment has been committed to him by the Father. He will estimate service by that which is invisible to men. The most secret things lie open to his all-seeing eye. When the Judge of all men shall make his investigation, many of those whom human estimation has placed first will be placed last, and those who have been put in the lowest place by men will be taken out of the ranks and made first. -

At Simon's House

"And the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him." "Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

"Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment." Mary had long kept this ointment; there seemed to be no fitting opportunity to use it. But Jesus had forgiven her sins, and she was filled with love and gratitude to him. The peace of God was upon her, her heart was full of joy; and she greatly desired to do something for her Saviour. She resolved to anoint him with her ointment. She thought the ointment her own, to use as she pleased, and so it was in one sense. But had it not first been Christ's, it could not have been hers.

Seeking to avoid observation, Mary anointed Christ's head and feet with the precious ointment, and wiped his feet with her long, flowing hair. But as she broke the box, the odor of the ointment filled the room, and published her act to all present. "Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" Judas looked upon Mary's act with great displeasure. Instead of waiting to hear what Christ would say of the matter, he began to whisper his complaints to those near him, throwing reproach on Christ for suffering such waste. "Why was not this ointment sold," and the proceeds given to the poor? he said. Craftily he made suggestions that would be likely to awaken disaffection in the minds of those present, causing others to murmur also. Writing of this, Mark says, "There were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor?" Oh, that they had known that even though the most valuable treasures that science or art could produce had been bestowed on Jesus, it would not have been waste!

Judas was one of the twelve; but he had not been striving to overcome his natural traits of character in accordance with the light that was constantly shining upon him. He had a high opinion of his executive ability, and looked upon himself as superior in financial management to his fellow disciples. Constantly he strove to exalt himself, and by his business ability he had gained the confidence of the eleven. But he had a narrow, avaricious spirit. For the slight services that he performed for Christ he paid himself from the money in the bag. He took from the store committed to his care, thus narrowing down their resources to a meager pittance. He was eager to put into the bag all he could obtain; and when something that he did not think essential was bought, he would say, Why is this waste? Why was not the cost of it put into the bag that I carry for the poor?

General principles touching his case had been laid down by the Great Teacher, but Judas had not profited by these instructions. Instead, his selfishness had strengthened. This had tainted and corrupted the whole man. When Mary made her offering to the Saviour, Judas talked about the poor, "not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." He who was about to sell his Master for thirty pieces of silver had no heart for the poor. He who stole from the treasure in the bag was capable only of cruel, mean actions. He carried blasphemy in his heart. Had Mary's ointment been sold, and the proceeds fallen into Judas' possession, not one particle improved would have been the condition of the poor.

Mary heard the words of criticism, and felt the lowering glances directed toward her. Her heart trembled within her. She feared that her sister would reproach her for extravagance. The Master, too, might think her improvident. Without apology or excuse, she was about to shrink away, but the voice of her Lord was heard: "Let her alone; why trouble ye her?" He saw that she was embarrassed and distressed. He knew that in the act of service just performed, she had expressed her gratitude for the forgiveness of her sins; and he brought relief to her mind. Lifting his voice above the murmur of criticism, he said, "She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always."

"She hath done what she could," Christ continued; "she is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying." Jesus knew that when Mary and those accompanying her should go to the sepulcher to anoint him, they would not find a dead Saviour, whose body needed their loving ministrations, but a living Christ.

Mary could not answer her accusers. She could not explain why she had anointed Christ on this occasion. But the Holy Spirit had planned for her. Inspiration has no reasons to give. An unseen presence, it speaks to the mind and soul, and moves the hand to action. Thus many actions are performed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ told Mary the meaning of her act, the full significance of which she had not understood. He gave her more than he received. "In that she hath poured this ointment on my body," he said, "she did it for my burial." Mary did not then think of connecting death with her gift of love. But Christ was to die; his body was to be broken. He was to rise from the tomb, and the fragrance of his life was to fill the earth. "Verily I say unto you," he declared, "wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her."

Mary's act was in marked contrast with what Judas was about to do. He was soon to betray his Lord into the hands of cruel and blood thirsty men. What a sharp lesson Christ might have given him who had dropped the seed of criticism and evil-thinking into the minds of the disciples! How justly the criticiser might have been criticised! He who reads the motives of every heart, who understands every action, who weighs the spirit that prompts to action, might have opened before those at the feast dark chapters in the experience of Judas. The hollow pretense on which the traitor based his words might have been laid bare; for he did not sympathize with the poor, nor make efforts to relieve them. But had Christ unmasked Judas, this would have been used as a reason for the betrayal; and though charged with being a thief, Judas would have gained sympathy, even among the disciples.

The love that Mary expressed for Christ made apparent the selfishness of Judas. By commending the action that Judas had so severely condemned, Christ rebuked Judas. This should have brought him to his senses. He should have been led to investigate his motives, and to confess that his judgment of Mary's action had been wrong. But his past experience had not been one of repentance and confession. His narrow, selfish ideas had often been rebuked by Christ in a general way. In his teachings Christ had presented the danger of selfishness and avarice. But Judas had not benefited by the instruction given. He did not take Christ's words into his heart, engraving them on his character. Of him it could be said: "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Judas was given opportunities and privileges which, had they been improved, would have constituted him a man having that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. He would have been cleansed from selfishness and covetousness. Light was given him, but he refused to act on this light. His character was not changed for the better; his heart was not purified. The opportunities given him were not appreciated. He did not appropriate the truth, and put it into practice in the service of God. His mind was open to receive the temptations of the prince of darkness, and he fell into the snare prepared for him. He wanted his own way; and as the Lord does not force any man to do him service, he was permitted to entertain the temptations of the enemy. Instead of resisting Satan, he admitted him, and therefore he was controlled by a spirit that led him to criticise the words and works of Christ.

The Saviour's love for his followers can not be measured; and Judas could not but see the lovable traits of his Master's character, his sympathy and compassion, because they were in such marked contrast with his own. But the words spoken by Christ as he rebuked him for criticising Mary's action rankled in his heart. He was not humbled, but provoked, by the reproof. He said to himself, "I will be revenged for this reproof." By betraying Christ, he thought to obtain a large sum of money. He went directly from the supper to the chief priests, and agreed to deliver Christ into their hands. The priests were greatly rejoiced, "and they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him."

The history of Judas is given as a representation of the history of some who will be in the church till the close of this earth's history. There are more than one Judas among the professed followers of Christ. They are to be found in every country, in every church. Persons that are not Christians are brought into church relationship. They may appear to serve Christ; but because of this, it does not follow that they have the love of Christ in their hearts. There are those who have the name of being in the service of Christ, but who are inspired by the same spirit as was Judas.

Not always is a man a Christian because he professes to be a disciple of Christ. Though a disciple, Judas never understood Christ. He refused the light given him. He who sets his feet in a wrong path is very apt to misunderstand. He is blind; he can not see. He misinterprets what he hears, giving it a meaning that is altogether wrong. The Holy Spirit must guide the imagination, or words will be so placed that they will do harm. Wise words, words that the Lord has spoken, words tender and kind and true, will be given a meaning that God never meant them to have.

There are to-day those who have acted as did Judas. Every opportunity has been given them to hear the word of truth, and to be sanctified through it; but they refuse to eat the bread of life. They have been given light, but they have refused to walk in it, and the light has become darkness to them. That which they once loved and upheld, they now hate and tear down. Filled with rage, they treat as poison what once was light and joy to them.

"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and who say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?" -

The Sin of Presumption

In his dealings with the human race, God bears long with the impenitent. He uses his appointed agencies to call men to allegiance, and offers them his full pardon if they will repent. But because God is long-suffering, men presume on his mercy. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." The patience and long-suffering of God, which should soften and subdue the soul, has an altogether different influence upon the careless and sinful. It leads them to cast off restraint, and strengthens them in resistance. They think that the God who has borne so much from them will not heed their perversity. If we lived in a dispensation of immediate retribution, offenses against God would not occur so often. But though delayed, the punishment is none the less certain. There are limits even to the forbearance of God. The boundary of his long-suffering may be reached, and then he will surely punish. And when he does take up the case of the presumptuous sinner, he will not cease till he has made a full end.

Very few realize the sinfulness of sin; they flatter themselves that God is too good to punish the offender. But the cases of Miriam, Aaron, David, and many others show that it is not a safe thing to sin against God in deed, in word, or even in thought. God is a being of infinite love and compassion, but he also declares himself to be a "consuming fire, even a jealous God."

By sad experience Miriam and Aaron learned that God will not regard with favor those who presume upon his goodness, especially those whom he places in positions of responsibility. The Lord deals with this sin as a grievous matter; for he is always grieved when presumptuous souls dare to speak against his appointed agencies in order to gratify their own unsanctified impulses. Aaron and Miriam thought that Moses had made a mistake in taking for his wife an Ethiopian woman, and they were betrayed into feelings of envy and jealousy. They entertained against him feelings that were wholly uncalled for. Moses was carrying a heavy burden of responsibility, and the Lord had appointed Miriam and Aaron to help him. But instead of doing this, they made his burdens more grievous to bear. "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?" they said. "Hath he not spoken also by us?"

"And the Lord heard it." God was present when the offenders thought him far away, and he answered Aaron and Miriam as if they had arrayed themselves against him. "And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous."

Then, with all deference, Aaron spoke to his brother, saying, "Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. . . . And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee." And the Lord heard him. The same Saviour who hundreds of years later said to the leper, "I will, be thou clean," removed the stroke. But Miriam had been the instigator in this evil work. Her sin was grievous in the sight of God, and he commanded that she be kept out of the camp seven days. God had demonstrated the truth by his Spirit before Aaron and Miriam. He had given them reasoning powers, and had implanted in their hearts the element of faith; but because their wishes had been crossed, they took the side of the enemy. And God signally punished them for their murmurings and complainings.

The case of Uzziah the king reveals how God will punish the sin of presumption. The inspired record states of this king: "Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. . . . And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. . . . But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men: and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God."

Uzziah was filled with wrath, that he, the king, should be dictated to by the priests, and while "he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord. . . . And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death."

The Lord has ordained men to certain positions in his church, and he would not have them step out of the places to which he has appointed them. When the Lord gives them a measure of success, they are not to become lifted up, and think themselves qualified to do a work for which they are not fitted, and to which God has not called them.

In Noah's day God saw his holy law broken and trampled underfoot by a race of evil-doers. He bore patiently with their rebellion; but in the place of being softened by the patience of God, his goodness and long-suffering, the inhabitants of the old world were encouraged to still further resistance. At last the patience of God was exhausted, and he declared that he would punish men for their iniquity. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them from the earth. . . . And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die."

When the earth was repeopled, men again lost the fear of God out of their hearts. Satan worked to array them against God. Thus he was seeking to gain full possession of the earth. He misinterpreted the character of God, and charged him with the very attributes that he himself possessed, while he concealed his own character from them. He professed to be their best friend, one who was working so that God's arbitrary power should not bring them into abject slavery. Through fallen man he renewed his hostilities to God, and triumphed in the very face of Heaven.

Through successive generations iniquity has increased, until we are nearing the time when God shall say, The cup of their iniquity is full. In David's day the contempt placed upon the law of God led him to exclaim, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." The disrespect shown to the law did not lessen its value in the sight of the psalmist. Instead, he saw all the more need of standing in its defense; and as he saw it trampled under unholy feet, he exclaimed: "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold." In this age men have gone to great lengths in arrogance and in blasphemous denunciation of God's law. They have accepted a false sabbath in the place of the day that God sanctified and gave to man as a memorial of creation. Their disobedience is great, and well may the prayer go forth from unfeigned lips, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." The boundary line will soon be reached. The crisis will soon come, and then God will interfere. When mercy's limits are passed, God will work, and show that he is God. The Judge of all the earth will vindicate his honor, and punish the rebellious inhabitants of the earth. -

Words of Counsel to Young Ministers

Writing to Timothy, his son in the gospel, and to every young man who engages in the work of the ministry, Paul says: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. . . . Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth: and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." And to Titus he writes: "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded; in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that can not be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you."

Young men, you have a faith of which you need not be ashamed; and you have solemn, serious work before you, in laboring for souls as they that must give an account. You need a knowledge of God, deeper, fuller, clearer, than you have ever had. You need to press forward, every day receiving grace and power from the Source of all power. You have a high and holy calling; and if you would have souls for your hire, you must take firm hold upon God. Let it be seen that you are intensely in earnest. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."

As laborers together with God, we need to know what is required of us. Let none sit down at their ease and say, Christ has done all that is necessary. Surely it were better that Christ's sacrifice had never been made, than that it should be made to minister to sin. It is this kind of religion that makes the cross of Christ of no effect. Throw your energies into the contemplation of eternal interests. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Respond to the operations of the Holy Spirit. Your soul will be lifted into a purer, holier atmosphere as you consider the important question, What shall I do to be saved?

"I have written unto you, young men," John writes, "because ye are strong." What makes them strong?--Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Thus they grow up into Christ, their living head. "And the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." This battle is to be fought over and over again. Be not content with your present experience. Sink the shaft deep in the quarry of truth. Truth, eternal truth, is the treasure for which you must seek with unremitting diligence. Do not rest until all that is superficial in your life is supplanted by a deep, fervent, solid experience. This will make you reliable in every place, because the Lord is your strength, his word your daily bread. Your religious experience will then give you strength to brace your mind against the counter-working influence of hereditary and cultivated-tendencies.

This fallen world is in strange hands. Men rule for hire, and preach for hire. In all business transactions there is a strife for the supremacy. If Christ should walk through the streets of our cities to-day, few would have interest enough to follow him. Those who act a part in the government of the world have no part with Christ, who has declared, "Without me ye can do nothing." Can they be successful statesmen who have not learned the ways and methods of the Great Teacher? The men in high positions of trust should be educated in the school of Christ. Do not shun these influential men. Men of talent and influence need to understand the word of God in its purity, that they may labor with a knowledge of what saith the Scriptures. If a man were drowning, you would not stand by and see him sink beneath the waves because he was a mayor, a lawyer, a minister, or a judge. Neither must you leave these souls to perish. Thus, while you do not neglect to do the work essential for winning souls in the humble walks of life, you may win to Christ those who can fill responsible places in the cause and work of God.

Seek conversion of body, soul, and spirit. Unfold your napkin, and begin to trade with your Lord's goods. In so doing, you will gain other talents. Every soul intrusted with talents is to use them to benefit others. Who in the great day of final reckoning will say, "I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine"? To such the Lord will say, "Thou wicked and slothful servant: . . . thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury."

The Lord is still calling those who are apparently blind to their deficiencies, the self-complacent ones, who plan and devise how they can best serve themselves. God help the spiritually blind to see that there is a world to be saved. The truth is to be made manifest to those who know it not, and this work calls for the self-denying grace of Christ. Thousands who are now of no use in God's cause should be digging up their buried talents, and putting them out to the exchangers. Those who think that they will surely reach heaven while they follow their own ways and imaginations, might better break the seal, and re-examine their title to the treasures of heaven. The men and women who feel at ease in Zion might better become anxious about themselves, and inquire: What am I doing in the Lord's vineyard? Why am I not yoked up with Christ, a laborer together with God? Why am I not learning in Christ's school his meekness and lowliness of heart? Why have I no burdens to bear in the service of Christ? Why am I not a decided Christian, employing all my powers in laboring for the salvation of the souls who are perishing around me? Saith not the Word, "We are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building"? Shall I not with God's help build a character for time and eternity, and promote godliness in myself and in others through the sanctification of the truth?

Selfishness and unbelief are spoiling many lives. The church is made weak by the inefficiency of those who should wear the yoke of Christ and lift his burdens. Christ has need of persons of genuine experience. Shall he have in his army men each with some spiritual defect, soldiers who must seek the easiest place, lest the rough path hurt their slippered feet? We are on the battlefield, enlisted for service. When the trumpet call is heard, "Advance!" do not stop to nurse your little infirmities. Forget that you have them, and move on. Where are the active soldiers, who, clad in all the armor of God, are prepared to do aggressive warfare? Where are the soldiers who are ready to lift the standard, and bear it through the battle, under the Captain's order, unto victory?

Earnest engagements must be entered into; for the Lord is coming. Away with the ease-loving indolence that holds so many from the work. Unearth your buried talents. You are under obligation to be active, diligent workers. "Whosoever will come after me," Christ said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Do not refuse to see your responsibilities. Unite in earnest work for God. Go forth to labor, carrying your colors with you.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." -

Partakers of the Divine Nature

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

These words present before the Christian the privileges brought within his reach through the sacrifice of the Son of God. The promises are full and broad and deep. They encourage our faith; for has not God pledged his word to combine his divine power with our human efforts, that we may overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony? While Satan is playing the game of life for the souls of men, precious encouragement is given to the one who seeks to do God's will. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me," God says, "and he shall make peace with me."

Man has the assurance that he can become a partaker of the divine nature, even as Christ became a partaker of human nature. In Christ God pledges himself to come under obligation to mankind, if man will comply with the conditions. "Take my yoke upon you," he says, "and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." God purposes to yoke up with human instrumentalities. This must be a work of co-operation; for how can two walk together, except they be agreed? Never did an earthly parent pity and love his children as our Heavenly Father pities and yearns for those who strive for the overcomer's reward. Promises of his love and his grace could not be more abundant. And this that we might be "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Personal piety bears its testimony in a wise and unreserved co-operation with divine principles. The apostle Peter writes: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. . . . For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ."

"Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but now are the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conscience honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."

"The elders which are among you I exhort," Peter continues, "who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory which shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."

These directions to the elders of the church are to be heeded. If God, the great Master worker, is with his servants, they will reveal this fact in their daily conduct. Among those who have the oversight of the flock of God are men who bear the stamp of defective characters. They are not walking with Christ. Their piety is not sound and healthful; it is of a cheap order. These need to learn what constitutes true religion. Religion is not a patchwork concern, which makes everything of the Christian's name, and in which self is personified. A man's religion must be founded on the word of God. Practiced in the home life, and exemplified in the church, it will constitute him a laborer together with God.

The efficiency of any church lies in the willingness of its members to learn. Upon the love and harmonious action of church-members depend their power for winning souls to Christ. Therefore cherish love and confidence; for this will give you moral strength. Those who do not make the kingdom of God their first consideration soon lose God out of their experience; for he is the great worker. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," he says, "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." Let the transforming energies of the Holy Spirit into the temple of the soul.

In failing to co-operate with God, the church has lost her first love. Very many of God's professed people to-day do not love God supremely and their neighbors as themselves. The prayer of Christ for unity among his followers is not lived out. The principles that Christ carried into his life and work must be practiced. God has given dignity to men by giving his Son to save them. Christ allied himself to humanity that he might make it possible for humanity to ally itself with divine power, that man might love his fellow man with the love wherewith Christ has loved him. Christ calls upon men to exercise the same spirit of forgiveness, the same tender spirit of sympathy and love, which he has revealed for us. This is a debt that every man enlightened by the Spirit of God and converted through the truth owes to every other man with whom he comes in contact, be he friend or foe, acquaintance or stranger.0

Jesus is inviting all who will co-operate with him. A great work is to be done, and God calls the willing ones to come out from among those who will not take their stand by the side of Christ. Who will co-operate with the Captain of our salvation? A practical religion is the life and power of the church. The only way for the church to increase in efficiency is for the members to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. Then will their light shine in clear, bright rays to those who have not a knowledge of the truth. Then work, yes, work with all your powers, for the perishing souls around you. And as you work, pray. God is always at your right hand, proffering you his omnipotent power. Lift up the standard higher and still higher. Let your glad cry be, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The Captain of the Lord's host has gone before you. Then press on after your leader. Strike the foe like men who have learned of Christ. Handle his weapon, "It is written." Thus you can work with Christ, and even your thoughts will be brought into captivity to his will.

As we work in Christ's lines, God will break down the partition walls. He will widen before us the circle of our influence. Leading us to the mount of Beatitudes, he will strengthen our vision by presenting before us truths of the greatest importance. All territorial lines, all man-made distinctions, disappear before his teaching. Our vision takes in sinful, suffering humanity in the regions beyond. God wishes us to learn deeper lessons. He desires to lead us to greater heights, to educate us to love and obey him. He wishes to place us where we can use the talents he has given us. He is giving us opportunities to impart grace, that he may refill us with increased grace. It is by working in Christ's lines that we become laborers together with God. Do not fail nor be discouraged in the work. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." God's promise is immutable. The unfailing God has encouraged us to ask, assuring us that he will establish his word. Hope and faith will increase as the agent of God works with all the talents that God has provided.

When our intrusted capabilities are allowed to lie unimproved, God's vineyard is deprived of the labor it should have. We are to obey the command, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." This is a duty, broad and deep, to be brought into our practical lives, one which, under God's divine working, will be a convincing power to the world. Go, laborers, go and work in humble ways to bring souls to the truth. The Lord will open the way before you. In the great day of reckoning, the slothful servant will be dealt with according to the work he might have done by putting his talents to use. Your one talent improved will gain another talent, and those two talents will gain other two. In a faithful discharge of your duty, you will acquire increased ability, tact, knowledge, and experience.

Had there been nothing in the world to work at cross-purposes with us, our patience, forbearance, gentleness, meekness, and long-suffering would not have been called into action. The more these graces are exercised, the more they will be increased and strengthened. The more we deal our temporal bread to the hungry, the oftener we clothe the naked, visit the sick, and relieve the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, the more decidedly shall we realize the blessing of God.

Every believer who takes the yoke of Christ pledges himself--soul, body, and spirit--to do God's work in self-denial and self-sacrifice. He is a partaker of Christ's joys and of his sufferings. He is imbued with his courage. The obedience that God required of Adam in Eden will be the obedience he will render to all the commandments of God. From the first hour of his belief in Christ as his personal Saviour, all his influence will be under contribution to God. He is Christ's purchased possession, and his physical, mental, and moral powers are to be constantly increasing in adaptability for the work of God.

Those standing under Christ's banners are to be united in the work. They are to be of one mind, of one judgment. As there is to be one Shepherd of the sheep, so there is to be one flock. Union with Christ brings man back to his allegiance to his Creator. It implants in his mind a love for God and for his holy law. The person who is one with Christ prays, and watches unto prayer, that he may have transcribed in his heart and reflected in his life the righteousness of God. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth. . . . And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." Upon this all-perfect pattern he fixes his eye; and with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed into the same image from glory to glory, "even as by the Spirit of the Lord." -

Christ Man's Example

There is nothing which will weaken the strength of a church like pride and passion. If one engaged in the work of God does things in contradiction to another engaged in the same work, that is strife and variance. If we do this to be esteemed or to exalt self, it is vain-glory, and death to spirituality and to Christian love and unity of action. Let there be no spirit of opposition among Christians. Christ has given us an example of love and humility, and has enjoined upon his followers to love one another as he has loved us. We must in lowliness of mind esteem others better than ourselves. We must be severe upon our own defects of character, be quick to discern our own errors and mistakes, and make less of the faults of others than of our own. We must feel a special interest in looking upon the things of others,--not to covet them, not to find fault with them, not to remark upon them and present them in a false light, but to do strict justice in all things to our brethren and all with whom we have any dealings. A spirit to work plans for our own selfish interest, so as to grasp a little gain, or to labor to show a superiority or rivalry, is an offense to God. The Spirit of Christ will lead his followers to be concerned, not only for their success and advantage, but to be equally interested for the success and advantage of their brethren. This will be loving our neighbor as ourselves; and an opposite spirit from this creates differences and alienations and want of love and harmony.

Oh, how out of place is all this strife for supremacy! Jesus alone is to be exalted. Whatever may be the ability or the success of any one of us, it is not because we have manufactured these powers ourselves; they are the sacred trust given us of God, to be wisely employed in his service to his glory. All is the Lord's intrusted capital. Why, then, should we be lifted up? Why should we call attention to our own defective selves? What we do possess in talent and wisdom, is received from the Source of wisdom, that we may glorify God.

The apostle would call our attention from ourselves to the Author of our salvation. He presents before us his two natures, divine and human. Here is the description of the divine: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." He was "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person."

Now, of the human: "He was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death." He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was his own act, and by his own consent. He clothed his divinity with humanity. He was all the while as God, but he did not appear as God. He veiled the demonstrations of Deity, which had commanded the homage, and called forth the admiration, of the universe of God. He was God while upon earth, but he divested himself of the form of God, and in its stead took the form and fashion of a man. He walked the earth as a man. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He laid aside his glory and his majesty. He was God, but the glories of the form of God he for a while relinquished. Though he walked among men in poverty, scattering his blessings wherever he went, at his word legions of angels would surround their Redeemer, and do him homage. But he walked the earth unrecognized, unconfessed, with but few exceptions, by his creatures. The atmosphere was polluted with sin and curses, in place of the anthem of praise. His lot was poverty and humiliation. As he passed to and fro upon his mission of mercy to relieve the sick, to lift up the depressed, scarce a solitary voice called him blessed, and the very greatest of the nation passed him by with disdain.

Contrast this with the riches of glory, the wealth of praise pouring forth from immortal tongues, the millions of rich voices in the universe of God in anthems of adoration. But he humbled himself, and took mortality upon him. As a member of the human family, he was mortal; but as a God, he was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in his divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but he voluntarily laid down his life, that in so doing he might give life and bring immortality to light. He bore the sins of the world, and endured the penalty, which rolled like a mountain upon his divine soul. He yielded up his life a sacrifice, that man should not eternally die. He died, not through being compelled to die, but by his own free will. This was humility. The whole treasure of heaven was poured out in one gift to save fallen man. He brought into his human nature all the lifegiving energies that human beings will need and must receive.

Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have helped his human nature to withstand the inroads of disease by pouring from his divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But he humbled himself to man's nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in his humiliation, that he must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world. What humility was this! It amazed angels. The tongue can never describe it; the imagination can not take it in. The eternal Word consented to be made flesh! God became man! It was a wonderful humility.

But he stepped still lower; the Man must humble himself as a man to bear insult, reproach, shameful accusations, and abuse. There seemed to be no safe place for him in his own territory. He had to flee from place to place for his life. He was betrayed by one of his disciples; he was denied by one of his most zealous followers. He was mocked. He was crowned with a crown of thorns. He was scourged. He was forced to bear the burden of the cross. He was not insensible to this contempt and ignominy. He submitted, but, oh! he felt the bitterness as no other being could feel it. He was pure, holy, and undefiled, yet arraigned as a criminal! The adorable Redeemer stepped down from the highest exaltation. Step by step he humbled himself to die,--but what a death! It was the most shameful, the most cruel,--the death upon the cross as a malefactor. He did not die as a hero in the eyes of the world, loaded with honors, as men in battle. He died as a condemned criminal, suspended between the heavens and the earth,--died a lingering death of shame, exposed to the tauntings and revilings of a debased, crime-loaded, profligate multitude! "All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head." Ps. 22:7. He was numbered with the transgressors, he expired amid derision, and his kinsmen according to the flesh disowned him. His mother beheld his humiliation, and he was forced to see the sword pierce her heart. He endured the cross, despised the shame. He made it of small account in consideration of the results that he was working out in behalf of, not only the inhabitants of this speck of a world, but the whole universe, every world which God had created.

Christ was to die as man's substitute. Man was a criminal under the sentence of death for transgression of the law of God, as a traitor, a rebel; hence a substitute for man must die as a malefactor, because he stood in the place of the traitors, with all their treasured sins upon his divine soul. It was not enough that Jesus should die in order to fully meet the demands of the broken law, but he died a shameful death. The prophet gives to the world his words, "I hid not my face from shame and spitting."

In consideration of this, can men have one particle of exaltation? As they trace down the life and sufferings and humiliation of Christ, can they lift their proud heads as if they were to bear no trials, no shame, no humiliation? I say to the followers of Christ, Look to Calvary, and blush for shame at your self-important ideas. All this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven was for guilty, condemned man. He went lower and lower in his humiliation, until there were no lower depths that he could reach, in order to lift man up from his moral defilement. All this was for you who are striving for the supremacy--striving for human praise, for human exaltation; you who are afraid you will not receive all that deference, that respect from human minds, that you think is your due. Is this Christlike?

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." He died to make an atonement, and to become a pattern for every one who would be his disciple. Shall selfishness come into your hearts? And will those who set not before them the pattern, Jesus, extol your merits? You have none except as they come through Jesus Christ. Shall pride be harbored after you have seen Deity humbling himself, and then as man debasing himself, till there was no lower point to which he could descend? "Be astonished, O ye heavens," and be amazed, ye inhabitants of the earth, that such returns should be made to our Lord! What contempt! what wickedness! what formality! what pride! what efforts made to lift up man and glorify self, when the Lord of glory humbled himself, agonized, and died the shameful death upon the cross in our behalf!

Who is learning the meekness and lowliness of the Pattern? Who is striving earnestly to master self? Who is lifting his cross and following Jesus? Who is wrestling against self-conceit? Who is setting himself in good earnest and with all his energies to overcome satanic envyings, jealousies, evil-surmisings, and lasciviousness; cleansing the soul temple from all defilements, and opening the door of the heart for Jesus to come in? Would that these words might have that impression upon minds that all who may read them would cultivate the grace of humility, be self-denying, more disposed to esteem others better than themselves, having the mind and Spirit of Christ to bear one another's burdens! Oh that we might write deeply upon our hearts, as we contemplate, the great condescension and humiliation to which the Son of God descended that we might be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust! All haughtiness, all self-exaltation, must be put away from us, and we learn the meekness and lowliness of Christ, or we shall find no place in the kingdom of God. The life must be hid with Christ in God. The anchor of every soul is to be cast into the Rock cleft for us, that Rock which bears up a ruined world. Let us keep these things in our minds.

Pride of talent, pride of intellect, can not exist in hearts that are hid with Christ in God. There would be no strivings to let self stand forth conspicuously unless Deity and humanity combined had stood in the gap to stay the sentence of a broken law. Its penalty would have fallen, without abating a jot of its severity, upon the sinful. It fell on Jesus, the world's Redeemer, to give man another trial. Then let us humble ourselves, and adore Jesus, but never, never, exalt self in the least degree. God forbid that we should foster in ourselves independence. Make haste that none of us may occupy the fearful position of him for whom Christ died in vain.

Will my brethren consider that there is no royal road to heaven? The cross, the cross, lies directly in the path we must travel to reach the crown. Those who will not humble themselves even as a little child, said Jesus Christ, shall have no part in the kingdom of heaven. If the motive of all our life is to serve and honor Christ and bless humanity in the world, then the dreariest path of duty will become a bright way,--a path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. If we are children of God, there will be countless opportunities for serving him by active ministry to those for whom he died. Jesus looks upon the wants, the necessities, of every soul, and ministers unto them by standing close beside the one whom he uses to be an instrument to help and bless others. All contentions, all envy, is grievous to Jesus Christ. -

Deny Thyself, and Take Up the Cross

In the nineteenth chapter of Matthew is recorded the case of the rich young ruler. This young man's tastes and desires were not offensive, but favorable to the growth of spirituality. As he saw Jesus blessing the little children, he was convinced that this must be a good man. He was sure that he could live in perfect harmony with him. Hastening to the Saviour, he knelt before him, and said, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" "Why callest thou me good?" Christ asked. "There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which?" Jesus said, "Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

"The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" He had been flattered for his amiable traits of character. He was willing to do good things, and he flattered himself that by his integrity in dealing with his fellow men he was fulfilling the law. The perfection of character he thought he possessed, ranked him in the same state spiritually as was Paul when, touching the letter of the law, he thought himself blameless. But no human standard can save a soul from death. God's standard must be seen, acknowledged, and followed.

"If thou wilt be perfect," Christ said, "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." Jesus needed the co-operation of just such men, whom God had intrusted with his goods. It is God's plan that those to whom he has given money or houses or lands shall act as his faithful almoners, relieving the sufferings of their fellow beings, and in this way winning them to the Saviour.

By helping the Saviour to help the needy, suffering ones around him, the young ruler would indeed have been laying up treasure in heaven. The test had come to him. What would be the result? When he heard Christ's words, "he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."

Jesus tested the young ruler by a true standard,--the law of righteousness,--which requires man to love his neighbor as himself; and the ruler proved himself to be destitute of love for either God or man. He thought himself perfect, but he was weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and found wanting. He was alienated from God; for he regarded that which God had given him in trust as of far more value than heavenly treasure. He went away sorrowful, because he could not selfishly retain his possessions and at the same time have the pleasure of following Christ.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And when his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?" They expected the young ruler to do as Matthew had done, and because of his refusal they were sorrowful and dejected. Jesus said, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

To-day the Holy Spirit works upon some who are not as self-confident as this young ruler. There are men and women who are truly converted, as was Paul. He says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. . . . For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." If the rich young ruler had seen by the light of the commandment that he was sinful; if, like Paul, he had honored God by obeying the commandments in spirit and in truth, his sinful nature would have been slain by the law, and he would have laid hold of eternal life.

"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." A great work needs to be done in our churches. The members are not prepared for the coming of the Lord. God's law needs to be written in mind and heart. Many, like the rich young ruler, when tested and tried, will refuse to deny self, to take up the cross and follow Christ. When the test comes to a man, and he refuses to obey, he shows that he is unregenerate in heart, whatever may be the outward propriety of his conduct, or whatever belief he may claim to have in the truth. He needs to have the law brought home to his conscience, that he may see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He must die to self. Until self is crucified, he can not know what spiritual holiness is.

The question was asked by Christ, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Man sells himself cheaply when he spends his life in securing worldly advantages; for in the ambition to secure earthly estate, God is forgotten, and he reaps loss to all eternity. His money and lands can not pay a ransom for his soul. Better, far better, to have shattered hopes and the world's denunciation with the approval of God, than to sit with princes and forfeit heaven. "Ye can not serve God and mammon," Christ declares.

The young ruler represents many in our world to-day. God has intrusted his goods to them, that they may advance his kingdom by planting the standard of truth in places where the message has never been heard. But they do not carry out God's purpose. The words, "Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me," cut directly across their cherished plans, and they refuse to obey. God's messages come to his people, but they have not been, and are not yet, willing to receive them. He is testing them as he was testing the young ruler when he said to him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." God calls upon his people to turn from the earthly to the heavenly, to yield up to him his own. Nothing that they have is theirs; they themselves are not their own; for God's word declares, "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

There is no caste with God. Those who believe that there are certain principles to which the poor must adhere, and from which the rich are exempt, are under a fatal delusion. There is not one standard for the poor, and another for the rich. God does not call upon one to do all the self-sacrificing, while the other lives according to his own ideas and plans. It behoves us at this time to live as if in sight of eternal realities, to lose sight of self, to tear out of the heart every fiber of selfishness. If rich men keep the commandments of God, they will do the work that needs to be done for those whom Christ purchased with his blood. In this way only can they follow Christ. In order to save suffering humanity from perishing in sin, he left the royal courts and came to the earth. Laying aside his kingly crown and royal robe, he resigned his high command in the heavenly courts, and for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. When God intrusts man with riches, it is that he may adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour by using his earthly treasure in advancing the kingdom of God in our world. He is to represent Christ, and therefore is not to live to please and glorify himself, to receive honor because he is rich.

When the heart is cleansed from sin, Christ is placed on the throne that self-indulgence and love of earthly treasure once occupied. The image of Christ is seen in the expression of the countenance. The work of sanctification is carried forward in the soul. Self-righteousness is banished. There is seen the putting on of the new man, which after Christ is created in righteousness and true holiness. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." God is a rich provider. He is a fountain of inexpressible love; and he desires all his servants to remember that, as his faithful servants, they are to use his bountiful provisions to relieve the necessities of suffering human beings whom he has bought with the blood of his only begotten Son. -

Abide in Me

By the parable of the true vine, Christ explained to his followers the relation that must exist between him and his people. "I am the true vine," he said, "and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. . . . Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

Christ used the figure of the vine that, as we look upon it, we may call to remembrance his precious lessons. Rightly interpreted, nature is the mirror of divinity. Christ pointed to the vine and its branches, saying, I give you this lesson that you may understand my relationship to you, and your relationship to me. There was not the least excuse for his hearers to misunderstand his words. The figure he used was as a mirror held up before them.

His lesson will be repeated to the ends of the earth. All who receive Christ by faith become one with him. The branches are not tied to the vine; they are not joined to it by any mechanical process of artificial fastening. They are united to the vine, so as to become part of it. They are nourished by the roots of the vine. So those who receive Christ by faith become one with him in principle and action. They are united to him, and the life they live is the life of the Son of God. They derive their life from him who is life.

Baptism may be repeated over and over again, but of itself it has no power to change the human heart. The heart must be united with Christ's heart, the will must be submerged in his will, the mind must become one with his mind, the thoughts must be brought into captivity to him. A man may be baptized, and his name be placed on the church roll, and yet his heart be unchanged. Hereditary and cultivated tendencies may still work evil in his character.

The regenerated man has a vital connection with Christ. As the branch derives its sustenance from the parent stock, and, because of this, bears much fruit, so the true believer, united with Christ, reveals in his life the fruits of the Spirit. The branch becomes one with the vine; storm can not carry it away; frost can not destroy its vital properties. Nothing is able to separate it from the vine. It is a living branch, and it bears the fruit of the vine. So with the believer. By good words and good actions, he reveals the character of Christ.

There are many who get above the simplicity of Christ, supposing that they must do some great thing in order to work the works of God. Things of a temporal nature absorb their attention, and they have little time or thought for eternal realities. Wearied with cares that draw their minds from spiritual things, they constantly ask themselves the question, How can I find time to study and practice the word of God? Christ is acquainted with the difficulties that try every soul, and he says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. . . . He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

Our first and highest duty is to know that we are abiding in Christ. He must do the work; but we are to seek to know what saith the Lord, yielding our lives to his guidance. When we have the spirit of an abiding Christ, everything will take on a changed aspect. The Saviour alone can give us the rest and peace we need; and every invitation he gives us to seek the Lord, is a call to abide in him. It is an invitation not merely to come to him, but to remain in him.

Christ's object in presenting before his disciples this parable was to show them how necessary it was for them to have the moral excellence revealed in his character. He longed to create in them a desire for the Holy Spirit. He reproached them for their dullness of comprehension; for many of the truths he sought to teach were lost to them because of their lack of spiritual intuition. After his resurrection he said to them, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." The Bible now seemed a new book to the disciples, containing definite instruction. They saw that the events which had taken place in the suffering and death of their beloved Master were a fulfillment of prophecy.

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you," Christ said. In receiving and obeying his word, the disciples were cleansed and purified. Praying for them to his Father, he said: "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. . . . Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

In no other way can Christ's disciples be cleansed but by obedience to the truth. The apostle Paul writes: "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." And Peter writes: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

As the branch derives its nourishment from the vine, so all who are truly converted draw spiritual vitality from Christ. "Verily, verily, I say unto you," he declared, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. . . .

"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."

Thus Christ presents the false union with himself in contrast with the true. Those who have not a living connection with Christ may to outward appearance be in fellowship with him. Their names may be enrolled on the church books, but they are not members of his body. They do not bear fruit to the glory of God. "Ye shall know them by their fruits," Christ said. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Christ has provided means whereby our whole life may be an unbroken communion with himself; but the sense of Christ's abiding presence can come only through living faith. There must be a personal consecration to him. Self must be hid with Christ in God; then the grace received will be constantly imparted as a grateful offering to God. In this union Christ identifies himself with man before God and the heavenly universe. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Our sins are reckoned to Christ. His righteousness is imputed to us, and we are made the righteousness of God in him. Because of his atoning sacrifice, our prayers go up to the Father, laden with the fragrance of Christ's character, and, one with Christ, we are accepted in the Beloved.

Christ's connection with his believing people is illustrated by this parable as by no other. We should study the lesson, that we may know what the parent stock is to the branch, and in what light the Lord regards those who believe and abide in Christ. Let all contemplate the completeness it is their privilege to have, and ask themselves the question, Is my will submerged in Christ's will? Is the fullness and richness of the Living Vine--his goodness, his mercy, his compassion and love--seen in my life and character?

Self-Exaltation

Self-exaltation is a dangerous element. It tarnishes everything it touches. It is the offspring of pride, and it works so ingeniously that, unless guarded against, it will take possession of the thoughts and control the actions.

The Laodicean message must be proclaimed with power; for now it is especially applicable. Now, more than ever before, are seen pride, worldly ambition, self-exaltation, double-dealing, hypocrisy, and deception. Many are speaking great swelling words of vanity, saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Yet they are miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

There are those who sincerely desire to see God, and who, in true penitence, seek the Lord, that they may find him, and by his power reach the high and holy ideal set before them. With unfeigned lips they pray, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" "Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine." "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, and in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy."

But there are also those who go on frowardly in their own way. The Lord says to them, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Let those who name the name of God search their hearts to see whether they be in the faith. Let them search the Word carefully, reviewing the experience of God's ancient people.

"An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the Angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord."

The people bowed before God in contrition and repentance. They offered sacrifice, and confessed to God and to one another. The sacrifices they offered would have been of no value if they had not shown true repentance. Their contrition was genuine. The grace of Christ wrought in their hearts as they confessed their sins and offered sacrifice, and God forgave them.

The revival was genuine. It wrought a reformation among the people. They remained true to the covenant they had made. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen the great works of the Lord. Their sins were repented of and forgiven, but the seed of evil had been sown, and it sprang up to bear fruit. Joshua's life of steadfast integrity closed. His voice was no longer heard in reproof and warning. One by one the faithful sentinels who had crossed the Jordan laid off their armor. A new generation came upon the scene of action. The people departed from God. Their worship was mingled with erroneous principles and ambitious pride.

"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. . . . And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not."

Man is prone to forget God, though claiming to serve him. The people of Nazareth thought they loved Christ, but when he showed them that they were no more the favorites of heaven than were the Gentiles, they dragged him from the synagogue, and tried to throw him from the crown of the hill. The multitudes who were fed by Christ thought they loved him, until he told them that they cared more for the bread that perishes than for the bread of eternal life. The rich young ruler thought he loved the Saviour. He had listened to the gracious words that fell from his lips, and had seen his wonderful works. But when the Saviour said, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me," he went away sorrowful, clinging to his idol. He loved his riches more than he loved Christ. Simon the Pharisee thought he loved Jesus, until he found that the Saviour did not esteem him as highly as he did a poor, sorrowful, repentant woman.

Many see much to admire in the life of Christ. But true love for him can never dwell in the heart of the self-righteous. Not to see our own deformity is not to see the beauty of Christ's character. When we are fully awake to our own sinfulness, we shall appreciate Christ. The more humble are our views of ourselves, the more clearly we shall see the spotless character of Jesus. He who says, "I am holy, I am sinless," is self-deceived. Some have said this, and some even dare to say, "I am Christ." To entertain such a thought is blasphemy. Not to see the marked contrast between Christ and ourselves is not to know ourselves. He who does not abhor himself can not understand the meaning of redemption. To be redeemed means to cease from sin. No heart that is stirred to rebellion against the law of God has any union with Christ, who died to vindicate the law and exalt it before all nations, tongues, and peoples. Pharisaic self-complacency and bold assumptions of holiness are abundant. There are many who do not see themselves in the light of the law of God. They do not loathe selfishness; therefore they are selfish. Their souls are spotted and defiled. Yet with sin-stained lips they say, "I am holy. Jesus teaches me that the law of God is a yoke of bondage. Those who say that we must keep the law have fallen from grace."

Christ says, "Blessed are they that do his commandments." The heavenly benediction is pronounced upon those who keep the law. "They shall have right to the tree of life," the Saviour declares, "and shall enter in through the gates into the city."

We must decide for ourselves whether or not these words will be spoken to us. A right decision will be revealed by action in harmony with the law of God. But we can not possibly keep the commandments without the help of Christ. He alone can save us, by cleansing us from all sin. He does not save us by the law; but neither will he save us in disobedience to the law. He draws us to himself because he has been lifted upon the cross of Calvary.

The degree of our love for God depends upon the clearness and fullness of our conviction of sin. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." The more we see of the perils to which we have been exposed by sin, the more grateful we shall be for deliverance.

Finite man, though supposing himself to be wise, can not see God until he becomes a fool in his own estimation. God is infinitely wise and just and good. His plan for the redemption of the human race is not comprehended by the wisest of this earth. Men grasp at one item of science, and in their foolishness, thinking themselves wise, they exalt science above the God of science. But all true science proceeds from God.

Men exalt themselves among men, and speak of what they know of higher education. If they only knew more, they would wish to sink out of sight. They may think and reason to the utmost of their ability; but were the veil lifted, they would see infinity beyond. They know hardly anything of the mysteries of God, who holds supervision over the universe. It will take all eternity to unfold his plans. Let those who think themselves competent to weigh and measure the counsels of divine wisdom be assured that they know not even the A B C of what is comprehended in higher education. When they gain even a glimpse of the true and living God, they will show a becoming humility. The sight will suggest the command, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy."

God has worlds upon worlds that are obedient to his law. These worlds are conducted with reference to the glory of the Creator. As the inhabitants of these worlds see the great price that has been paid to ransom man, they are filled with amazement. With intense interest they watch the controversy between Christ and Satan; and as this controversy progresses, and the glory of God shines brighter and brighter, they give praise to God. And yet, because finite men can discern a little of God's marvelous power, they take the glory that belongs to the Creator. Oh, that the veil could be removed, and they could see beyond their wisdom! Every mouth would cease its boasting. Men would see the greatness of the plans of God, and their knowledge would seem to them unspeakably inferior. They would never again think themselves qualified to sit in judgment on God's plans, or to arraign him before their tribunal that they might pass sentence on his works. -

Lessons from the Christ-Life

"The kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. . . .

"After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

"He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

"Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Thus Christ by definite instruction prepared his disciples for their work. He is our Master, as he was theirs, and this instruction we are to follow. We are to work earnestly and vigilantly to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord. There is much to be done in preparation for that solemn event. Waiting, watching, praying, and working, -- this is what we are to do as servants of God. Personal consecration is necessary, and we can not have this unless heart-holiness is cultivated and cherished.

God requires us to be faithful in his service. Let there be no spiritual declension. The apostle exhorts us to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." All are to strive to increase their capabilities, that they may continually do better work for the Master. He has provided every facility, so that his servants can labor intelligently.

When invited to a dinner or a feast, Christ accepted the invitation. He was accused by the religious leaders of eating with publicans, and they cast at him the imputation that he was like them. The respect shown to Christ at the feasts he attended was in marked contrast to the manner in which the scribes and Pharisees were treated, and this made them envious. When at a feast, Christ controlled the conversation, and gave many precious lessons. Those present listened to him; for had he not healed their sick, comforted their sorrowing, and taken their children in his arms? Publicans and sinners were drawn to him; and when he spoke, their attention was riveted on him.

Christ taught his disciples how to conduct themselves when in the company of others. He instructed them in regard to the duties and regulations of true social life, which are the same as the laws of the kingdom of God. He taught the disciples, by example, that when attending any public gathering, they need not want for something to say. His conversation when at a feast differed most decidedly from that which had been listened to at feasts in the past. Every word he uttered was a savor of life unto life. He spoke with clearness and simplicity. His words were as apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Christ gave lessons adapted to the needs of his hearers. It was at a feast that he gave the parable of the great supper.

"It came to pass," the record says, "as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. . . . And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

In his parables Christ held up the mirror of his Father's mind. Every insult shown by man to his fellow man only made him more conscious of their need of his divine sympathy. He realized the harm Satan was trying to do through the power of position and wealth. In his human nature he felt the need of the ministration of heavenly angels. He felt the need of his Father's help, as no other human being has ever felt it. He was himself winning, as a powerful warrior, a victory in behalf of the world that he had created; and under the most trying circumstances his faith did not fail. He placed himself in his Father's hands, and every insult he endured enabled him better to understand man's great need. As our substitute and surety, he felt every pang of anguish that we can ever feel. He himself suffered, being tempted.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Christ's humanity made him very tender toward humanity. The lessons he gave his disciples were in perfect harmony with his announcement of his life work. We read that after being tempted in the wilderness, Christ returned to Galilee, "and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

In everything Christ sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and that which he did he commands his followers to do. This example he gave to the human race that they might in his strength render to God the obedience he requires, and in the end present themselves perfect before his throne. He was one with the Father. His life was a fulfilling of the law, a continual obedience to God's commands.

A Neglected Work

Every Christian family should illustrate to the world the power and excellence of Christian influence. God designs that every family on earth shall be a symbol of the family in heaven, and parents should realize their accountability to keep their homes free from every taint of moral evil. Fathers and mothers should teach the infant, the child, and the youth, of the love of Jesus. Let the first baby lispings be of Christ. The father, the priest of the family, if he is connected with God, will feel a divine charge to set himself apart to the grand and elevating work of saving the souls of his children.

But the work of parents, which means so much, is greatly neglected. Awake, parents, from your spiritual slumber, and understand that the very first teaching the child receives is to be given to him by you. You are to teach your little ones to know Christ. This work you must do before Satan sows his seeds in their hearts. Christ calls the children, and they are to be led to him, educated in habits of industry, neatness, and order. This is the discipline Christ desires them to receive.

Parents, your children's future success depends on the home discipline they receive during their early years. If you have allowed Satan to discipline and control them, if you have not taken up and fulfilled your God given responsibilities, if you have neglected to seek the Lord for wisdom to enable you to co-operate with him in the work of training your children, if you have not taught them what it means to do the will of God, their lives will testify to your neglect.

The lessons given during the first years of life determine the future of the child. In husbandry, plants need constant and diligent care at the very first, that they may grow symmetrically. So it is with children. From the earliest moments of their life the children are learners. They are built up by what they see and hear, and parents are sowing the seed that will yield a harvest, either for weal or for woe. If pleasant scenes are kept before them in the home, they will become familiar with Christian courtesy, kindness, and love. But if parents are Christians in name only, and are not doers of the word, they place on their children their own superscription, and not the superscription of God. Children long for something to impress the mind. For Christ's sake, parents, give their hungering, thirsting souls something upon which to feed.

Children are naturally active, and if parents do not furnish them with employment, Satan will invent something to keep them busy in an evil work. Therefore train your children to useful work. But do not feel it your duty to make their lives unpleasant. The unpleasantness will come fast enough. Bring all the pleasure possible into your exercises as teacher and educator of your children. Encourage them to make a companion of you. Sinful impulses, sinful inclinations, and objectionable habits you will surely find in your children; but if you encourage them to seek your society, you can give a right mold to their tastes and feelings, and banish discontent, repining, and rebellion. Overcome their pride by giving them an example of meekness and lowliness of heart.

A woe rests upon parents who have not trained their children to be God-fearing, but have allowed them to grow to manhood and womanhood undisciplined and uncontrolled. During their own childhood they were allowed to manifest passion and willfulness and to act from impulse, and they bring this same spirit into their own homes. They are defective in temper, and passionate in government. Even in their acceptance of Christ they have not overcome the passions that were allowed to rule in their childish hearts. They carry the results of their early training through their entire religious life. It is a most difficult thing to remove the impress thus made upon the plant of the Lord; for as the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. If such parents accept the truth, they have a hard battle to fight. They may be transformed in character, but the whole of their religious experience is affected by the lax discipline exercised over them in their early lives. And their children have to suffer because of their defective training; for they stamp their faults upon them to the third and fourth generation.

This is a serious question, and one that should be carefully and prayerfully studied by those who have children, that they may know how to educate their little ones to be Christians. How many parents there are who are too careless and selfish to try to overcome the rude traits in their own characters lest they be perpetuated in the characters of their children. Such parents need to think solemnly of the training they are giving the younger members of the Lord's family.

The neglect of parents to train their children makes the work of the teacher doubly hard. The children bear the stamp of the unruly, unamiable traits revealed by their parents. Neglected at home, they regard the discipline of the school as oppressive and severe. Such children, if not carefully guarded, will leaven other children by their undisciplined, deformed characters. They practice deception by misrepresenting their school matters to their parents. They complain of their teachers and the rules, and parents believe their testimony before the testimony of Christian teachers who are seeking to do their duty in the fear of God. Thus the work of the teacher is made much more taxing than it should be, because parents have not the truth stamped upon their hearts. The good that children might receive in school to counteract their defective home training, is undermined by the sympathy which their parents show for them in their wrong-doing.

Shall parents who believe the word of God continue their crooked management, and confirm in their children their evil propensities? Fathers and mothers professing the truth for this time might better come to their senses, and no longer be partakers in this evil, no longer carry out Satan's devices by accepting the false testimony of their unconverted children. It is enough for teachers to have the children's influence to contend with, without having the parents' influence also.

This great work is a work that can be done only by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit can not do this unless parents welcome Christ into their hearts as an abiding guest. The Holy Spirit must be honored in the temple of the soul, where he delights to dwell.

God the Dependence of His People

Those who bear the message of mercy to perishing souls must themselves be under the discipline of God. The Lord is waiting to qualify men to carry his word to those that are afar off and to those that are nigh. He speaks to his people, warning them not to corrupt their simplicity and their trust in the Lord by sinking their individuality in any living person. The Lord will teach all who will seek him for wisdom, whatever their calling or profession. "Obey them that have the rule over you," he says, "and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief." Those who give evidence that they are chosen of God will fulfill these specifications. The soul that is imbued with the Spirit of Christ becomes one with Christ in his deep, unresting love for perishing souls. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, and he works through the human instrument.

Human beings desire too much power. They desire to control, and the Lord God, the mighty worker, is left out of their work. The workmen feel qualified to hold the highest place. Let no man attempt to manage that work which should be left in the hands of the great I am, who, in his own way, is planning how the work shall be done. The Lord says to the unfaithful stewards, Stand out of the way, and let the Lord's voice be heard. He waits not for the human voice to be heard before he works by his might and power. The message of the third angel will be proclaimed, and those who do not advance with it in knowledge and consecration will be left behind. God is the instructor of his servants, and he speaks through whom he will.

At the taking of Jericho the mighty General of armies planned the battle in such simplicity that no human being could take the glory to himself. No human hand must cast down the walls of the city, lest man should take to himself the glory of the victory. So to-day no human being is to take to himself glory for the work he accomplishes. The Lord alone is to be magnified. Oh that men would see the necessity of looking to God for their orders! The Holy Spirit will descend, and take up his abode in the heart of the sincere suppliant as he comes to the footstool of mercy. We are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, believing that God hears and answers prayer. We have a great High Priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. His promise to the children of men is, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." His dwelling-place is in every locality where men are seeking with honest hearts to do his work. "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them," Christ prayed; "that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

The world's Redeemer worked in dependence upon the Father. "I came down from heaven," he said, "not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake." "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

The eternal Father is waiting for us to take our eyes off finite man, and place our dependence on him. Then look not to man for your light and strength. Put not your trust in the arm of flesh. All your love and praise and exaltation are to be given to him who loved you and gave himself for you. Strive to be one with Christ as he was one with the Father; but in no case exalt man, not even the ablest speaker that ever lived. Lift up Jesus. Talk of him, extol his name, and by so doing your own hearts will be warmed and encouraged and strengthened. As the believer studies the word and beholds Christ, he will become more and more like Christ. Searching the Scriptures, he will learn of Christ, whom to know aright is life eternal.

The office work of the minister is not to attract people to himself. Christ declares, "Without me ye can do nothing." Then to whom do all your words of praise belong? Not to man. He may have talent and ability, but these are only lent him by God. He is not to take the place of the great power of God, for at best he is only God's instrumentality; God does his work through him. John the Baptist declared of himself that he was not that Light, but that he came to bear witness of the Light. To that Light he was ever pointing. His voice proclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Let the minister of Christ direct every word of praise away from self; put self out of sight, and never feel that his work is well done until the mind's eye can see only Jesus, the crucified One.

Self-esteem and self-love are eating out the vitals of true godliness in the church. Many whose names are on the church books are not truly converted. They do not realize the necessity of having a personal connection with Christ. The heart that has not fallen on the Rock, Christ Jesus, is proud of its wholeness. Men desire a dignified religion; they would walk in a path wide enough to take in their own attributes. Their self-love, their love of praise, excludes the precious Saviour from the heart; for God can not accept any heart that is not wholly his.

How many there are who are ignorant of what it means to be a child of God, an heir of heaven! They have a sneer on their countenances, and in their hearts, for the simplicity of true godliness. They suppose that they have advanced beyond such weakness. To such the preaching of the cross is foolishness. They have no experience in it. It is unintelligible to them. They are wise in their own conceits, and know not that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." The True Witness says to them, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." To those who think that they have so great knowledge that they do not need to learn anything, God says, "I will bring to naught the understanding of the prudent." Those who are full of self-conceit, and think themselves wise should read the words of Inspiration through the apostle Paul: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. . . . Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

The Lord's ways are not man's ways. Our minds are often attracted to the great deeds of men; but who is it that gives to any man the capability to do? Is it not the divine Teacher? And should not all praise and honor flow back to him? Just as long as the praise of man is in your mind and on your lips, you place him where God should be. You are weak in moral power, and every time you utter one word of praise of man you become the agent of Satan to destroy. Let heaven register the praises of men. It is not safe for you to do it.

The words of the psalmist, "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth," may be true of every soul. God delights to teach those who will learn of him. The entrance of his word gives light and understanding to the simple. To all who will open their minds to comprehend the precious truths of his word, God will give knowledge that will make them wise unto salvation. We are to strike a keynote that will vibrate to every soul, and bring joy to the heavenly intelligences. Presenting the cross of Calvary, we are to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." When we shall cease to trust in man, and shall make God our efficiency, we shall see the earth filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. -

The Yoke of Restraint and Obedience

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Christ's yoke is a yoke of restraint and obedience. We owe full and complete obedience to our Lord; for we are his by creation and by redemption. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

We are to bear the yoke of Christ that we may be placed in complete union with him. "Take my yoke upon you," he says. Obey my requirements. But these requirements may be in direct opposition to the will and purposes of the human agent. What then is to be done? -- Hear what God says: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." The yoke and the cross are symbols representing the same thing, -- the giving up of the will to God. Wearing the yoke unites finite man in companionship with the dearly beloved Son of God. Lifting the cross cuts away self from the soul, and places man where he learns how to bear Christ's burdens. We can not follow Christ without wearing his yoke, without lifting the cross and bearing it after him. If our will is not in accord with the divine requirements, we are to deny our inclinations, give up our darling desires, and step in Christ's footsteps.

The Lord does not encourage the wisest, the most cherished plans of human beings if he sees that they are not for the health of the spirituality of his cause. Sometimes the Lord's purposes come in direct opposition to plans in which the human agent can not see a flaw. Then it is that the right hand must be sacrificed and the right eye taken out. Purposes that seem in every way desirable may have to be given up. The Lord sees that for the spiritual health of the human agent and for the future well-being of his cause all self-confidence must be cut away. Human wisdom and self-sufficiency must be broken down.

Men frame for their own necks yokes that seem light and pleasant to wear, but they prove galling in the extreme. Christ sees this, and he says, Take my yoke upon you. The yoke you would place upon your own neck, thinking it a precise fit, will not fit at all. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me the lessons essential for you to learn; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The Lord never makes a false estimate concerning his heritage. He measures the men with whom he is working. When they submit to his yoke, when they give up the struggle that has been unprofitable for themselves and for the cause of God, they will find peace and rest. When they become sensible of their own weakness, their own deficiencies, they will delight to do God's will. They will submit to the yoke of Christ. Then God can work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure, which is often entirely contrary to the plans of the human mind. When the heavenly anointing comes to us, we shall learn the lesson of meekness and lowliness, which always brings rest to the soul.

God brings men into trying places, to see if they will trust in a power out of and above themselves. He sees not as man sees. He often has to break up human connections and change the order which man has mapped out, which is perfect in his estimation. What man thinks is for his spiritual and temporal interests may be altogether at variance with the experience he must have in order to be a follower of Christ. His idea of his own value may be far out of the way.

Tests are placed all along the way from earth to heaven. It is because of this that the road to heaven is called the narrow way. Character must be tested, else there would be many spurious Christians, who would keep up a fair semblance of religion until their inclinations, their desire to have their own way, their pride and ambition, were crossed. When, by the Lord's permission, sharp trials come to them, their lack of genuine religion, of the meekness and lowliness of Christ, shows them to be in need of the work of the Holy Spirit. Christ's command, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me," is the touchstone that discovers the quality of the experience. When a man's inclinations or ambitious hopes are crossed, he reveals the spirit that governs him.

Christ declares that the only course for men and women to pursue for their present and eternal good is to comply with his invitation. He invites all to wear his yoke and learn his meekness and lowliness. He knows that it is positively necessary for them to do this. But no human being can wear the yoke of submission and obedience who does not learn daily in the school of Christ. Whatever may be a person's supposed amiability, however qualified for usefulness he may appear to be, however righteous he may be apparently, he can not work for God unless he learns of Christ. Qualifications for true service can never be acquired apart from Christ. No one, whatever his supposed abilities, can bear the test of trial unless he is a student in the school of Christ.

Our Saviour purchased the human race by humiliation of the very severest kind. He, the Majesty of heaven, disrobed himself of his glory, and clothed his divinity with humanity, that he might pass through what humanity must pass through. He submitted to mockery, abuse, scorn, and to a cruel, shameful death to make it possible for man to be saved. He points us to the only path that will lead to the strait gate, opening into the narrow way, beyond which lie broad and pleasant pastures. He has marked out every step of the way; and that no one may make a mistake, he tells us just what to do. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." This is the only way in which sinners can be saved. Knowing that no one can obey this command in his own strength, Christ tells us not to be worried nor afraid, but to remember what he can do if we come to him, trusting in his strength. He says, If you yoke up with me, your Redeemer, I will be your strength, your efficiency.

The blessings connected with Christ's invitation can be realized and enjoyed by those only who wear Christ's yoke. Accepting this invitation, you withdraw your sympathy, your affections, from the world, and place them where you can enjoy the blessing of close fellowship and communion with God. By coming to Christ, you bind up your interests with his.

The Lord has determined that every soul who obeys his word shall have his joy, his peace, his continual keeping power. Such men and women are brought near him always, not only when they kneel before him in prayer, but when they take up the duties of life. He has prepared for them an abiding place with himself, where the life is purified from all grossness, all unloveliness. By this unbroken communion with him, they are made co-laborers with him in their life-work.

Christ says, "Without me ye can do nothing." As we advance step by step in the path of obedience, we shall know how true is the promise that they who follow on to know the Lord shall know that his going forth is prepared as the morning. Clearer light is ready to shine upon all who follow him who is the light of the world. Every one who takes upon him the yoke of Christ, with full determination to obey the word of God, will have a healthy, symmetrical experience. He will enjoy the blessings that come to him as a result of the hiding of his life with Christ in God. In business life he will work out the principles laid down in Christ's sermon on the mount. He will renounce the bag of deceitful weights, and will despise the fraud of tricks in trade. He will earn money, not to hoard it, but to put it in circulation. He has an abiding sense that he is a part of the heavenly firm, and that it is his duty to trade upon the talents given him by God. He realizes that he is adopted into the family of God, and that he must act toward all as Christ acted when he was upon this earth.

What a diligent, constant work is the work of the true Christian. Ever he wears the yoke of Christ. Evil surmisings are not allowed to take root in his heart. He has genuine modesty, and does not talk of his qualifications and accomplishments. Self-admiration is not a part of his experience. There is much to learn in regard to what comprises true Christian character. It certainly is not self-inflation. The true Christian keeps his eyes fixed on Him who searches the heart and tries the reins, who requires truth in the inward parts. His constant prayer is, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Compliments are not to be given to sinful, erring men. The glory and majesty of God should ever fill our souls with a holy awe, humbling us in the dust before him. His condescension, his wide, deep compassion, his tenderness and love, are given us to strengthen our confidence, and remove that fear which tendeth unto bondage. The Lord wants us to give him all there is of us, in a steady, evenly balanced Christian life, a life that illustrates the principles of his law.

Let us not endure the thought of being religious dwarfs. Let us press on, receiving the counsel of Jesus Christ, having that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. We must ever be growing unto the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, till we are complete in him. Christ will come and abide with every soul who will say from the heart, Come in. He loves every one who has a desire to follow him. He knows that it is the impatience and fretfulness of the human heart, and the pride that loves not humility, that keeps the soul from good. He invites us, Come unto me. Take my yoke upon you. I require you to do nothing that I have not done before you. All I ask you to do is to follow my example. Walk in the path I have marked out. Place your feet in my footsteps.

"Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds." "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." -

Pray Without Ceasing

Prayer is the breath of the soul, the channel of all blessings. As, with a realization of the needs of humanity, with a feeling of self-loathing, the repentant soul offers its prayer, God sees its struggles, watches its conflicts, and marks its sincerity. He has his finger upon its pulse, and he takes note of every throb. Not a feeling thrills it, not an emotion agitates it, not a sorrow shades it, not a sin stains it, not a thought or purpose moves it, of which he is not cognizant. That souls was purchased at an infinite cost, and is loved with a devotion that is unalterable.

Prayer to the Great Physician for the healing of the soul brings the blessing of God. Prayer unites us one to another and to God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives new strength and fresh grace to the fainting, perplexed soul. By prayer the sick have been encouraged to believe that God will look with compassion upon them. A ray of light penetrates to the hopeless soul, and becomes a savor of life unto life. Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,"--we shall know what this means when we hear the reports of the martyrs who died for their faith,--"turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

We shall hear about these victories when the Captain of our salvation, the glorious King of heaven, opens the record before those of whom John writes, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Christ our Saviour was tempted in all points like as we are, yet he was without sin. He took human nature, being made in fashion as a man, and his necessities were the necessities of a man. He had bodily wants to be supplied, bodily weariness to be relieved. It was by prayer to his Father that he was braced for duty and for trial. Day by day he followed his round of duty, seeking to save souls. His heart went out in tender sympathy for the weary and heavy laden. And he spent whole nights in prayer in behalf of the tempted ones.

Christ has given his disciples assurance that special seasons for devotion are necessary. Prayer went before and sanctified every act of his ministry. He communed with his Father till the close of his life; and when he hung upon the cross, there arose from his lips the bitter cry, "My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?" Then, in a voice which has reached to the very ends of the earth, he exclaimed, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Strength for the performance of daily duties is derived from worshiping God in the beauty of holiness. The night seasons of prayer which the Saviour spent in the mountain or in the desert were essential to prepare him for the trials he must meet in the days to follow. He felt the need of the refreshing and invigorating of soul and body, that he might meet the temptations of Satan; and those who are striving to live his life will feel this same need.

The Christian is given the invitation to carry his burdens to God in prayer, and to fasten himself closely to Christ by the cords of living faith. The Lord authorizes us to pray, declaring that he will hear the prayers of those who trust in his infinite power. He will be honored by those who draw nigh to him, who faithfully do his service. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." The arm of Omnipotence is outstretched to guide us and lead us onward and still onward. Go forward, the Lord says; I understand the case, and I will send you help. Continue to pray. Have faith in me. It is for my name's glory that you ask, and you shall receive. I will be honored before those who are watching critically for your failure. They shall see the truth triumph gloriously. "All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

The believer in Christ is consecrated to high and holy purpose. Before the service of the royal priesthood the glory of the Aaronic priesthood is eclipsed. Called according to God's purpose, set apart by grace divine, invested with Christ's righteousness, imbued with the Holy Spirit, offering up the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart, the true believer is indeed a representative of the Redeemer. Upon such a worshiper, God looks with delight. He will let his light shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul-temple if men, when they lack wisdom, will go to their closets in prayer, and ask wisdom from him who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not. The promise is, "It shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." Christ has pledged himself to be our substitute and surety, and he neglects no one. There is an inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from his obedience. In heaven his merits, his self-denial and self-sacrifice, are treasured up as incense to be offered up with the prayers of his people. As the sinner's sincere, humble prayers ascend to the throne of God, Christ mingles with them the merits of his life of perfect obedience. Our prayers are made fragrant by this incense. Christ has pledged himself to intercede in our behalf, and the Father always hears his Son. Pray then; pray without ceasing; an answer is sure to come.

But let me speak in warning: "If any man regard iniquity in his heart, the Lord will not hear him."

Show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Be ever true to principle. Waver not; speak decidedly that which you know to be truth, and leave the consequences with God. Bear in mind that God tests the genuineness of your desire. Believe the word of God, and never cease to press your petitions to his throne with sanctified, holy boldness. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." By precept and example keep the standard uplifted. Your testimony, in its genuineness and reality, God will make powerful in the power of the life to come. The word of the Lord will be in your mouth as truth and righteousness.

Let all remember that the mysteries of God's kingdom can not be learned by reasoning. True faith, true prayer--how strong they are! The prayer of the Pharisee had no value, but the prayer of the publican was heard in the courts above, because it showed dependence reaching forth to lay hold of Omnipotence. Self was to the publican nothing but shame. Thus it must be with all who seek God. Faith and prayer are the two arms which the needy suppliant lays upon the neck of infinite Love.

"We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. . . . What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? . . . I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, not things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Why do you not cease from Sin? You may overcome if you will co-operate with God. Christ's promise is sure. He pledges himself to fill the office of personal Intercessor, saying, "I will pray the Father." He who could not see human beings exposed to eternal ruin without pouring our his soul unto death in their behalf, will look with pity and compassion upon every one who realizes that he can not save himself. He will look upon no trembling suppliant without raising him up. He who through his own atonement provided for man an infinite fund of moral power will not fail to employ this power in their behalf. We may take life's controversies and troubles to his feet; for he loves us. His every word and look invite our confidence. He will shape and mold our characters according to his will, and every day we shall be found asking, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

Let us commit the needs of the soul to him who has loved us, and given his precious life that he might make it possible for us to learn of him. While lifting the cross, he says to us, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Christ alone can make us capable of responding when he says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." This means that every day self must be denied. Christ can give us the noble resolve, the will to suffer, and to fight the battles of the Lord with persevering energy. The weakest, aided by divine grace, may have strength to be more than conqueror.

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" These gifts are freely given to us by God. Oh, how weak is our faith, that we do not avail ourselves of the rich, glorious promises of God! It is his nature to bestow his gifts upon us. All-wise and all-powerful, he will give liberally to all who ask in faith. He is more merciful, more tender, more patient and loving than any earthly parent. He draws us to him by endearing language, that we may have courage and confidence. We are won to him by the disclosure of the tender sympathy that flows from his heart of love. No human parent could plead as earnestly with an erring child as God pleads with us.

All things are possible to those that believe. No one coming to the Lord in sincerity of heart will be disappointed. How wonderful it is that we can pray effectually, that unworthy, erring mortals possess the power of offering their requests to God! What higher power can man require than this,--to be linked with the infinite God? Feeble, sinful man has the privilege of speaking to his Maker. We utter words that reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe. We pour out our heart's desire in our closets. Then we go forth to walk with God as did Enoch.

We speak with Jesus Christ as we walk by the way, and he says, " I am at thy right hand." We may walk in daily companionship with Christ. When we breathe out our desire, it may be inaudible to any human ear, but that word can not die away into silence, nor can it be lost, though the activities of business are going on. Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the din of the street, above the noise of machinery, to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we are speaking, and the prayer is heard. Ask then; "ask, and it shall be given you."

The Schools of the Ancient Hebrews

The institutions of human society find their best models in the word of God. For those of instruction, in particular, there is no lack of both precept and example. Lessons of great profit, even in this age of educational progress, may be found in the history of God's ancient people.

The Lord reserved to himself the education and instruction of Israel. His care was not restricted to their religious interests. Whatever affected their mental or physical well-being, became also an object of divine solicitude, and came within the province of divine law.

God commanded the Hebrews to teach their children his requirements, and to make them acquainted with all his dealings with their people. The home and the school were one. In the place of stranger lips, the loving hearts of father and mother were to give instruction to their children. Thoughts of God were associated with all the events of daily life in the home dwelling. The mighty works of God in the deliverance of his people were recounted with eloquence and reverential awe. The great truths of God's providence and of the future life were impressed on the young mind. It became acquainted with the true, the good, the beautiful.

By the use of figures and symbols the lessons given were illustrated, and thus more firmly fixed in the memory. Through this animated imagery the child was, almost from infancy, initiated into the mysteries, the wisdom, and the hopes of his fathers, and guided in a way of thinking and feeling and anticipating that reached beyond things seen and transitory, to the unseen and eternal.

From this education many a youth of Israel came forth vigorous in body and in mind, quick to perceive and strong to act, the heart prepared like good ground for the growth of the precious seed, the mind trained to see God in the words of revelation and the scenes of nature. The stars of heaven, the trees and flowers of the field, the lofty mountains, the babbling brooks, all spoke to him, and the voices of the prophets, heard throughout the land, met a response in his heart.

Such was the training of Moses in the lowly cabin home in Goshen; of Samuel, by the faithful Hannah; of David, in the hill-dwelling at Bethlehem; of Daniel, before the scenes of the captivity separated him from the home of his fathers. Such, too, was the early life of Christ in the humble home at Nazareth; such the training by which the child Timothy learned from the lips of his mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois, the truths of Holy Writ.

Further provision was made for the instruction of the young, by the establishment of the "school of the prophets." If a youth was eager to obtain a better knowledge of the Scriptures, to search deeper into the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and to seek wisdom from above, that he might become a teacher in Israel, this school was open to him.

By Samuel the schools of the prophets were established, to serve as a barrier against the widespread corruption resulting from the iniquitous course of Eli's sons, and to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of the people. These schools proved a great blessing to Israel, promoting that righteousness which exalts a nation, and furnishing it with men qualified to act, in the fear of God, as leaders and counselors. In the accomplishment of this object, Samuel gathered companies of young men who were pious, intelligent, and studious. These were called the sons of the prophets. The instructors were men who were not only versed in divine truth, but who had themselves enjoyed communion with God, and had received the special endowment of his Spirit. They enjoyed the respect and confidence of the people, both for learning and for piety.

In Samuel's day there were two of these schools,--one at Ramah, the home of the prophet; and the other at Kirjath-jearim, where the ark then was. Two were added in Elijah's time, at Jericho and Bethel, and others were afterward established at Samaria and Gilgal.

The pupils of these schools sustained themselves by their own labor as husbandmen and mechanics. In Israel this was not thought strange or degrading; it was regarded a crime to allow children to grow up in ignorance of useful labor. In obedience to the command of God, every child was taught some trade, even though he was to be educated for holy office. Many of the religious teachers supported themselves by manual labor. Even so late as the time of Christ, it was not thought anything degrading that Paul and Aquila earned a livelihood by their labor as tent-makers.

The chief subjects of study were the law of God with the instructions given to Moses, sacred history, sacred music, and poetry. It was the grand object of all study to learn the will of God and the duties of his people. In the records of sacred history were traced the footsteps of Jehovah. From the events of the past were drawn lessons of instruction for the future. The great truths set forth by the types and shadows of the Mosaic law were brought to view, and faith grasped the central object of all that system--the Lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world.

The Hebrew language was cultivated as the most sacred tongue in the world. A spirit of devotion was cherished. Not only were students taught the duty of prayer, but they were taught how to pray, how to approach their Creator, how to exercise faith in him, and how to understand and obey the teachings of his Spirit. Sanctified intellects brought forth from the treasure house of God things new and old.

The art of sacred melody was diligently cultivated. No frivolous waltz was heard, nor flippant song that should extol man and divert the attention from God, but sacred, solemn psalms of praise to the Creator, exalting his name and recounting his wondrous works. Thus music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which was pure and noble and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God.

How wide the difference between the schools of ancient times, under the supervision of God himself, and our modern institutions of learning. Even from theological schools many students are graduated with less real knowledge of God and of religious truth than when they entered. Few schools are to be found that are not governed by the maxims and customs of the world. There are few in which a Christian parent's love for his children will not meet with bitter disappointment.

In what consists the superior excellence of our systems of education? Is it in the classical literature which is crowded into our sons? Is it in the ornamental accomplishments which our daughters obtain at the sacrifice of health or mental strength? Is it in the fact that modern instruction is so generally separated from the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation? Does the chief excellence of popular education consist in treating the individual branches of study apart from that deeper investigation which involves the searching of the Scriptures, and a knowledge of God and the future life? Does it consist in imbuing the minds of the young with heathenish conceptions of liberty, morality, and justice? Is it safe to trust our youth to the guidance of those blind leaders who study the sacred oracles with far less interest than they manifest in the classical authors of ancient Greece and Rome?

"Education," remarks a writer, "is becoming a system of seduction." There is a deplorable lack of proper restraint and judicious discipline. The most bitter feelings, the most ungovernable passions, are excited by the course of unwise and ungodly teachers. The minds of the young are easily excited, and drink in insubordination like water.

The existing ignorance of God's word, among a people professedly Christian, is alarming. The youth in our public schools have been robbed of the blessing of holy things. Superficial talk, mere sentimentalism, passes for instruction in morals and religion; but it lacks the vital characteristics of real godliness. The justice and mercy of God, the beauty of holiness, and the sure reward of right-doing, the heinous character of sin, and the certainty of punishment are not impressed upon the minds of the young.

Skepticism and infidelity, under some pleasing disguise, or as a covert insinuation, too often find their way into schoolbooks. In some instances, the most pernicious principles have been inculcated by teachers. Evil associates are teaching the youth lessons of crime, dissipation, and licentiousness, horrible to contemplate. Many of our public schools are hotbeds of vice.

How can our youth be shielded from these contaminating influences? There must be schools established upon the principles, and controlled by the precepts, of God's word. Another spirit must be in our schools, to animate and sanctify every branch of education. Divine co-operation must be fervently sought. And we shall not seek in vain. The promises of God's word are ours. We may expect the presence of the heavenly Teacher. We may see the Spirit of the Lord diffused as in the schools of the prophets, and every object partake of a divine consecration. Science will then be, as she was to Daniel, the handmaid of religion; and every effort, from first to last, will tend to the salvation of man,--soul, body, and spirit,--and to the glory of God through Christ.

The Temple of God

"Know ye not," Paul asks, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Man is God's workmanship, his masterpiece, created for a high and holy purpose; and on every part of the human tabernacle God desires to write his law. Every nerve and muscle, every mental and physical endowment, is to be kept pure.

God designs that the body shall be a temple for his Spirit. How solemn then is the responsibility resting on every soul. If we defile our bodies, we are doing harm not only to ourselves, but to many others. Christians are under obligation to God to keep soul, body, and spirit free from all that defiles; for they have been bought with a price. He who defiles himself by false doctrines or by any unholy practice, is helping to defile the church; for his influence is corrupting.

How many there are, blessed with reason and intelligence, talents which should be used to the glory of God, who willfully degrade soul and body. Their lives are a continual round of excitement. Cricket and football matches and horse-racing absorb the attention. The liquor curse, with its world of woe, is defiling the temple of God; but it brings a revenue into the public treasury: therefore it is legalized. By the use of liquor and tobacco men are debasing the life given them for high and holy purposes. Their practices are represented by wood, hay, and stubble. Their God-given powers are perverted, their senses degraded, to minister to the desires of the carnal mind.

The drunkard sells himself for a cup of poison. Satan takes control of his reason, his affections, his conscience. Such a man is destroying the temple of God. Tea-drinking helps to do this work. Yet how many there are who place destroying agencies on their tables.

No man or woman has any right to form habits which lessen the healthful action of one organ of mind or body. He who perverts his powers is defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Lord will not work a miracle to restore to soundness those who continue to use drugs which so degrade soul, mind, and body that sacred things are not appreciated. Those who give themselves up to the use of tobacco and liquor do not appreciate their intellect. They do not realize the value of the faculties God has given them. They allow their powers to wither and decay.

God desires all who believe in him to feel the necessity of improvement. Every intrusted faculty is to be improved. Not one is to be neglected. As God's husbandry and building, man is under his supervision in every sense of the word; and the better he becomes acquainted with his Maker, the more sacred will his life become in his estimation. He will not place tobacco in his mouth, knowing that it defiles God's temple. He will not drink wine or liquor, knowing that, like tobacco, it degrades the whole being.

Christ gave his own life that men and women might be lifted above the cheap, common, perishable things of this world, to the life which measures with the life of God. But Satan has thrown his shadow athwart the pathway of thousands. He desires to darken the spiritual horizon by eclipsing the light shining from the throne of God. He is pleased when man uses his God-given powers in games and amusements, in selfish nothingness.

With his own life Christ has bought man, and given him a probation in which to work out his own salvation. God asks his children to live a pure, holy life. He has given his Son that we may reach this standard. He has made every provision necessary to enable man to live, not for animal satisfaction, like the beasts that perish, but for God and heaven. God is not satisfied when human beings live merely a selfish life. Christ died that the moral image of God might be restored in humanity, that men and women might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We are to use no power of our being for selfish gratification; for all our powers belong to him, and are to be used to his glory. He who does nothing to glorify God might better never have been born. Those who live merely an animal life are by precept and example teaching others to leave eternity out of their reckoning.

The violation of a moral obligation which man owes to himself means robbery of God. Thus we work contrary to our highest interests, and utterly fail of representing God. The physical penalty of disregarding the laws of nature will appear in the form of sickness, ruined constitutions, and even death itself. But a settlement is also to be made by and by with God. He keeps an account of every work, whether it is good or evil, and in the day of judgment every man will receive according to his work. Every transgression of the laws of physical life is a transgression of the laws of God; and punishment must and will follow every such transgression.

The human house, God's building, requires close, watchful guardianship. With David we can exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." God's workmanship is to be preserved, that the heavenly universe and the apostate race may see that men and women are temples of the living God.

The perfection of character which God requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Lord requires the service of the entire being. He desires men and women to become all that he has made it possible for them to be. It is not enough for certain parts of the human machinery to be used. All parts must be brought into action, or the service is deficient.

A lawyer came to Christ with the question, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ placed the burden of the answer upon the questioner by asking him, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" Before the whole multitude the lawyer replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself." And Christ said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." The whole being--heart, soul, mind, and strength--is to be used in God's service. What is there left that is not devoted to God?

The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. God expects men to use the intellect he has given them. He expects them to use every reasoning power for him. They are to give the conscience the place of supremacy that has been assigned to it. The mental and physical powers, with the affections, are to be so cultivated that they can reach the highest efficiency. Thus Christ is represented to the world. By this painstaking effort man is qualified to co-operate with the great Master Workman in saving souls unto life eternal. This is why God intrusted us with talents,--that we might have life, eternal life, in the kingdom of heaven.

Is God pleased to see any of the organs or faculties he has given man neglected, misused, or deprived of the health and efficiency it is possible for them to have? Then cultivate the gift of faith. Be brave, and overcome every practice which mars the soul-temple. We are wholly dependent on God, and our faith is strengthened by believing, though we can not see God's purpose in his dealing with us, or the consequence of this dealing. Faith points forward and upward to things to come, laying hold of the only power that can make us complete in him. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me," God declares; "and he shall make peace with me." -

Walk in the Light

"Now is my soul troubled," Christ declared, "and what shall I say?" The Saviour came to this world as a man, his divinity allied to humanity. He found its inhabitants under the jurisdiction of Satan, who claimed to be the god of this world. He saw those for whom he had given his life intent upon self-glorification. He saw those who should have followed their convictions of right seeking to evade the truth, which he presented to them in plain, distinct lines.

Satan rebelled against God in the heavenly courts. As no one could live in heaven in opposition to God, he was expelled. So great were his powers of deception that he carried with him a large number of the heavenly beings. With these sympathizers he came to this earth, determined to carry on the war against God. And when Christ came, he found the apostate working with the children of men, trying in every way to deceive them, that they should not obey the truth.

This filled Christ's heart with sorrow. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" he asked. "Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" He saw that those for whom he had labored were filled with hatred against the truth of God. For them he had stepped down from his position as Commander of the heavenly host, laying aside his royal robe and kingly crown, and clothing his divinity with humanity. Yet they despised and rejected him. They lived lives of disobedience, refusing to hear and obey the word of God. It was in view of all this that Christ said, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say [more than I have said]?" He saw the trial before him. He saw the humiliation he was to endure at the hands of the impenitent, blinded Jews. He saw that those for whom he had done so much were soon to crucify him. "For my love they are my adversaries," he declared.

Jesus was indeed heaven's greatest gift to our world. But the treasures of truth he brought were rejected because to receive them involved a cross. The Light of heaven, he came to this world to shine amid the darkness of sin. But the people chose darkness rather than light, and the way of disobedience rather than the path of obedience. They would not heed the invitations, the warnings, and the cautions sent them. They abused their privileges and mercies.

The climax was almost reached. The time for the Jews to take sides for or against Christ had come. The hour of grace was fast passing. The wrath of God was fast filling the cup of his indignation.

Christ saw the retribution that was to come upon the Jews as a result of their course of action,--their rebellion against God, and their hatred of the Roman power, which they were compelled to obey. Had the Jews been loyal to God, the armies of heaven would have shielded them from their adversaries. They brought their ruin upon themselves. Christ saw them mustering their forces for the defense of Jerusalem. But God was not their helper. The invisible host of heaven was not fighting in their behalf. Christ saw the beautiful temple, in which the Jews had taken such pride, consumed by fire till it was only a heap of smoldering ashes. He saw the nation scattered. He saw its rich men despoiled of the wealth gained by fraud and disobedience. He saw the people dispersed through foreign countries, the acknowledged citizens of none, a people without any sure abiding place. He listened to the wail of anguish that rose as their children's children were hunted from place to place, always refused protection or relief. This brought such grief to his heart that he exclaimed, with tears, "Now is my soul troubled." With quivering lips he breathed the prayer, "Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name."

"Then there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him." Christ and his disciples, with the Greeks who had received the truth, heard the words spoken from heaven, and Jesus said, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." It was Christ's death on the cross that struck Satan's death knell.

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Wonderfully significant words! Henceforth there would be no partition wall between Jew and Gentile. The gospel would be preached to all nations. Will all hear the message of salvation?--They will; for Christ has said it. And if they obey his gracious words, they will be claimed by God in the day when he makes up his jewels. "I will spare them," he says, "as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." All are drawn. Not one is left without conviction. Christ gives everyone evidence. But not all accept the evidence. Many show plainly that it is not evidence they want, but an excuse for disregarding a plain "Thus saith the Lord." Instead of fearing and trembling before God, rejoicing that they have the privilege of listening to warnings and reproof, some inwardly wish that light had never come to them, to bring them to the test of decision.

"Yet a little while is the light with you," Christ continued. "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Whence came their hardness of heart?--Through transgression. The parable of the unfaithful husbandmen shows plainly that the Jews carried out their ambitious desires till the love and fear of God departed from them.

No one is to understand from this scripture that God arbitrarily blinded the eyes and hardened the hearts of the Jews. It was Christ's work to soften hard hearts. But if men resisted the work of Christ, the sure result would be that their hearts would become hardened.

Christ quoted a prophecy which more than a thousand years before had predicted what God's foreknowledge had seen would be. The prophecies do not shape the characters of the men who fulfill them. Men act out their own free will, either in accordance with a character placed under the molding of God or a character placed under the harsh rule of Satan.

God tested the Jews to see if they would believe on his Son, or listen to the false charges made against him by the Pharisees, charges originating in the mind of Satan, whose effort it is to intercept every ray of divine light.

God gave the Jewish people wonderful light, wonderful evidence of his majesty, his power, his truth. It was not long since Christ had given them a crowning evidence of his divinity. He had raised from the grave a man who had been dead four days. Lazarus came forth from the tomb to testify to the mighty power of Jesus of Nazareth.

No greater evidence than this could have been given. Would not the rulers who had before been convinced in regard to the Saviour's divinity now believe in him and confess him? Was not the miracle he had performed wonderful enough to lead them to do this? It was indeed enough to banish all prejudice even in the most unbelieving. But the hearts of the Jewish leaders were filled with the bitterest opposition, and instead of yielding to their convictions, they were maddened because Christ had done something which they could not possibly refute. In their stubbornness, self-exaltation, and proud boasting, they would not humble themselves to confess that they were in error. "Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him."

The first step in resistance of light leads to the second, and the second to the third, until no light, however strong, no evidence, however plain, has any effect. If a man is humble and teachable, his opposition will melt away, and his heart will be softened. Christ shows him the threshold of heaven, flushed with living glory. But his glory, which softens the contrite heart, only hardens the heart that will not yield to its rays. Truth shining upon a heart determined to resist, only leads to further resistance.

"Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him." Why did they not then bring joy to his heart by acknowledging him?--"Because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." How pitiful is this statement! The maintenance of their dignity was of greater weight with them than the performance of their duty to exert an influence on the side of truth and righteousness.

The Light of the world, Christ shows us the way to heaven, pointing out the advantage of treading in the path of obedience. John bears witness of him, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth." "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

The time of most solemn responsibility for the Jewish nation was when Christ was among them. It was then that the last test was given to them as a nation. Light from the living oracles of God shone upon them. Jesus spoke to them, and did among them works which no man ever had done or could do. But they would not receive him. This generation is passing over the same ground. To day Christ is saying to many, You would none of my counsel. You rejected my invitation to enlist on the Lord's side. You chose to be numbered with transgressors. Of those who reject the truth he is saying, If you are destroyed, you are responsible. You would not come unto me that you might have life.

The tempter offers his flattering bribes to all who will listen to him. He tells men and women that if they obey the Sabbath command, they will lose their position in the world, and in the church. He presents before them many objections to an acceptance of the truth, telling them that their lives will be made unpleasant, that their reputation will suffer. Thus he tempted the Jews in Christ's day, and many who were inclined to follow the Saviour turned away from him for fear of temporal loss.

Christ has given his people messages of warning to give to the world. As these messages are presented, many are convinced of the truth. Then they begin to think of the sacrifice that obedience to the truth will involve. Truth makes its impression upon the heart, and is recommended by the conscience. But men begin to speculate. Why are there so few who believe this truth? they ask. Have any of the ministers or learned men believed it?

Many refuse to obey the truth through fear that they will lose their standing in the world. They allow the inconveniences in the pathway of truth to prevent them from following the Saviour. They do not realize that to reject truth means to lose eternal life.

The heavenly intelligences watch with intense interest the struggle between tempter and tempted. It is a life-and-death question that is being settled. Christ knows this, and before those whose souls are trembling in the balance, he holds up the sure test of obedience or disobedience, saying, "He that loveth his life"--his good name, his reputation, his money, his property, his business--"shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." He who hates the life which is lived in transgression of God's law, he who accepts the divine requirements, leaving God to take care of the consequences, will gain eternal life. "If any man serve me," Christ declares, "let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor." -

Offer Unto God Thanksgiving

"I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High."

We should ever remember that thanksgiving is the fruit of true, willing obedience. The Lord is the object of our worship, and to praise his holy name shows respect for his efficiency. God says, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith relies upon God as being able and willing to save to the uttermost all who come to him. As we speak of God's power, we show that we appreciate the love that is so constantly shown us, that we are grateful for the mercies and favors bestowed on us, and that the whole soul is awakened to a realization of God's glory.

The absence of praise and thanksgiving pleases the enemy of God. The line of demarcation between those who utter the holy name of God in blasphemy, and those who praise him with heart and with voice, is clear and distinct. He who is truly converted will glorify God as he beholds the wonderful things of his creation, the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars, the changing beauty of the heavens. To him all nature will declare God's mighty power. He will be led to give glory to his holy name.

Isaiah tells us what God is doing for us. "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law."

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. . . . I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. . . . When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: "I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."

What greater encouragement and assurance than this could the Lord give his loyal, commandment-keeping people? Have we not every reason for changing our attitude toward God? Is it not our duty to show the world that we appreciate the love of Christ? As we produce the fruit of thanksgiving, we bear living evidence that by connection with Christ we are placed on vantage ground. God is the fountain of life and power. He can make the wilderness a fruitful field for those who keep his commandments; for it is for the glory of his name to do this. Thus he witnesses to Christianity. He has done for his chosen people that which should inspire every heart with praise and thanksgiving; and it grieves him that so little praise is offered. He desires to have a stronger expression of praise from his people, showing that they know they have reason for manifesting joy and gladness.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. . . . And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." As the grace which is in the soul flows out to others, more grace flows in to be given back to God in willing offerings.

The people of God need to be aroused to let their light shine forth. Christ said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." God's people should be an animated people, filled with joy and gladness because they behold him who is invisible to the eyes of the world.

Our tongues should be used to express the appreciation in our hearts for God's goodness. Thus God requires us to return to him gratitude offerings. But this is not the only way in which we are to praise God. We are to praise him by tangible service, by doing all we can to advance the glory of his name. By improving our intrusted talents, we are to offer God thanksgiving.

We are to glorify God by keeping his commandments. Christ said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more." Feeling no need of me, it is seeking for the perishable things of earth. "But ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." How plain is the distinction here drawn between the two classes. Worldlings place their whole attention upon the gaining of worldly advantages. The mind is filled with the selfish thought, How can I secure these advantages for myself? How can I obtain more money? This is the god man worships. Men do not stop to think of the riches of which no earthly power can deprive them. They see not Christ, neither know him. They do not realize their great need of a Redeemer. They do not pray. They put Christ out of their lives as much as possible.

"But ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." Christ is with his children, enlightening their minds and leading them to call upon him. As they do this, he hears their prayers and purifies their hearts. They see him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They do not walk in accordance with the ways of the world. They ask God for Christ's sake to help them, and they receive the help they ask for. They are gifted by God with power to see the love and wonderful charms of Christ. They can never feel lonely or comfortless.

"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Let all mark the answer. "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Wonderful indeed is this promise. Do we comprehend it? When a man becomes one with Christ, he has the mind of Christ. He is no longer antagonistic to God's law, but lives in obedience to all his commandments. He walks in the footsteps of the Saviour.

But should he walk regretfully, because in his union with Christ he is called upon to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice? Think of what the Prince of heaven did to manifest his love for the Father and for us. He resigned his position as Commander in the heavenly courts, and clothed his divinity with humanity, that humanity might lay hold of humanity, and divinity grasp the throne of the Infinite. This he did to perfect the redemption of the human race. Those who receive him are adopted into the royal family as sons and daughters of God. They are made heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, to an immortal inheritance. Have they any cause for regret?

Christ has declared that the cross which makes the line of demarcation between his people and the world so distinct is not a cross of discouragement, but a cross of salvation. Love for the Saviour will lead us to acknowledge this. God has given human beings all that ministers to their happiness, and in return he asks them to lay their gifts and offerings on his altar. Shall we disregard this requirement? Shall we fail of offering God praise and thanksgiving in word and deed? -

Prepare to Meet the Lord

A crisis has arisen in the government of God on earth. Enmity to God has struck its roots deep in human hearts. It has become widespread, both in the world and in the professed churches of Christ. A wakeful impiety is quickened into an instinctive vigilance, and rouses to demonstration of hatred against the testing truth for this time. Wherever the truth is proclaimed, it will be opposed in a decided manner.

Everything has been moving on just as the Lord revealed in prophecy that it would. Something great and decisive is soon to take place, else no flesh would be saved. The character of God will not be compromised. Under the wrath of God, universal desolation will soon reach all parts of the known world. There have been lightnings and earthquakes, fires and floods, calamities by sea and land; but who reads these warnings? What impression is made upon the world? What change in their attitude is seen? No more than was seen in the inhabitants of the Noachian world. The people are just as ardent to-day in their games, in their horse racing, in their love of amusement, as were the antediluvians, who "knew not until the flood came, and took them all away," They had heaven-sent warnings, but they refused to listen. By their attitude they declared, We want not thy way, O God; we want our own way, our own will. To-day the world is mad: an insanity is upon men and women, and is hurrying them on to eternal ruin. Every species of indulgence prevails, and men have become so infatuated with vice that they will not listen to warnings or appeals.

The Lord says to the people of the earth, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." All are now deciding their eternal destiny. Men need to be aroused to realized the solemnity of the time, the nearness of the day when human probation shall be ended. God gives no man a message that it will be five years or ten years or twenty years before this earth's history shall close. He would not give any living being an excuse for delaying the preparation for his appearing. He would have no one say, as did the unfaithful servant, "My Lord delayeth his coming;" for this leads to reckless neglect of the opportunities and privileges given to prepare us for that great day. Everyone who claims to be a servant of God is called to do his service as if each day might be the last.

The words of Christ have a direct application to this time: "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."

Let everyone to whom the Lord has given light from his word be sure that he makes a right use of that light. Let him beware that he does not presume to feed the flock of God with food which is not appropriate for the time. "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." Talk of the speedy appearing of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Put not off that day. God has given no man a right to say, "My Lord delayeth his coming." Let the inquiry be made, Shall I stand at the right hand or at the left hand of the Judge at that day? "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"

"If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants [how?--By suspicious words, by evil-thinking and evil-speaking. It is thus that confidence is changed to doubt and unbelief], . . . the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It is essential that all shall know what atmosphere surrounds their own souls, whether they are in co- partnership with the enemy of righteousness, and unconsciously doing his work, or whether they are yoked up with Christ, doing his work, and seeking to establish souls more firmly in the truth.

Satan would be pleased to have anyone and everyone become his allies in the work of weakening the confidence of brother in brother, and sowing discord among those who profess to believe the truth. Satan can accomplish his purpose most successfully through professed friends of Christ who are not walking and working in Christ's lines. Those who in mind and heart are turning away from the Lord's special work for this time, those who do not co-operate with him in establishing souls in the faith by leading them to heed his words of warning, are doing the work of the enemy of Christ.

It is a most serious matter to go from house to house, and, under pretense of doing missionary work, scatter the seed of mistrust and suspicion. Such seed speedily germinates, and there is created a distrust of God's servants, who have his message to bear to the people. When God speaks through his servants, the seed sown has developed into a root of bitterness. The word falls upon ears that will not hear, and hearts that will not respond. No earthly or heavenly power can find access to the soul. Who is accountable for these souls? Who shall eradicate that poisonous root of bitterness that has prevented them from receiving the word of the Lord? A sister or brother in the church planted the evil seed, but who will restore the soul thus imperiled? The tongue that should have been used to the glory of God in speaking words of faith and hope and confidence in God's workmen, has turned a soul away from Jesus Christ. Those who themselves despised the words of Christ, and refused to hear his voice and to be converted, have leavened other minds with the leaven of evil-surmising and evil-speaking.

This is the day of the Lord's preparation. We have no time now to talk unbelief or to gossip, no time now to do the devil's work. Let everyone beware of unsettling the faith of others by sowing seeds of envy, jealousy, disunion; for God hears the words, and he judges, not by assertions which are yea and nay, but by the fruit of one's course of action. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The seed sown will determine the character of the harvest.

So long as the people of God are in this world, they will have to meet conflict and trouble and deception, because men choose the attributes of Satan instead of attributes of God. There is a conscience that is not good. There are those whose words are yea and nay in regard to the same thing. How are we to deal with those who make these false statements? We should not try to deal with them. The Lord God of Israel will deal with minds according to his knowledge; for he reads the heart. The less we have to do with untruthful elements, the better it will be for the church.

Bear in mind always that the human brotherhood are not sin-bearers. Jesus alone can bear the sins of the transgressor. We are to leave them with him. The conscience needs to be converted. The heart that is not true needs to be renewed, but we can not do this work. We must leave the sinner with God. He has borne long with the false tongue. He does not force men to forsake evil, and we must let men falsify if they will. The Lord is our only trust. We are to rest in him and be still. We may feel that the Lord's work is in jeopardy, through the deceptions of those who deal falsely, but we need not feel thus. We are not to think that the issue of the conflict is in our hands. Our duty is to walk by faith. In his own time God will deal with the deceiver. He will reward every man according to his work.

Jesus says, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Here is the great burden to be carried by each one. Are my sins forgiven? Has Christ, the burden-bearer, taken away my guilt? Have I a clean heart, purified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Woe be to any soul who is not seeking a refuge in Christ. Woe be to all who shall in any way divert the mind from the work, and cause any soul to be less vigilant now.

The Lord wishes all to understand his providential dealings now, just now, in the time in which we live. There must be no long discussions, no presenting of new theories in regard to prophecies that God has already made plain. The great work from which the mind should not be diverted is the consideration of our personal standing in the sight of God. Are our feet on the Rock of Ages? Are we hiding ourselves in the only Refuge? The storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? Are we one with Christ as he is one with the Father? Are we heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ? Are we working in co-partnership with the Saviour?

Let all who would co-operate with God unite in proclaiming the present truth, the message of the third angel: "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Then, as the eyes of John rested upon God's people, he exclaimed: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe."

Already kingdom is rising against kingdom. There is not now a determined engagement. As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the Powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle. How carefully we should improve the little remaining period of our probation! How earnestly we should examine ourselves! We should eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God; that is, carefully study the Word, eat it, digest it, make it a part of our being. We are to live the Word, not keep it apart from our lives. The character of Christ is to be our character. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our hearts. Here is our only safety. Nothing can separate a living Christian from God.

It is discipline of spirit, cleanness of heart and thought, that is needed. This is of more value than brilliant talent, tact, or knowledge. An ordinary mind, trained to obey a "Thus saith the Lord," is better qualified for God's work than are those who have capabilities, but do not employ them rightly. Christ is the truth, because he is the fulfillment of ancient prophecies. Men may take pride in their knowledge of worldly things; but if they have not a knowledge of the true God, of Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they are deplorably ignorant, and their knowledge will perish with them. Secular knowledge is power; but the knowledge of the Word, which has a transforming influence upon the human mind, is imperishable. It is knowledge sanctified. It is life and peace and joy forever. The deeper knowledge men may have, sanctified wholly unto God, the more they will appreciate the value of Jesus Christ. -

The Church of God

The church on earth is God's temple, and it is to assume divine proportions before the world. This building is to be the light of the world. It is to be composed of living stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a solid building. All these stones are not of the same shape or dimension. Some are large, and some are small, but each one has its own place to fill. In the whole building there is not to be one misshapen stone. Each one is perfect. And each stone is a living stone, a stone that emits light. The value of the stones is determined by the light they reflect to the world.

Now is the time for the stones to be taken from the quarry of the world and brought into God's workshop, to be hewed, squared, and polished, that they may shine. This is God's plan, and he desires all who profess to believe the truth to fill their respective places in the great, grand work for this time. He desires each worker to stand forth as did Daniel, every phase of the character under divine ministration, that day by day he may be prepared to fill his place in the temple of God.

It is God's design that his church shall ever advance in purity and knowledge, from light to light, from glory to glory. "Whereunto," asks he who is the first and the last, "shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?" He could not employ any of the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society he found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendency of physical power. But in Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is to be abolished. This kingdom is to be established to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity. Christ makes his church a beautiful temple for God. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name," he declared, "there am I in the midst of them." His church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Appropriate duties are assigned by Heaven to the church on earth, and the members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.

Through the ages of moral darkness, through centuries of strife and persecution, the church of Christ has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, to the present time, the pure doctrines of the Bible have been unfolding within her borders. The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as she may appear, is the one object on earth on which he bestows in a special sense his love and regard. The church is the theater of his grace, in which he delights to make experiments of mercy on human hearts.

The church is God's fortress, his city of refuge, which he holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to him who has bought her with the precious blood of his only begotten Son. In the past, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth, and God has taken them into covenant relation with himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth his holy angels to minister to his church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against it.

Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. Its members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan's work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil. Christ would have a church that labors to separate the evil from the good, whose members will not willingly tolerate wrong-doing, but will expel it from the heart and life.

To-day, as in the past, all heaven is watching to see the church develop in the true science of salvation. Christ has bought the church with his blood, and he longs to clothe her with salvation. He has made her the depositary of sacred truth, and he wishes her to partake of his glory. But in order that the church may be an educating power in the world, she must co-operate with the church in heaven. Her members must represent Christ. Their hearts must be open to receive every ray of light that God may see fit to impart. As they receive this light, they will be enabled to receive and impart more and more of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

There is need of a higher grade of spirituality in the church. There is need of heart purification. God calls his people to their posts of duty. He calls upon them to purge themselves from that which has been revealed as the bane of the churches--an exalting of the men placed in positions of trust. There is earnest work to be done. Upon their knees men are to seek God in faith, and then go forth to speak the word with power sent down from on high. Such men come before the people direct from the audience-chamber of the Most High, and their words and works promote spirituality. When they come in contact with wrong principles, they plant their feet firmly upon the words, "It is written."

This age is one of peculiar temptation, especially to the self-sufficient ones, who feel no special need of guarding the avenues of the soul. Unless they heed the warnings God has given, they will most surely be drawn away from the principles of the truth. They will stand among those who dishonor the faith by giving heed to seducing spirits. They plead for the indulgence of appetite. They take no delight in contemplating the character of the Saviour. The rebuke of Christ is upon them, because in thought and action they are corrupt.

There are those in the church who, unless thoroughly converted, will crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. I appeal to every church-member to inquire, Am I doing all I can to honor my Redeemer? Truth held in unrighteousness is the greatest curse that can come to our world. But the truth as it is in Jesus is a savor of life unto life. It is worth possessing, worth living, worth defending. Christ calls upon us to enter the narrow pathway, where every step means a denial of self. He calls upon us to stand upon the platform of eternal truth, and contend, yes, contend earnestly, for the faith once delivered to the saints. Paul wrote to Timothy: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." "Hold fast the form of sound words, . . . in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

As we near the time when principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places will be fully brought into the warfare against the truth, when Satan's deceptive power will be so great that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect, our discernment must be sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may not be ignorant of Satan's devices. The whole treasure of heaven is at our command in the work of preparing the way of the Lord. By giving us the co-operation of the holy angels, God has made it possible for our work to be a wonderful, yes, a glorious, success. But success will seldom result from scattered effort. The united influence of all the members of the church is required.

The church to-day needs men who, like Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ to the world. Church-members need to reach a higher standard. Heavenly messengers are waiting to communicate with those who have sunk self out of sight, whose lives are a fulfilling of the words, "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 me." Of such men and women must the church be composed before her light can shine forth to the world in clear, distinct rays. Our views of the Sun of Righteousness are clouded by self-seeking. Christ is crucified afresh by many who through self-indulgence allow Satan to gain control over them. The church needs men of devotion to bear to the world the message of salvation, pointing sinners to the Lamb of God,--men who, by their works of righteousness and their pure, true words, can lift their fellow men out of the pit of degradation.

With pity and compassion, with tender yearning and love, the Lord is looking upon his tempted and tried people. For a time the oppressors will be permitted to triumph over those who keep God's holy commandments. All are given the same opportunity that was granted to the first great rebel to reveal the spirit that moves them to action. It is God's purpose that all shall be tested and tried, that he may see whether they are loyal or disloyal to the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven. To the last, God permits Satan to reveal himself as a liar, an accuser, and a murderer. Thus the final triumph of his people is made more marked, more glorious, more full and complete. The words of the prophet will then be fulfilled, "The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." The song of the Lord's people will then be: "The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above the people."

Lessons for Christians

The third chapter of 1 Corinthians contains instruction which all who claim to be following Jesus should study. Contentions in the body of believers are not after the order of God. They result from the manifestation of the attributes of the natural heart. To all who bring in disorder and disunion, the words of Paul are applicable: "I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." Paul here addressed a people whose advancement was not proportionate to their privileges and opportunities. They ought to have been able to bear the hearing of the plain word of God, but they were in the position in which the disciples were when Christ said to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now." They ought to have been far advanced in spiritual knowledge, able to comprehend and practice the higher truths of the word; but they were unsanctified. They had forgotten that they must be purged from their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, and that they must not cherish carnal attributes.

It was impossible for the apostle to reprove wrong-doing without some who claimed to believe the truth becoming offended. The inspired testimony could do these no good; for they had lost their spiritual discernment. Jealousy, evil surmising, and accusing closed the door to the working of the Holy Spirit. Paul would gladly have dwelt upon higher and more difficult truths, truths which were rich in nourishment, but his instruction would have cut directly across their tendencies to jealousy, and would not have been received. The divine mysteries of godliness, which would have enabled them to grasp the truths necessary for that time, could not be spoken. The apostle must select lessons which, like milk, could be taken without irritating the digestive organs. Truths of the deepest interest could not be spoken, because the hearers would misapply and misappropriate them, presenting them to young converts who needed only the more simple truths of the word.

"Ye are yet carnal," Paul declared, "for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" Their contentions revealed that they had not the mind and Spirit of Christ, that they were walking after the wisdom of their narrow, conceited minds. Their views and feelings were bound about with selfishness. They did not show the liberality, the generosity, the tenderness, which reveals an abiding Christ.

Holiness to God through Christ is required of Christians. If there are wrongs in the church, they should receive immediate attention. Some may have to be sharply rebuked. This is not doing the erring one any wrong. The faithful physician of the soul cuts deep, that no pestilent matter may be left to burst forth again. After the reproof has been given, then comes repentance and confession, and God will freely pardon and heal. He always pardons when confession is made.

The Lord desires that the soul-temple shall be kept free from all defilement. "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise,"--in his own eyes,--"let him become a fool, that he may be wise." Let him who seeks the highest place learn to think far less of his worldly wisdom, and humble himself, that God may give him the wisdom which is bestowed only when true humility is shown. The world may call him a fool, but God calls him wise; for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Obedience to God is of far greater value than the esteem of the world.

God's servants are engaged in one common vineyard. "All ye are brethren." Their object should not be to make a show, not to exalt self, but to convert souls, to do a work which will stand the assaults of the enemies of truth and righteousness. Let no man belittle another man's work because it is not in exactly the same line as his own. The souls for whom we labor are not to be converted to the minister, but to Jesus Christ. Let man keep himself in the background; let Christ appear. Talk of Christ. Exalt Christ. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary.

Paul declares, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." Paul was the first to preach the gospel at Corinth. He organized the church there. Apollos came after, winning his way to the hearts of the people, and instructing them. But God gave the increase. The success of both came from Him.

God's servants do not all possess the same gifts, but they are all His workmen. Each is to learn of the Great Teacher, and then to communicate what he has learned. All do not do the same work, but under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit they are all God's instrumentalities . God employs a diversity of gifts in His work of winning souls from Satan's army.

"Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." God, and not man, is the judge of man's work, and He will apportion to each his just reward. It is not given to any human being to judge between the different servants of God. The Lord alone is the judge and rewarder of every good work.

"He that planteth and he that watereth are one," engaged in the same work,--the salvation of souls. "We are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." In these words the church is compared to a cultivated field, in which the husbandmen are to labor, caring for the vines of the Lord's planting; and to a building, which is to become a holy temple for the Lord. Christ is the Master Workman. All are to work under His supervision, letting Him work for and through His workmen. He gives them tact and skill, and if they heed His instructions, crowns their labor with success. None are to complain against God, who has appointed to each man his work. He who murmurs and frets, who wants his own way, who desires to mold his fellow laborers to suit his own ideas, needs the divine touch before he is qualified to labor in any line. Unless he is changed, he will surely mar the work.

Remember that we are laborers together with God. God is the all-powerful, effectual mover. His servants are His instruments. They are not to pull apart, everyone laboring in accordance with his own ideas. They are to labor in harmony, fitting together in kindly, courteous, brotherly order, in love for one another. There is to be no unkind criticism, no pulling to pieces of another's work. Together they are to carry the work forward.

There are to be no separate parties in God's work. Every man to whom God has intrusted a message has his specific work, and this is to be done under the great Master Workman. Form no separate parties. In their ministry, God's servants are to be essentially one. Each person has an individuality of his own, which he is not to lose in any other man. Yet he is to work in perfect unity with his brethren. In honor God's workers are to prefer one another. No worker is to set himself up as a criterion, and speak disrespectfully of his fellow worker, treating him as an inferior. Under God each is to do his appointed work, respected, loved, and encouraged by his fellow workers.

"Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." We are to study and obey every caution in the word of God. The Lord desires all to work under His direction. His word is an unerring counselor.

"According to the grace of God which is given unto me," Paul continues, "as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon." Others afterward bore their message, and gathered in the souls who believed and were converted. "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." God's servants are to use the greatest care in regard to the doctrines they teach, the example they set, and the influence they exert on those associated with them. The great apostle appeals to the church and to God to witness to the truth and the sincerity of his profession. "Ye are witnesses, and God also," he says, "how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Isaiah declares: "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." Christ has been crucified for us. He is the propitiation for our sins. He is the atoning sacrifice, the true, immovable foundation. He has gathered the believers in church capacity, that they may labor unitedly, strengthening and building up one another in the faith.

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." It is for our eternal interest to place the right material upon the right foundation. Christ is the great necessity for everyone. It will be to the peril of our souls that we mingle selfishness with the offering laid on the foundation. We are to lay upon it material that will do honor to God. The laborer for God is to do thorough work; his mind is to be pure and clean, free from all the cheapness represented as wood, hay, and stubble. The work of those who bring their offerings to God in humility and love, depending hour by hour on the grace of Christ to sanctify and cleanse from moral impurities, bears the impress of God, who estimates our work, not according to the outward appearance, but according to the heart purity brought into it.

In the work of character building, each person is responsible for the way in which he builds. There are many in our world who teach speculative theories, rather than the simple truths which Christ taught. Everyone will be tested, to see whether his conversion is real. The pure doctrines that are taught in faith, the gold, silver, and precious stones that are brought to the foundation, will elevate and ennoble the receiver. But the teaching that is mingled with human philosophy can never satisfy.

It makes every difference what material is used in the character building. The long-expected day of God will soon test every man's work. "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." As fire reveals the difference between gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and stubble, so the day of judgment will test characters, showing the difference between characters formed after Christ's likeness, and characters formed after the likeness of the selfish heart. All selfishness, all false religion, will then appear as it is. The worthless material will be consumed; but the gold of true, simple, humble faith will never lose its value. It can never be consumed; for it is imperishable. One hour of transgression will be seen to be a great loss, while the fear of the Lord will be seen to be the beginning of wisdom. The pleasure of self-indulgence will perish as stubble, while the gold of steadfast principle, maintained at any cost, will endure forever. -

An Important Letter from Sister E. G. White

- St. Helena, Cal., October, 1900. Dear---: I can not at this time write much. I do not feel it my duty to write all that I could write in truth; for it would not be the best thing to do. I must wait and watch and pray. I feel that the Holy Spirit is working you who are on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. But I have not light now that I should visit Battle Creek, and I shall not do this without a plain "Thus saith the Lord." When God sees that the work He has given me will not be refused, and rejected, and His instruction misstated and misappropriated, then I shall have a work to do in connection with those who will co-operate with me in the last great work before us.

Calamities, earthquakes, floods, disasters by land and by sea will increase. God is looking upon the world to-day as He looked upon it in Noah's time. He is sending His message to people to-day as He did in the days of Noah. There is, in this age of the world, a repetition of the wickedness of the world before the flood. Many helped Noah build the ark who did not believe the startling message, who did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, who did not overcome the temptation to do and say things that were entirely contrary to the mind and will of God.

Have faith in God. He gave me the idea of giving "Christ's Object Lessons" for the relief of the schools. He is testing His people and institutions in this thing, to see if they will work together and be of one mind in self-denial and self-sacrifice. Carry forward this work, without flinching, in the name of the Lord. Let God's plan be vindicated. Let His proposition be fully carried out and heartily indorsed as the means of uniting the members of the churches in self-sacrificing effort. Thus they will be sanctified, soul, body, and spirit, as vessels unto honor, to whom God can impart His Holy Spirit. By this means they will accomplish the work God designs to have done.

Stir up every family, every church, to do the very utmost of their power, every one consecrating himself to God, putting the leaven of evil out of his heart, out of the home, and out of the church. Let every family make the most of this, the Lord's opportunity. Let self-denial and self-sacrifice be revealed. Let the teachers in the school do as others of God's servants are doing,--cut down their wages. This self-sacrifice will be required of us all. Let all place themselves where they will be sure to receive the answer to their prayers. It is the cause of God which is at stake.

The preciousness of life is to be appreciated because this life belongs to the Master. As long as we live, we are ever to bear in mind that we are bought with a price. Christ made of himself a whole and complete sacrifice for us, to make it possible for us to receive the gift of everlasting life. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." We have enlisted under Christ's banner for life service, and great responsibilities and possibilities are within our reach.

There are, in the providence of God, particular periods when we must arise in response to the call of God, and make use of our time, our intellect, our whole being, body, soul, and spirit, fulfilling to the utmost of our ability the requirements of God. Just now let not the opportunity be lost. Let all work together. Let children act a part. Let every member of the family do something. Educate, educate. This is an opportunity which God's people can not afford to lose. God calls. Do your best at this time to tender to Him your offering, to carry out His specified will; and thus make this an occasion for witnessing for Him and His truth. In a world of darkness let your light shine forth.

Let canvassers do their best in canvassing for the book, "Christ's Object Lessons." Their work will serve a double purpose. They will place in the homes of the people a book containing most precious light, seed sown to bring to souls ready to perish. In receiving this seed into their hearts, they will save their souls through belief of the truth. At the same time means will be gathered for the relief of the schools. Twofold good will thus be accomplished in this work. Let it be done heartily, as unto the Lord.

Let all think soberly; for it is a solemn thing to live. Your life is not your own. You are kept by the power of God, and Jesus Christ desires to live His life in you, perfecting your character. He desires you to work to the utmost of your knowledge and power to carry out the purpose for which He gave you life. Use every capability as His.

My brethren, after you have done all you can do in this work for the schools, by sanctified energy and much prayer, you will see the glory of God. When the trial has been fully made, there will come a blessed result. Those who have sought to do God's will, having laid out every talent to the best advantage, become wise in working for the kingdom of God. They learn lessons of the greatest consequence to them, and they will feel the highest happiness of the rational mind. This is the result that will surely come if you fulfill the purpose of God. Peace and intelligence and grace will be given. It is the design of God that we should all glorify Him, regarding His service as the chief end of our existence. The work that God calls you to do He will make a blessing to you. Your heart will be more tender, your thoughts more spiritual, your service more Christlike. "If ye abide in me," Jesus said, "and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." In considering these things, my spirit rejoices in God.

I could not sleep past two o'clock this morning. During the night season I was in council. I was pleading with some families to avail themselves of God's appointed means, and get away from the cities to save their children. Some were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by taking hold of their hands. Had Lot hastened as the Lord desired him to, his wife would not have become a pillar of salt. Lot had too much of a lingering spirit. Let us not be like him. The same voice that warned Lot to leave Sodom bids us, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean." Those who obey this warning will find a refuge. Let every man be wide awake for himself, and try to save his family. Let him gird himself for the work. God will reveal from point to point what to do next.

Hear the voice of God through the apostle Paul: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Lot trod the plain with unwilling and tardy steps. He had so long associated with evil workers that he could not see his peril until his wife stood on the plain a pillar of salt forever.

There is to be a decided work done to accomplish God's plan. Make every stroke tell for the Master in the work of canvassing for "Christ's Object Lessons." God desires His people to be vitalized for work as they have never been before, for their good and for the upbuilding of His cause. Ministering angels will be round about the workers.

Let our institutions make every effort to free themselves from debt. Let every family arouse. Let the ministers of our churches and the presidents of our Conferences awaken. Then He will tell you what to do next.

You will need to have patience with the tardy ones, who do not feel the necessity of doing anything promptly, thoroughly, earnestly. They have so much to say, so much unbelief to express, and so much criticising, that they lose the peace and joy and happiness in the purposes of God, before they can decide to move. We must become men and women of God's opportunity. I am indeed glad that so much harmonious action has been shown in striving to carry out this purpose of God, and to make the most of His providences. [Signed] Mrs. Ellen G. White. -

Words to Parents

Many parents fail to realize their God-given responsibility. They do not realize that the best missionary work they can do is to present to the world a well-disciplined, well-trained family. Upon such a family God looks with pleasure.

Parents should redouble their efforts for the salvation of their children. They should faithfully instruct them, not leaving them to gather up their education as best they can. The youth should not be allowed to learn good and evil indiscriminately, the parents thinking that at some future time the good will predominate and the evil lose its influence. The evil will increase faster than the good. It is possible that the evil which children learn may be eradicated after many years, but who would trust to this? If parents could be aroused to realize their fearful responsibility in the work of educating their children, they would devote more time to prayer and less to needless display. They would pray earnestly for divine aid in the training and education of their children.

The work of dealing with human minds requires careful study. The susceptible, expanding mind of a child longs for knowledge. Parents should keep themselves well informed, that they may give the minds of their children proper food. Like the body, the mind derives its strength from the food it receives. It is broadened and elevated by pure, strengthening food. But it is narrowed and debased by feeding upon that which is of the earth earthy.

Parents, you are the ones to decide whether the minds of your children shall be filled with pure, elevating thoughts, or with vicious sentiments. You can not keep their active minds unoccupied, neither can you frown away evil. Only by the inculcation of right principles can you exclude wrong thoughts.

Unless parents, by earnest, assiduous efforts, plant the seeds of truth in the hearts of their children, the enemy will sow the ground with tares. Good, sound instruction is the only preventive of the evil communications which corrupt good manners. Truth will protect the soul from the endless temptations that must be encountered.

Parents, your minds should be full of the truths of the Bible. Your memory should be stored with its inspiring examples and fascinating incidents, your hearts softened and subdued by its deep spiritual lessons. Then as you teach your children, they will catch the enthusiasm you feel.

Parents stand in the place of God to their children. Their will, when in harmony with the divine will, is to be respected, honored, and obeyed. Let not children feel at liberty to disregard the wishes of their parents. God has spoken decidedly on this point: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." There can be no safe departure from this injunction. The parent's will, when it is in harmony with the will of God, is to be law.

If parents work as they should for their children, they can not study nor imitate the fashions of the world. They can not take time for gossiping or aimless visiting. The mother who lives to please herself places herself in bondage to the enemy of truth and righteousness.

God says, Take this child and train it for me. Form its character in accordance with the divine model. Parents should realize that by God's appointment they are the guardians of their children, whom they are to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They should look their responsibilities fairly and squarely in the face. Remember that association with those of lax morals and coarse characters will have a detrimental influence upon your children. Do not leave them to the evil plottings of the enemy. Guard them carefully.

The mother who has children to train and prepare for the heavenly mansions should not place her responsibilities upon some one else in order that she may be a missionary. In her own home she can do the very highest kind of missionary work. Let her enter the school of Christ, that she may learn the lessons every mother needs to learn. Let her study Christ's way of dealing with minds. Let her seek to be a true mother, a queen in the household, guiding, controlling, counseling, putting all her tact and skill into her work. Let her study how to train her children so that they will develop into well-balanced, symmetrical men and women, useful to their fellow men, and prepared to shine in the courts of the Lord. If she does her work well, she will have the privilege of seeing her children serving God through the ceaseless ages of eternity.

There are some children who need more patient discipline and kindly training than others. Their unyielding traits of character were given them as a legacy, and they need much sympathy and love. But by persevering labor these wayward ones may be prepared for the work of the Master. They may possess undeveloped powers which, when aroused, will enable them to fill places far in advance of those from whom more has been expected.

Parents, if you have children with peculiar temperaments, do not, because of this, let the blight of discouragement rest upon their lives. Help them by your love and sympathy. Strengthen them by loving words and kindly deeds to overcome their defects of character.

This principle should be carried out in the Church as well as in the family. The day of Judgment will show that those who have been faithful in helping the unpromising ones, so generally neglected, have many stars in their crown. Those who seem so defective may have valuable qualities, which need developing by patient love and untiring effort. Such ones often make the most successful missionaries; for they know how to help those who need help. Are the efforts made in behalf of these apparently one-sided ones of no avail?--No;no. When the right chord is touched, the response comes. Only eternity can make known the good accomplished by such efforts. When we see as we are seen, and know as we are known, we shall realize how God regards this work.

When parents become depressed and discouraged, let them not go to human beings for solace and sympathy. Let them rather take all their cares and perplexities to Jesus. By the wrong advice given by human beings, Satan leads men and women to bind upon themselves burdens grievous to be borne. Parents who listen to the advice of those that are not on the side of Christ will make a terrible failure of their work. They will fall an easy prey to the enemy's temptations.

Human help is as a broken reed; but Christ knew that human beings would be inclined to depend on this help. Therefore He lifted up His voice and cried, "Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest." He understands every phase of character, and to those who seek His counsel He will give that wisdom which comes down from above.

How Much Owest Thou?

This is the holiday season. At this time large sums of money are spent for presents and in needless self-indulgence. Pride, fashion, and luxurious living swallow up immense sums which are worse than thrown away; for this needless use of means encourages prodigal expenditure, and often money is used in ways that injure health and endanger souls.

The question should come home to every heart, "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" He has granted us privileges and blessings without number; we are dependent on Him for every earthly favor, even for the breath of life; and now should not the bands of selfishness be broken, and the just claims of God and humanity be acknowledged?

God delivered His people Israel from bondage in Egypt. He brought them into their own land, and gave them a goodly heritage and sure dwelling places. And He asked of them a recognition of His marvelous works. The first-fruits of the earth were to be consecrated to Him, and given back as an offering of gratitude, an acknowledgment of His goodness to them. For they said: "When we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression: and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me."

Concerning these offerings the Lord said: "And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God: and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you." They were to remember "the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." This was a standing requirement.

The Lord calls for gifts and offerings, and He claims the tithe also. He says: "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord." Strictly, honestly, and faithfully, if possible without any failure, the tithe is to be brought to the treasury of God. With it His faithful messengers are to be sustained, as they go out to communicate the light of His word to those who are in darkness.

"This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments; thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice." This is not the voice of man; it is the voice of Christ from the infolding pillar of cloud. Read carefully all of Deuteronomy 26, also chapters 27 and 28; for here are stated plainly the blessings of obedience.

These directions, which the Lord gave to His people, express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God, and they are made specific, so that the minds of the people may not be left in ignorance and uncertainty. These scriptures present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things. The message has not grown weak because of age. God's claims are just as binding now, just as fresh in their importance, as God's gifts are fresh and continual.

Lest any should forget these important directions, Christ has repeated them with His own voice. He calls His followers to a life of consecration and self-denial. He says: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." This means what it says. Only by self-denial and self-sacrifice can we show that we are true disciples of Christ.

While parents are making sacrifices for the sake of advancing the cause of God, they should teach their children also to take part in this work. The children may learn to show their love for Christ by denying themselves needless trifles, for the purchase of which much money slips through their fingers. In every family this work should be done. It requires tact and method, but it will be the best education the children can receive. And if all the little children would present their offerings to the Lord, their gifts would be as little rivulets, which, when united and set flowing, would swell into a river.

The Lord looks with pleasure upon the little children who deny themselves that they may make an offering to Him. He was pleased with the widow who put her two mites into the treasury, because she gave with a willing heart. The Saviour thought her sacrifice in giving all that she had of more value than the large gifts of the rich men, who made no sacrifice in order to give. And He is glad when the little ones are willing to deny self that they may become laborers together with Him who loved them, and took them in His arms and blessed them.

Christ counted it essential to remind His people that obedience to the commandments of God is for their present and future good. Obedience brings a blessing, disobedience a curse. Besides, when the Lord in a special manner favors his people, He exhorts them publicly to acknowledge His goodness. In this way His name will be glorified; for such an acknowledgment is a testimony that His words are faithful and true.

Our offerings are not accepted of God unless they are presented in a spirit of reverence and gratitude. It is the humble, grateful, reverential heart that makes all offerings as a sweet-smelling savor. The children of Israel might have given all their substance; but had it been given in a spirit of self-sufficiency or pharisaism, with the feeling that God was indebted to them, and for this reason had bestowed upon them the favors they had received at His hand, their offerings would have been rejected, utterly contemned of God.

Christ has shown the estimate He places upon the human soul by giving himself up to a life of self-denial and pain and to a cruel death. He is soon coming again, and we have but a short time in which to show that we appreciate the redemption that He, with His own blood, has purchased for us and for others. Many lands that have never heard the truth are yet to hear it, and to become vocal with the praise of God. If the Church of God will now use all her talents of means and influence, the work may be carried forward gloriously in these "regions beyond."

Let all at this time consider the question, "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" -

Canvassing, a Branch of God's Work

The canvassing work, properly carried on, is missionary work of the highest order, and is as good and as successful a work as can be done in placing before the people the important truths for this time. The importance of the work of the ministry is unmistakable; but there are many who, though hungry for the bread of life, have not the privilege of hearing the truth from the lips of God's delegated preachers. For this reason it is essential that the publications containing these important matters be placed before the people, that the truth given us of God may go where the living preacher can not go. In this way the attention of many will be called to the important events that are to occur in the closing scenes of this world's history. God has ordained the canvassing work as a means of presenting before the people the light contained in these books, and canvassers should have impressed upon them the fact that the work of bringing before the world as fast as possible the books which are necessary for their spiritual education and enlightenment is the very work the Lord would have them do at this time. We can not too highly estimate this work; for were it not for the work of the canvasser, many would never hear the truth.

It is true that some who buy the books will lay them on the shelf or place them on the parlor table, and seldom look at them. Still God has a care for His truth, and the time will come when these books will be sought for and read. Sickness or misfortune enters the home, and through the truth contained in these books God sends peace and hope and rest. His love will be revealed to their souls, and they will understand the preciousness of the forgiveness of their sins. Thus the Lord co-operates with self-denying human workers.

There are others who, because of prejudice, will never know the truth unless it is brought to their doors and left in their homes. The canvasser may find these souls, and minister to them according to his God-given ability. He can do a line of work, of house-to-house labor, more successfully than any others. He can become acquainted with the people; he can pray with them, and can understand their true necessities. There is much responsibility resting upon the canvasser. He should go to his work prepared to explain the Scriptures, and nothing should be said or done to bind his hands. If he puts his trust in the Lord as he travels from place to place, the angels of God will be round about him, giving him words to speak, which will bring light and hope and courage to many souls.

Let the canvasser remember that he has an opportunity to sow beside all waters. Let him remember, as he sells the books which give a knowledge of the truth, that he is doing the work of God, and that every talent is to be used to the glory of His name. God will be with every one who seeks to understand the truth, that he may set it before others in clear lines. God has spoken plainly and clearly, and we are to make no delay in giving instruction to those who need it, that they may be brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

God calls upon us to lift up the standard. As God's standard-bearers, we are ever to show our colors, revealing in our lives that we are keeping the commandments of God. Then let canvassers go forth with the word of the Lord, remembering that those who obey the commandments, and teach others to obey them, will be rewarded by seeing souls converted, and one soul truly converted will in turn bring others to Christ. Thus the work will advance into new territory.

The lost sheep of God's fold are scattered in every place, and the work that should be done for them is being neglected. From the light given me, I know that where there is one canvasser in the field, there should be one hundred. Canvassers should be encouraged to take hold of this work, not to canvass for story books, but to bring before the world the books containing truth so essential for this time.

The time has come when a large work should be done by the canvassers. The world, is asleep, and as watchmen they are to ring the warning bell to awake the sleepers to a sense of their danger. The churches know not the time of their visitation. How can they best learn the truth?--Through the efforts of the canvasser. Thus the reading-matter is brought to those who otherwise would never hear the truth. Those who go forth in the name of the Lord are His messengers to give to the multitudes who are in darkness and error the glad tidings of salvation through Christ in obeying the law of God. All who consecrate themselves to God to work as canvassers are assisting to give the last message of warning to the world.

I have been instructed that even where the people hear the truth from the living preacher, the canvasser should carry on his work; for though much wearing labor is put forth by the minister in speaking to the people, much of the truth is not retained in their minds. The printed page is therefore essential not only in the work of awakening minds to a realization of the importance of the truth for this time, but that hearts may be rooted and grounded in the truth, and established against darkness and deceptive error. Papers and books containing the messages of truth are the Lord's means of thus keeping the truth continually before the minds of the people. These publications will do a far greater work than can be accomplished by the ministry of the word alone. Through the work of the canvasser, the silent messengers of truth that are placed in the homes of the people, enlightening and confirming men and women, will strengthen the gospel ministry in every way; for the Holy Spirit will impress minds as they read the books, just as He impresses the minds of those who listen to the preaching of the word by God's delegated ministers, and the same ministry of angels attends the books that contain the truth as attends the work of the minister who is educating the people as to what is truth. Thus the faithful, consecrated canvasser will lay up treasure beside the throne of God.

Exalted Character of the Canvassing Work

Canvassing for our literature is a missionary work, and should be carried on from a missionary standpoint. Those selected as canvassers should be men and women who feel the burden of service, whose object is not to get gain, but to do the very work that needs to be done to enlighten the world. All our service is to be done to the glory of God, to give the light of truth to those who are in darkness. Selfish principles, love of gain, dignity, or position should not be once named among us.

Canvassers need daily to be converted to God, that their words and deeds shall be a savor of life unto life, that they may exert a saving influence upon those with whom they come in contact. The reason many have failed in the canvassing work is because they were not Christians; they did not know the spirit of conversion. They had a theory of how the work should be done, but they did not feel their dependence upon God.

Canvassers, remember that in the books which you are handling, you are presenting, not the cup containing the wine of Babylon, doctrines of error dealt to the kings of the earth, but the cup full of the preciousness of the truths of redemption. Will you drink it? Your minds can be brought into captivity to the will of Christ, and He can put His own superscription upon you. By beholding, you will become changed from glory to glory, from character to character. God wants you to come to the front, speaking the words He will give you. He wants you to show that you place an estimate upon humanity, humanity that has been purchased by the precious blood of the Saviour. When you fall upon the Rock and are broken, you will experience the power of Christ, and others will recognize the power of the truth upon your hearts.

To those who are attending school in order that they may learn how to do the work of God more perfectly, I would say, Remember that it is only by a daily consecration to God that you can become soul-winners. There have been those who were unable to go to school because they were too poor to pay their way. But when they became sons and daughters of God, they took hold of the work where they were, laboring for those around them. Though destitute of the knowledge obtained in school, they consecrated themselves to God, and God worked through them. As did the disciples when called from their nets to follow Christ, so they learned precious lessons from the Saviour. They linked themselves up with the Great Teacher, and the knowledge they gained from the Scriptures qualified them to speak to others of Christ. Thus they became truly wise, because they were not too wise in their own estimation to receive instruction from above. The renewing power of the Holy Spirit gave them practical, saving energy.

The knowledge of the most learned man, if he has not learned in Christ's school, is foolishness so far as leading poor, bewildered souls to Christ is concerned. God can work with those only who will accept the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Among many of our canvassers there has been a departure from right principles. Because of a desire to reap worldly advantage, their minds have been drawn away from the real purpose and spirit of the work. Let none think that display and show will make right impressions upon the minds of the people. These things will not secure the best or most permanent results. Our work is to direct minds to the solemn truths for this time. When our own hearts are imbued with the spirit of truth, which is contained in the book we are selling, and when in humility we call the attention of the people to these truths, real success will attend our efforts; for the Holy Spirit, which convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, will be present to impress hearts.

Our books should be handled by consecrated workers, whom the Holy Spirit can use as His instrumentalities. Christ is our sufficiency, and we want to present the truth in humble simplicity, letting it bear its own savor of life unto life.

Humble, fervent prayer would do more in behalf of the circulation of our books than all the expensive pictures in the world. If the workers will turn their attention to that which is true and living and real; if they will pray for, believe for, and trust in, the Holy Spirit, He will be poured upon them in strong, heavenly currents, and right and lasting impressions will be made upon the human heart. Then pray and work, and work and pray, and the Lord will work with you.

Every canvasser has positive and constant need of the angelic ministration; for he has an important work to do, a work that he can not do in his own strength. Those who are born again, who are willing to be guided by the Holy Spirit, doing in Christ's way that which they can do; those who will work as if they could see the heavenly universe watching them, will be accompanied and instructed by holy angels, who will go before them to the dwellings of the people, preparing the way for them. Such help is far above all the advantages that illustrations are supposed to give.

When men realize the times in which we are living, they will work as in the sight of heaven. The canvasser will handle those books that bring light and strength to the soul. He will drink in the spirit of these books, and put his whole soul into the work of presenting them to the people. His strength, his courage, his success, will depend on how fully the truth presented in the books is woven into his own experience and developed in his character. When his own life is thus molded, he can go forward representing to others the sacred truth he is handling in the books for which he is finding a place in homes. Imbued with the Spirit of God, he will gain a deep, rich experience, and heavenly angels will give him success in the work.

To cur canvassers, to all to whom God has given talents that they might co-operate with Him, I would say, Pray, O pray, for a deeper experience. Go forth with your hearts softened and subdued by a study of the precious truths which God has given us for this time. Drink freely of the water of salvation, that it may be in your hearts as a living spring, flowing forth to refresh souls ready to perish. God will then give wisdom to enable you to impart aright. He will make you channels for communicating His blessings. He will help you to reveal His attributes by imparting to others the wisdom and understanding which He has imparted to you.

May the Lord open your minds to comprehend this subject in its length and breadth, and may you realize your duty to represent the character of Christ, by your patient courage and steadfast integrity. If you will take with you into the canvassing field principles of righteousness, you will be respected, and many will believe the truth that you advocate, because your daily life will be as a bright light which gives light to all that are in the house. Even your enemies, as much as they may war against your doctrines, will respect you; and your simple words will have a power that will carry conviction to hearts. -

Canvassers as Gospel Evangelists

The work of God is to go into all the world, vindicating the claims of Christ, and writing His name on hearts. As laborers together with Him, we must never get above the simplicity of His work; for unless we walk humbly with God, the Holy Spirit can not attend our efforts.

The canvassing work is an important field of labor, and will do much toward carrying the gospel to all the dark corners of the world. The intelligent, God-fearing, truth-loving canvasser should be respected; for he occupies a position equal to that of the gospel minister. Many of our young ministers and those who are fitting for the ministry would, if truly converted, do much good by entering the canvassing field. They would there obtain an experience in faith. Their knowledge of the Scriptures would greatly increase, because as they endeavored to impart to others the light given them, they would receive more to impart. By meeting people and presenting to them our publications, they would gain an experience that they could not gain by simply preaching. As they go from house to house, they should converse with those with whom they meet, carrying with them the fragrance of Christ's life. The most precious ministry that can be performed is by ministers working in the canvassing field.

All our ministers should feel free to carry books with them, to dispose of wherever they go. Wherever a minister goes, he can leave a book in the family where he stays, either selling it or giving it to them. Much of this work was done in the early history of the message. Ministers acted as canvassers and colporteurs, using the money they obtained from the sale of books to help in the advancement of the work in places where help was needed. These can speak intelligently regarding this method of work; for they have had an experience.

Let none hold the impression that it belittles a minister of the gospel to canvass; for by doing this work, he is doing the very work as did the apostle Paul, who says: "Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, and have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." The eloquent Paul, to whom God manifested himself in a wonderful manner, went from house to house with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations.

All who wish an opportunity for true ministry, and who will give themselves unreservedly to God, will find in the canvassing work opportunities to speak upon many things pertaining to the future immortal life. The experience thus gained will be of the greatest value to those who are fitting themselves for the work of the ministry. It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God. As they cherish the thought that Christ is their Companion, a holy awe, a sacred joy, will be felt by them amid all their trying experiences and all their tests. They will learn how to pray as they work. They will become educated in patience, kindness, affability, and helpfulness wherever they may be. They will practice true Christian courtesy, bearing in mind that Christ, their Companion, will not approve of harsh, unkind words or feelings. Their words will be purified. The power of speech will be regarded as a precious talent, lent them to do a high and holy work. The human agent will learn how to represent the divine Companion with whom he is associated. To that unseen, holy One he will show respect and reverence because he is wearing His yoke, and is learning His pure, holy ways. Those who have faith in this divine Attendant will develop. They will be gifted with a power to clothe the message of truth with a sacred beauty.

There are some who are adapted to the work of a colporteur, and who can accomplish more in this line than by preaching. If the Spirit of Christ dwells in their own hearts, they will find opportunity to present His word to others, and to direct minds to the special truths for this time. Men suited to this work undertake it; but some injudicious minister flatters them that their gifts should be employed in the desk, instead of in the work of the colporteur. Thus they are influenced to get a license to preach, and the very ones who might have been trained to make good missionaries to visit families at their homes, to talk and pray with them, are turned away from a work for which they are fitted, to make poor ministers, and the field where so much labor is needed, and where so much good might be accomplished for the cause, is neglected. The canvassers in the field, if consecrated to God, will learn every day by practice how to reach the souls for whom Christ has died.

May the Lord help every one to improve to the utmost the talents committed to his trust. May He help all to study the Bible as they should, that its teachings may have a practical bearing upon their lives. Whatever your work may be, dear brethren and sisters, do it for the Master, and do your best. Do not overlook present golden opportunities, and let your life prove a failure, while you sit idly dreaming of ease and success in a work for which God has never fitted you. Do the work that is nearest you. Do it, even though it may be amid the perils and hardships of the missionary field; and when tempted to complain of hardship and self-sacrifice, look at Christ, and behold the sacrifice that He has made that the light of the gospel might shine into benighted minds.

The preaching of the word is a means by which the Lord has ordained His warning message to be given to the world. In the Scriptures the faithful teacher is represented as a shepherd of the flock of God. He is to be respected, and his work appreciated. Genuine medical missionary work is bound up with the ministry, and the canvassing work is to be a part both of the medical missionary work and of the ministry. To those who are engaged in this work, I would say: As you visit the people, tell them you are a gospel evangelist, and that you love the Lord. Do not seek a home in a hotel, but stay at a private house, and become acquainted with the family. Christ sowed the seeds of truth wherever He was; and as His followers, you can witness for the Master, doing a most precious work in fireside labor. In thus coming close to the people, you will often find those who are sick and discouraged. If you are pressing close to the side of Christ, wearing His yoke, you will daily learn of Him how to carry messages of peace and comfort to the sorrowing and disappointed, the sad and broken-hearted. You can point the discouraged ones to the word of God, and take the sick to the Lord in prayer. As you pray, speak to Christ as you would to a trusted, much-loved friend. Maintain a sweet, free, pleasant dignity, as a child of God. This will be recognized.

Canvassers should be able to give those with whom they stay instruction in regard to the way to treat the suffering. They should be educated in regard to the simple methods of hygienic treatment. Thus they may work as medical missionaries, ministering to the souls and bodies of the suffering. Now, just now, this work should be going forward in all parts of the country, that many might be blessed by the prayers and instruction of God's servants.

We need to realize the importance of the canvassing work as one great means of finding out those who are in peril, and bringing them back to Christ. The truth must go forward. The Church militant is not the Church triumphant. Canvassers should never be prohibited from speaking of the love of Christ, from telling their first experience in their service for the Master. They should be perfectly free to speak or to pray with those who are awakened. The simple story of Christ's love for man will open doors for them, even to the homes of unbelievers. Of all the gifts that God has given to man, none is more precious than the gift of speech; if it is sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is with the tongue that we convince and persuade: with it we offer prayer and praise to God, and with it we convey rich thoughts of the Redeemer's love. Those who are fitted to enlighten minds will often have opportunity to read from the Bible or from books that teach the truth, and thus bring the evidence to enlighten souls. When canvassers discover those who are interestedly searching for truth, they should hold Bible readings with them. These Bible readings are just what the people need. God will use in His service those who thus show a deep interest in perishing souls. Through them He will impart light to those who are ready to receive instruction.

Some have a zeal that is not according to knowledge. Such should not attempt this work; they should not try to converse with those whom they meet; for they would be unable to enlighten them. Because of the lack of wisdom on the part of some, because they have been so much inclined to act the minister and theologian, restrictions have almost had to be enforced upon our canvassers. When the Lord's voice calls, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" the divine Spirit puts it into hearts to respond, "Here am I; send me." But bear in mind that the live coal from the altar must first touch your lips. Then the words you speak will be wise and holy words. Then you will have wisdom to know what to say, and what to leave unsaid. You will not try to reveal your smartness as theologians. You will be careful not to arouse a combative spirit or excite prejudice, by introducing indiscriminately all the points of our faith. You will find enough to talk about that will not excite opposition, but that will open the heart to desire a deeper knowledge of God's word.

The Lord desires you to be soul-winners; therefore, while you should not force doctrinal points upon the people, you should "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Why fear? -- Fear lest your words should savor of self-importance, lest unadvised words be spoken, lest your words and manner should not be after Christ's likeness. Connect firmly with Christ, and present the truth as it is in Him. Hearts can not fail to be touched by the story of the atonement. As you learn the meekness and lowliness of Christ, you will know what you should say to the people; for the Holy Spirit will tell you what words you ought to speak. Those who realize the necessity of keeping the heart under the control of the Holy Spirit, will be enabled to sow seed that will spring up unto eternal life. This is the work of the gospel evangelist. -

An Appeal for the Canvassing Work

The importance of the canvassing work is kept ever before me. This work has not of late had the spirit and life infused into it that were once given by the leading agents who made it a specialty. Canvassers have been called from their evangelistic work for the people in townships and cities to engage in other work. This is not as it should be. Our canvassers, if truly converted and consecrated, can gain access to hearts and homes, and place the truth before a large class of people.

We have the word of God to show that the end is near. There is a great work to be done, and there is no time to be lost. A world is to be warned, and as never before men are to be laborers with Christ. The work of warning has been given to us. We are to be channels of light in the world, reflecting to others light from the great Light-bearer. The words and works of all men are to be tried. Let us not be backward now. That which is to be done to warn the world must be done without delay. Let not the canvassing work be left to languish. Let the books containing the light on present truth be placed before as many as possible.

The presidents of our Conferences, and others in responsible positions, have a duty to do in this matter, that the different branches of the work of God may receive equal attention. Canvassers are to be educated and trained to do the work required in selling the books upon present truth which the people need. There is need of men of deep Christian experience, men of well-balanced minds, strong, well-educated men, to engage in this branch of the work. The Lord desires those to take hold of the canvassing work who are capable of educating others, who can awaken in promising young men and women an interest in this work, leading them to take up the book work and handle it successfully. Some have the talent, education, and experience that would enable them to educate the youth for the canvassing work in such a way that much more would be accomplished than is now being done.

Those who have thus gained an experience in this work have a special duty to perform in teaching others. Educate, educate, educate young men and women to become canvassers who will sell those books which the Lord by His Holy Spirit has stirred men to write. God desires men to be faithful in educating those who accept the truth, that they may believe to a purpose, and work intelligently in the Lord's way. Let these inexperienced persons be connected with experienced workers, that they may learn how to carry on the work. Let them seek God most earnestly. These may do a good work in canvassing if they will obey the words, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine." Those who give evidence that they are truly converted, and who take up the canvassing work, will see that it is the best preparation they could have to fit them for other lines of missionary work.

If those who know the truth would practice it, methods would be devised for meeting the people where they are. It was the providence of God which in the beginning of the Christian Church scattered the saints abroad, sending them out of Jerusalem into many parts of the world. The disciples of Christ did not stay in Jerusalem or in the cities near by, but they went beyond the limits of their own country, into the great thoroughfares of travel, seeking for lost sheep, that they might bring them into the fold. To-day the Lord desires to see His work carried forward in many places. We must not confine our labors to one locality.

We must not discourage our brethren, weakening their hands so that the work that God desires to accomplish through them is not done. Too much time should not be occupied in fitting up men to do missionary work. Instruction is necessary; but let all remember that Christ is the Great Teacher, the source of all true wisdom. Let young and old consecrate themselves to God, take up the work, and go forward, doing their work in all humility of mind, under the control of the Holy Spirit. Let those who have been in school go out into the field, and put to a practical use the knowledge they have gained. If canvassers will do this, using the ability God has given them, seeking counsel of Him, and combining with the work that of the missionary evangelist, their talents will increase by exercise, and they will learn many practical lessons that they could not possibly learn in school. The education obtained in this practical way may properly be termed higher education.

There is no higher work than evangelistic canvassing; for it involves the performance of the highest moral duties. The agencies set in operation for its accomplishment need always to be under the control of the Spirit of God. There must be no exalting of self. What have any of us that we did not receive from Christ? We must love as brethren, revealing this love by helping one another. We must be pitiful and courteous. We must press together, drawing in even cords. Perfect harmony and unity of spirit must exist among the workers who handle the books that are to flood the world with light. Only those who live the prayer of Christ, working it out practically in their lives, will stand the test that is to come upon all the world. Those who exalt self place themselves in Satan's power, preparing to receive his deceptions as truth. The word of the Lord to His people is that we lift the standard higher and still higher. If we obey His voice, He will work with us, and success will crown our efforts. In our work we shall receive rich blessings from on high, and shall lay up treasure beside the throne of God.

If we only knew what is before us, we should not be so dilatory in doing the work of the Lord. There are ministers and workers who will present a tissue of nonsensical falsehoods as testing truths, even as the Jewish rabbis presented the maxims of men as the bread of heaven. These are given to the flock of God, as their portion of meat in due season, while the poor sheep are starving for the bread of life. Even now there seems to be a burning desire to get up something startling, and bring it in as new light. Thus men are weaving into the web as important truths a tissue of lies. This imaginary food that is being prepared for the flock will cause spiritual consumption, decline, and death.

We are in the shaking time, the time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. The Lord will not excuse those who know the truth if they do not in word and deed obey His commands. If we make no effort to win souls to Christ, we shall be held responsible for the work we might have done, but did not do because of our spiritual indolence. Those who belong to the Lord's kingdom must work earnestly for the saving of souls. They must do their part to bind up the law and seal it among the disciples.

Some flatter themselves that the Lord will give them another chance, that there will be a second probation. Fatal delusion! Just now, day by day, hour by hour, we are building for the last great day. We are trading on our Lord's money, and at His coming He will reckon with us, and we shall have to give an account of what we have done with His goods. As responsible beings we are working for time and for eternity, making our records in the books of heaven, and preparing our reward or punishment. Our reward will be proportionate to our work. "My reward is with me," Christ declares, "to give to every man according as His work shall be." He will expect results from every one. Let those who are seeking an easy time arise and shine, for their light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon them.

The Lord desires that the light which He has given on the Scriptures shall shine forth in clear, bright rays, and it is the work of our canvassers to put forth a strong, united effort that God's desire may be accomplished. A great and important work is before us. The enemy of souls realizes this, and is using every means within his power to lead the canvasser to take up some other line of work. This order of things should be changed. God calls the canvassers back to their work. He calls for volunteers for the canvassing work, those who will put all their energies and enlightenment into the work, helping wherever there is an opportunity. The Master calls for every one to do the work given him according to his several ability. Who will respond to the call? Who will go forth to work in wisdom and grace and the love of Christ for those nigh and those afar off? Who will sacrifice ease and pleasure, to enter the places of error, superstition, and darkness, working earnestly and perseveringly, speaking the truth in simplicity, praying in faith, doing house-to-house labor? Who at this time will go forth without the camp, imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, bearing reproach for Christ's sake, opening the Scriptures to men and women, and calling them to repentance?

God has His workmen in every age. The call of the hour is answered by human agencies. Thus when the divine voice cries, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" the response will come, "Here am I; send me." Let all who work effectually in these lines feel in their hearts that they are doing the work of the Lord in ministering to souls who know not the truth for this time. They are sounding the note of warning in the highways and byways to prepare a people for the great day of the Lord, which is to break upon the world. We have no time to lose. We must encourage this work. Who will go forth now with our publications? To every man and woman who will co-operate with divine power, the Lord imparts a fitness for the work. All the requisite talent, courage, perseverance, faith, and tact will come as they put the armor on. A great work is to be done in our world, and human agencies will surely respond to the demand. The world must hear the warning. When the call comes, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" send back the answer, clear and distinct, "Here am I; send me." -

Words to Parents

Children are very susceptible. Undue severity hardens them, while a lack of discipline is like leaving a field untilled; it is speedily covered with thorns and thistles.

Blind affection is a snare. By it the young are led to look upon evil as a thing to be excused. Parents are in constant danger of indulging natural affection at the expense of obedience to God's law. Many parents to please their children, allow what God forbids.

In allowing children to do as they please, parents may think themselves affectionate, but they are practicing the veriest cruelty. Children are able to reason, and their souls are hurt by inconsiderate kindness, however proper this kindness may be in the eyes of the parents. As the children grow older, their insubordination grows. Their teachers may try to correct them, but too often the parents side with the children, and the evil continues to grow, clothed, if possible, with a still darker covering of deception than before. Other children are led astray by the wrong course of these children, and yet the parents can not see the wrong. The words of their children are listened to before the words of teachers, who mourn over the wrong. There is little hope of children in any age of the world, and especially in this age, whose fathers and mothers help them to testify to a lie.

In the history of Eli the danger signal for parents is lifted. Eli's sons did wickedly, but he restrained them not. His great desire was to avoid unpleasant feelings in the home. He remonstrated, but did not command. His blind affection for his sons led him to shrink from taking any decided action against their wicked course. He proved unworthy of the trust given him, and the Lord passed him by, and gave His message to the child Samuel. "The Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever."

Contrast the history of Eli with that of Abraham. Eli neglected to discipline his sons. They made Israel sin, and as a result, terrible calamity came upon the nation. Israel was defeated by the Philistines, and the ark was taken.

Abraham inquired daily, Is this the way of the Lord? He ruled his household by the combined influence of authority and affection; and the Heart-searcher said of him: "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." Abraham cultivated home religion. God knew that he would not betray sacred trusts, that he would not show for his children the blind affection that allows the child to be master of father and mother.

Parents, the happiness of your children depends upon the way in which you discharge your duty toward them. Teach them carefully and prayerfully, here a little and there a little, leading, guiding, and when necessary commanding. Parents whose hearts are given to the Lord will follow His way in directing their household; and blessings will flow from them to their children.

While we are not to indulge blind affection, neither are we to manifest undue severity. Children can not be brought to the Lord by force. They can be led, but not driven. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me," Christ declares. He did not say, My sheep hear my voice, and are forced into the path of obedience. In the government of children, love must be shown. Never should parents cause their children pain by harshness or unreasonable exactions. Harshness drives souls into Satan's net.

Parents, as surely as you treat your children in a cold, unloving manner, just so surely will the image of God in the soul be defaced. Christians should act like Christ. Cherish and cultivate all that is pure and lovely in the heart of your child. Be kind. Do not oppress and repress your children by laying upon them burdens that are not sanctioned by the word of the Lord. Thus you cause the children to lose confidence in you. Let there be no fretting, no scolding, no unnecessary exactions. Administer the rules of the home in wisdom and love, not with a rod of iron. Children will respond by willing obedience to a rule of love. Commend your children whenever you can. Provide the little ones with innocent amusements. As soon as they are old enough, give them something to do, according to their strength. Encourage them with the thought that they are helping you. Then, in doing these little duties, they will find greater pleasure than in mere amusement. Do not let them pass through childhood in a dull routine. Never wound their hearts by a lack of consideration. Walk constantly in the way of the Lord, following the example set by Christ.

Make the home a Bethel, a holy, consecrated place. Make the lives of your children as happy as possible. Keep the soil of the heart mellow by love and affection, thus preparing it for the seed of truth. Remember that the Lord gives the earth not only clouds and rain, but the beautiful, smiling sunshine, causing the seed to spring up and the blossoms to appear. Remember that children need not only reproof and correction, but encouragement and commendation, the pleasant sunshine of kind words.

We need more sunshiny parents and more sunshiny Christians. We are too much shut up within ourselves. Too often the kindly, encouraging word, the cheery smile, are withheld from our children and from the oppressed and discouraged.

Parents, upon you rests the responsibility of being light-bearers and light-givers. Shine as lights in the home, brightening the path that your children must travel. As you do this, your light will shine to those without.

Before parents can teach their children correctly, they must themselves learn in the school of Christ. Then, in humility and love, let them work for their children, determined not to fail nor be discouraged. They are to have faith that their efforts will not be in vain. Patient, untiring work will win the blessing of God. Divine power will combine with human endeavor, and the hearts of the children will be turned in loving obedience to Christ.

Be careful to show your children that Christ is a loving Saviour. Tell them that He died for children. Never cease to labor in love for their salvation, presenting the truth as it is in Jesus. Make the Christian life an attractive one. Speak of the country in which the followers of Christ are to make their home. As you do this, God will guide your children into all truth, filling them with a desire to fit themselves for the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him.

Parents, are you working with unflagging energy in behalf of your children? The God of heaven marks your solicitude, your earnest work, your constant watchfulness. He hears your prayers. With patience and tenderness train your children for the Lord. All heaven is interested in your work. Angels of light will unite with you as you strive to lead your children to heaven. God will unite with you, crowning your efforts with success. Christ delights to honor a Christian family; for such a family is a symbol of the family in heaven.

A Warning for This Time

"For this cause," Paul wrote, "we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." These words present an advancing religious experience.

"Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." This is a warning appropriate for this time. Then comes a charge which will often need to be given: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Learn to take the truths that have been revealed, and to handle them in such a way that they will be food for the flock of God.

We shall meet those who allow their minds to wander into idle speculations about things of which nothing is said in the word of God. God has spoken in the plainest language upon every subject that affects the salvation of the soul. But He desires us to avoid all day-dreaming, and He says, Go work to-day in my vineyard. The night cometh wherein no man can work. Cease all idle curiosity; watch, and work, and pray. Study the truths that have been revealed. Christ desires to break up all vacant reveries, and He points us to the fields ripe for the harvest. Unless we work earnestly, eternity will overwhelm us with its burden of responsibility. God has given us talents upon which to trade, and He expects us to increase them by faithful use. He has made us His almoners; and He requires that wherever we shall go, usefulness shall mark our path. If the contemplation of eternal realities unfits us for the duties of the present life, the blame lies with ourselves.

We have encouragement in the Scriptures that if we walk humbly before God, we shall receive instruction. But we are warned against undue curiosity. "Shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness," leading into paths of supposition and imagination, with which we have nothing to do. These are vain, unessential theories of human creation, which keep the mind dwelling upon nothingness. They have in them nothing sure or substantial. Of those who advance these theories, Paul says: "Their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some."

In the days of the apostles the most foolish heresies were presented as truth. History has been and will be repeated. There will always be those who, though apparently conscientious, will grasp at the shadow, preferring it to the substance. They take error in the place of truth, because error is clothed with a new garment, which they think covers something wonderful. But let the covering be removed, and nothingness appears.

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor." The "great house" represents the Church. In the Church will be found the vile as well as the precious. The net cast into the sea gathers both good and bad.

"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." He is not to accept theories that, if received, would corrupt. He is to purify himself from all unrighteous sentiments, which, if received, would lead away from the sure word of God to unstable human devisings, degradation, and corruption. He is to resist the working of the enemy through vessels of dishonor. By searching the Scriptures with much prayer, he will find a path to follow, not the path of man, but a path that leads to heaven.

The work of purification is an individual work No one can do this work for another. "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use." The Spirit of God will work through sanctified human agencies, leading them to work aright. Ability and grace will be provided. Men will be filled with an earnest desire to preach the truths of the gospel, firmly, decidedly, and in a clear manner.

The men intrusted with sacred responsibilities as teachers of spiritual things are representatives of Christ. Having His meekness and lowliness, they day by day witness for Him. They manifest His Spirit in their earnest endeavor to do good, and they receive the unction represented by the holy oil. The impartation of God's Spirit is an overflowing of the holy oil from the divine receptacle into human vessels prepared to receive it. Thus by the power and grace of God, and under His superintending care, the work is carried forward, in the face of mighty foes. This work is not to cease until its completion amid the triumphant shout of victory, "Grace, grace unto it."

"Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."

The members of the Church of God need converting. Unless they are converted, they will lead away from Christ, making crooked paths for their own feet, and turning the lame out of the way. There is just as much need of repentance in and among believers who err from the principles of Christ as among those who have not a knowledge of the way of the Lord. Let the question come home to every soul, Am I walking in Christ's footsteps? True religion exerts a powerful influence. True Christians are filled with love for God and man; their earnest desire for the salvation of the souls ready to perish gives them decided victories. -

Labors in California

Since coming to America, my labors have been constant, and I have felt much of the sustaining power of the Lord. We arrived in Oakland late in the day, Friday, September 21. I was asked to speak on Sabbath afternoon in the Oakland church. The notice had gone out, and the church building was full. The Lord gave me special freedom.

The first part of the next week was devoted to house hunting, but after being conducted from place to place for days, we could find nothing suitable. Then I said, "I am done with house hunting. When the Lord provides a place for me, I will gladly accept it."

Thursday morning we went to St. Helena, and as I met Sister Ings, she said: "Below the hill is a place that is just the place for you. The house is large and comfortable, and well furnished. The surroundings are pleasant. There are orchards and vineyards, and the stable is supplied with horses and carriages. It is so near the sanitarium that you can be a great help to us, and we may be able to assist you in some way."

We examined the place, and found it well suited to our necessities. The sanitarium had purchased the place in order to secure all the water of a large spring belonging to it; and after retaining the spring, also five acres of land for the food factory, and ten acres for other purposes, they wished to sell me the remainder, comprising fifty-five acres of land, with the house, an old cottage that we have converted into office rooms for my helpers, the stables, horses, carriages, farm implements, for a sum less than I received for my home in Cooranbong. I need pay but a few hundred dollars now, and the rest in yearly installments, at a low rate of interest.

I had given up my home in Cooranbong with many regrets, feeling that I should never again find so quiet and comfortable a place. But lo, the Lord had prepared for me a place that was in many ways much better, and obtainable on easy terms. A large part of the proceeds of the Cooranbong place I can now loan to the Sydney Sanitarium, and other enterprises in need of funds.

Some have asked, "Why does Sister White invest six thousand dollars in a home at this stage in the world's history?" My answer is, Because I have an important work to do, and must have a suitable place in which to do it. Because the interest on this place is much less than the rent would be on the necessary rooms for my residence and offices for my helpers. I could sell portions of the place, but feel that I must keep it in order to meet the future needs of the sanitarium work.

As soon as we reached Crystal Springs, I was solicited to speak in the sanitarium chapel. This I did Thursday and Friday evenings. The audiences were large, and all seemed much interested.

Sabbath morning we went to Napa, where a district camp-meeting was in session, and there I spoke to the people. I was moved by the Spirit of God to bear a most decided testimony. After I had spoken, many came forward for prayer. Much tenderness and weeping were seen in the meeting. Some of the nurses from the sanitarium were much broken in spirit, and earnestly sought the Lord.

On returning to St. Helena, I met my son, James Edson White, whom I had not seen for nine years. He had come to counsel with us while Elder Irwin was here. Through the week our counsels continued, and many important matters were considered.

Since coming here, I have spoken about twelve times at the sanitarium, once at St. Helena, once at Calistoga, and three times at Healdsburg. The Lord has blessed me in a marked manner. I see as I never expected to see that the good hand of the Lord is with me. Oh, it has been so wonderfully apparent in providing this beautiful home in this retired place!

While on the boat, I was visited by the angel of the Lord, and was instructed that it was in the order of God for me to come to America just at this time. This was against my wishes; for I wanted to remain in Australia. I love the people there, and I loved my work. I have not lost my love for Australia, nor my interest in the workers there.

The Lord will help all who take hold with good courage, and humbly do His work with honesty and fidelity and earnest zeal. The end is near, and I would say to those I love in every place, Be of good courage in the Lord. Ministers and people, the Lord is our Rock. We may be secure. The Lord will not leave His people to the will of the enemy. He will carry us through all the strait places. He can spread a table for us in the wilderness. We want not human zeal, but a zeal for the success of all our institutions. They are God's instrumentalities. They must be kept free from selfishness. They must be witnesses for the truth of God for this time.

Sabbath, November 10, I visited San Francisco, and spoke to a church full of people who had ears to hear and hearts to understand. They seemed to be hungry for the word of the Lord, and I believe they heard to a purpose. As I spoke the word of life in plain, simple language, I knew that Christ was with us, softening and subduing hearts. The Holy Spirit was evidently at work. Oh, how my heart yearned for the precious souls whom I was inviting to look and live!

After I had finished speaking, Elder Corliss invited all who wished to give themselves to Jesus to come forward. There was a quick and happy response, and I was told that nearly two hundred persons came forward. Men and women, youth and children, pressed into the front seats. The Lord would be pleased to have a work similar to this done in every church.

Many could not come forward, because the house was so crowded, yet the animated countenances and tearful eyes testified to the determination, "I will be on the Lord's side. From this time I will seek earnestly to reach a higher standard."

Most earnest efforts should be made to lead both the older and the younger members of our churches to take hold of the work where they are. The Lord will use all who will give themselves to Him in deed and in truth. The young men and young women who give themselves to the work of presenting the truth and laboring for the conversion of souls, should first be vitalized by the Holy Spirit; and then they should go forth without the camp into the most unpromising places. The Lord has not given to those of little experience the work of preaching to the churches. The message is to be proclaimed in the highways and hedges.

Where are the men who know how to organize? You are needed just now. Only those who are themselves guided by the great principles of truth, who have themselves felt the power of the grace of God, can be a blessing to others. These are the ones who can labor for those church-members who are living in carelessness. Those who, on their knees and with the Bible before them, seek for a living connection with the Source of all power, will gain an experience that will be of more value to them than gold.

Careful management on all points is needed, so that we shall neither run into the fire of fanaticism nor drift into formalism, which will freeze our own souls and the souls of others. We need more of the good, old-fashioned religion which leads a man to walk humbly before God. He who possesses this religion brings into his work an awakened intellect. He grasps the theory of truth, but he does not stop there. He co-operates with God by using in His service all the capabilities and gifts intrusted to him. He spends much time in the study of the Scriptures and in prayer to God, and divine power comes to him, enabling him to understand the sacred art of saving souls.

There is no need of our making continual blunders in the work of the Lord. Ministers need the guiding philosophy which gives them strength to save souls ready to perish. This philosophy is necessary in the work of God. But how little effort is put forth to educate the youth before they enter God's vineyard. Little genuine zeal is shown in educating and training the inexperienced disciple to seek for souls as he that must give an account.

I beseech those who have received the light of truth to do all in their power to carry out the commission given by Christ to His disciples. Let ministers understand that they are to impart that which they receive. Let them remember that their success comes from God, who is always ready to give a fresh supply of grace to the humble and contrite. Let them live in the light and love of God, improving the opportunities presented to them, and drawing into the web threads that will help to make the perfect pattern. Each human being is weaving his own web, and each throw of the shuttle helps to decide his own destiny and the destiny of others.

The Church is in great need of purification. There are sins that are unrepented of and unconfessed. The poison of sin must be cleansed from the Church. Many have been so deceived, their principles so corrupted, that they have no pleasure in the word of God, and it has no power over their lives. God will test character. In the day of final judgment, when every man shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body, nothing will seem to have existence but character and the law of God. Man will be stripped of everything but the character he has formed. All will be seen to be either righteous or unrighteous.

Now pretense and semblance reign in the world. But God's law calls for more than words. An imperative voice says, "By their fruits ye shall know them." God calls for works. Our future happiness depends on our active faith and our good works.

Christ created human beings, and then, by a life of suffering and humiliation, and a death of agony and shame, He redeemed them from sin. O sinner, the Saviour endured all this for you . He died that you might be led to see the sinfulness of sin, and by coming to Him have eternal life. -

The Week of Prayer in San Francisco

Friday, December 21, I went to San Francisco, where I was to spend the Week of Prayer. Sabbath afternoon I spoke to the church there, although I was so weak that I had to cling to the pulpit with both hands to steady myself. I asked the Lord to give me strength to speak to the people. He heard my prayer, and strengthened me. I had great freedom in speaking from Rev. 2:1-5.

The deep moving of the Spirit of God came upon me, and the people were strongly impressed with the message borne. After I had finished speaking, all who desired to give themselves to the Lord were invited to come forward. A large number responded, and prayer was offered for them. Several who came forward are persons who have recently heard the Advent message, and are in the valley of decision. May the Lord strengthen the good impression made upon them, and may they give themselves wholly to Him. Oh, how I long to see souls converted, and hear them sing a new song, even praise to our God!

Sunday afternoon I spoke to a large audience, many of whom are not of our faith. My strength was renewed, and I was able, without clinging to the desk, to stand before the people. The Lord's blessing rested upon us, and increased strength came to me as I spoke. As on Sabbath, those seeking spiritual help were invited to come forward, and we were glad to see the ready response. The Lord came very near as we sought Him in prayer. I felt greatly strengthened, and after the meeting walked to the place where I was staying, a distance of five blocks.

As I stood before the large congregation in the San Francisco meeting-house, I thought of our experiences twenty-four years ago, when a small company of believers were struggling to secure a house of worship large enough to meet future demands. It had been presented to me that San Francisco would always be an important missionary field. In a dream I saw two beehives, one in Oakland, and the other in San Francisco. In the Oakland hive all was activity, in the San Francisco very little was being done. Again I looked at the hive in San Francisco, and all was activity among the bees. They were hard at work. We understood this to mean that a large work would be done by the church in San Francisco, although it started slowly. For many years it was thought by some that the San Francisco meeting-house was too large. Now it is well filled on the Sabbath day, and we wish it were larger.

We have every reason to believe that the work carried on in San Francisco by Elder Corliss and his brethren, is the work that needs to be done. San Francisco is a great center, and must be thoroughly worked. A much more extensive work should be done in this great and wicked city. The message of mercy must be proclaimed in the highways and hedges; all classes must be invited to the banquet provided by the Lord.

One day Brother Pearson drove us to Strawberry Hill, one of the beautiful parts of the city, and then to our vegetarian restaurant, on Market Street, near the heart of the city. Here we met Brother E. G. Fulton and his wife, who, with a company of willing helpers, are serving about five hundred meals a day. The building is narrow, and will accommodate about fifty persons at once. Everything about the place was clean, wholesome, and attractive. We were pleased to see that right principles are observed in the selection and preparation of all the foods. There was not a particle of meat, poultry, fish, nor anything that requires the sacrifice of life. We were also pleased to learn that this restaurant is wholly closed on the Sabbath. At first the complaints and pleadings of regular boarders were listened to, and some meals were served on the Sabbath. Many declared that the enterprise could not be maintained if it closed its doors on Saturday. But since the Sabbath closing, a special blessing has manifestly rested upon the work.

We are glad that an effort is being made to provide those who wish to change their diet, with food which is wholesome, nourishing, and palatable. The only thing I regretted on this occasion was the inability of the managers to accommodate many of those who wish to patronize the restaurant. If more of these restaurants could be carried on by our people, what a blessing they would be! By the practical demonstration of the best methods of preparing wholesome, palatable food without flesh-meat, many would learn valuable lessons. They would become acquainted with health principles.

I wish that some of those who have means tied up in banks, could be led to study the situation, and devise means whereby this work of establishing vegetarian restaurants could be enlarged, so that more might be benefited.

Notice was given that I would speak on Christmas afternoon. At the time appointed we found a large company gathered in the church. I presented, verse by verse, part of the second chapter of Colossians. I have read this chapter many times, but it never seemed so impressive and encouraging as on this occasion. Please read this chapter carefully and prayerfully, and the Lord give you understanding. It is a treasure-house of encouragement to the believer.

I tried to show what Christ is to us, and what we may be to Him as His helping hand. I dwelt upon the folly of turning from Christ to humanity for help, and urged all to accept the rich promises of God, which are so full, so abundant, and so assuring. When Jesus is appreciated, we shall see of the salvation of God; but when we treat the Saviour indifferently, closing the door against Him, and looking to man for guidance, how can we expect to have power?

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." If the heart is filled with gratitude, its treasure of love and thanksgiving will flow forth to refresh others. Little grievances will not be noticed. Larger difficulties will be met in the spirit of Christ. Hearts will go out in prayer for patience, perseverance, and forbearance. Then, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard for tried, tempted souls.

We are warned, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

We show altogether too little reverence for God. Those who are serving under the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel, who have on their side the whole heavenly host, should give to the world a bright evidence of the saving power of truth. Our joy should be proportionate to the greatness of the truth we claim to believe. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." Now, just now, in this day of preparation, may the Lord awaken His people to a true sense of their responsibility! May they be led to give the world a correct representation of the great work for this time. Let us not mar our faith by accepting errors. We may be complete in Him who is the head of all principalities and powers.

The Lord gave us special victory in this meeting, and the countenances of those present showed their desire to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

During the Week of Prayer my burden was to show the people that true service makes the believers self-sacrificing. It leads them to keep in view the need of personal holiness and consecration, that through the sanctification of the truth they may abound in works of benevolence for the uplifting of those around them.

Christ said to the Samaritan woman, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. . . . Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Thus is represented the experience of the thankful heart. It continually overflows with blessings for others.

The word of God is full of consolation. It presents before us great possibilities and advantages, which all should appreciate. By a faithful improvement of these blessings we may rise to the highest standard of Christian excellence. The gospel influences those who receive it to attain to perfection. They are inspired with faith and hope, and become Christlike in character.

Christ is our Creator and Redeemer, and He is glorified by the service of those who on earth act as His helpers. To fail to devote every capability to His service is to rob Him. He, our Lord and Master, calls for the co-operation of every human being.

Conversion is not a half-and-half-work, a serving of God and Mammon, but an entire turning to God. It is the working of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. Those who are truly converted have an understanding of spiritual things, which unites them to God and to one another in Christian love.

The Lord calls for workers who will deny self and follow in His footsteps. He calls for a faithful tithe, and for gifts and offerings, that there may be money in His treasury for the advancement of His work. Our money is His, and is to be returned to Him. Christ is the light and life and joy of His self-denying people. Because He lives, they shall live also. When He comes, it will be to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe.

The spirit of liberality came into our meeting in San Francisco, and the people gave willingly to the Lord's work. I feel very thankful to our Heavenly Father for this evidence of the moving of His Spirit upon hearts. Let the ninth chapter of second Corinthians be read in all our churches, that the members may catch the inspiration of liberality. God help His people to see things in a correct light, and to arouse to meet the pressing emergencies that always arise in aggressive warfare. As they give cheerfully and willingly of the Lord's intrusted means, He will intrust them with more to impart. He is able to make all grace abound toward cheerful givers, that, always having all sufficiency in all things, they may abound to every good work. -

The Influence of the Truth

Truth is elevating and uplifting. Those who receive the truth in earnestness and sincerity bear fruit, which shows that the entire life is changed. But many who claim to believe the truth are no honor to the truth because they are not sanctified by it. They do not receive the truth into the soul, therefore it can not sanctify the life.

By the help of the Holy Spirit, men and women can rise from commonness, and live pure, holy lives. Those professed believers who do not do this, lie against the truth. They say, "I believe the Third Angel's Message. I believe that the Lord is coming." But they enter into controversy with others, revealing coarse, rough traits of character. They do not show forth in word and deportment the transforming power that attends the truth. How can the Lord be pleased with those who make no effort to rise to a high standard? Do they not claim to have received a high, noble truth? Yet in their home life and in their business associations they show no change for the better. Is not this lying against the truth?

"Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." The apostle carries the minds of the people back to their former unrenewed condition. "Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."

God does not ask men and women to surrender anything that is for the health of soul or body, but He does ask them to surrender debasing, enfeebling vices, vices which, if cherished, will exclude them from heaven. He leaves them room for every pleasure that can be enjoyed without compunction of conscience, and remembered without remorse. He asks them, for their present and eternal good, to cultivate those virtues that bring health to the body and strength to the soul. Pure thoughts and correct habits are necessary to a man's happiness, as a man and as a Christian. Everything of a debasing character must be over-come if we would see the King in His beauty.

Christ says to us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." The Lord can and will help every one who seeks His help in the effort to become pure and holy. God has given us His word as a guide and counselor, and we are without excuse if we fail to reach the standard set before us. Remember that you have in your possession the living oracles of God. In this precious book the truth is laid open before us in all its simplicity. But how many there are who fail to read this word earnestly and diligently, as if seeking for the hidden treasure.

Have earnest efforts been made to overcome natural inclinations to wrong, to conquer the habits and practices that were a part of the life before the acceptance of the truth? Are those who claim to believe the truth as untidy and disorderly in the home and as unchristlike in the daily life as before they professed to accept Christ? If so, they are not showing forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness. They have not put on Christ's righteousness.

Strive to make decided improvement. Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Be neat and tidy in your dress, and kind and courteous in your manner. Be pure and refined; for heaven is the very essence of purity and refinement. As God is pure and holy in His sphere, so we are to be in our sphere.

Read carefully and critically the parable of the wedding garment, and make a personal application of the lessons it teaches. There are those who, having heard the truth, assent to it, yet are not transformed by it. The truth has not been received into the soul, and therefore it can not carry forward its work of purification in the life. Their family, their neighbors, do not see in them the marked change which they have a right to expect. Those who make a profession of faith, and yet remain unchanged in habit and practice, are represented in the parable by the man who came to the feast without a wedding garment. There are many who, while they believe what they read about Christ, do not believe in Christ. They do not receive Him as a personal Saviour. Their names may be registered on the Church roll, but they do not bring Christ into the daily life; and God can not accept them.

God is dishonored when those who claim to believe His precious, elevating truth refuse to put on the royal robe of Christ's righteousness. These offer insult to the Saviour. Wherever they go, they show that they have refused to accept the garment provided for them.

There are many, many, professed Christians who are waiting unconcernedly for the coming of the Lord. They have not on the garment of His righteousness. They may profess to be children of God, but they are not cleansed from sin. They are selfish and self-sufficient. Their experience is Christless. They neither love God supremely nor their neighbor as themselves. They have no true idea of what constitutes holiness. They do not see the defects in themselves. So blinded are they, that they are not able to detect the subtle working of pride and iniquity. They are clad in the rags of self- righteousness, and stricken with spiritual blindness. Satan has cast his shadow between them and Christ, and they have no wish to study the pure, holy character of the Saviour.

Those who do not become saints here can never be saints in heaven. God will accept in His service nothing less than the entire being,--body, soul, and spirit. At the coming of Christ many who now pass for Christians will be found wanting. They would not put on the righteousness of Christ. As they stand face to face with the Judge of all the earth, they will see their true condition. In the light of the law of God, they will see the destitution of their souls.

It is impossible for one to be a Christian and yet remain a spiritual dwarf. Those who are truly united to Christ will grow daily, they will attain to the full stature of men and women in Him. They will not, while claiming to be doers of the word of God, disobey its plain requirements. Why is there so little growth in Christian experience, so little manifestation of Christ in the life? Why is the religious life so dwarfed?--It is because there is so much of self and so little of Christ.

The law condemns all sin, and requires all virtue. It demands of man an outward respect, and it requires purity of soul. "Behold," writes the psalmist, "thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom." The law was exemplified in the life of Christ. He is a pattern for all humanity. He lived the law. His purity and beneficence, His devotion to the truth, and His zeal for God's glory reveal the perfection of the law. His every act was a revelation of the glory of the Father. He was all that the law required Him to be.

What the law demanded of Adam and Eve in Eden, and what it demanded of Christ, the second Adam, it demands of every human being. I call upon those who profess to believe the truth to reach a higher standard. I present before you Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, who left the royal courts, and for our sake became poor, that through His poverty we might be made rich. Look at the scenes in His life of suffering. Think of His agony in Gethsemane, when, oppressed by the powers of darkness, He prayed, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." See Him betrayed by Judas, forsaken by His disciples, condemned by priests and rulers, and delivered by Pilate to a shameful death. All this He endured that man might be elevated and ennobled, and by partaking of the divine nature, be exalted to the right hand of God.

Shall Christ have died for us in vain? Shall we claim to be children of light, and yet walk and work in darkness and sin? Shall we not rather show that the converting power of God is molding and fashioning us? Shall we not obey the injunction, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation," "having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation"? -

Lessons from the Christ-Life

The fact that the people were more interested in Christ's teaching than they were in the dry, tedious arguments of the Jewish teachers, maddened the scribes and Pharisees. These teachers spoke with uncertainty, interpreting the Scriptures to mean one thing, and then another. This left the people in great confusion. But as they listened to Jesus, their hearts were warmed and comforted. He presented God as a loving father, not as an avenging judge. He drew all, high and low, rich and poor, to see God in His true character, leading them to call Him by the endearing name, "Our Father."

By loving words and by works of mercy, Christ bore down old traditions and man-made commandments, and presented the love of the Father in its exhaustless fullness. His calm, earnest, musical voice fell like balm on the wounded spirit. He was revealing the image of God mirrored in himself. He presented to His hearers the truths of the prophecies, separating them from the obscure interpretations which the scribes and Pharisees had attached to them. He scattered the heavenly grains of truth wherever He went.

Determined to hear what Christ said to His disciples, the scribes and Pharisees kept spies on His track. These spies noted His words, and reported them to the Jewish authorities, who, when they heard them, were almost beside themselves with ill-concealed rage, which they interpreted to be zeal for God.

As the members of the Sanhedrim counseled together, there were not wanting men with strong, determined prejudices, who advised that this man who claimed so much be at once put down. If He were allowed to go on as He had been going, healing the sick on the Sabbath day, the sacredness of the day would be set at naught.

They saw that Christ's influence over the people was fast becoming greater than theirs. They longed to crush Him for daring to make their traditions of none effect, but they feared to move openly, because of the people. They thought that if they worked secretly, watching His words and actions, they would soon find such accusations against Him that He could be put on trial for His life. Declaring that the end justified the means, they decided to circulate falsehoods among the people, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was an impostor, and that He was making of none effect Jewish traditions and customs. They declared that if these traditions were criticised by this man, the whole Jewish economy could be criticised by any crazy enthusiast. The nation would become distracted, and the Romans would come and take away the power they still possessed.

"Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

Christ was accused of breaking the Sabbath by doing upon it works of healing. But He justified himself by stating that His work admitted of no interruption. He must work constantly, even as His Father works. It is by God's unfailing care that we are provided with daily food. Then should we not trust in Him who has undertaken our salvation. The knowledge that the Father and the Son are united in the work of redemption should give courage and hope to the most desponding.

Christ, the surety of the human race, works with uninterrupted activity. He speaks of himself as working in the same way as the Guardian of the universe. He worked untiringly for the people of Israel. He sought to lead them to trust in Him who can save to the uttermost all who come to Him. Christ is the light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. From Adam, through the patriarchal age, this light made plain the way to heaven. To it gave all the prophets witness. In mysterious procession future things swept before their vision. In every sacrifice Christ's death was pointed out. His righteousness ascended to God in every cloud of incense. His majesty was hidden in the holy of holies. Christ was as truly a Saviour before as after His incarnation. At the very moment of transgression and apostasy, He entered upon His work, laboring for the salvation of man with an activity equal to the activity of God.

"Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making himself equal with God." The whole nation called God their Father, and if Jesus had done this in the same sense in which they did, the Pharisees would not have been so enraged. But they accused Jesus of blasphemy, showing that they understood that Christ claimed God as His Father in the very highest sense.

Christ threw back the charge of blasphemy, with the words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that himself doeth." My authority for the work that I am doing, He said, is the fact that I am God's Son, one with Him in nature, will, and purpose. I co-operate with Him in His work. My Father loves me, and communicates to me all His counsels. Nothing is planned by the Father in heaven that is not fully opened to the Son.

"The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that himself doeth: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." Christ was to do greater things than even the healing of disease. By His power the dead were to be raised to life. Scribes and Pharisees were to see that which would astonish them, at which they would be obliged to marvel, even though their hearts would be too proud and hard to make any acknowledgment.

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." What a statement to make before those whose hearts were already filled with hatred and murder. Christ was giving the rulers of Israel light, which would make them inexcusable. Nothing was left undone that could be done to convince them of their error. -

"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." God has laid the work of judgment upon Christ because He is the Son of man. He was made in all points life unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest. He was to become acquainted with the weakness of every human being. He could do this only by taking upon himself human nature. He must be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, that at the judgment of the great day none might question the justice of the decisions made. Our High Priest has been over the ground over which we must pass. He is acquainted with the circumstances of every case. He sees not as man sees, and judges not as man judges. He judges righteously. He has shown His love for men and women by giving His own life to ransom them from the penalty that must fall upon the transgressors of God's law. He knows the value of human souls. He will not close the door of heaven against any one unless, for the safety of heaven, it is necessary to do so.

Lucifer refused to accept Christ as the Prince of heaven, his Sovereign and Leader. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Son of God. The controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness has been long and fierce. Those who place themselves under Satan's banner, who refuse, as did the Jews, to yield allegiance to God or to obey His laws, can never be members of the heavenly family. They would make war against the law of Jehovah, calling it, as did Satan, a yoke of bondage.

Ever since his fall, Satan has been the leader of rebellion. Ever since that time he has been leading men and women astray. Christ's work began with the beginning of transgression. Then the warfare between good and evil was begun. The Scriptures speak plainly of this warfare, carrying us down to the final triumph of Christ over Satan and his adherents. This conflict never ceases.

As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew what He would have to suffer, yet He became man's substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.

As our Mediator, Christ works incessantly. Whether men receive or reject Him, He works earnestly for them. He grants them life and light, striving by His Spirit to win them from Satan's service. And while the Saviour works, Satan also works, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and with unflagging energy. But victory will never be his.

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." Christ was engaged in this warfare in Noah's day. It was His voice that spoke to the inhabitants of the old world in messages of warning, reproof, and invitation. He gave the people a probation of one hundred and twenty years, in which they might have repented. But they chose the deceptions of Satan, and perished in the waters of the flood.

It was Christ who kept the ark safe amid the roaring, seething billows, because its inmates had faith in His power to preserve them.

When Christ came to the earth in person, Satan's fiercest warfare was directed against Him. But by causing the Son of God to be crucified. Satan struck a blow at himself. When Christ died on the cross, Satan's death-knell was sounded. His deceptions were narrowly watched by the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds, as he, in disguise, worked in such a way that he thought he could not possibly be detected. But he was left to follow his own course, to condemn himself by his own deeds. And before the cross of Calvary he stood revealed in his true character. When Christ cried out, "It is finished," the unfallen worlds were made secure. For them the battle was fought and the victory won. Henceforth Satan had no place in the affections of the universe. The argument he had brought forward, that self-denial was impossible with God, and therefore unjustly required from His created intelligences, was forever answered. Satan's claims were forever set aside. The heavenly universe was secured in eternal allegiance.

It was because of the issues of stake that the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds watched with such intense interest the struggle between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness. Those who had not sinned needed not the application of Christ's blood, but they did need to be made secure from Satan's power. The result of the conflict had a bearing on the future of all the worlds, and every step that Christ took in the path of humiliation was watched by them with the deepest interest.

Christ overcame the enemy for every created intelligence. Thus He has secured the salvation of all who will accept the provision made. None who will accept Him need be vanquished. Around all is thrown the protection of His meditation.

By personal experience Christ is acquainted with the warfare which, since Adam's fall, has been constantly going on. How appropriate, then, for Him to be the judge. To Jesus, the Son of man, is committed all judgment. There is one mediator between God and men. Only by Him can we enter the kingdom of heaven. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. From His decision there is no appeal. He is the Rock of ages, a rock rent on purpose that every tried, tempted soul may find a sure hiding place.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Christ continued, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. . . . The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."

Christ here referred to those occasions upon which He should raise the dead. But His words have a deeper meaning. Not only was He to give life to those who were physically dead, but to raise to spiritual life those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Hearts palsied by transgression were to be roused by the work of the Holy Spirit.

By nature man has no love for God. It is not natural for him to think of heavenly things. Satan has worked against God and His government, leading men to attribute to God the traits which belong to the power of evil. Christ came to this world to reveal the Father. The human family had sinned against God. The terror of a broken law hung over them; and so low had they sunk, that it seemed impossible to infuse them with spiritual life. But in His work Christ was not to fail nor to be discouraged.

The Saviour saw that man has vast powers and capabilities for good, which can be used in the upbuilding of God's kingdom. He came to restore to life those dead in sin. His voice is to be heard saying, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." "As the Father hath life in himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself."

To arouse those spiritually dead, to create new tastes, new motives, requires as great an outlay of power as to raise one from physical death. It is indeed giving life to the dead to convert the sinner from the error of his ways; but our Deliverer is able to do this; for He came to destroy the works of the enemy. And will He not accomplish that which He has pledged himself to perform? -

Help for Our Scandinavian Institutions

In the name of the Lord I appeal again to our people in behalf of our institutions in Scandinavia. These institutions are in peril, and all who can should act their part without delay in delivering them. Let there be a consecrated, united effort to lift these institutions out of the difficulty into which they have fallen.

Those who love and serve God should feel the deepest interest in all that concerns the glory of His name. Who could see the institutions where the truth has been magnified, where the Lord has so often revealed His presence, where instruction has been given by the messengers of God, where the truth has been sent forth in publications that have accomplished great good,--who could bear to see these institutions passing into the hands of worldlings, to be used for common, worldly purposes? God would certainly be dishonored if His institutions were allowed to fall into decay for want of the money which He has intrusted to His stewards. Should this happen, men would say that it was because the Lord was not able to prevent it.

These things mean much to our brethren and sisters in Scandinavia. They will be sorely tried if their facilities are cut off. Let us make an effort to prevent them from falling into depression and discouragement.

Promptness of decision and action is necessary in this work. At the Week of Prayer there should have been a clear understanding of this matter in every church, and with the appeal before them, the people should have given their offerings to the place where holy interests are imperiled. Why is it that our ministers and church-members are not more prompt in their decisions in regard to the subject of the greatest need? When the Lord places before us an appeal to be responded to, just at the time when offerings are to be made by our people, let the ministers and church officers take up the matter earnestly and vigorously. Let them as stewards of God decide what is to be done, and then do it. This is absolutely necessary when our institutions are in so great peril.

The embarrassment of the Scandinavian institutions should have been thoroughly understood. Prompt measures should have been taken to relieve these institutions, which are just as sacred in the sight of the Lord as are our institutions in America. The hands of those connected with these institutions should not be weakened because of their embarrassment.

Let all who love the Lord now act their part for the relief of these institutions. Do not allow the name of Christ to be reproached. There are those who have little faith, who with some flimsy excuse will try to discourage others from doing anything. It only needs a discouraging word to rouse and strengthen selfishness in the soul. Do not listen to those who would tempt you. Do not begin to censure and condemn. Waive the questions that will arise as to how the difficulty has come about. It is sufficient for us to know that distress has come upon our brethren, in whom we have confidence as the Lord's servants. Do what you can now to help those who need help. Those who do this work with faithfulness will be among the number to whom the Saviour's words apply, "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

One part of the ministry of heavenly angels is to visit our world and oversee the work of the Lord which is in the hands of His stewards. In every time of necessity they minister to those who, as co-workers with God, are striving to carry forward His work in the earth. These heavenly intelligences are represented as desiring to look into the plan of redemption, and the angelic hosts rejoice whenever any part of God's work prospers.

Angels are interested in the spiritual welfare of all who are seeking to restore the moral image of God in man; and the human family are to connect with the heavenly family in binding up the wounds and bruises that sin has made. Angelic agencies, though invisible, are co-operating with visible human agencies, forming a relief-association with men. The very angels who, when Satan was seeking the supremacy, fought the battle in the heavenly courts, and triumphed on the side of God; the very angels who shouted for joy over the creation of our world, and over the creation of our first parents to inhabit the earth; the angels who witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from his Eden home,--these very heavenly messengers are most intensely interested to work in union with the fallen, redeemed race for the salvation of human beings perishing in their sins.

Human agencies are the hands of heavenly instrumentalities; for heavenly angels employ human hands in practical ministry. Human agencies as hand-helpers are to work out the knowledge and use the facilities of heavenly beings. By uniting with these powers that are omnipotent, we are benefited by their higher education and experience. Thus, as we become partakers of the divine nature, and separate selfishness from our lives, special talents for helping one another are granted us. This is Heaven's way of administering saving power.

Is there not something stimulating and inspiring in this thought, that the human agent stands as the visible instrument to confer the blessings of angelic agencies? As we are thus laborers together with God, the work bears the inscription of the divine. The knowledge and activity of the heavenly workers, united with the knowledge and power imparted to human agencies, bring relief to the oppressed and distressed. Our acts of unselfish ministry make us partakers in the success that results from the relief offered.

With what joy and delight heaven looks upon these blended influences! All heaven is watching those agencies that are as the hand to work out the purposes of God in the earth, thus doing the will and purpose of God in heaven. Such co-operation accomplishes a work that brings honor and glory and majesty to God.

Oh, if all would love as Christ has loved, that perishing men might be saved from ruin, what a change would come to our world! Christ's life was a life of pure benevolence, of disinterested labor. He assumed human nature for no other purpose than to display the glory of God in the happiness of man. To accomplish this He gave His life. All that Christ is, He is to the true believers. All that Christ has, He has for us. We are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. How then can we hesitate and draw back when Christ asks for our co-operation in His great work? The Lord is giving us opportunity to manifest our faith and our love for Him by making a sacrifice for the relief of His institutions.

My brethren, the Lord is soon to come, and every talent He has intrusted to us is to be returned to Him with usury. He calls upon His people to use for His glory the goods He has lent them. Let those who have means at once return to the Lord His own to help the institutions out of their embarrassment. Let those in responsible positions set a right example. Every noble, Christian instinct in the men in responsible positions should lead them to plan and work with greater earnestness for the relief of our institutions than they would for the saving of their own property. Let all try to do something. Delay not for a day or an hour. Look over your affairs, and see what you can do to co-operate with the Lord in helping His suffering institutions.

Let the people of God think of the eternal consequences of rightly employing their property. Let them bring their offerings to the Lord, saying, "Lord, we who have been intrusted with thy goods freely give thee of thine own."

Large sums are needed; but if you can give only a small amount, remember that the Lord will accept your gift. Remember that you are placing this money in the hands of Christ in the person of His afflicted brethren. Thus God regards it.

Since God sees fit to delegate angels to minister unto all who are in need of help, we know that if we do our part, these heavenly representatives of omnipotent power will be commissioned to help in this time of special need. I hope and pray that everything which can be done may be done. If all will now do what they can, the difficulty will soon be in the past, no more to harass the cause of God.

There is a great work to be done in Europe. The cause of God there is not to become a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense to unbelievers. The institutions there are not to be closed, or given into the hands of those not of our faith. The Lord's servants in Europe are to rally to recover what has been lost, and the Lord will work with them. And I call upon our people in America to co-operate with their brethren in Europe in this effort.

We often fail of doing that which the Lord has planned, because we insist on carrying out some whim of our own. I pray that the Lord will fill our hearts with an intense desire to know and to do His will. From unfeigned lips let the prayer go forth, "Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel." Let us work with heart and mind and soul. God's purpose will be accomplished if men and women will act their part in His great plan. Let us now be God's helping hand to relieve our institutions in Scandinavia. -

Lessons from the Christ-Life

"I can of mine own self do nothing," Christ continued; "as I hear, judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of me is true.

"Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth." John had declared, "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand." "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth; He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."

Speaking of John to the Pharisees, Christ said, "He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light." At first the Jewish teachers were greatly moved by the message of John, but it meant too much to practice his teachings. They rejected him because he pointed out the inconsistencies of their course.

"I have greater witness than that of John," Christ said; "for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me."

"Ye shall know them by their fruits." If the Jewish leaders had had no other testimony than the works of Christ, they would have been without excuse. They were not ignorant of the miracles which He wrought, but these works were a testimony against them; therefore they rejected them.

"And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me." At the baptism the Holy Spirit had descended on Christ, and God's voice had said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." But the Pharisees heard not the voice; they saw not the Spirit of God as a dove hovering over the Saviour. "Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape," Christ declared.

As at different times during Christ's work divinity flashed through humanity, and He stood transfigured before the people, the Jewish leaders were deeply impressed. But as they talked it over with one another, their unbelief strengthened, and the evidence that should have convinced them was rejected. The strongest evidence was no evidence to them, while the weakest, most superficial arguments, if against the truth which the Saviour brought, were sound in their estimation. They had started upon a path leading to eternal ruin.

"Ye have not His word abiding in you," Christ said; "for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." They had in their possession the word of God, and they supposed that they knew its teachings. They were indignant that this new teacher should tell them to search the Scriptures.

Christ saw that the Jewish teachers misinterpreted the word of God, and He urged upon them a more diligent study of its precepts. In Him were fast being fulfilled the types and shadows of the Jewish economy. If they searched the Scriptures as they should, they would find that He claimed nothing which was not rightfully His.

Had the Jews searched God's word as they should, they would have seen that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. But they searched with proud, selfish ambition as a guide, and they found a Messiah of their own imagination. Therefore when the Saviour came, a humble man, bringing to naught by His teaching long-established theories and traditions, presenting truth entirely opposite to their practices, they said, Who is this invader that dares to set aside our authority? Christ did not come as they had expected; therefore they refused to receive Him, and called Him a deceiver and an impostor. Instead of listening to Him that they might learn the truth, they listened with evil intent, that they might find something over which to cavil. And when once they had set their feet in the path of the great leader in rebellion, it was an easy matter for Satan to strengthen them in opposition. Christ's wonderful works, which God meant to be heaven-sent evidence to them, Satan caused them to interpret against Him. The more marked the way in which God spoke to them by His works of mercy and love, the more confirmed did they become in their resistance. Blinded by prejudice, they refused to acknowledge that Jesus is divine.

"I receive not honor from men," Christ said. It was not the influence or sanction of the Sanhedrim that Christ desired. He wished not for human honor or approbation. He was invested with power from above. Had He desired honor, how quickly would the heavenly angels have come to His side! How quickly would the Father again have testified to the divinity of His Son! From no human source did Christ crave honor. He could not have been rendered more honorable if the whole school of the rabbis had lent Him their influence.

"I know you," Christ declared to the Pharisees, "that ye have not the love of God in you." He spoke to them thus plainly because they could not discern His divinity under the veil of humanity. He was God in human flesh, and He could not but work the works of God. Unbelief, prejudice, and jealousy beat about Him, and if His humanity had not been united with divinity, He would have failed and become discouraged. At times His divinity flashed through humanity, and He stood forth as the Son of God, His veil of flesh too transparent to hide His majesty. But the men who claimed to be the expositors of the prophecies refused to believe that He was the Christ. Satan had control of their minds, and they utterly refused to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth.

Since Christ was treated thus, can we be surprised when those to whom He has given His message are rejected and scorned by men whose resistance of light is even less excusable than was the resistance of the Jews?

Christ did not frame His words to accommodate the pretentious pride of a deceived, self-righteous people. "I know you," He said, "that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." Jesus came by the authority of God, bearing His image, seeking His glory, fulfilling His word. His mission bore the divine credentials. But His work failed to convince the hearts that were steeled by prejudice. Yet when others should come, assuming the title of Christ without giving genuine evidence that they were sent by God, speaking on the authority of their own finite judgment, acting for their own glory, they would be received because their theories agreed with cherished ideas and opinions.

"How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" Christ asked. "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"

Moses spoke only the words which the Great Teacher, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, bade him speak. The writings of Moses presented types of the Messiah and promises of His coming. All these would condemn the Jews, because they professed to believe Moses. Had they really believed him, they would have welcomed the One of whom he wrote.

As Christ spoke, the scribes and Pharisees listened to words such as they had never heard before. But instead of receiving the speaker as the long-expected Messiah, they angrily rejected His claims. He questioned their doctrine, and this was regarded by them as a sin never to be forgiven. They were determined to stand by their traditions and commandments. They would teach them just as strenuously as if no counter-influence had been exerted to correct their errors and deceptions.

What a contrast to the reception given to Christ by the Jewish leaders was the reception given to Him by Simeon! The Jews lived in daily expectation of seeing the long-looked-for Messiah. They talked of His coming, and with proud ambition built hopes of worldly greatness on the prospect. But when He came, meek and lowly, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they hid their faces from Him.

Simeon no sooner saw the infant in the priest's arms than he was divinely impressed. Taking Him in his arms, he blessed Him, and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

Simeon realized that he held in his arms One who was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There was at this time nothing in Christ's outward appearance to give him this assurance, but Simeon had lived in the atmosphere of heaven. The bright beams of the Sun of righteousness gave him spiritual discernment. His one desire had been to see Christ. The purity of his life corresponded to the light he had received, and he was prepared for the revelation of the great truth that this helpless infant was the Lord's anointed, even the Messiah. Joy and exultation transfigured his face as he held in his arms God's most precious gift to men. His illumined mind received the light flowing from the Source of all light. He saw that Christ was to be the hope of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. The walls of tradition built up by Jewish prejudice did not exist in his mind. He realized that the Messiah was to bring redemption to all.

Turning to the Jews, we see the other side. The scribes and Pharisees had separated themselves from God by their national pride. There were in Judea schools of learning, and the leaders of these schools were filled with self-exaltation. They thought that they had all the light that had ever been given to the world. They looked for the Messiah to come as a temporal prince, to exalt the Jewish nation above all other nations on the earth. As their self-confidence increased, their dependence on God decreased. They walked in their own ways, and were filled with self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. They professed to be the expositors of Scripture, but they misinterpreted and misapplied its teachings. Instead of reflecting light to the people, they cast a shadow upon them. The voice of God speaking to them through His Son was to them the voice of a stranger.

The least difference of opinion expressed by Christ was an occasion for the Jews to resist and denounce Him. At times they charged Him with working miracles through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. The least mention of Christ as a light to lighten the Gentiles roused to fury the national prejudice. The worst passions of the heart were stirred; for the Pharisees had taught the Jewish people to despise and hate the Gentiles. Were their commands and traditions to be treated with indifference, and, worse still, to be brushed away as error? Was this man, the son of a carpenter, to be accepted as knowing more than the priests and rulers? They would show him that he could not take the people from them. They determined to put him to death.

Why should there be such a difference between the reception of Christ by the Jewish teachers and His reception by Simeon?--Because the spiritual condition of the two was different. The Jews were guided and controlled by pride and selfishness. Simeon revered God, and walked in the way of the Lord. He listened constantly for the voice of God, and he was enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Those who wait on the Lord will, like Simeon, receive divine illumination.

Simeon and the priests represent two classes,--those who are guided by the Spirit of God because they are willing to be instructed, and those who, refusing to receive the light which would lead them into all truth, are guided by the spirit of the power of darkness, and are daily being led into deeper darkness.

By divine illumination Simeon understood Christ's mission. The Holy Spirit impressed his heart. But the priests and rulers were imbued with the spirit of the enemy of God; and to-day the same spirit influences human minds, controlling with power the hearts of men, and making of none effect the appeals of the Spirit.

The Jewish leaders claimed to be the expositors of prophecy; but while their hearts were filled with envy, evil-surmisings, and selfish pride, they could not distinguish between the voice of the true Shepherd and the voice of a stranger. They strengthened one another in resistance. The same thing is done in our day. The same resistance of truth will be shown by those who stubbornly refuse to receive the cautions and reproofs which the Lord sends. But those who reject the word of God for tradition will not be able to stand amid the perils of the last days.

The Jews virtually said, as did Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" The same power that had made itself felt all over the land of Egypt was striving with the Jews. But they refused to bow before it, and their hearts grew harder. The same voice is speaking to men and women to-day. We are in danger of falling into the error into which the Jews fell. God warns us not to do as they did.

If our hearts are open to receive the light of truth, we shall see what Jesus is to our world. But too often that which would be to the people of God the very light and blessing they need is rejected because of blindness of mind and hardness of heart. Many walk in darkness, and can see no light. To them truth seems to be error. The voice of One coming in the name of the Father is ignored. They prepare the way for Satan to bring them strong delusions, that they may believe a lie. God's word declares, "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

God stands ready to bestow rich blessings upon men; but few will bend from their selfishness to receive the gracious gift. From age to age there is acted over the same rejection of light that grieved the heart of Christ when He was on earth. There is seen the same refusal to hear the voice of God through His appointed agencies, because the message borne does not sanction human theories. Christ is as really rejected today by the rejection of His messages of warning and reproof as when He stood in this world a man among men. -

Our Talents

God has lent men talents--an intellect to originate, a heart to be the place of His throne, affection to flow out in blessings to others, a conscience to convict of sin. Each one has received something from the Master, and each one is to do his part in supplying the needs of God's work.

God desires His workers to look to Him as the giver of all they possess, to remember that all they have and are comes from Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. The delicate touch of the physician's hand, his power over nerve and muscle, his knowledge of the delicate organism of the body, are the wisdom of divine power, to be used in behalf of suffering humanity. The skill with which the carpenter uses the hammer, the strength with which the blacksmith makes the anvil ring, come from God. He has intrusted men with talents, and He desires them to look to Him for counsel. Thus they may use His gifts with unerring aptitude, testifying that they are workers together with God.

Property is a talent. To His people the Lord sends the message, "Sell that ye have, and give alms." All that we have is the Lord's, without any question. He calls upon us to awake, to bear a share of the burdens of His cause, that prosperity may attend His work. Every Christian is to act His part as a faithful steward. The methods of God are sensible and right, and we are to trade on our pence and our pounds, returning our freewill offerings to Him to sustain His work, to bring souls to Christ. Large and small sums should flow into the Lord's treasury. All the people of God are to pay a faithful tithe. This is the Lord's portion, and He will reward a faithful return to Him of His own.

The Lord Jesus, whose we are by creation and by redemption, has pointed out our duty. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness," He says, "and all these things shall be added unto you." Those who choose to gratify every selfish desire will be judged accordingly. Living to please self, they dishonor God.

Speech is a talent. Of all the gifts bestowed on the human family, none should be more appreciated than the gift of speech. It is to be used to declare God's wisdom and wondrous love. Thus the treasures of His grace and wisdom are to be communicated.

An indwelling Saviour is revealed by the words. But the Holy Spirit does not abide in the heart of him who is peevish if others do not agree with his ideas and plans. From the lips of such a man there come scathing remarks, which grieve the Spirit away, and develop attributes that are satanic rather than divine. The Lord desires those connected with His work to speak at all times with the meekness of Christ. If you are provoked, do not become impatient. Manifest the gentleness of which Christ has given us an example in His life.

As Christians we should speak as Christ would speak were He in our place. We long to see reforms, but often because things do not move just as we wish them to move, an evil spirit puts drops of gall into our cup, and other souls are poisoned. By our ill-advised words they are chafed and stirred to rebellion. Make it your aim to speak the truth in love. Then the Lord Jesus by His Spirit will supply the force and power. Do not mingle self with anything done for God. Ever reveal the meek and lowly spirit of the Master.

All who claim to serve God should show by word and action that they are His children. To show by the daily life that we are members of the royal family is of more value in God's sight than all learning, all high accomplishments.

Strength is a talent, and is to be used to glorify God. Our bodies belong to Him. He has paid the price of redemption for the body as well as for the soul. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." God is the great Care-taker of the human machinery. Were it not for His constant care, the pulse would not beat, the action of the heart would cease, the brain would no longer act its part.

The brain is the organ and instrument of the mind, and controls the whole body. In order for the other parts of the system to be healthy, the brain must be healthy; and in order for the brain to be healthy, the blood must be pure. If, by correct habits of eating and drinking, the blood is kept pure, the brain will be properly nourished.

We can serve God better in the vigor of health than in the palsy of disease; therefore we should co-operate with God in the care of our bodies. Love for God is essential for life and health. Faith in God is essential for health. In order to have perfect health, our hearts must be filled with love and hope and joy in the Lord.

The tastes are to be elevated, the appetite subdued, by those who are seeking for the eternal inheritance, a life which measures with the life of God. The gospel demands an unreserved surrender of body and soul, with all their energies and capabilities. The Lord claims all the service which any human being, aided and enriched by divine grace, can render; and to withhold this from Him is robbery.

Influence is a talent, and it is a power for good when the sacred fire of God's kindling is brought into our service. The influence of a holy life is felt at home and abroad. The practical benevolence, the self-denial and self-sacrifice, which mark the life of a man, have an influence for good upon those with whom he associates.

Imperceptibly influences affect the mind, and form the character. If the mind does not appropriate high and holy influences, it appropriates those that are low and debasing. If there is not a growth in piety and grace, there is a growth in worldliness and sin.

In the Lord's plan there is a diversity in the distribution of talents. To one man is given one talent, to another five, to another ten. These talents are not bestowed capriciously, but according to the ability of the recipient.

According to the talents bestowed will be the returns called for. The heaviest obligation rests upon him who has been made a steward of the greatest abilities. A man who has ten pounds is held responsible for all that ten pounds would do if used aright. He who has only ten pence is accountable for only that amount. God accepts according to what a man has, not according to what he has not. He does not expect from the man who has only one talent what he expects from him who has five.

In the parable the man who received one talent hid it in the earth. He refused to do what he could to increase that which was given him, and then tried to make his lord responsible for his neglect. Had he been intrusted with five talents, he would have done just the same as he did with one.

It is the faithfulness with which the endowment has been used that wins the Lord's commendation. If we desire to be acknowledged as good and faithful servants, we must do thorough, consecrated work for the Master. He will reward diligent, honest service. If men will put their trust in Him, if they will recognize His compassion and benevolence, and will walk humbly before Him, He will co-operate with them. He will increase their talents.

God has left us in charge of His goods in His absence. Each steward has his own special work to do for the advancement of God's kingdom. No one is excused. The Lord bids us all, "Occupy till I come." By His own wisdom He has given us direction for the use of His gifts. The talents of speech, memory, influence, property, are to accumulate for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. He will bless the right use of His gifts.

We claim to be Christians, waiting for the second appearing of our Lord in the clouds of heaven. Then what shall we do with our time, our understanding, our possessions, which are not ours, but are intrusted to us to test our honesty? Let us bring them to Jesus. Let us use our treasures for the advancement of His cause. Thus we shall obey the injunction, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -

The Warfare Between Good and Evil

Satan is the originator of sin. In heaven he resolved to live to himself. He resolved to be leader. He determined to make himself a center of influence. If he could not be the highest authority in heaven, he would be the highest authority in rebellion against the government of heaven. Head he would be, to control, not to be controlled.

When Satan made this choice, when he ceased to co-operate with God in His plans for the universal good, he became by his own choice the leader in rebellion, and his influence was exerted solely to injure God. When Satan refused to exert his influence on the side of truth, heaven must no longer be his home. He gathered with him in rebellion an army of angels who had swerved from their allegiance. With these sympathizers he was cast out of heaven.

Satan was dependent on God for his life. He resolved to ignore this dependence, but he could not destroy the fact. He could cease to be loyal and true, cease to be the means of communicating hallowed influences, but he could never be that which he told his companions he would be,--the center of influence.

Satan separated himself from God, and selfishness became the law of those who placed themselves under his leadership. He came to this earth, and entered upon the work of conforming all things to himself. He sought in every way to deface the divine image in man, and to place his principles where the principles of heaven should be.

To a large degree Satan has succeeded in the execution of his plans. Through the medium of influence, taking advantage of the action of mind on mind, he prevailed on Adam to sin. Thus at its very source human nature was corrupted. And ever since then sin has continued its hateful work, reaching from mind to mind. Every sin committed awakens the echoes of the original sin.

Mutual dependence is a wonderful thing. Reciprocal influence should be carefully studied. We should find out without doubt on what side we are exerting our influence. When placed on the side of right, influence is a power for God; when placed on the side of evil, it is a power for Satan. One human being under Satan's control becomes a means of temptation to another human being. Thus evil grows into immense proportions.

Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise some way of doing the most possible evil to the human family. One proposition after another was made, till finally Satan himself thought of a plan. He would take the fruit of the vine, also wheat, and other things given by God as food, and would convert them into poisons, which would ruin man's physical, mental, and moral powers, and so overcome the senses that Satan should have full control. Under the influence of liquor, men would be led to commit crimes of all kinds. Through perverted appetite the world would be made corrupt. By leading men to drink alcohol, Satan would cause them to descend lower and lower in the scale.

Satan has succeeded in turning the world from God. The blessings provided in God's love and mercy he has turned into a deadly curse. He has filled men with a craving for liquor and tobacco. This appetite, which has no foundation in nature, has destroyed its millions, yet it is indulged by high and low, rich and poor. Too often those appointed to guard the interests of the people are under the power of this appetite.

Not only is the evil of intemperance allowed and sanctioned in Christian lands; the curse is carried to heathen nations. Poor, unenlightened savages, ignorant of God, are taught to ask for liquor. So hardened have professed Christians become that they care not that the liquor curse is introduced into the dark regions of idolatry.

Satan wages an untiring warfare against the law of God. And so completely has he deceived men that his insinuations against this law are repeated from professedly Christian pulpits. Men, women, and children have been taught to believe them, and as a result -- look at the world to-day. Satan is its god. Nations have become workers of iniquity. Evil has lifted up itself against good. Men say, It does not matter what God's law says; the laws of the nations must be obeyed. Despotic power shows itself strong. Man-made laws are climbing higher and still higher, to displace and make void the law of God, to take the consciences of men under their control, and defy God to His face. Satan is gathering the powers of evil, to give them back to a lawless world under the solemn names of law and religion.

The world is nearing the time of its destruction. Every generation takes up some phase of evil in advance of the one which preceded it, moving onward in the march of impenitence and rebellion. God is looking on, measuring the temple and the worshipers therein. Professed Christians are joining hands with the man of sin, to make void the law of God.

Soon the world is to be called to appear at the bar of God. John writes, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. . . . And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

The arm of Omnipotence alone can cleanse the earth from the evil which Satan has brought into it. This He will do by destroying the world by fire, even as He destroyed the old world by a flood.

No man liveth to himself. Consciously or unconsciously he is influencing others, either for good or evil. If for evil, his influence accumulates evil; if for good, it strengthens good. Not only do those human beings who give themselves up to work evil breathe the deadly infection of the time preceding their time; they add to the deadly influence their own disease, to the injury of those who come after them. But when men are guided and controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit, there goes out from them an influence that is a savor of life unto life.

The world has broken away from its true center. The churches of to-day have allowed Satan to enter in among them. Under his influence they have made void the law of God. The truths of the Bible are interpreted by religious teachers to mean something entirely different from what they do mean. Is there no remedy for this? Is the chain of dependence which unites the human family henceforth to be used to advance universal disorganization and hostility to God? Is the law of God always to be disobeyed? Is the law of influence to be used by Satan to drag mankind lower and lower? Is it not time that a people stood forth in moral independence, cherishing at the same time a sense of their dependence on God, and realizing that upon them rests the responsibility of declaring that the law of God is not changed and never will be changed? Let those who see the binding claims of the law arise and shine, because the glory of the Lord is risen upon them.

The Lord has sent to our world a message of warning, even the Third Angel's Message. All heaven is waiting to hear us vindicate God's law, declaring it to be holy, just, and good. Where are those who will do this work? God calls upon His people to gain a deeper insight into His plans and His law. His law is the transcript of His character. It is unchangeable; for God will not alter the thing that has gone out of His lips. Christ has declared that the law is perfect; and with David we may say, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law."

Jesus Christ is to be the center of influence. The Holy Spirit is to be the efficiency of every one who is trying to do right. With all their energies human beings are to co-operate with the great Center of infinite love and infinite power. There are those in our world who are longing for a deeper religious experience, who are bemoaning the dearth of the Holy Spirit's power in the lives of the professed followers of Christ. When men return to their loyalty to God, they will cease to trample underfoot His plain commands. They will exalt God. His word will be to them a light shining amid the moral darkness. They will obey the words, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

In Christ we have an example of patient endurance and unselfish love. The Commander of heaven made His way to our earth through all the ranks of hell, and in the midst of the world erected His cross. He descended from the heights of glory to the depths of humiliation and suffering. We can not fathom the love of the Son of God. To a world that refused to live unto God He presented an amazing sacrifice, turning His whole being into an atoning offering, with which no other sacrifice can be compared. "For your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

We see Him in the wilderness, enduring a fast of forty days. We see Him humiliated, despised, rejected, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. We see Him tempted in all points like as we are. But though the enemy bruised and wounded the Saviour's body, he could not touch His mind. The Son of God remained true to His Father, firm and steadfast in His allegiance and loyalty.

Look upon Christ hanging on the cross of Calvary, sacrificed for us. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

As the sinner looks upon the uplifted Saviour, conviction comes to him. He repents of his sin. Under the transforming influence of the Spirit, he is ready to sacrifice himself in the service of the Saviour. He does not live for himself; for from the cross has gone forth the proclamation that no one who lives for self can be benefited by the death of Christ. He who desires to live for himself is not a Christian. He who is truly repentant is created anew in Christ Jesus, and is no longer content to live for selfish enjoyment. His greatest desire is to do something for the Master, to be a faithful servant for his Lord. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price." A ransom has been paid, even the precious blood of Christ. "Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Every part of the Christian's being, his time, his service, his property, his strength, have been paid for. His all is the Lord's. At the moment he gave himself to Christ, he was recorded as the Redeemer's willing agent, just as if the price of salvation had been paid for him alone. Upon him is laid the duty of revealing Christ in all he does. The life he lives is Christ's; for over the rent sepulcher of Joseph the Saviour proclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life." He is to use his every power in Christ's service. His talents of reason, of influence, of speech, of means, all are the Lord's. They always were the Lord's, but before his conversion, he did not acknowledge this. He has now become one with Christ. With Paul he may say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." His life is bound up with the life of Christ in the great plan of redemption. His character is to be a reproduction of the character of Christ. Christlike self-denial and self-sacrifice, Christlike patience and gentleness, are to be manifested by him.

Christ has put it out of our power to give Him anything that God has not first given us. All belongs to God; therefore every one is bound by the ransom which has been paid to return to God His own. Those who have witnessed a good confession should now draw together in the bonds of Christian fellowship, consecrating themselves wholly to God. Union is strength. Then let God's people draw in even cords, exerting the influence which Christ by His death has made it possible for them to exert.

The Great Standard of Righteousness

The Lord has taken infinite pains to teach men His will. He has given them His law, which is to govern the world. It demands perfect obedience from rich and poor, high and low. Its divine requirements are that we love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. Its principles are binding upon the angels and upon all human intelligences. Without the law there could be no transgression; for "sin is the transgression of the law." "By the law is the knowledge of sin." The standard of righteousness, it is exceeding broad, prohibiting every evil thing.

Satan sees that to call the attention of human beings to the righteousness of the law barricades the soul against his specious devices. His only hope for securing the world is to lead men to ignore the law, to make them believe that the law is null and void, that belief in Christ is all that is necessary. If Satan can so deceive the world that sin will not appear exceeding sinful, he has gained what he desires to gain. And he has succeeded in leading multitudes to believe his falsehoods. Ministers of the gospel preach against the law, and especially against the Fourth Commandment.

We are nearing the close of this earth's history. Satan is making desperate efforts to make himself god, to speak and act like God, to appear as one who has a right to control the consciences of men. He strives with all his power to place a human institution in the position of God's holy rest-day. Under the jurisdiction of the man of sin, men have exalted a false standard in complete opposition to God's enactment. Each Sabbath institution bears the name of its author, an ineffaceable mark showing the authority of each. The first day of the week has not one particle of sanctity. It is the production of the man of sin, who strives in this way to counterwork God's purposes.

God has designated the seventh day as His Sabbath. He declares, "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. . . . It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant."

Thus the distinction is drawn between the loyal and the disloyal. Those who desire to have the seal of God in their foreheads must keep the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. Thus they are distinguished from the disloyal, who have accepted a man-made institution in place of the true Sabbath. The observance of God's rest-day is a mark of distinction between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.

When men make the assertion that a change has been made in the law of God's government, they cast a reflection upon God's character. If the law was just when given to Adam, it is just to-day. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass," Christ declared, "than one tittle of the law to fail."

The substitution of the false for the true is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal himself. When the laws of men are exalted above the laws of God, when the powers of this earth try to force men to keep the first day of the week, know that the time has come for God to work. He will arise in His majesty, and will shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity. The earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

The belief that the law of God is not the standard of righteousness is now almost universal in the Christian world. Professed Christians think that the more contempt they place upon the law, the more commendable they are in God's sight. Each human being exerts an influence upon those with whom he associates. Those who are willing to be led by false theories and unsound doctrines, who build their hopes for eternity on shifting sand, will find that the storm and tempest of trial will sweep away their refuge of lies. Their structure will fall, and they will perish,--lost, lost for all eternity.

Adam listened to the words of the tempter, and yielding to his insinuations, fell into sin. Why was not the death penalty at once enforced in his case?--Because a ransom was found. God's only begotten Son volunteered to take the sin of man upon himself, and to make an atonement for the fallen race. There could have been no pardon for sin had this atonement not been made. Had God pardoned Adam's sin without an atonement, sin would have been immortalized, and would have been perpetuated with a boldness that would have been without restraint. Remember how soon after the transgression of Adam the apostasy of his posterity became so marked that God repented that He had made man. They followed the imaginations of their evil hearts, and the strivings of the Spirit were not heeded. They refused to be admonished. They had an abundance of blessings for their own enjoyment, and they soon forgot that they had forfeited immortality.

God granted them one hundred and twenty years of probation, and during that time preached to them through Methuselah, Noah, and many others of His servants. Had they listened to the testimony of these faithful witnesses, had they repented and returned to their loyalty, God would not have destroyed them. But warnings made an impression on them only for a time. Christ was their atoning sacrifice, their Mediator, but they had no faith in Him, and His intercessions in their behalf were unavailing. As the time of probation drew nearer its close, the service due to God from them passed entirely from their thoughts; and the word went forth, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

After the flood the earth was again corrupted under its inhabitants, and the signal judgments of God fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. But soon this punishment was forgotten, and once more men corrupted their way before God, turning from the worship of the Creator to the worship of idols. God called out the Hebrew people from slavery, and from Sinai gave them His law. But Egypt was desolated by plagues before Pharaoh would consent to listen to the great I Am. He persisted in his stubbornness till Egypt was ruined, and the Egyptians, from the lowest serf to the king upon his throne, looked upon the dead bodies of their firstborn. Then Pharaoh consented to let the children of Israel go, but he followed them immediately with an imposing display of chariots and men of war. Another exhibition of God's power was required. The Red Sea was opened to the Israelites, but the Egyptians who pursued them were drowned in its waters.

The terrible judgments of God which were inflicted upon the idolaters in the lands through which the children of Israel passed, caused fear and dread to fall upon all people living on the earth. But Israel, for whom so much had been done, apostatized in the very sight of Sinai. Aaron, who had been left in charge, was afraid to stand firm against the vast host who were clamoring for gods to lead them back to Egypt.

After entering Canaan, the children of Israel gradually went into idolatry. By His prophets God sent them message after message. But they forgot the instructions of their leader, and followed their own inclinations and the imagination of their own hearts, until the Lord could no longer protect them. He permitted their enemies to overcome them, and to scatter them as captives in strange lands. But still He was willing to pardon them. He promised that if they would return to Him, He would heal all their backslidings, and reinstate them in His favor. He sent them warnings, reproofs, judgments, to save them from ruin. But notwithstanding these efforts, they wandered farther and farther from Him. As represented in the parable given by Christ, God sent His messengers to them, but these were persecuted and put to death. Last of all, He sent His only begotten Son. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth." But the people He came to save refused to receive Him. They rewarded Him evil for good, and in Pilate's judgment hall He was condemned to death by crucifixion. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me." -

Missionary Work in the Neighborhood

Before His ascension to heaven, Jesus, with hands outstretched in blessing His disciples, gave them their commission: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Repentance of sin was to be preached in His name among all nations, but the work was to begin at Jerusalem. Before going out into new fields of labor, the disciples of Christ were to give the message to their own people. Home missions were to receive their first attention.

Wherever the people of God are placed, in the crowded cities, in the villages, or among the country byways, there is a home mission field, for which a responsibility is laid upon them by their Lord's commission. They are to take up the duty that lies nearest. First of all is the work in the family; next they should seek to win their neighbors to Christ, and to bring before them the great truths of this time.

This work places a responsibility upon us to recommend by our daily life the faith which we profess. The piety of its believers is the standard by which worldlings judge the truth. In all your associations with unbelievers, be careful to give them no occasion to misjudge your faith, or to reproach the cause of truth which you advocate. Many hedge up the way by their own course of action. There is some indiscretion on their part. They are easily provoked. Little difficulties arise in trade or in some other temporal matter, which lead them to think themselves misjudged or wronged by their neighbors. These things are allowed to create coldness or ill-feeling, and thus to close the door of access to those who might be reached by the truth. We should never allow matters of temporal interest to quench our love for souls. Brethren, be kind and courteous on all occasions.

Never be sharp, critical, or exacting in your deal. If there is any advantage to be gained, give it to your neighbor, whom you are required to love as you love yourself. With the patience and love of Jesus, watch for opportunities to do him a kindness. Let him see that the religion that you profess does not close up nor freeze over the avenues of the soul, making you unsympathizing and exacting. Let a well-ordered life and a godly conversation testify to your sincerity and piety; and when you have thus gained his confidence, the way is open for you to reach the heart by introducing the truth.

If these matters, which may appear of minor consequence, are neglected, you may present the most convincing arguments in favor of the truth, but they will have no weight. If your family government is not according to the Bible rule, if your children are not brought up with habits of order and industry, if they are selfish, proud, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, be sure that your unbelieving neighbor will see and remark upon your neglect. "They would better spend their labor at home," he will say, "teaching piety and good behavior to their children, instead of trying to convert me." Very many have been caused to stumble by the inconsistencies of professed Christians, and have been led to reject the precious truths of the Bible.

Items from General Conference

Mrs. E. G. White: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap."

Consider what that means. Fuller's soap makes a garment shrink into a much smaller compass. We want to stand in that position of humility where the life is hid with Christ in God. We claim Him; He is our righteousness; therefore, our lives are hid with Christ in God, we shall not shrink into nothingness. -

To us has been given the work of preparing ourselves for the mansions. And this we can do through the help that is waiting for us. When God gave His Son to our world. He gave all heaven, all the facilities and powers of heaven. Those who fail to improve the glorious opportunities granted with the gift of God's Son will be without excuse.

Christ declared that all power in heaven and earth has been given to him, and He gives this power to those who truly believe on Him, to His disciples, that they may go forth to proclaim the message of hope and salvation to a fallen race. He takes His position at the head of humanity, covering humanity with divinity. In Him humanity and divinity are combined, and He can accomplish for the human race all that is necessary to enable them to overcome as He overcame, and sit down with Him in His Father's throne. -

All the sufferings, all the distress, that came to Him who was equal with the Father, was borne that He might bring people to himself. For this purpose He laid off His royal robe, His royal crown, laid aside His high command, and stepped down to humanity. He who was the majesty of heaven, the King of glory, died for sinners.

We breathe because God takes charge of the human machinery. Day by day He keeps it in working order, and He wants us to think of the infinite sacrifice He has made for us in suffering with One equal with himself -- His only begotten Son. He consented to let Him come to a world all seared and marred with the curse of sin, to stand at the head of humanity as a sin-bearing, sin-pardoning Saviour. God has pledged himself to receive sinners; for He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Everlasting life,--this is what we want. Shall we be satisfied to live in this poor world without a hope of a better life? God forbid. Let us lay hold of the power that has been provided to make it possible for us to gain eternal life. Let us take hold of the blessings heaven has given us that we may fit ourselves for the higher grade, fit ourselves for the mansions which Christ is preparing for us. He said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

A Teacher Sent From God

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit."

There are some who have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and who by falsehood and misrepresentation seduce others. These false teachers are represented by Christ as ravening wolves. Their work is to tear down that which God through His agencies is seeking to build up. "Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets which make my people to err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God."

False prophets are described by Paul in his second letter to Timothy: "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Paul warns his son in the gospel, saying, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck."

Men oppose the truth with falsehood, and those who do not desire a knowledge of the truth listen eagerly to the fables presented to them. Their hearts are imbued with the same spirit of opposition to the truth that fills the hearts of the false teachers. They act toward God's commandment-keeping people in this time as the Jews acted when they refused to accept the truths that Christ unfolded before them. Christ presented to them the prophecies of the Old Testament, showing them that by their rejection of Him they were fulfilling these prophecies. But they continued in their evil course, and followed, to the end, the works that stand registered against them in the books of heaven, which have brought eternal infamy upon them as a nation.

What accusation did the Jews bring against Christ?--"He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils." Eagerly they received the testimony of false witnesses. They hired men to report against Christ, that they might have some pretext for condemning Him. They did everything that could be done to make themselves and others believe that He was a criminal. His every word and action was watched, and reported in a distorted light. Spies were constantly upon His track, saying, Show us a sign. Work some miracle.

When Christ said to the sick of the palsy, "Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee," He gave His enemies a sign which they could not set aside. "And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" Knowing their unspoken thoughts, Jesus said, "What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins (He said unto the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day."

Did this evidence that Jesus was the Son of God cause the scribes and Pharisees to believe in Him?--No; this demonstration of His power only exasperated them. It was not evidence that He was the teacher sent from God, that they wanted, but evidence that He was a deceiver. Their hearts were not open to conviction. They were filled with intense hatred and bitter prejudice, and they were ever seeking to find some occasion to manifest their wrath.

"And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Next in Christ's work came a call from a ruler, saying, "My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did His disciples. . . . And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame thereof went abroad into all that land.

"And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He was come into the house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it."

Notwithstanding this charge, the restored men, "when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that country." This added fuel to the fire of prejudice. His enemies interpreted His works of mercy and compassion as a wrong done to themselves. The people were leaving them and listening to the teachings of Christ.

"As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel." These words, contrasting the works and mercy of Christ with the course pursued by the priests and Pharisees, exasperated the leading men. Every additional proof given them provoked them to increased resistance. When they saw that they could not prevent Him from working miracles, they put forth their skill to misrepresent and falsify Him. They could bear false witness, and this they did. They said, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils." But Jesus worked on, heeding not censure, prejudice, or opposition. The genuineness of His power and His work was kept before the people, and His enemies could not turn the multitude from following after Him.

In Christ's mighty works there was sufficient evidence to convince any one. But the Jewish rulers did not want the truth. They could not but acknowledge the reality of the works of Christ, but they cast condemnation upon them all. They were forced to acknowledge that supernatural power attended His work, but this power, they declared, was derived from Satan. Did they really believe this?--No; but they were so determined that the truth should not lead to their conversion that they charged the work of the Spirit of God to the devil. Thus they committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, which has no forgiveness in this world or in the world to come.

We read again of Christ: "When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest."

All-compassionate Redeemer! what love, what matchless love, is thine! Charged by the great men of Israel with doing His works of mercy by the power of the prince of devils, He was as one who saw and heard not. The work He came from heaven to do must not be left undone. Truth must be unfolded to men. The Light of the world must flash His beams into the darkness of sin and superstition. The truth found no place in the hearts of those who should have been foremost to receive it, because they were barricaded with prejudice and wicked unbelief. Among those who had not such exalted privileges, Christ prepared hearts to receive His message. He made new bottles for the new wine.

Every truth is invested by the God of heaven with an influence proportionate to its character and importance. The plan of redemption, which means everything to a lost and ruined world, was to be proclaimed, and the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus was brought into vital contact with the heart of the world. Light and truth vibrated through the universe. The plan of redemption was made known, which thrills the soul and prepares it for the great power of God. A truth so large, so deep, so full and complete, it could be the center of all truth hitherto revealed.

By Christ the truth was proclaimed. The hearts of those who professed to be the children of God were barricaded against it; but those who had not been so highly privileged, those who were not clothed with the garments of self-righteousness, were drawn to Christ. Their minds were convinced and quickened into activity.

The cross stands as the great center of the world, bearing a certain testimony which will be the condemnation of every transgressor of the law of God. To-day Satan endeavors to keep hidden from the world the great atoning sacrifice, which reveals the love of God and the binding claims of His law. He wars against the work of Christ. His evil angels unite with evil men in opposing this work. But while He is carrying on this work, heavenly intelligences are combining with God's human instrumentalities in the work of restoration.

The children of God are not to expect an easy time in this life. There are battles to be fought. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We are not left alone to engage in this conflict. Jesus is the captain of our salvation. He clothed His divinity with humanity, and took the field himself, that He might teach us how to fight the battles of the Lord. He says, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."

Missionary Work in the Neighborhood

The books of heaven will reveal a terrible record of unfulfilled home duties against parents who were regarded as intelligent missionary workers. How much more influence these parents might have had, how much more good they might have done, had they begun the work at the right point, by setting their own house in order, and presenting to their neighbors a well-ordered family as evidence of the power of the truth! When it is seen that the children are not like worldlings, when the beauty of faith and the spirit of genuine Christianity are seen in them, it will be as light pointing heavenward.

It is the acts of faith and love in the so-called little things of life, the spirit of Christ manifested at home, in the field, in the workshop, as well as in the church, that make us living epistles known and read of all. Men may combat and defy our logic, they may resist our appeals; but a life of holy purpose, of disinterested love, is an argument in favor of the truth which they can not gainsay. Far more can be accomplished by humble, devoted, virtuous lives, than can be gained by preaching when a godly example is lacking.

There is a sad neglect of personal effort, both for the members of the family and for our neighbors. Many seem to rest perfectly easy, as if the heavenly messengers were to come to earth, and in an audible voice proclaim the warning. They stand idle, virtually saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Many associate almost wholly with those of the same faith, and feel no duty to become acquainted with their neighbors who are ignorant of the great and testing truths for the last days. Ladies who, in the parlor, can engage in conversation with wonderful tact and earnestness, shrink from pointing the sinner to the Lamb of God. Oh! there is so much work for souls that is left undone because it is a cross, and because each seeks his own amusement, and works for his own selfish interests. Because of our unbelief, worldliness, and indolence, blood-bought souls in the very shadow of our homes are dying in their sins, and dying unwarned.

Until the judgment, it will never be known how much might have been done, how many plans might have been devised, to save souls by bringing them to a knowledge of the truth. But self-indulgence, unwillingness to sacrifice, and a lack of true spiritual discernment, have led many to overlook the open doors which they might have entered to do a good work for the Master. Love of ease has caused them to shun the wearing of Christ's yoke, the lifting of His burden.

Many, many, are approaching the day of God doing nothing, shunning responsibilities, and as a result, they are religious dwarfs. So far as work for God is concerned, the pages of their life history present a mournful blank. They are trees in the garden of God, but only cumberers of the ground, darkening with their unproductive boughs the ground which fruit-bearing trees might have occupied. -

Notes From General Conference

Mrs. E. G. White: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not."

John tried to describe the love of God, but language failed. He could only call on us to behold it. We must behold this love for ourselves. We must strive to understand as far as possible the love the Father has bestowed upon us.

Let no one feel that he is stepping down in becoming a child of God. It was the only begotten Son of God who stepped down. He gave himself for us. Leaving His splendor, His majesty, His high command, and clothing His divinity, with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, and divinity lay hold upon divinity. He came to this earth, and in our behalf suffered the death of the cross.

In the words I have read, our possibilities are opened before us. It is possible for every son and daughter of Adam through belief in Christ, to be cleansed from sin. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name," Our part is to receive and believe on Jesus Christ.

Of Him on whom we are asked to believe, it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

It is our privilege to walk in the light as Christ is in the light. We need not groan and murmur because the path heavenward is not a smooth one. Our part is to believe, to try to understand the words. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." The assurance is, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Do we believe on His name?

Christ has made an infinite sacrifice. He gave His own life for us. He took upon His divine soul the result of the transgression of God's law. Laying aside His royal crown, He condescended to step down, step by step, to the level of fallen humanity. He hung upon Calvary's cross, dying in our behalf, that we might have eternal life. Why is it that we are so indifferent to this great sacrifice? Does it seem a small thing that He should endure all this that we might be called the sons of God? Does it seem a small thing to you to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, partakers of an immortal inheritance? Is it a small matter to become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ? What sacrifice have we made in response to this infinite sacrifice?

Would you grasp the things of the world? The world knoweth not God. Give yourselves to the world, and you will not know God; you can not know Him. We need to behold Him. We need to purify our souls by obeying the truth.

No one can serve God by proxy. There are many who seem to think that there is some one in this world stronger than Christ, upon whom they can lean. And instead of coming right to Christ, just as they are, giving themselves unreservedly to Him, they reach out for human help. God wants us to have an individual experience, to form characters after the divine similitude. I can not work out a character for you, and you can not work out a character for me. We are to stand before God in our individuality, and know for ourselves what it means to have the light and comfort and love of God in our hearts. The Lord wants us to take Him at His word. He desires every one of us to reveal His character to the world. If all would accept the righteousness of Christ, we should not see so much sickness in our world. Every one would strive to take care of the house he inhabits. He would purify his soul by obeying the truth.

We read in Zechariah, "He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel."

Joshua represents the people of God. When Satan accused him, the Lord rebuked him, and spoke to those that stood before him, saying, "Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said. Let them set a fair miter upon his head. So they set a fair miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by." Satan tries to bring reproach against those who are trying to serve and honor God. He presents them in a questionable light, as those who are clothed with filthy garments. God says, Take away the filthy garments. You have no right to put them upon my children. Take them away. My people may have imperfections of character. They may fail in their endeavors; but if they repent, I will forgive them.

This word of assurance is given to all who have faith in God. Receive this wonderful promise. It is not a human being who is speaking. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by."

"Among these that stand by." The hosts of the enemy, who are trying to bring God's people into disrepute, and the hosts of heaven, ten thousand times ten thousand angels, who watch over and guard the tempted people of God, uplifting them and strengthening them,--these are they who stand by. And God says to His believing ones, You shall walk among them. You shall not be over come by the powers of darkness. You shall stand before me in the sight of the holy angels, who are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. -

Mrs. E. G. White: The Scriptures teach us to seek for the sanctification to God of body, soul, and spirit. In this work we are to be laborers together with God. Much may be done to restore the moral image of God in man, to improve the physical, mental, and moral capabilities. Great changes can be made in the physical system by obeying the laws of God and bringing into the body nothing that defiles. Our dependence is not in what man can do: it is in what God can do for man through Christ. When we surrender ourselves wholly to God, and fully believe, the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.

A Testimony

I want to say a few words. God has left a few of the old pioneers who know something of the fanaticism which existed in the early days of this message. Here is Brother Prescott; he knows something about it. He is acquainted with phase after phase of the fanaticism that has taken place. Here is Brother Haskell. He knows something about it, and there are various ones of our older brethren who have passed over the ground, and they understand something of what we have had to meet and contend with. Then there is Brother Corliss; I speak of him because he knows something about fanaticism, not only in the early days, but in our later experience.

Let every one of us remember the men of gray hairs. Do not set them back in a corner, and say, We do not need you, because you are too old to be active workers. If on only one occasion these men of experience can stand and tell you what the right way is, it is worth to the cause of God more than you would pay a dozen laborers who have little or no experience in this work. God wants us to come to our senses. I thank God that there are a few who know what we have passed through in the beginning of the history of this work; God wants you to cherish them, and I want you to cherish them. God wants you to feel that it is a sacred duty to look after them, and not to ignore them or put them out of sight.

You may think that they have made mistakes. Have you made any? May God let His melting Spirit come into our hearts. May God come to us with His comforting power. What we want is not hearts of steel, but hearts of flesh. I hope that not a soul will go away from this meeting until he can say for himself, I know that I am Christ's in God.

When persons are in our midst who are moved by the Spirit of God, through whom the great treasures of His word are unfolded to us, increasing in every phase, let us not take the position that we know all that is worth knowing, and what we do not know is not worth knowing, hindering the very ones who are digging for the truth as for hidden treasure. The word of God is opening more and more to us. Just as long as we live on the earth, we shall be able to find a whole treasure-house of beautiful things. Some will see beauty in one truth, some in another, and some will look at it in another way. We are not all constituted alike. But some think that what they have is all there is to acquire. They say of others, Do not let them come into our meetings; we do not want them here. They do not believe as we do. I wish to say. Hands off. Let God work through human instrumentalities according to His will.

Read the seventeenth chapter of John, and you will see that God has given us the privilege of being united in Christian love, brethren with brethren, all being bound together by the golden chain of love which has been let down from heaven to unite the believers. God wants you to be like himself. He wants to keep you unspotted from the world, to forgive your sins, and to draw you to himself, that you may step off the ladder into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I wish to say to you to-day, The Lord wants you to be converted. At great expense to myself, in sickness and feebleness, I have come a long way to bear this testimony before the congregation which was presented to me before I left Cooranbong. If this had not been presented to me, I should not be here to-day. But I am here, in obedience to the word of the Lord, and I thank Him that He has given me strength beyond my expectations to speak to the people. I want you all, for Christ's sake, to heed His injunction to love one another. Thus you will bear witness to the world that God sent His Son to save sinners. Let not the enemy come in to break up the unity which should exist between brethren and sisters. Christ wants His people to be one. Why?--That the world may see that God loves His people even as He loves His Son.

Let us at this meeting humble our hearts before God. Night after night since coming here, I have been unable to sleep past one o'clock. I have pleaded with God to enter among us, and work mightily upon hearts and minds. He is willing to do this. He declares, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him." If he does not enter, it is because the door is closed against Him. Shall we not let Him in, that we may enjoy a heavenly feast with a heavenly Guest? God grant that at this meeting you may so consecrate yourselves to His service that you may go forth as did the disciples, bearing the message with such power from on high that thousands will be converted.

"Get ready," is the word sounded in my ears. "Get ready, get ready. He that is to come, will come and will not tarry. Tell my people that unless they improve the sacred opportunities given them, unless they do the work I have given them, Satan will come upon them with the stealthy tread of a thief, to deceive and allure them." God wants us to be wide awake, that when He shall come, we shall be ready to say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us." He is coming to us by His Holy Spirit to-day. Let us recognize Him now; then we shall recognize Him when He comes in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. God calls upon you to get ready to meet Him in peace.

I leave this message with you, asking you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to love one another as He has loved you. Thus the world will see and recognize the amazing power of redeeming grace.

The Great Standard of Righteousness

Christ gave His life to redeem humanity, and He calls upon men and women to make every sacrifice in their power to glorify God by placing light in contrast with darkness. Christ gave His life as a sacrifice, not to destroy God's law, not to create a lower standard, but to maintain justice, and to give man a second probation. No one can keep God's commandments except in Christ's power. He bore in His body the sins of all mankind, and He imputes His righteousness to every believing child.

Christ is our example in all things. He has magnified the law and made it honorable. By His unwavering obedience He testified to the truth that God's law is the standard of righteousness for all men. God requires of man nothing that is impossible for him to do. He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Possessing our nature, though unstained by sin, and tempted in all points like as we are, Christ kept the law, proving beyond controversy that man also can keep it.

The fiat has gone forth, "The wages of sin is death." The sinner must feel his guiltiness, else he will never repent. He has broken the law, and in so doing has placed himself under its condemnation. The law has no power to pardon the transgressor, but it points him to Christ Jesus, who says to him, I will take your sin and bear it myself, if you will accept me as your substitute and surety. Return to your allegiance, and I will impute to you my righteousness. You will be made complete in me.

Sin is the transgression of the law. God declares, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Notwithstanding all the profession of lip and voice, if the character is not in harmony with the law of God, those making profession of godliness bear evil fruit.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,"--the will made known in the Ten Commandments, given in Eden when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, and spoken with an audible voice from Sinai. "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Many mighty works are done under the inspiration of Satan, and these works will be more and more apparent in the last days.

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

The mischief done by the professed believers in God who are not doers of the Word, can not be estimated. Their lawless, unholy principles corrupt many, leading them away from the path of obedience.

A life of conformity to the Christ-life can not be a life of disobedience to God's commands. The lawyer who questioned Christ concerning the law, in answering his own question, said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou hast answered right," Christ said; "this do, and thou shalt live." Sin can not reign in the life of the one who loves God supremely. Obedience to God is the fruit borne by love. Christ is not at war with Christ, and love to our neighbor prevents us from working ill to him. "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." The law of God lays its claim upon the whole man. There is no period of time when the law does not make this demand upon every son and daughter of Adam.

Complete obedience is the only condition that meets the requirement of the law. "God is not a man, that He should lie." God's law is the rule of His government. He says, "This do, and thou shalt live." But to the disobedient He says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." God has given the promise that those who obey His law will be rewarded, not only in the present life, but in the life to come. He declares just as decidedly that those who do not obey His requirements shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on them. By lips that never lie the obedient are blessed, and the disobedient are pronounced guilty.

There are only two classes in the world to-day, and only two classes will be recognized in the Judgment,--those who violate God's law, and those who keep His law. Two great opposing powers are revealed in the last great battle. On one side stands the Creator of heaven and earth. All on His side bear His signet. They are obedient to His commands. On the other side stands the Prince of darkness, with those who have chosen apostasy and rebellion.

When the judgment shall sit, and every one shall be judged by the things written in the books, the authority of God's law will be looked upon in a light altogether different from that in which it is now regarded by the Christian world. Satan has blinded their eyes and confused their understanding, as he blinded and confused Adam and Eve, and led them into transgression. The law of Jehovah is great, even as its Author is great. In the Judgment it will be recognized as holy, just, and good in all its requirements. Those who transgress this law will find that they have a serious account to settle with God; for His claims are decisive.

Christ has borne our sins in His own body, and those who accept Him as a personal Saviour are free from the penalty of the law. Jesus has been made the propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. "Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."

To the obedient child of God the commandments are a delight. David declares, "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end. I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love. Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. Depart from me, ye evil-doers: for I will keep the commandments of my God. . . . I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies."

Did the contempt shown to the law of God extinguish David's loyalty? Hear his words. He calls upon God to interfere and vindicate His honor, to show that there is a God, that there are limits to His forbearance. "It is time for thee, Lord, to work," he says, "for they have made void thy law."

David saw the divine precepts thrown aside, and obstinacy and rebellion increasing. But he was not swept away by the prevalence of apostasy. The scorn and contempt cast upon the law did not lead him to refrain from vindicating the law. On the contrary, his reverence for the law of Jehovah increased as he saw the disregard and contempt shown for it by others. "They have made void thy law," he exclaims. "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way."

As man studies and contemplates the precious statutes of the Most High, as he meditates upon them, and realizes their value, he exclaims: "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. . . . Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."

Missionary Work in the Neighborhood

Those who neglect their duty in the home and among their neighbors are, by their unfaithfulness, separating themselves from God. Their piety becomes tame and weak. Unfaithfulness in the home leads to unfaithfulness in the church. They do not strengthen and build it up. Through their failures in duty, all their work is marked with blunders and defects. Their indifference and neglect have a molding influence upon all who have confidence in them as Christians. The errors of one are copied by many, and thus the evil goes on deepening and widening. Brethren, you may not see this, but so it stands in God's sight, and you must meet it in the Judgment.

In the day of God, how many will confront us and say, "I am lost! I am lost! and you never warned me; you never entreated me to come to Jesus. Had I believed as you did, I would have followed every judgment-bound soul with prayers and tears and warnings."

In that day the Master will demand of His professed people, "What have you done to save the souls of your neighbors? There are many who were connected with you in worldly business, who lived close beside you, whom you might have warned. Why are they among the unsaved?"

Brethren and sisters, what excuse can you render to God for this neglect of souls? I would present this matter to you as it has been presented to me; and in the light from the life of the Master, from the cross of Calvary, I urge you to arouse. I entreat you to take upon your own hearts the burden of your fellow men.

No one who professes to love Jesus can long retain the favor of God if he feels no interest for sinners around him. Those who seek merely to save their own souls and are indifferent to the condition and destiny of their fellow men, will fail to put forth sufficient effort to secure their own salvation. In hiding their talents in the earth, they are throwing away their opportunities to obtain a star-gemmed crown.

I write plainly, that every effort may be made on the part of all to remove the frown of God from them by sincere repentance. Whatever the neglect of duty, of parents to children, or of neighbor to neighbor, let it now be understood and repented of. If we have sinned against the Lord, we shall never have peace and restoration to His favor without full confession and reformation in regard to the very things in which we have been remiss. Not until we have used every means in our power to repair the evil, can God approve and bless us. The path of confession is humiliating, but it is the only way by which we can receive strength to overcome. All the dropped stitches may never be picked up so that our work shall be as perfect and God-pleasing as it should have been; but every effort should be made to do this so far as it is possible to accomplish it.

We have the promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," even so was "the Son of man . . . lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." We are to "look and live." Sinful and unworthy, we must cast our helpless souls upon the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. Then will God restore unto us the joy of His salvation, and uphold us by His free Spirit. Then we may teach transgressors His way, and sinners shall be converted unto Him.

Brethren, the Lord calls upon you to redeem the time. Draw nigh to God. Take on your neck the yoke of Christ; stretch out your hands to lift His burden. Stir up the gift that is within you. You who have had opportunities and privileges to become acquainted with the reasons of our faith, use this knowledge in giving light to others. And do not rest satisfied with the little knowledge you already have. Search the Scriptures. Let no moment be unimproved. Dig for the precious gems of truth as for hid treasures, and pray for wisdom that you may present the truth to others in a clear, connected manner.

Many who have been left to darkness and ruin might have been helped had their neighbors, common men and women, come to them with the love of Christ glowing in their hearts, and put forth personal efforts for them. Many are waiting to be addressed thus personally. Humble, earnest conversation with such persons, and prayer for them, heart being brought close to heart, would in most cases be wholly successful.

Let labor for souls become a part of your life. Go to the homes even of those who manifest no interest. While mercy's sweet voice invites the sinner, work with every energy of heart and brain, as did Paul, who "ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." The heavenly messengers are waiting to co-operate with your efforts. Will you do the work appointed you of God? -

Notes From General Conference

Mrs. E. G. White: I did not know how we should get along at this meeting. The Lord gave me instruction regarding this. I was referred to an incident in the life of the prophet Elisha. The prophet was in Dothan, and thither the king of Syria sent horses and chariots and a great host, to take him. "And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

"And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said. Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master."

God presented this to me, and I did not know what it meant. I did not understand it. I pondered over it, and then, as the lesson was fulfilled, I began to grasp its meaning. I do not know that I should ever have seen the significance had it not been fulfilled right here. Who do you suppose has been among us since this Conference began? Who has kept away the objectionable features that generally appear in such a meeting? Who has walked up and down the aisles of this Tabernacle?--The God of heaven and His angels. And they did not come here to tear you in pieces, but to give you right and peaceable minds. They have been among us to work the works of God, to keep back the powers of darkness, that the work God designed should be done should not be hindered. The angels of God have been working among us.

If any people have reason to praise God, we have. Angels of God have been at work here. The Lord knew our needs, and sent us food which has given spiritual strength, and light, showing us how we should work. We have been trying to organize the work on right lines. The Lord has sent His angels to minister unto us who are heirs of salvation, telling us how to carry the work forward.

Remember that there is a much better way to get along than to have controversy. When I was upon the waters of the Pacific amid the confusion and noise, the Lord spoke to me: Do not enter into any controversy. Speak to the people that they be of one mind.

When you are all in Christ, there can be no variance. Your brother may not have just the same manners and ways of speech as you have, but God does not require this of him. He may be able to reach a class that you can not reach. The very word which you wish he had not spoken may be the word which will bring conviction to hearts. Christ has made none of you church tinkers.

My brethren and sisters who are going to foreign fields, perhaps you will be connected with those whose habits and customs are not like yours. Do not let this hinder your work for the Master. Do all in your power to come into Christian relation with those for whom you shall work. May it not be that your ideas need changing? Remember that there is as much room in the world for one as for another.

Let us every one strive to be assimilated to the likeness of Christ. There are those in the Church who have made mistakes. But because of this, do not tear yourselves apart from them. I wish to ask, Is it not best for us to do all in our power to heal the souls that are wounded nigh unto death. Is it not best for us to try to prevent the enemy from gaining the victory over those for whom Christ died? Shall we not do the work Christ did? He said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." If any of you should have a sheep, and it should fall into a hole, would you not take it out, even on the Sabbath day? And shall we not think as much of a man as we do of an animal?

The moral image of God is to be restored in man. It was to make it possible for this to be done that Christ came from the heavenly courts to this earth, full of heaven's compassion and heaven's love, to stand at the head of humanity.

Christ was ever kind and merciful, but He gave the most scathing rebukes to the hypocritical Pharisees. I hope that such rebukes as these will never have to fall on our leaders. Let these men remember the temptations which come to the young, and do all in their power to help them. Christ is spoken of as a tender Shepherd, who lovingly cares for the young, carrying them in his arms. If one hundred times more of this work were done by our leading men, they would be carrying out the plan of God. And by this work, the rough edges would be removed from their characters. They would be polished after the similitude of a palace.

After this meeting has closed, and we have separated, Satan will come to you with his temptations. He will bring up before you the errors and mistakes that have been made in the past. Remember that God has buried these, and He does not want you to think any more about them.

I was never more astonished in my life than at the turn things have taken at this meeting. This is not our work. God has brought it about. Instruction regarding this was presented to me, but until the sum was worked out at this meeting, I could not comprehend this instruction. God's angels have been walking up and down in this congregation. I want every one of you to remember this, and I want you to remember also that God has said that He will heal the wounds of His people.

Press together, press together. Let us be united in Christ. God is dishonored by disunion. I shall not keep you much longer, but I wish to say a few more words; for I feel that perhaps I shall never again see those who are going from us. I want to read you a few words, that you may see what God is willing to do for His people. Christ is praying to His Father, and He says: "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. . . . They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

Is this possible? It must be, or Christ would not have said it. He is ready to give us all the preciousness there is in the virtue of His character. There is joy in the Lord, joy in sanctification, in unity, in receiving Christ as our Saviour.

To those who are about to take up the work in new fields, I would say, Remember that Christ is by your side. He says, My right hand will uphold you. His blessing will rest upon you. If you will walk in the light of His countenance, you will be lights in the world. Regarding this, Christ says, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill can not be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

You are going forth to carry the torch of truth. Kindle your taper from the divine altar, and bear the truth to those who are in darkness. You may be sure that angels of God will be round about you. As you impart to others, you will realize that the life of Christ in you is as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.

The word of God is to be your daily food. Christ says, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Talk the truth wherever you go. There is more power in visiting families, talking to them of the truth, and praying with them, than there is in all the sermons that can be given. This does not mean that you are not to speak from the desk. You are; but you are to take time also for house-to-house labor. As you do this work, angels of God will be by your side, and will give you words to speak. Thus you will become all-around, efficient gospel workers, of whom people will say, They have nothing but the truth on their lips. God help us to be Christians in every sense of the word.

I may never meet you again on this earth. I feel that my life is almost over. I may meet you again; God knows; I do not. But if we meet no more here below, God grant that we may meet around His throne, each wearing on his brow a crown of immortality. Oh, what a time of rejoicing that will be! and we shall tell the story of our trials and difficulties on this earth, tell it, not with sorrow, but with joy.

God knows that we have only just begun the study of His word. He knows that many have only a surface knowledge of the truth. When in the redeemed family above we follow Him whithersoever He goeth, He will open to us the mysteries of His word. When this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption, He will say, Child, come up higher. We shall be caught up to meet our Lord in the air. The Saviour will welcome us with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,"--the joy of seeing souls redeemed. Then He will lead us by the living waters, and escort us through the paradise of God. He will show us the beauty and loveliness of His word, which now we do not half understand. Then we shall cast our glittering crowns at His feet, and touching our golden harps, fill all heaven with rich music, singing, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, who died, and who lives again, a triumphant conqueror." -

Instruction Regarding the School Work

I have an intense interest in our school work. To discard many of the worldly text-books will not lower the standard of education, but will raise it to a higher plane. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." If this is the breadth and depth of the Scriptures, shall we not lift the standard by making the word of God the foundation of our system of education?

Changes will have to be made. But it is hard to break away from old habits and practices; and there are those who have felt inclined stubbornly to resist everything in this line. I am glad to say that Brother Magan and Brother Sutherland have made advancement in reform. The question has arisen in regard to Brother Magan's connecting with Brother Daniells in his work. I asked Brother Magan if he felt called of God to take this position. He said, No. He said that he was satisfied that God wanted him to remain in the school, where he had been working. I told him that this was in accordance with the light and evidence given me on the subject.

I would say to Brother Magan and Brother Sutherland, You are not to think that you have made a failure in the school. Circumstances have been of a character to cause some misunderstanding. I wish now to present the matter as it was presented to me in my home at Crystal Springs, Cal. There should be in the school the same faculty that has been there in the past. The members of this faculty have been getting hold of right methods, and they are coming to see eye to eye. In a large degree they have learned how to work with unity of effort, and the school needs their talent and ability.

It has taken much determination and firm purpose to accomplish the work that has been done in regard to "Christ's Object Lessons." The Lord has manifested His approval of this work. It would be a mistake for those who have been carrying forward this effort to separate and scatter to one place and another, to engage in other work.

To seek to combine new elements in the school faculty at this time would not be for the educational interests of the students. Those who are now connected with the school have been learning and practicing their lessons in jots and tittles. Their self-denial, their example of individual consecration, is having an influence to make the school approach to what it should be. To take one and another teacher out of the school now would be a mistake. Let the workers blend together. Let all the strength of their united ability be exerted to draw in even cords, to carry the school forward according to the directions given by the Lord.

There has been much prejudice indulged in regard to those who stand at the head of the school. But these teachers are not to be moved by that which has been reported, much of which is untrue. The talent of voice and words needs to be refined, sanctified, ennobled, that it may be used to the glory of God. Our brethren are to go right along in the work, and let all see that God is working with them, giving them, as His agencies, varied experiences.

New workers could not advance the work as it should be advanced. They would have a new and untried experience. Under their management the school would not be as successful as if the same teachers, the same counselors, were to hold their position, and work to the point, making an object lesson of this school, according to the pattern God has given. God will work through those now in positions of trust in the school if they continue to work, and seek wisdom from Him. If there is need of more teachers to work in other lines, let these be added. But do not break up the faculty of the school, when the very strongest force is necessary. Let workers be selected as the Lord may appoint, but let not the ones who have been united and adapted to labor together in the school be separated because of the prejudice that has been created against them. Let not the impression be given that they must separate from the school because of the misjudging of those who have not known the true facts in the case. If those who will talk do not care to send their children to the school, because they suppose that mistakes have been made, they themselves must suffer the consequence. God pointed out errors in the school that need to be corrected, and when an effort was made to do this, there were those who saw not the evils or dangers; they saw no necessity for departing from the old plan. It was not an easy matter to do the work that needed to be done in seeking to correct existing evils, against the influence of many who desired to let things run in the same lines in which they had been running. This jot and that tittle, growing by being often repeated, made it very hard for the ones who were trying to make the changes which they saw needed to be made.

It is the Lord who has worked out matters in this Conference in regard to the medical missionary work and the ministry, and the Lord will manifest himself to His people, who have tried to place themselves in line. He will work for them if they are fully set to make Him their trust, and to link together in harmonious action. They should seek to the utmost of their ability to qualify students for different lines of work. We are not to have all study, nor all work. Work is to be conducted as nearly as possible as we have conducted it in Australia.

Those now in charge of the school work here have their hearts blended in unity of purpose to accomplish the thing which God has designated as the right thing to do. They have undertaken this work irrespective of the opposition that has come up, and the strife of tongues. These men have a grip on the work. They have been learning, and have plans to establish industrial schools out of the city, where a large space of ground can be secured. These men have a strong determination to succeed. They mean to be heroic reformers, to adopt solid, intellectual methods. Their thoughts and plans have been maturing, and now they are prepared for decided action.

It would be a mistake to take Brother Magan from the school work to engage in another line. It would be a mistake to separate Brother Sutherland from the school, because he has a spiritual hold upon educational lines of work. With the help of God, he can act his part in making the school a success.

Do not hinder those who have been trying to reach the place where the Lord desires them to stand. Do not tear them to pieces. Let them stand in the strength they have obtained, and let them press the battle to the gates. We must be strong in the strength of the Lord. The light of heaven is to shine through God's instrumentalities.

Some will place stumbling-blocks in the way of attacking errors which are hoary with age. It is well to be consistent in all our movements, but we may quietly step over the stones which are thrown in the way of the work of reform. The objections need not be heeded. Prudence and God-fearing discretion are needed; for God wants every one to reveal the divine likeness. But timidity and cowardice are not to be shown by the followers of Christ.

The gospel of Christ lies at the foundation of all true education. Time is fast passing. The great work to be accomplished now is to establish schools that will prepare the youth for the mansions Christ is preparing for all who do their best in this life to perfect themselves in the knowledge of the word of God. In a spirit of kindness and love, reforms are to be carried forward to victory. Every reform is to be based on the unerring word, the judgment of inspiration. Reformers are not destroyers; they seek not to ruin, but to save.

The age in which we are living calls for decided reforms. Christ has declared that all who will be His disciples must turn away from self-indulgence, and with self-renunciation bear the cross and follow in His footsteps. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Those who come out from the world, from its policies and its confederacies, and attempt to carry forward the work of reform, will need the help of the Spirit of God. Having determined what true reform is, carry it forward with earnestness and perseverance, determined not to fail nor be discouraged. Every one who carries forward reformatory action will meet with apparent losses in some lines, and decided victories in other lines. No educational institution can place itself in opposition to the errors and corruptions of this degenerate age without receiving threats and insults. But time will place such an institution upon an elevated platform. Having the assurance of God that they have acted right, the managers can say, "It is no disgrace to us if others are unable to understand our motives; for they judge us from their own standpoint."

The Lord is pleased with the effort that is being made to carry forward our school work on right lines. I believe that the meetings we have been holding will have an influence upon the minds of our people all over the world. Let us from henceforth be careful of our words. God is preparing a people to meet Him in peace. By the mighty cleaver of truth He has separated us from the world, and has placed us in His workshop to be hewed and polished and made fit for a place in His temple.

There is a right side and a wrong side. Shall we not stand on the right side? We are thankful that an interest is being shown in the work of establishing schools on a right foundation, as they should have been established years ago. If the proper education is given to students, it is a positive necessity to establish our schools at a distance from cities, where the students can do manual work. Great blessing will come to them as they exercise brain and body proportionately. From the things of nature they will learn lessons that will help them to work for the Lord.

This is what we have been trying to teach in Australia. I am very thankful that such steps are being taken by this Conference. God will prosper such plans. Although there may be few students at first, do not be discouraged. The school will win its way. Introduce the medical missionary work. Some of the students are to be educated as nurses, some as physicians. It is not necessary for our students to go to Ann Arbor for a medical education. They may obtain at our schools all the education that is essential to perform the work for this time.

It will take some time to get a right understanding of the matter, but just as soon as we begin to work in the lines of true reform, the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us if we are willing to be guided. It is a delicate matter to deal with human minds, and no one should engage in this work without the aid of the Holy Spirit. All must place themselves under the influence of this Spirit. When they place themselves under the direction of the Spirit, they will accommodate themselves to Bible lines. When the word of God takes possession of the minds of teachers, then they are fitted to deal with the education of others.

Teachers are to so learn of Christ that they will remain converted from day to day. Then they will so labor for the students that they, too, will be converted. The angels of God will walk in their midst, beholding their order and diligence.

The word of God is to stand at the foundation of all education. It is to be made the basis of all the schools that we shall establish. Following "Thus saith the Lord," brings the schools into close connection with heavenly intelligences. The Lord has been greatly dishonored because His holy word, which will accomplish so much, has been placed in the background, while books which do not contain the highest instruction in regard to practical life and true science of eternal things have been brought to the front.

God's commands must settle all matters for us. That which His word advises and demands is to be strictly enforced. His word is to be plainly and earnestly opened before the students. This word will give spiritual health and strength. The instruction of the Bible, the wisdom of God, is to be brought into all business transactions. Selfishness will ever meet the disapproval of God.

God's dealings with His people are to be our guide in all educational advancement. His glory is to be the object of all study. Those who are being trained as medical missionaries are to realize that their work is to restore the moral image of God in man by healing the wounds which sin has made.

I would say to Brother Sutherland and Brother Magan, Go forward in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and the righteousness of God will go before you, and the glory of God will be your rearward. God can make the feeblest strong. He can give power to the weak. He can lighten the burdens of the heavy laden, and comfort those that are oppressed. He will help us to educate young men and young women to enter His work.

Brethren, shall we not help one another? Shall we not take hold of the Lord's work, not to tear one another to pieces, but to help one another? This is what God desires us to do. Some supposed that we were coming to this Conference to gather up the mistakes that had been made in the ministry, in the medical missionary work, and in the publishing and educational work. But we know that the Lord has another work for us to do. The mistakes that have been made, we are to bury in the depths of the ocean.

Let us blend together as brethren. God will bind us together, heart to heart, with the golden chain of love. To this Conference I wish to say, My heart, my soul, my interests are with you. The Lord is going to do something more for us than we have been willing to have done. Just as soon as men submit to God, His salvation will be revealed.

The Lord will co-operate with those who are striving to advance His work. I am glad to know that even though I am not live long, God will carry on His work. God will hold up our hands. He will work with those who are carrying forward the school work. He will be with the teachers and the students.

No Other Gods Before Me

Every true child of God will be sifted as wheat, and in the sifting process every cherished pleasure which diverts the mind from God must be sacrificed. In many families the mantel-shelves, stands, and tables are filled with ornaments and pictures. Albums filled with photographs of the family and their friends are placed where they will attract the attention of visitors. Thus the thoughts, which should be upon God and heavenly interests, are brought down to common things. Is not this a species of idolatry? Should not the money thus spent have been used to bless humanity, to relieve the suffering, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry? Should it not be placed in the Lord's treasury to advance His cause and build up His kingdom in the earth?

This matter is of great importance, and it is urged upon you to save you from the sin of idolatry. Blessing would come to your souls if you would obey the word spoken by the Holy One of Israel, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Many are creating unnecessary cares and anxieties for themselves by devoting time and thought to the unnecessary ornaments with which their houses are filled. The power of God is needed to arouse them from this devotion; for to all intents and purposes it is idolatry.

He who searches the heart desires to win His people from every species of idolatry. Let the word of God, the blessed book of life, occupy the tables now filled with useless ornaments. Spend your money in buying books that will be the means of enlightening the mind in regard to present truth. The time you waste in moving and dusting the multitudinous ornaments in your house, spend in writing a few lines to your friends, in sending papers or leaflets or little books to some one who knows not the truth. Grasp the word of the Lord as the treasure of infinite wisdom and love; this is the guide-book that points out the path to heaven. It points us to the sin-pardoning Saviour, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Oh that you would search the Scriptures with prayerful hearts, and a spirit of surrender to God! Oh that you would search your hearts as with a lighted candle, and discover and break the finest thread that binds you to worldly habits, which divert the mind from God! Plead with God to show you every practice that draws your thoughts and affections from Him. God has given His holy law to man as His measure of character. By this law you may see and overcome every defect in your character. You may sever yourself from every idol, and link yourself to the throne of God by the golden chain of grace and truth.

The apostle writes: "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality." "The night is far spent; the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof."

There is none too much self-denial, none too much self-sacrifice, none too much overcoming evil with good. If all the inclinations to gratify the taste for frivolous things were firmly resisted, there would be more money to use for God. Shall we not make decided changes in this respect? Shall we not set money flowing in channels where it will glorify God?

When I see families poorly clad, and houses destitute of those things that are necessary for comfort, and then visit the homes where every niche and corner is filled with useless ornaments, I am tired of the sight of my eyes. Let us search the Word and see if there is not some instruction there that will teach us how to relieve the maladies that have become chronic in the spiritual life of many. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen?" God asks, "to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. . . . If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity," Paul declares, "I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil."

The Son of the infinite God came to this earth, and honored it with His presence. He emptied himself of His glory, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, and reveal to fallen man the perfect love of God. Christ did not come to earth to live a life of pleasure, of self-indulgence. He lived not to please himself. "The Son of man," He said, "is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

We have great changes to make before we reach perfection. God calls for complete self-surrender. We must guard diligently our lips, lest they speak guile. We must be strict with ourselves, that we bring not false principles into our dealings with others, and lead souls from the safe path. We must work the works of God. Adhere to correct principles, whatever the cost to yourself. In appeals and warnings let your light shine forth to others. Economize your pence, that you may have pounds with which to help the cause of truth. Keep your tables free from many pictures and ornaments, which are as nothing in comparison with the word of God. Let your holy example lead the sympathies of your friends heavenward; "for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Jesus Christ: that ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." -

The Need of a Spiritual Awakening

The words of the apostle Paul to Timothy, "Take heed unto thyself, and to the doctrine," may be addressed to every member of the Church of God. We are not half awake. The enemy is watching for an opportunity to take God's standard from the hands of His people, and place there his own standard; but they discern it not. The call comes, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God." It is high time for us to awake out of sleep, to cast off the armor of Satan, and call upon Him who never slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord desires men and women to break their connection with the enemy, and link up with Christ. The mistakes of the past have been enough. Through them minds have been confused, precious opportunities have been neglected, and time, which is of more value than gold, has been wasted. We need now strong evidence that the Lord is with us of a truth. We need to consecrate ourselves and all we have to the service of God.

In every church there is need of a spiritual awakening; for many who profess to be Christ's servants are obeying the dictates of a natural heart. They do not the works of God. They have not a saving faith in Him whom the Father hath sent. Oh, if they could only understand that by their waywardness, their inconsistency, their half-hearted service, they are denying their Redeemer and putting Him to open shame!

There are many who do not possess that faith in Christ which would constitute them lights in the world. They are satisfied to stand on a low level. To them the Saviour says, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Important events are about to take place. While the world is asking in scorn, "Where is the promise of His coming?" the signs are rapidly fulfilling. While men are crying, "Peace and safety," sudden destruction is coming. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, and calamity is following calamity by land and by sea. Tempests and earthquakes, fires and floods, are heard of on every hand. Only in God can security be found.

Those whom God has made the depositaries of sacred truth are to stand in a pure atmosphere. Few of those who profess to be the people of God are wearing Christ's yoke and lifting His burdens. Few are regarded by the heavenly intelligences as laborers together with God. Many who claim to be Christians have very shadowy ideas of what the name "Christian" comprehends.

The kingdom of Christ will come; but who are laboring to that end? If those who know the Lord's prayer would try to take in its meaning and realize its depth and breadth, the Church would be what God desires it to be -- the light of the world. Men would have less desire for form and ceremony; for they would seek to plant in the heart those principles that sanctify the character.

Only when the Church is composed of pure, unselfish members, can it fulfill God's purpose. Too much hasty work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, We will first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake. The very first work to be done is the work of reform. Pray with them, talk with them, but do not allow them to unite with God's people in church relationship until they give decided evidence that the Spirit of God is working on their hearts.

Many of those whose names are registered on the church books are not Christians. They have not a genuine experience. If they were copying their Pattern, they would pray more and quarrel less. They would strive to be laborers together with God. Their sincere faith in Christ would lead to entire dependence on Him and perfect co-operation with Him.

Christ is followed by the earnest, the true, the faithful, the meek, and the pure, while angels clothed with the panoply of heaven stand by to guard and enlighten them, for they are heaven-bound. But there are those who are often heard talking doubt and unbelief, and dwelling upon the terrible struggles they have had with infidel feelings. They talk of the discouraging features of their experience. This affects their faith and courage. At times they seem to enjoy talking over the arguments of the infidel, thus strengthening their unbelief.

What is the reason of this darkness, this doubt and unbelief?--These men are not right with God, and they are not dealing honestly and truly with their own souls. They have neglected to cultivate personal piety. They have not separated themselves from selfishness and sin. They have failed to study Christ's life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. They have failed to imitate His purity and devotion. The sin which so easily besets them has been strengthened by cultivation. By their own negligence they have separated themselves from the company of the divine Leader, and He is a day's journey in advance of them. For their associates they have chosen the indolent, the backsliding, the unbelieving, the unthankful, the unholy; and evil angels are their attendants. What wonder is it that such are in darkness? What wonder is it that they are filled with doubt?

Such persons do not possess a religion that is pure and undefiled. Their religion is a religion of circumstances, a religion which the refining fires will wholly consume. If those around them are strong in faith and courage, if no influence is brought to bear against them, they are, to all appearance, strong in the faith. But let adversity come upon the cause, let the work drag heavily, and these souls lose faith, and hinder instead of helping. When apostasy and rebellion come, their voices are not raised in encouragement, saying, "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His."

This class should cultivate love for God and for secret prayer. The promise is sure, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." It will not be received with doubt and hesitancy. The heart will be filled with an assurance that will put to flight all doubt and questioning.

The light that is shining upon us with ever-increasing brightness keeps us under obligation to use every power in God's service. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, seeking to find out how we can best glorify God in the use of our endowments.

It is the duty of every Christian to vindicate the honor of God by winning souls to Christ. But where are the missionaries to answer the calls that come from all parts of the world? Only those who place themselves in Christ's school, only those who are willing to lift His cross, can be successful missionaries. Men who can be depended on in the church, who understand its wants, who strive to keep its members true to God; men who pray and keep themselves pure from the defilement of sin, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh; men who do not leave God out of their reckoning,--these are the men whom God can use. -

Think Not That I Am Come to Destroy the Law

Let us listen to the words of Christ, the divine Teacher, as they fall from His lips upon the ears of the disciples, who press closely around Him, and upon the ears of the scribes and Pharisees, who watch His every movement, and listen to His every word, hoping to hear something which they can use as an accusation against Him. The vast multitude listen also to words full of grace and truth, spoken in a clear, musical voice. Such words they have never heard from the rabbis.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets," Christ says; "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."

Our eternal well-being has not been left in uncertainty. We need not depend upon the writings of "the Fathers," or upon commentators, for explanations regarding the law of God. When these men have told us all that they in their human intelligence can, we find that they do not agree. We see such a diversity of opinions that were we to follow them in deciding what is truth, we should be left in confusion and uncertainty. The Lord has told us not to follow these human guides, but to take everything claiming to be Bible doctrine to the Scriptures. "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." This light was shining forth as Christ in His sermon on the mount gave the true exposition of the law. The traditions, maxims, and false interpretations which had been brought in, had buried the precious jewels of truth beneath a mass of rubbish. Christ rescued these precious jewels, and placed them in the framework of truth. He bade them stand fast forever, to shine in their natural luster, commending truth to the intellect, arousing the slumbering conscience, leading the people away from human tradition to the word of God. Christ taught the people to ask, "What saith the word of the Lord?" I have a soul to save. I cannot afford to be mystified when my eternal well-being is at stake. Because my minister refuses to examine the Scriptures with a heart free from prejudice and stubbornness, because he refuses to admit the binding claims of the law of God, shall I do the same? Shall I refuse to lift the cross? Shall I be guided by preconceived opinions? Shall I lose the way to heaven because the shepherd cries in my ears, Peace, Peace, The Fathers, The Fathers? Shall I turn from the cool snow waters of Lebanon to the turbid streams of the valley?

Many among those who were listening to Christ were not seeking for evidence of the truth of His teaching. Of this they had had altogether too much. What they desired was not evidence, but an excuse to evade truths of eternal importance, which had for their foundation a "Thus saith the Lord." They did not wish to obey; for obedience involved a cross. So to-day many refuse to put their will on the side of God's will. They refuse to conform their lives to the great standard of righteousness. They have educated and trained their God-given intellect to make of none effect the law of Jehovah, treating it as a code of moral embarrassment, a yoke of bondage. In the lives of transgressors they see the result of disobedience, yet they will not yield. They are not willing to reason from cause to effect, because Satan has blinded their minds by his sophistry, clothing the truth with a shadow of darkness. Paul's words to the Galatians, "Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" come sounding down along the line to our time.

But whether the world, or the Church, which has joined hands with the world, obeys or disobeys, the law of God maintains its binding claims, notwithstanding the fact that men claim to have refuted every argument in its favor. The truth still lives; the light still shines; it cannot be put out. In the Dark Ages the Bible was set aside; it was burned. Men tried to banish it from the earth; but how signally they failed! The law of God may be ignored, despised, rejected, trampled upon, but it is still the great standard of righteousness, immutable and indestructible. It is eternal, like the character of Jehovah.

The keenest intellect may try to the utmost of its capacity to make void the law, but behold, the intellect of the greatest men perishes. Men build themselves up, full of a desire for high titles rather than for a growth in grace, but they go down to the grave. Their ambition perishes with them. Their eloquence and genius are forgotten. But God's holy law, unchangeable, eternal, and immortal, will stand firm forever and ever.

God will test all, even as He tested Adam and Eve, to see whether they will be obedient. Our loyalty or disloyalty will decide our destiny. Since the fall of Adam, men in every age have excused themselves for sinning, charging God with their sin, saying that they could not keep His commandments. This is the insinuation Satan cast at God in heaven. But the plea, "I cannot keep the commandments," need never be presented to God; for before Him stands the Saviour, the marks of the crucifixion upon His body, a living witness that the law can be kept. It is not that men cannot keep the law, but that they will not.

To-day men dare to charge Christ with being a Sabbath-breaker. Those who repeat this charge, made by the scribes and Pharisees, place themselves on the side of the enemy of God, and directly contradict Christ's teaching. With sacrilegious words the Pharisees charged Him with transgression, and if they could have fastened crime upon Him, as they flattered themselves they could do, they would have been able to prove that He should be sentenced by the very law He had given. But they could not prove in a single instance that His works were not in perfect harmony with the law.

In His human nature Christ rendered perfect obedience to the law of God, thus proving to all that this law can be kept. He endured the death penalty himself, not to abrogate the law, not to immortalize sin, but to take away sin. It is because He has borne the punishment that man can have a second probation. He may, if he will, return to his loyalty. But if he refuses to obey the commands of God, if he rejects the warnings and messages God sends, choosing rather to echo the words of the deceiver, he is willingly ignorant, and the condemnation of God is upon him. He chooses disobedience because obedience means lifting the cross, practicing self-denial.

The natural mind leans toward pleasure and self-gratification. It is Satan's policy to manufacture an abundance of this. He seeks to fill the minds of men with a desire for worldly amusement, that they may have no time to ask themselves the question, How is it with my soul? The love of pleasure is infectious. Given up to this, the mind hurries from one point to another, ever seeking for some amusement. Obedience to the law of God counteracts this inclination, and builds barriers against ungodliness. Each person, as a rational human being, is under the most sacred obligation to obey the law. The Spirit has been provided to enable all to do this. Those who transgress the law by resting on the first day of the week instead of on the seventh, bear false witness to the world. God desires His people to uphold the dignity of His law by resting on the seventh day, His memorial of creation.

The ability to enjoy the riches of glory will be developed in proportion to the desire we have for these riches. How shall an appreciation of God and heavenly things be developed unless it is in this life? If the claims and cares of the world are allowed to engross all our time and attention, our spiritual powers weaken and die for lack of exercise. In a mind wholly given up to earthly things, every inlet through which light from heaven may enter is closed. God's transforming grace cannot be felt on mind or character. The talents that should be used in active piety are ignored and neglected. How, then, can a response be made when the invitation is heard, "Come; for all things are now ready"? How is it possible for a man to receive the commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant," when he has been disobedient, unthankful, unholy? He has trained his mind to disregard God's plainest requirements. He loves the things of earth more than the things of heaven. -

An Appeal for the Southern Field

There is much that should be done in the Southern field. This long-neglected field must be given attention. Again and again the needs of this field have been pointed out, but very little has been done to redeem the neglect of the past. We hope that there will now be a decided awakening, and that our people will remove the reproach, by doing the work God has so decidedly laid upon them.

Schools and sanitariums must be established in the South. No time should be wasted before this work is taken up. There is need also of a well-equipped printing press, that books may be published for the use of the workers in the South. I have been instructed that the publication of books suitable for use in this field is essential. Something in this line must be done without delay.

I visited Vicksburg on my way to the General Conference, and I saw that in the buildings erected by the workers there, a good object lesson had been given to the people. Economy has been practiced in every line. The buildings are inexpensive, yet neat and tasty.

At Nashville I was surprised to find a printing office filled with busy workers. This office, with its furnishings, has been purchased at as little cost as possible. Everything about it is neat and orderly. The countenances of the workers express intelligence and ability, and the work they do is a valuable object lesson. But a larger building is needed; for many lines of business will open up as the work is carried forward. There is much work to be done in the South, and in order to do this work, the laborers must have suitable literature, books telling the truth in simple language, and abundantly illustrated. This kind of literature will be the most effective means of keeping the truth before the people. A sermon may be preached and soon forgotten, but a book remains.

The Lord has placed means in the hands of His people to be used in this work. I call upon my brethren and sisters to give of their means to provide a suitable publishing house for the Southern field.

God has placed us in a world which He himself has described as full of His goodness. The blessings which He has provided are without number, amply sufficient for the carrying forward of the work of letting the light of truth shine forth to the world. Sin has prevailed, and has marred and seared the world with its curse, but still the Lord in His mercy is working out His divine plan for filing the earth with His glory. His bounty is inexhaustible.

I appeal to those who know the truth, to help the work in the Southern field. This is my burden. I am instructed to call upon those who have means, to give of their money to the Southern field, that the Lord's work be not hindered.

Nashville is to be made a center for the work. From this place will go forth an influence which will establish the work as the Lord may prepare the way. Let those who labor in the interest of the cause of God lay the necessities of the work in the South before the wealthy men of the world. Do this judiciously. Tell them what you are trying to do. Solicit donations from them. It is God's means which they have, means which should be used in enlightening the world. There are stored up in the earth large treasures of gold and silver. Men's riches have accumulated. Go to these men, with a heart filled with love for Christ and suffering humanity, and ask them to help you in the work you are trying to do for the Master. As they see that you reveal the sentiments of God's benevolence, a chord will be touched in their hearts. They will realize that they can be Christ's helping hand by doing medical missionary work. They will be led to co-operate with God, to provide the facilities necessary to set in operation the work that needs to be done.

For God's people to be selfish with their means at this time, would be to give the victory to Satan. Covetousness is idolatry. It can not grow and strengthen without great loss of souls to Christ. God has done great things for us. Should not every heart expand with generous emotion, filled with a determination to return to the Lord His intrusted talents, that the work of restoring His moral image in man may be accomplished?

Will our brethren awaken to a sense of their responsibility? Will they give liberally, that the work in the South may be so established that it may be self-sustaining? This world was established and is supported by the charity of a benevolent Creator. We are supported by God's compassionate love. He is the giver of all we have. He calls upon us to return to Him a portion of the abundance He has bestowed upon us. Think of the care He gives the earth, sending the rain and sunshine in their season, to cause vegetation to flourish. It is the great Husbandman who gives life to the seeds planted in the earth. He bestows His favors on the just and on the unjust. Shall not the recipients of His blessings show their gratitude to Him by giving of their bounties to help suffering humanity.

Will you not strive to be like Jesus? Will you not be His helping hand? Will not you who claim to be sons and daughters of God, members of the royal family, show the world that truth expels selfishness from the heart?

We may well feel that it is a privilege to be laborers together with God, to trade upon His goods by setting in operation that which will carry out His purposes in our world. Should we, receiving day by day the tokens of God's love and goodness and compassion, use our time and strength in self-serving, while the cause of God is languishing, and provision is not made for carrying forward to completion His purpose for the sanctification of the beings He has created and redeemed?

The Lord Jesus calls upon me to set these things before believers and unbelievers. Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful. Think of the great gift God has made you, even the gift of His Son. Think of what he has done to secure your salvation. Your sinful condition demanded a sacrifice. In your spiritual destitution you had nothing to offer. Christ came to this world, and on the cross offered himself as a sacrifice for you. You are not your own; for you have been bought with a price; "therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." He "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Behold the substitute which heaven has provided for you! Herein is love! God has given you amazing proof of His love, a proof which defies all computation. We have no line with which to measure it, no standard with which to compare it. God gave His beloved Son as a propitiation for our sins.

What more can I say? Can we refuse the request of Him who has done so much for us? God invites us to let our gratitude flow forth in gifts and offerings. He calls upon us to be His merciful, helping hand, to bear His blessings to needy, perishing souls. He who, to save you from eternal death, gave up His only begotten Son, asks you to give to His work your worldly possessions. He asks for loving, compassionate service. This He does to test you; and in asking, He calls only for His own; for all you have is His. To test your allegiance to Him, He permits you to handle His goods. He wants you to make all you possibly can of yourself, because then you will have more capabilities to return to Him. You will impart, and receive to impart. Call to mind each day what God is to you. Talk of His perfection, of His glory, and with this in mind, ask yourself what you can do for Him. Remember that He has intrusted you with His goods. Repeat over and over, "This God is my God forever and ever." Those who in this life give willingly and cheerfully to God are laying up treasure in heaven. They will at last come into possession of an eternal weight of glory.

Ellen G. White. Battle Creek, April 2.

Sin and Its Results

The question is asked, How is the existence of sin reconcilable with the government of a wise, merciful, and omnipotent God? Why was sin permitted to enter heaven? Why was it permitted to take up its abode on the earth to cause discord and suffering?

It certainly was not God's purpose that man should be sinful. He made Adam pure and noble, with no tendency to evil. He placed him in Eden, where he had every inducement to remain loyal and obedient. The law was placed around him as a safeguard.

Evil originated with the rebellion of Lucifer. It was brought into heaven when he refused allegiance to God's law. Satan was the first lawbreaker.

God created Adam, and placed him in the garden of Eden. He told him that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he must surely die. Satan came to our first parents in the disguise of a serpent, and tempted them to disobey, telling them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would be as gods. They yielded to him. Thus sin entered the world.

God had power to hold Adam back from touching the forbidden fruit; but had He done this, Satan would have been sustained in his charge against God's arbitrary rule. Man would not have been a free moral agent, but a mere machine.

The law was given to man in Eden, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." But sin entered the world. And during their years of bondage, the children of Israel lost sight of the commandments. God delivered His people from bondage, and from Mount Sinai proclaimed to them His law. Look at this law. It is God's holiness made known. It is an expression of God's goodness; for it makes known what the Creator expects from His creatures.

The law of God is immutable. Were it otherwise, no confidence could be placed in his government. God rules the world in omnipotence, and all that His love inspires He will execute. He who rules the world in wisdom and love is a God who changes not. He does not abolish to-day that which He enforced yesterday.

Through all the ages Satan's work has been the same, -- to make of none effect the law of God. He has infatuated men and women, leading them to mistake darkness for light, and error for truth. He began this work in heaven, and ever since, he has been trying to deceive. He tells men and women that God has abrogated all law, and will now open the gates of heaven to transgressors. He declares that his expulsion from heaven was a severe and uncalled-for action, and that those he led in rebellion may now enter into heaven; for his effort to abrogate the law has been successful, and God's government has been changed. But were this so, Satan would have done on earth that which he attempted to do in heaven, and he would therefore be entitled to the throne of heaven as the chief ruler.

Those who accept Satan's reasoning are terribly deceived. They accept a position which has no true foundation. God is unchangeable. He is satisfied with nothing short of perfect obedience. Perfection is the only title which will gain admittance to heaven. The law is the only standard of character.

The law of God and the law of Caesar have come into collision, and will come into collision again. The question we have to answer is, Shall we obey God, or Caesar? A great movement is now on foot to put the first day of the week in the place of the day God has sanctified and blessed. Satan works under a guise of religion, and guided by him, the professed Christian world will be very zealous in working against the law of God. Satan is leading men and women to complete the ruin he began in heaven. He is willing for the world to declare that the calamity by land and sea and the destruction by flood and fire, are because Sunday is desecrated. Herein lies his deception. He is well pleased when men and women exalt Sunday; for he has been working for centuries to place the first day of the week where the seventh should be. Of those who so zealously carry out the enemy's designs, God will inquire, "Who hath required this at your hand?" "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Men say in regard to the Sabbath, It makes no difference what day we keep, provided we keep the seventh part of time. How dare they substitute the word of man for the word of God? How dare they lead their fellow men away from obedience to the Creator? The Sabbath is God's memorial of creation, and had it always been observed, there would never have been an infidel or an atheist in our world.

Let man with his human theories step aside. Let the divine voice be heard, saying, "Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: . . . it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever."

Many commit themselves to a course that insults the Spirit of God, and that in the face of the convictions of conscience. They make a free choice of the wrong side. They rebel against God. Mercy is despised, and justice defied. They become spiritually palsied, not because they cannot submit to God, but because they will not. Their feet are set in the way of the froward, and they have no desire to turn back.

The flood which came upon the old world proclaimed the verdict, Incurable. The overthrow of Sodom declared the existence of a far-reaching corruption beyond the hope of recovery. Christ declared, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man." "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," is the call, "and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters."

The law of God is made void, and God calls upon us to stand in defense of the truth. Satan is a powerful general. He had a long experience in the heavenly courts, and he knows how to mingle right sentiments and principles with evil. He knows how to misapply and wrest the Scriptures. Herein lies the power of his deception. Thus he deceives men, and seeks to obliterate the line of demarcation between believers and unbelievers. God calls for faithful Calebs, who will stand firmly and steadfastly at their post of duty.

Our work is aggressive. We need the heavenly anointing, that our spiritual eyesight may be clear. We are living in the last remnant of time. Truth is now to be sought for as hidden treasure. The commandments of men have taken the place of the commandments of God. The Lord calls upon His workmen to watch and work and pray. Precious truths are to be recovered from the human traditions under which men have buried them. God desires His people to show a constantly increasing interest in the things of eternity. He desires us to value more highly the favor of His friendship. Let us not become Satan's agents to belittle the solemn, important truth which we profess to believe. Let us not show an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

God did not give His only begotten Son to die on the cross of Calvary in order that man might have liberty to transgress His law. He did not pay such an expensive price to make His law null and void. The falsehood that Christ died to abrogate the law originated with the enemy of all good. By giving His life for the life of the world, Christ placed the immutability of the law of God beyond controversy. His death on the cross is an indisputable testimony that not one jot or tittle of the law shall ever fail. Hear the words of the Saviour, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." The disobedient will never find entrance there. "But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

God weighs every man in the balances of the sanctuary. In one scale there is placed the perfect, unchangeable law, demanding continuous, unswerving obedience; if in the other there are years of forgetfulness, of selfishness, or rebellion and self-pleasing, God says, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." But Christ has made it possible for us to keep the law. He lived on this earth a life of perfect obedience, that His righteousness might be imputed to us. To us is given the glorious assurance that though we have fallen through disobedience, we may, through the merits of the Son of God, hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." -

Laborers Together With God

"We are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, . . . of what sort it is."

Let us study these words carefully and prayerfully. In order to be understood, the Bible requires much thought. When we are preparing to go to a new country, and have received from our friends letters of instruction, how carefully we study those letters! We are strangers and pilgrims on this earth, journeying to a better country, even a heavenly, and to us have been given letters of instruction. Again and again we are enjoined to study these directions carefully, so that we shall make no mistake. God is faithful. If we are willing to be taught, He will do His part in teaching us. Let us not neglect our part. We are to labor together with God, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. If we are faithful in doing our part, in co-operating with Him, God will work through us the good pleasure of His will. But God cannot work through us if we make no effort. If we gain eternal life, we must work, and work earnestly. If we lack in spiritual strength, we may know that we have failed of doing our part. Just as soon as the plan of salvation was devised, Satan began to work; and if we hope to stand against him, we, too, must work. We must follow the example Christ has left us, submitting to Him in everything. Our will must be in harmony with His will.

"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Are we placing the right kind of material upon the right foundation? If we lay upon the foundation wood, hay, stubble, sad indeed will be the result! Will that which we are bringing to the foundation endure the fire of the great day of God? Are we using our talents in the Master's service? Are we kind and courteous to all around us? Do we cherish in our hearts, and reveal in our lives, the principles of the truth?

The characters we form here will decide our eternal destiny. What kind of material are we using in our character building? We must guard well every point, seeking to gain that purity which will make our lives harmonize with the saving truth we profess to believe. Our part is to put away sin, to seek with determination for perfection of character. As we thus work, God co-operates with us, fitting us for a place in His kingdom.

If we constantly receive grace from God, we shall be vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use. Daily receiving blessings, we shall daily impart blessings to those around us. But in order to be successful in this work, we must deny self. We cannot at the same time please self and serve Christ. We are not to follow our own inclinations, but look to Jesus, waiting to receive orders from our Captain.

Our one desire should be to do God's will in a way that He will approve. All our blessings come from Him, and He desires us in return to give Him our glad and willing service. Are we doing this? Are we receiving and imparting His grace? Are we standing under His banner as faithful sentinels? Are we learning precious lessons, that we may teach others? Let us not rob God. All things come from Him, and He expects us to return Him of His own.

Our money belongs to God, and He calls upon us to acknowledge this by paying a faithful tithe and giving willing offerings. The children of Israel were taught that their possessions came from God, and that by the paying of tithe and freewill offerings they were to acknowledge this. Thus we, too, may acknowledge whence our blessings flow. By giving of our means to save those for whom Christ died, we may show our appreciation of His goodness.

Is it possible that we are robbing God? If so, His blessing cannot rest upon us. This may be the reason why there is not more of the power of God with us. Let each one examine himself, and see whether he is obeying the directions God has given. Remove from your lives everything which separates you from God. Serve Him to the very best of your ability. Show your faith by your works. Cling with living faith to Jesus. Come up to the help of the Lord. Labor earnestly for the Saviour. Then the rich blessing of God will be your portion.

The doing of God's will is essential if we would have an increased knowledge of Him. Let us not be deceived by the oft-repeated assertion, "All you have to do is to believe." Faith and works are two oars which we must use equally if we press our way up the stream against the current of unbelief. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." The Christian is a man of thought and practice. His faith fixes its roots firmly in Christ. By faith and good works he keeps his spirituality strong and healthy, and his spiritual strength increases as he strives to work the works of God.

There is a crown of eternal life to win, a heaven of bliss to gain. The way is rough, and there is much climbing to do. But those who endure the toil, urging their way through all obstacles, will receive the overcomer's reward.

Christ has a right to our entire obedience. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

When we claim to accept Christ as our Saviour, and yet continue to cherish sinful practices, we misrepresent Him and put Him to open shame. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

No one should deceive himself by thinking that his defects are not very grievous. If he does not guard against these defects, they will be his ruin, and will be reproduced in those with whom he associates. Those who do not think that God requires them to watch and pray unceasingly, striving against every imperfection, are deluded by the enemy. Until they change their attitude, they cannot grow in grace. We all need to pray earnestly for determination to overcome every defect of character. Pray that, "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; . . . ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power."

How many there are who retain wrong habits because they think they cannot overcome them. They do not make determined efforts to overcome. They cherish their sins as if they were precious jewels. If they are reproved, they murmur against the one who is watching for their souls as he that must give an account. Some, when reproved, act disrespectfully toward the one who, in the fear of God, showed them that they were misrepresenting their Saviour. They need to learn the meaning of true conversion. Paul writes, "If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. . . . Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

Let us not be impatient and angry when our friends show us our mistakes and dangers. Some have followed their own way so long that they do not realize that they have serious defects of character, which influence others to their hurt. Let these remember that they are sowing seeds of imperfection, and that for this God will bring them into judgment.

We are enjoined to be "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." If your influence leads others astray, something is wrong. You are not obeying God's directions. Take advice. Do not dispute with the one who labors for your good. Put yourself under discipline. Remember that if you cannot see that you are guilty, you are in danger. Self-indulgence has blinded your eyes. Put forth an effort proportionate to the value of the object of which you are in pursuit. Remember that you are seeking for eternal life. It will not pay to be indolent and slothful on the very borders of the eternal world. Put to the stretch every spiritual sinew and muscle. Infinite resources have been provided for you. Then do not fail of being complete in Christ. God's work will triumph. The question we should each ask ourselves is. Shall I triumph with it? -

A Message for To-day

The time has come when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. We are in the shaking time. Be assured that only those who live the prayer of Christ for unity among His disciples, working it out in practical life, will stand the test.

The enemy will make most determined efforts to ensnare those who should be co-workers with Christ. All who seek to qualify themselves for the Lord's work are the objects of Satan's attacks. But the unity and love for which Christ prayed is an impregnable barrier against the enemy. When there is dissension, when each one seeks the highest place, the prayer of Christ is not answered. The enemy finds easy access, and there is weakness instead of strength in the Church. Those who exalt self place themselves in Satan's power, and are prepared to receive his deceptions as truth.

The will of God in regard to His people is plainly expressed in the sixth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of John. The divine antidote for the sin of the whole world is contained in the gospel of John. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood," Christ declared, "hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." He may die, as Christ died, but the life of the Saviour is in him. His life is hid with Christ in God. "I am come that they might have life," Jesus said, "and that they might have it more abundantly." He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life, to be one with Him throughout all eternity.

There are those to-day who will present falsehoods as testing truths, even as the Jews presented the maxims of men as the bread of heaven. Sayings of no value are given to the people of God as their portion of meat, while souls are starving for the bread of life. Fables have been devised, and men are trying to weave these fables into the web. Those who do this will one day see their work as it is viewed by the heavenly intelligences. They choose to bring to the foundation wood, hay, and stubble, when they have at their command the word of God, with all its richness and power, from which they can gather precious treasures of truth.

The food that is being prepared for the flock of God will cause spiritual consumption, decline, and death. When those who profess to believe present truth come to their senses, when they accept the word of God just as it reads, when they do not try to wrest the Scriptures, they will bring from the treasure-house of the heart things new and old, to strengthen themselves and those for whom they labor.

There are those who say not only in their hearts, but in all their works, "My Lord delayeth His coming." Because Christ's coming has been long foretold, they conclude that there is some mistake in regard to it. But the Lord says, "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come." It will not tarry past the time that the message is borne to all nations, tongues, and peoples. Shall we who claim to be students of prophecy forget that God's forbearance to the wicked is a part of the vast and merciful plan by which He is seeking to compass the salvation of souls? Shall we be found among the number who, having ceased to co-operate with God, are found saying, "My Lord delayeth His coming"?

Christ's true followers will represent Him in character. They will turn aside from worldly policy, and every day will train themselves for service in God's cause. In active service they find peace and hope, efficiency and power. They breathe the atmosphere of heaven, the only atmosphere in which the soul can truly live. By obedience they are made partakers of the divine nature. The doing of the living principles of God's law makes them one with Christ; and because He lives, they will live also. At the last day He will raise them as a part of himself. He declares, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." "This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." Christ became one with us in order that we might become one with Him in divinity.

The Lord is soon to come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Is there not enough in the truths which cluster around this event and in the preparation essential for it, to make us think solemnly of our duty? "The Son of man shall come in His glory; . . . and before Him shall be gathered all nations." This subject should be kept before the people as a means to an end,--that end the judgment, with its eternal punishments and rewards. Then God will render to every man according to his work. Enoch prophesied of these things, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all." And Solomon, the preacher of righteousness, when making his declaration and appeal, presented the judgment to come. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter," he said; "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

We have an abundance of weighty, solemn truths to proclaim without spending time in devising fanciful theories to present as testing truth. What is the chaff to the wheat? The final judgment is a most solemn event, which must take place before the assembled universe. When God honors His commandment-keeping people, not one of the enemies of truth and righteousness will be absent. And when transgressors receive their condemnation, all the righteous will see the result of sin. God will be honored, and His government vindicated; and that in the presence of the inhabitants of the universe. Oh, what a change will then take place in the minds of men! All will then see the value of eternal life.

To His Son the Father has committed all judgment. Christ will declare the reward of loyalty. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son . . . and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." Christ accepted humanity, and lived on this earth a pure, sanctified life. For this reason He has received the appointment of judge. He who occupies the position of judge is God manifest in the flesh. What a joy it will be to recognize in Him our Teacher and Redeemer, bearing still the marks of the crucifixion, from which shine beams of glory, giving additional value to the crowns which the redeemed receive from His hands, the very hands outstretched in blessing over His disciples as He ascended. The very voice which said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," bids His ransomed ones welcome to His presence. The very One who gave His precious life for them, who by His grace moved their hearts to repentance, who awakened them to their need of repentance, receives them now into His joy. Oh, how they love Him! The realization of their hope is infinitely greater than their expectation. Their joy is complete, and they take their glittering crowns and cast them at their Redeemer's feet.

When sinners are compelled to look upon Him who clothed His divinity with humanity, and who still wears this garb, their confusion is indescribable. The scales fall from their eyes, and they see that which before they would not see. They realize what they might have been had they received Christ, and improved the opportunities granted them. They see the law which they have spurned, exalted even as God's throne is exalted. They see God himself giving reverence to His law.

What a scene that will be! No pen can describe it! The accumulated guilt of the world will be laid bare, and the voice of the Judge will be heard saying to the wicked, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Then those who pierced Christ will remember how they slighted His love and abused His compassion; how they chose in His stead Barabbas, a robber and murderer; how they crowned the Saviour with thorns, and caused Him to be scourged and crucified; how, in the agony of His death on the cross, they taunted Him, saying, "Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." "He saved others; himself He cannot save." They will seem to hear again His voice of entreaty. Every tone of solicitude will vibrate as distinctly in their ears as when the Saviour spoke to them. Every act of insult and mockery done to Christ will be as fresh in their memory as when the satanic deeds were done.

They will call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. "The wrath of the Lamb,"--One who ever showed himself full of tenderness, patience, and long-suffering, who, having given himself up as the sacrificial offering, was led as a lamb to the slaughter, to save sinners from the doom now falling upon them because they would not allow Him to take away their guilt.

The judgment will be conducted in accordance with the rules God has laid down. By the law which men are now called upon to obey, but which many refuse to accept, all will be judged. As by it character is tested, every man will find his proper place in one of two classes. He will either be holy to the Lord through obedience to His law, or be stained with sin through transgression. He will either have done good, cooperating in faith with Jesus to restore the moral image of God in man, or he will have done evil, denying the Saviour by an ungodly life. Christ will separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then men and women will see that their course of action has decided their destiny. They will be rewarded or punished according as they have obeyed or violated the law of God.

Are not these subjects of sufficient moment to present to the people? Should we not call upon the members of our churches to take their Bibles and study them, realizing that their eternal interest is at stake?

Let us remember that there will be no second probation. Some flatter themselves with the thought that the Lord will give them another opportunity. Fatal delusion! Just now, day by day and hour by hour, we are building for the judgment. We are trading on our Lord's goods, and at His coming He will reckon with us. He will expect results from every one. Let us arise and shine, because the glory of the Lord has risen upon us. Our reward will be proportionate to the work we have done. "My reward is with me," Christ declares, "to give every man according as his work shall be." Let all who can, go forth to work with wisdom and in the love of Christ for those nigh and afar off. The Master calls upon us to do according to our ability the work He has intrusted to us. -

A Message to Be Borne

The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah should be studied carefully and prayerfully. Here God's messengers are given a direct, forcible message: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." It is to church-members that this message is to be given, to those who suppose that they are righteous, who take delight in approaching to God. "They seek me daily," God declares, "and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness; and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God."

But they do not delight themselves in the truth. If they searched the Scriptures with a heart free from pride and prejudice, their eyes would be opened to see wonderful things in the law of God. But to accept the truth involves a cross, and therefore they reject it. They think they are righteous, but their righteousness is self-righteousness.

The people described in this chapter realize that they have not the favor of God; but instead of seeking His favor in His own way, they enter into a controversy with Him. Why, they ask, since we observe many ceremonies, does the Lord not give us special recognition? "Wherefore have we fasted, . . . and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?"

God answers, "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high."

The fasts observed by these worshipers are a mere pretense, a mockery of humility. They retain all their objectionable traits of character. Their hearts are not cleansed from defilement. They have not received the softening showers of the grace of God. They are destitute of the Holy Spirit, destitute of the sweetness of its influence. They manifest no repentance, no faith that works by love. They are unjust and selfish in their dealing with their fellow men, mercilessly oppressing those whom they regard as their inferiors. Yet they complain because God does not exalt them above all others because of their righteousness.

The Lord sends them a message of positive reproof, showing plainly why they are not visited by His grace. "Is it such a fast that I have chosen?" He asks, "a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?"

Will they accept this reproof, and pray for true repentance? Will they put away their sins and ask for pardon? Will they bring the atmosphere of heaven into their families, and into their association with their fellow men?

The Lord says, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?"

Here are laid down the duties devolving upon those who claim to be Christ's followers. Those who are truly connected with the Saviour will reveal this connection by doing the works of mercy here outlined.

And to those who obey this command is given the promise, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Notice the work that is to be done. A breach is to be repaired, and the Lord gives His ambassadors a message to bear to the people, calling upon them to do this work.

The Sabbath command has been set aside by human authority. Men have torn down God's holy day, and have exalted in its stead a common working day. Thus God has been greatly dishonored. The Sabbath is His memorial of creation. After He had finished creating the world, He rested from His work, and He sanctified and blessed the day on which He rested, giving it to man as a day of rest. It is to be a sign between Him and His people forever. He says to those who live in this age of the world: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father."

God has a message for the sinners in Zion, and the bearing of this message is the work before Seventh-day Adventists. The warning must be given. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet." Be earnest and decided. Make no concessions to transgressors. Bear the message to all peoples, nations, and kindreds, telling them that God has a law which is as high above man-made laws as heaven is above the earth. Let not the truth languish upon your lips. Let not your words be words of peace and safety. Say not to the transgressors, It does not matter what you believe. Say to the people, as Christ said to Moses, "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord."

A message of eternal importance is to be borne to those nigh and to those afar off. Let God's messengers form no confederacy with those who, after hearing the message, refuse to search the Scriptures to see whether or not these things are so. God's servants are to deal with evil as He has directed. They are to make no covenant with the world. The instruction which God gave to Moses for Israel is for us to-day: "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee." Satan works through those who do not acknowledge God as their Ruler. "Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: for thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

The message God sends through His servants will be scorned and derided by unfaithful shepherds, who tread down with their feet the feed of the pastures, giving the flock as food that which they have defiled. "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord." No outward nearness to God will screen from divine wrath those who trample under their feet the law of Jehovah. God will render to every man according to his deeds; "to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath. . . . As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."

God will not treat men according to the position they occupy, according to their possessions, or their color, but according to the character they have formed. Thus will be decided the case of each one. The punishment of those who have had abundant opportunity to know the truth, but who in blindness and unbelief have contended against God and His messengers, will be proportionate to the light they have rejected. God greatly favored them, giving them peculiar advantages and gifts, that they might let their light shine forth to others. But in their perversity they led others astray. God will judge them for the good they might have done, but did not. He will call them to account for their misused opportunities. They turned from God's way to their own way, and they will be judged according to their works. By walking contrary to the principles of the truth, they greatly dishonored God. They became fools in His sight by turning His truth into a lie. As they have been distinguished by the mercies bestowed on them, so they will be distinguished by the severity of their punishment. -

Working in Christ's Lines

The very first lesson for the Christian to learn is that God has given to every man his work, even a part to act in His great plan for the uplifting of humanity. Each one has his appointed post of duty. Not one has been left out.

Christ has linked together the human and the divine. On this earth, in the garb of humanity, He lived the life He desires His children to live,--a life of unselfish service. He is our pattern. He says to us, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart."

Some work in the ministry, some in various trades; but all, whatever their work, may do service for God. He who gives himself unreservedly to the Saviour serves Him with a devotion which calls for the energies of the whole being. He realizes that Christ is his owner, and this knowledge makes Him kind, gentle, and courteous. His every act is an act of consecration. "Holiness to the Lord" is his motto. Christ is training him for the courts above.

In His wonderful prayer for His disciples the Saviour said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." The word of God is the great medium of sanctification. By studying and practicing this Word we receive power to glorify God. But the Word cannot strengthen those who do not receive it by faith. As we daily partake of food that we may be strong physically, so, if we would be strong spiritually, we must eat the Word, making it a part of ourselves.

"For their sakes I sanctify myself," Christ continued, "that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." If those who claim to be the children of God would make determined efforts to answer this prayer, they would be one with Christ and with their brethren. Then Christianity would be a power in the world, convicting and converting sinners. Then men would be given unmistakable evidence of the power of the gospel.

God's people should draw together in even cords; for in their unity lies their strength. They are weak when they love themselves more than Christ and their brethren. When they work unselfishly, each striving to help the other, and to build up the work in the great harvest field, they will lead men to believe that God has indeed sent His Son into the world.

"Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." This is the message we are to proclaim. False religions must be exposed, that the truth may triumph. In this work the contest is unceasing. Earnest and untiring efforts must be made if those who are fighting against God lay down their arms and acknowledge the truth as it is in Jesus.

Truth is to be presented in clear, straight lines, and those to whom the light has come are to help in this work. Obligations are mutual. If God has done such a great work in our behalf, should we not be willing to make sacrifices to help Him in the work?

God's work has an eternal significance. Eternity is bound up with the ever-present now. Everywhere, every moment, let the worker for God link the seen with the unseen, that his faith may be complete.

The Lord says, Time is mine; the minutes, the hours, are my property; and those in my service should work faithfully and willingly, bringing love into all their service. As they labor to the best of their ability, I will labor with them. The world is dead in trespasses and sins. Prepare the way for the warning message to be proclaimed. Call for laborers. I will enable them to work for me with definite results.

Only those who are fully consecrated, who realize the sacredness of God's work, can labor successfully for Him. Not all who claim to be Christ's disciples are disciples indeed. The Saviour is grieved when men work against His plans. His work calls for entire consecration. He can co-operate with those only who have a right understanding of the work He wishes to accomplish, and who submit willingly to His control.

The way for Christ's coming is to be prepared. In this sacred work no worldly schemes or practices are to be adopted. Those who work for the Lord should labor diligently and self-sacrificingly. Christ gave himself for us, and He calls for workers who will share in His self-denial. Let us remember that we are working for the Master above, not for ourselves, and that we can make the way easy for Him to accomplish His work in the world. He foresees all the possibilities before those who work unselfishly. He, the divine Worker, calls His followers together, and makes a covenant with them, promising that they shall be abundantly blessed if they work as He worked to make His cause a success in the world.

We know not when the Master will come to settle the accounts of His servants. Let us be always prepared to meet Him in peace. The probation of any one of us may cease in a moment. Death by accident may suddenly and unexpectedly close our earthly history. How stands our life-record to-day? -

Overcoming as Christ Overcame

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne."

In these words an individual work is laid out for each one of us. We are to make determined efforts to overcome as Christ overcame. From this warfare no one is excused. If for us the gates of the holy city swing ajar, if we behold the King in His beauty, we must now overcome as Christ overcame.

In order for us to understand how Christ overcame, we must study the record of His life on earth. We must seek to understand the infinite sacrifice He made in order to save the race from eternal death. He laid aside His robes of royalty, His high command, His riches, and for our sake became poor, that we might come into possession of an immortal inheritance. In our behalf, He met and conquered the prince of darkness.

Adam and Eve transgressed the law of God. They ate of the forbidden fruit, and were driven from Eden. We might well rejoice if this had been the only fall. But since the fall of Adam, the history of the human race has been a succession of falls.

Looking upon this earth, Christ saw that men were so weak in moral power that it was impossible for them to overcome in their own strength. Therefore He left His heavenly home, and walked a man among men. He brought to us divine aid; and as we accept this aid, we can claim certain victory through Jesus of Nazareth.

When we think of the conflict before us and the great work that we must do, we tremble. But we may remember that our Helper is almighty. We may feel strong in His strength. We may unite our ignorance to His wisdom, our feebleness to His might, our weakness to His unfailing strength. Through Him we may be "more than conquerors."

Through the power of appetite Satan has gained control of men and women. How difficult it is to obtain the victory over appetite when once it is established. How important that parents bring their children up with pure tastes and unperverted appetites. Parents should ever remember that upon them rests the responsibility of training their children in such a way that they will have moral stamina to resist the evil that will surround them when they go out into the world.

Christ did not ask His Father to take the disciples out of the world, but to keep them from the evil in the world, to keep them from yielding to the temptations which they would meet on every hand. This prayer fathers and mothers should offer for their children. But shall they plead with God, and then leave their children to do as they please? God cannot keep children from evil if the parents do not co-operate with Him. Bravely and cheerfully parents should take up their work, carrying it forward with unwearying endeavor. Temperance and self-control should be taught from the cradle. Upon the mother largely rests the burden of this work, and aided by the father, she may carry it forward successfully.

The lesson of self-control should begin with the infant in its mother's arms. The child should be taught that its will must be brought into subjection. It must learn that it does not live to eat, but eat to live. But how many parents, by the food which they place upon their tables, prepare the way for their children to crave stronger stimulants. Soon you will see the boys of such a family smoking. And as twin evils, tobacco and alcohol go together.

To the mother belongs the duty of making the home a pleasant place for her children. The home may be plain, but it can always be a place where cheerful words are spoken, and kindly deeds are done, where courtesy and love are abiding guests. Mothers instead of devoting so much time to the adornment of your own and your children's dresses, take time to get acquainted with your children. Study their dispositions and temperaments, that you may know how to deal with them. Some children need more attention than others. They need gentle, encouraging words. How easy it is for mothers to speak words of kindness and affection which will send a sunbeam to the hearts of the little ones, causing them to forget their troubles.

Who are these children committed to our care?-- They are the younger members of the Lord's family. He says, Take these children and train them for me. Educate them so that they will be polished after the similitude of a palace, prepared to shine in the courts of my house.

What an important work! And yet we hear mothers sighing for missionary work! If they could only go to some foreign country, they would feel that they were doing something worth while. But to take up the daily duties of the home life and carry them forward, seems to them like an exhausting and thankless task. And why? Because the mother's work is rarely appreciated. She has a thousand cares and burdens of which no one knows. When her husband comes home at night, he frequently brings with him the cares of his business. He forgets that his wife has any care, and if things in the home do not exactly suit him, he speaks impatiently, and perhaps harshly.

The mother has perhaps done her utmost to keep things running smoothly. She has tried to speak kindly to the children, and this has cost her an effort. It has taken much patience to keep the children busy and happy. But she cannot speak of what she has done as some great achievement. It seems as if she had done nothing. But it is not so. Heavenly angels watch the careworn mother, noting the burdens she carries day by day. Her name may not have been heard in the world, but it is written in the Lamb's book of life. The mother occupies a position more exalted than that of the king upon his throne.

There is a God above, and the light and glory which shines from His throne rests upon the tired mother as she tries to educate her children to resist the influence of evil.

The husband should appreciate the work of his wife. When he enters the home in the evening, he should leave his business cares outside. He should enter the home with smiles and pleasant words. If the wife feels that she can lean upon the large affections of her husband, that his arm will sustain her, that his voice will be heard in encouragement, her work will lose half its dread.

Christ loves the children. He watches mothers to see if they are forming the characters of their little ones according to the perfect pattern. When He was upon this earth, mothers brought their children to Him, thinking that if they were to receive His blessing, they would be more easily trained in the way of God. When these mothers came, the disciples rebuked them; but Christ knew why they had come. He knew that they were expecting a Saviour's blessing, and drawing the children to Him, He said to the disciples, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

It costs something to bring children up in the way of God. It costs a mother's tears and a father's prayers. It calls for unflagging effort, for patient instruction, here a little and there a little. But this work pays. Parents can thus build around their children bulwarks which will preserve them from the evil that is flooding our world.

Parents, take time to establish in your children correct appetites and habits. Take them into the open air, and point them to the beautiful things of nature. Teach them that in each leaf they can trace the wonderful power and love of God. Tell them that God's hand paints the colors on every flower.

When upon this earth, Christ pointed to the lilies opening their buds upon the bosom of the lake. There they grew, pressing their way through the weeds, refusing all that would taint their beauty, gathering to themselves only that which would help develop the beautiful blossom. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," the Saviour said; "they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Thus Christ sought to lead us to think of God's great love for His children. "If God so clothe the grass of the field," He said, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

All effort for outward display is unnecessary and useless. We may spend our God-given time in striving for artificial adornment, and yet not bear comparison with a simple flower of the field. Draw the minds of your children from the artificial to the natural. Point them to the things which God has made. Teach them about God by means of His created works. The lessons thus given will be remembered.

The great burden in the education of children rests upon the mother. She it is who forms their characters. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Mothers, remember that in your work the Creator of the universe will give you help. In His strength, and through His name, you can lead your children to be overcomers. Teach them to look to God for strength. Tell them that He hears their prayers. Teach them to overcome evil with good. Teach them to exert an influence that is elevating and ennobling. Lead them to unite with God, and then they will have strength to resist the strongest temptation. They will then receive the reward of the overcomer. -

A Present Help in Every Time of Trouble

In the world there are false theories which deny the existence of Satan, or make him to hideous as to encourage doubt of his existence. The world has no just conception of Satan. He is not thought of as the prince of the world, the general of a vast rebellion, a being logical and philosophical, possessing a powerful intellect. But thus it is. The adversary of God and leader in the great controversy waged against the world's Redeemer, his deceptive powers have been sharpened by constant practice; and in the final crisis he will deceive to their own ruin those who do not now seek to understand his methods of working.

Satan resolved to bend all his energies to defeat the plan of redemption. When the Redeemer came to this world, His path from the manger to the cross was marked with pain and sorrow. At every step He encountered the enemy, who sought in every way to turn Him from His purpose of love. And Satan works against Christians to-day as he worked against their Leader. He who in Eden used Eve to tempt Adam, uses men in this age to tempt their fellow men.

The great master of evil conceals himself, working behind the scenes. He lays his plans with wonderful ingenuity, so arranging matters that men will not have time to think of the things of eternity. As his instruments do the work assigned them, he directs and controls. He gives all who will serve him plenty to do. He can keep mind and hand employed. He fills those under his guidance with ambitious hopes for worldly greatness.

Thus Satan is playing the game of life for the souls of men, and he is succeeding in a way surprising even to himself. Men are straining every nerve to gain earthly treasure, but when eternal riches are offered them, they turn carelessly away. Very easily the enemy persuades them to renounce their supreme good. Satan hides Christ and heaven from their view, because they choose to have it so. Led by him, they worship the world and the things of the world. Too late they will find that they must stand before God without a fit preparation, to hear the words, "Depart from me," and to be forever banished from the divine presence.

In his work Satan pretends to be very religious. He finds this the most effective way of carrying on the work he began in heaven. Under his guidance the Christian world has made void the law of God by tearing down the seventh-day Sabbath, and exalting in its stead a common working day. As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. "These people stand out in defiance of law," they say. "They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments."

The civil power is called to the aid of the Church in persecuting those who keep holy the seventh day. The Church and the world are united in trampling upon God's commandments, and those who obey these commandments they threaten with death. John declares, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." The decree goes forth that no man shall be allowed to buy or sell save he that has the mark or the number of the Beast.

As God's people approach the final crisis, they must with increasing power proclaim the message He has given them. The warning must be given to the churches. God's requirements must be laid before those who are transgressing His law. They must be made to understand that this is a life and death question. God's remnant people are to fill the earth with the cry of the third angel.

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." These are they who are repairing the breach in the law of God. In the face of bitter opposition, they take their stand under the banner of Prince Immanuel, proclaiming, bravely and fearlessly, the message He has given them.

God watches over these faithful witnesses, and abundantly rewards their confidence. The way to His throne is always open to them. He sees and supplies their wants. They find their safety in looking to Him. When Jehovah gives them His protection, and says of them, Ye are laborers together with me, they are safe in the midst of the greatest danger. Satan tries to deceive them, but God lifts up for them a standard against the enemy. Those who work righteousness have an ever-present help in time of trouble. In every time of need He is near. When they are tempted, He stands as their defense, saying, "I will guide thee with mine eye." I will deliver thee from perplexity, and be a covert for thee against the strife of tongues.

The cause is the Lord's. He is on board the ship as commander-in-chief. He will guide us safely into port. He can command the winds and the waves, and they will obey Him. If we follow His directions, we have no need to be anxious or troubled. In Him we may trust. He bestows His richest endowments upon those who love Him and keep His commandments. He will never forsake those who work in His lines.

Satan will strive to retain every soul in his strong power. He will not willingly relinquish his dominion over men. Therefore the work of advancing the gospel will meet with great opposition from his synagogue. His last effort will be a desperate one, but his overthrow will be complete.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." John saw the remnant people of God when they had gained the victory over the Beast, and over his Image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name. Redeemed and glorified, they stood on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And he says, "They sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." As they surround the throne of God, they see their Saviour bearing upon His glorified body the marks of the crucifixion, and from myriads of voices peals forth the chorus of praise, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."

In the World, but Not of the World

Many argue that those who have received the truth should remain where they are in the world, and be as those of the world, joining in worldly amusements and festivities, and following worldly fashions. They sat that thus an influence can be gained over the people of the world, who will in this way be brought up to the Christian's level.

But this cannot be. It is not right for those who claim to be children of God to retain their worldly habits and practices, to cling to the worldly pleasures to congenial to natural inclination. Let them not think that thus they can convert the world. There are unsurmountable obstacles to the success of such witness-bearing.

The Scriptures bear decided testimony against Christians maintaining a world-loving attitude. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

We cannot follow Jesus and retain the friendship of the world. There must be on the part of the Christian an entire surrender, a forsaking of the things of this earth. True Christians will take Christ as their pattern in all things, loving Him with the whole heart, and serving Him with the whole being. He says, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." The child of God must not be guided nor governed by human wisdom; for this always leads away from the path of self-denial and cross-bearing cast up for the ransomed of the Lord.

At this time there comes to us a most solemn message, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing." God calls for faithful men and women to be in the world, but not of the world. The believing people of God, those who are worthy to claim kinship with Him, will demonstrate the genuineness of their relationship by being true witnesses for the truth. By their modesty in apparel, by their Christlike words and actions, they will show that they are sons and daughters of the heavenly King. They will wear the pilgrim's dress and manifest the pilgrim's spirit, witnessing a good confession.

We are not to shut ourselves away from the world to escape from it. Christ's prayer to His Father was, "Not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil." We have a work to do in the world, the work of seeking for lost souls. The law of God is made void. God calls upon us to stand in defense of this law. As Christ was the light of the world, so we are to be lights in the world. Christ lived in the world, but He was not of the world. Men did not understand Him. His self-sacrifice was to them a mystery. He lived a life apart from them. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." They hated Him because He would not be one with them. Had He united with them in eager pursuit for applause, for riches, for worldly honor, they would not have hated Him; for He would have been of them. And because the world knew not the Saviour, it knows not His followers.

Christ said of His followers, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Many think that worldly appearance is necessary in our work, in order that the right impression may be made. But this is an error. Appearance has something, yes, much, to do with the impression made upon minds, but the appearance must be after a godly sort. Let it be seen that the workers are bound up with God and heaven. There should be no striving for recognition from the world in order to gain character and influence for the truth. Consistency is a jewel. Our faith, our dress, our deportment, must be in harmony with the character of our work,--the presentation of the most solemn message ever given to the world. Our effort should be to win men to the truth by preaching the word and by living godly lives. We should strive earnestly to show the consistency of our faith, to show that the great truths we are handling are a reality to us. The Lord will impress minds if we will work with earnestness.

The Lord sees not as man sees. Those whom He most loves and honors are often the objects of the scorn and derision of the enemy. He desires us to learn the lesson that we shall not gain true success in His work by trying to meet the criterion of the world. Hypocrisy and pretense can find no favor in His sight. The victories gained by the soul are not measured by outside appearance or by the praise of men, but by the goodness which shines forth in the life, by the firm adherence to God's holy law.

All the thoughts of the mind, all the aspirations of the soul, are read by Him with whom we have to do. In every line of His work let our principles, purposes, words, and deeds be pure and unselfish. Let us manifest truth and goodness to all men. Regard not pretense and show as a mark of greatness, but reveal the sanctified ambition which Christ revealed in His life, an ambition to make the world better by having lived in it.

In God's great work there is need of conscientious, godly men,--men who have been wrestlers in their life-work, who have maintained a good fight against evil, who have sought not for the applause of the people, but for the favor of God. Men are needed through whom God can work,--men who will wrestle with the Lord in prayer, and then go forth into the work with the inspiration He alone can give. Workers are needed who will pray, and then act their prayers, remembering that they are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

When we read the word of God for the purpose of understanding it and responding to its claims, we shall not desire to be esteemed and honored by the world. We have no claim nor right to greatness only as Christ gives value to our influence. The estimate He places upon our work is alone of value. All true greatness comes through Him. The esteem of those who are not guided by God, who are not living in obedience to the laws of His kingdom, is valueless. It cannot add to nor detract from true worth of character. The wisdom of the world, with all its show and pretense, will come to nothingness; for in the sight of God it is foolishness.

Christ laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, gave up His position as Commander in the heavenly courts, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, and divinity lay hold upon the throne of the Eternal. He became a partaker of humanity that He might bear the infirmities of humanity. "Verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."

The God of heaven gave His Son up to a life of shame, humiliation, and reproach, in order that man might have a probation in which to mold his character after the divine model, that it might be said of him, "Ye are complete in Him." "The grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Old and young, rich and poor, have only one road to travel, one Saviour to serve, honor, and obey. With Christ God has given us all privileges, all opportunities, and the very richest promises. This He has done that we may serve Him with the undivided affections. We are violating the conditions of His covenant with us when we keep our eyes fixed upon the world, its customs, ideas, and practices. Self is the god we worship when we do this. Self interposes between the soul and its highest interests. Those who choose to be Christians after a worldly style, in a way that suits themselves, may be satisfied with this kind of service: but in God's eyes it is of no value. Solid worth of character, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,--it is this that is in the sight of God of great price.

The choice of God's people is to represent Christ in all their works, their practices, and their teaching. They are to be untouched by the perverse principles prevailing in the world. Those who have any connection with the service of God are to be entirely separate from corrupting influences. They are to be guided by the principles which Christ gave while leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. It was God's design to establish the Israelites in Canaan as His chosen nation, to be an example to all nations that should live on the earth. They were to be a kingdom of priests, living only for His service. But they became filled with a desire to be like the nations round them, to have an earthly ruler. Through His prophet God told them what the result of their choice would be, and His word was verified. They obtained a king, but with him came trouble and distress. To-day many professing Christians are making a similar choice. They are patterning after the world for the sake of gain. Christ has uttered a warning against this. Lifting up His voice, He cried, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

By the great cleaver of truth, God's people have been cut away from the world, and brought into the workshop of the Lord. In this workshop the ax, the hammer, and the chisel are to be used to prepare the rough, misshapen stones for the process of polishing, that each may fill its exact place in the building of the Lord. Thus the temple is to grow to completion. Each stone is to be a living stone, emitting light to the world. So the children of God are to show that they are preparing for a home in the kingdom of God.

God requires from His blood-bought heritage the homage of the entire life. Every part of the being belongs to Him. He is our Creator and Redeemer, and therefore our Owner. He calls upon us to serve Him, not to bow at the altars of the world. Let us hide self in Christ, conforming the life to His life. Then we can claim the promise, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." God desires us to use our physical, mental, and moral powers in the enlargement and final triumph of His Church. But He cannot work with those who are continually seeking for worldly recognition. When those who labor for Him are humble and sincere, He will send His angels to work with them. This will give character to their work.

John presents the advantages gained by accepting Christ. "Beloved," he says, "now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." No pen can describe the honor that this relationship is to us. And yet many act as if it were a great humiliation to accept Christ as their Saviour.

In comparison with the honor which comes with Christ, all earthly honor sinks into insignificance. If our names are even mentioned by the great men of this earth, we think it a matter of sufficient importance to cherish, and tell again and again, that others may see how we have been honored. But the lips that uttered our names are but mortal. Dust they are, and to dust they must return. Our names may be uttered with joy by the Son of God. Honor has been promised us by Him who is King of kings. If we are faithful, the eternal God will claim us as His sons and daughters. Neither cherub nor seraph will be slow to recognize and welcome God's redeemed ones. Is not this honor worth striving for?

When we think righteously and sensibly, we shall be ashamed of our ideas as to what constitutes elevation of character. True elevation is ours only as we reveal the attributes of the Christ-life. Our will must be placed in harmony with the divine will. We must accept Christ as a personal Saviour. Then the Sin-bearer takes away our sin and imputes to us His righteousness. We are cleansed in the blood of the Lamb.

This is the only true elevation. This is the highest standard to which we can reach. We are perfected by beholding Christ. Changed into the same likeness, from character to character, we are made complete in Him. His life is the standard of excellence. There is no exaltation for any of us only as it comes through Him. Our highest good is found in following Him. We meet with many failures because we do not strive lawfully. If we lift the cross cheerfully, and press forward bravely in the path of self-sacrifice, God will guide us by His Spirit, and afterward receive us into glory. -

Co-workers With Christ

Among our workers are some who feel that a great object would be gained if their feet could tread the soil of old Jerusalem. But God's cause and work will never be advanced by His workers wandering about to find where Jesus traveled and wrought His miracles. Would you trace the footsteps of Christ, behold Him in that hovel, ministering to the poor; see Him at that sick bed, comforting the suffering, and speaking hope and courage to the desponding. Those who walk in the footsteps of Jesus will do as He did. "Whosoever will come after me," He said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

The city of Jerusalem is no longer a sacred place. The curse of God is upon it because of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. A dark blot of guilt rests upon it, and never again will it be a sacred place until it has been cleansed by the purifying fires of heaven. At the time when this sin-cursed earth is purified from every stain of sin, Christ will again stand upon the Mount of Olives. As His feet rest upon it, it will part asunder, and become a great plain, prepared for the city of God.

There is a work to do for God all around us. There is a world to save, and God calls upon us to be co-workers with Him. He calls upon us to work with earnestness and zeal for the unconverted.

We are engaged in an exalted, sacred work. Those who are called to teach the truth should be bodies of light, living near to God, where they can be all light in Him. Ministers need daily conversion to the Lord. They should show an unselfish interest in His cause and work. God calls for self-abasement, for a putting away of all evil-surmising, envy, malice, and unbelief. He calls for a transformation of the entire being.

Many are in danger, after having preached to others, of themselves becoming castaways; for they do not see the importance of self-knowledge; they do not watch and pray lest they enter into temptation. By watchfulness and prayer they might become acquainted with those points in their character where they are most easily overcome by the enemy; by resistance of every attack, their weak points might become their strong points. Every follower of Christ should daily examine himself, and by constant prayer arm himself for conflict.

There are many who neglect self-examination. This neglect is positively dangerous. The example of those who receive the words of God to give to the people has a powerful influence. Unless they are sanctified by the truth they profess to believe, they will raise their converts no higher than their own low standard. It is seldom that a people rise higher than the minister. His ways, his words, his faith, his piety, are looked upon as a sample of what the people's should be. If the people follow the example of the one who has taught them the truth, they think they are doing their duty. Let the minister make the actions of each day a subject of careful thought, that he may know himself. By a close scrutiny of his daily life, let him seek to understand his motives and the principles underlying them. This review of the words and actions is necessary to all who wish to reach perfection of Christian character.

The Lord does not desire any minister to work in ignorance and rudeness. Neither is human elegance or learning to take the place of prayer and a study of the Word. Education alone will never make a successful shepherd of the flock. The preaching of the Word is not alone to give information. Hearts must be touched. Men and women must be directed to the path that leads to heaven. The teaching that fails of this is of no value.

Love for God and the truth, combined with perseverance and determined effort, will accomplish much. If some who are rough and uncourteous have blundered into the ministry, let them look to Jesus and follow His example. Let them daily be fitting themselves for the great work of God. Those who would excel must be toilers. They must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Their work must be mingled with earnest prayer and meditation. Then they will receive from Heaven grace to enable them to enlighten other minds.

The minister of God needs the Holy Spirit every moment; he needs to be imbued with the spirit of prayer, that the word he presents to the people may have force and power. His language should be such as can be understood by the most simple, and yet be refreshing to the most learned. He should become acquainted with those for whom he works, and be to them a savor of life unto life. He must participate alike in the joys and sorrows of the rich and the poor, the high and the low; for there is no respect of persons with God.

Many who profess to follow Christ have not genuine religion. They do not reveal in their lives the fruit of true conversion. They are controlled by the same habits, the same spirit of fault-finding and selfishness, which controlled them before they accepted Christ.

No one can enter the city of God who has not a knowledge of genuine conversion. In true conversion the soul is born again. A new spirit takes possession of the temple of the soul. A new life begins. Christ is revealed in the character. The spirit of a new life works within. Faith passes into knowledge, and the word of God is understood. The branch becomes a living part of the Vine.

Truth must stand as a counselor by the side of every worker. Charity must control the life,--that charity which "seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Self must be hid in Christ.

We are altogether too indifferent in regard to the Holy Spirit, which is to take possession of heart and character. Those who are unenlightened by the Spirit of God can see only the things which are of the greatest importance in their human estimation. They mistake phantoms for realities, and realities for phantoms, calling a world an atom, and an atom a world. They need the Holy Spirit to control heart and mind, and to mold the character after the divine similitude. No one is safe in attempting to work without the Holy Spirit. The most powerful sermons may be preached, but the word spoken will be valueless unless it is accompanied by the Holy Spirit.

We cannot rightly estimate the value of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those who yield themselves to the control of this Spirit are made pure and holy. Efficiency in God's work comes not by wading through an immense amount of study, but by a willingness to be guided and controlled by the Spirit. God only can give true success. Yoked up with Christ, men will become more precious than gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir.

God's workers need faith in God. He is not unmindful of their labors. He values their work. Divine agencies are appointed to co-operate with those who are laborers together with God. When we think that God will not do as He has said, and that He has no time to notice His workers, we dishonor our Maker. We are to make God our trust. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

The true ministers of God are those who represent Christ. Men stand or fall, not by their own judgment, not by the opinions of their fellow men, but by the unchangeable law of God. We are to keep self in subordination, and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. Separation from the world, obedience to the word of God, is the sure evidence of love to God. Christ declared, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

A distinct work is assigned to every Christian. When a soul is converted and exercises faith in Christ, when prayer is offered and obedience rendered in accordance with the prayer, the active working of the Holy Spirit is revealed. Spiritual quickening from above enters the life. "I know whom I have believed," is the testimony borne as the newborn souls work out the divine purpose.

The God-fearing worker is storing up a treasure in heaven. Earthly riches are not enduring: they are swept away in a moment; but the love of Christ in the heart, expressed in deeds of mercy, love, and benevolence, will endure through the eternal ages. -

Mrs. E. G. White's Reply to H. T. Nelson

When Brother Nelson came to my home in California with his message, I gave him all the time I could. I think he spoke for an hour face to face with me. I listened to what he had to say, but I told him that God has not given him his message. He brought the message that God had appointed me to act as Moses, and that he was to connect with me in the work as Joshua. But if God had made this appointment, I should have known something about it. God himself would have given me instruction.

God has not given Brother Nelson the work of acting as Joshua in connection with His people. From the light that I have had, this could not be. It is an impossibility.

Brother Nelson bore me the message also that I had not treated my workers well, that I had been hard with them. But this is the last thing any one who knows me would say against me. This message is false, every word of it. The position I occupy in regard to my workers is a position of tenderness and care. My family know that Brother Nelson's testimony regarding my treatment of them is entirely false. I am willing that they should bear their testimony concerning this. Sometimes I have to call them up at five o'clock in the morning to prepare matter to be sent out in the mail. They take hold cheerfully and willingly, and then when the mail has gone, I say to them, "You have been hurried with this work. You may spend the rest of the day as you please." I believe in guarding the health of my workers. Those in my household will bear witness that I watch them as a careful guardian. That I have been hard upon my workers I utterly deny. It is true that at times the work has been hard upon them as they have helped me in getting the light before the people.

When the Lord gives a man a message, He gives with it something whereby His people may know that the message is from Him. God does not ask His people to believe every one who comes to them with a message.

The Lord sends warnings to His people, not to destroy them, but to correct their errors. I have never been given the testimony to bear to any one, "You have committed the unpardonable sin." God never told any one to say to a fellow being, "You have committed the unpardonable sin." He has not given Brother Nelson this message to bear to Elder Breed, Elder Irwin, or Elder A. T. Jones.

I know that God never gave mortal man such a message as that which Brother Nelson has borne concerning his brethren. It is not like our God. After the disappointment of 1844 there were those who would say to others, "You are lost; you have gone too far to be saved." Then I was brought to my feet to bid them in the name of the Lord to cease their condemnation. God has never empowered one mortal to say to another mortal, "You are lost." We are all human beings. We are on this earth to form characters which will fit us to inherit eternal life. If we heed the word of the Lord, He will correct us and guide us.

Since I have been here, I have had messages to bear to different persons, but words like those uttered by Mr. Nelson have never escaped my lips. Brethren, we are to hold together. The satanic agencies are working to destroy, and God calls upon His servants to stand together, and to be meek and lowly in heart. We are to be kind and gentle in our treatment of one another.

We are living in perilous times. From the light I have, I know that Satan is trying to bring in that which will make people think they have a wonderful work to do. But when God gives a man a message, that man, by his meekness and lowliness, will give evidence that god is working through him. God lives and reigns, and He desires us to walk before Him in humility. He does not wish this man Nelson to force himself before a congregation. He does not want this element to come into our meetings to create a disturbance. God has not given Brother Nelson this work to do. It is the means whereby the enemy is trying to divert the minds of the people from the work which God has said must be done.

Mistakes have been made. There must be reorganization. God desires to carry forward the work of perfecting a people who will shine in the kingdom of glory. He is opening doors which His people can enter to work for the salvation of souls. It is that we may co-operate with Him in His work that we are here. We are not going to be interrupted in meeting after meeting by those who claim they have a message to deliver. He who presses himself forward into a place where he is not wanted is not doing the work of God. We are to work like soldiers in an army. We are not to step out of the ranks, and begin to work on our own account.

We have a very solemn, important work to do in this Conference, and we need to pray and search our hearts. We are to work in perfect harmony and order. As we obey the commands of Christ, moving forward in unity, we shall see the salvation of God.

We have come here at great expense to set things in order. There are those who have been working in one place for too long a time. They should have a change. They must go where they can see what God is doing outside of Battle Creek. We do not say to them, because they have made mistakes, "You have committed the unpardonable sin." We say, "Brethren, let us take hold together. Let us counsel together. Let us stand in our lot and in our place, and work for the whole field."

We love our brother. We want him to be saved, but we cannot allow him to take the time of this Conference. It is not his time. God has given us a work to do, and we intend to do it under His supervision, that souls may be brought to a knowledge of present truth.

Co-operation With Christ

The Lord has chosen to accomplish nothing in the redemption of the human race without the co-operation of the human agent. Christ took human nature that humanity might uplift humanity by laying hold of divine power. Immeasurably inferior is the part the human agent sustains in this work; but, linked up with the divinity of Christ, he can accomplish all things.

The life of Christ was a representation of God, an ever-widening, shoreless influence, which bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through this gift, God has invested man with an influence which makes it impossible for him to live to himself. Individually we are connected with our fellow men, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that we shall stand thus related; for He designs that each individual shall feel himself necessary to the welfare of others, and pledge himself to promote their happiness. Thus our influence, divested of selfishness, would produce a harmony akin to the harmony of heaven.

It is Satan's studied plan to imbue humanity with selfishness, and thus defeat God's purpose. He is working in every possible way to separate interests, and to nourish the spirit of rivalry. He seeks to break up the harmony which should exist between man and his fellow man, and to bring in principles which God hates. This selfishness, if admitted into the heart, will corrupt the experience. Springing up, it defiles the whole man, and through him, many others.

Why is it that self rises up so readily? Why is it that men are offended if others do not think in accordance with their opinions and ideas? The Lord has not in the past, nor will He in the future, lead men to act in this way. "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." When we are partakers of the divine nature, and have the attributes of Christ, we shall not be easily drawn apart in judgment or opinions. Contentions come when the heart is not under Christ's discipline; and the apostle says, "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." When the Lord is regarded as the great center, a close connection will exist between all lines of the work. There will be no divisions, no rivalry, but a feeling of mutual connection and dependence, a feeling which is devoid of all selfishness.

Paul writes for our admonition, "I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. . . . Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." We are not to strengthen any evil work. Let those who have used their talents of influence in doing this, do so no longer. Let them not by pen or voice act on Satan's side of the question. In obedience to a "Thus saith the Lord," let unity of action be seen. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another."

Christ prayed for His followers: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Divine grace is needed to sanctify the human being -- body, soul, and spirit. We have no right to manufacture yokes by gathering to ourselves a multitude of burdens and cares; for these will leave us no time for devotion or prayer, and will drive the truth out of the soul temple. Christ is to be enthroned in the heart. Then every talent will be used for the benefit of God's purchased heritage, and every transaction will bear the test of heaven.

The Saviour desires His Church to be governed by the principles of love and truth. Love for one another reveals that the love of God is abiding in the heart. But many who profess to be followers of Christ are so filled with a sense of their own importance that they have no room in the heart for the sweet peace of Christ. They do not practice His instruction. They do not manifest His forbearance and love. Their hearts, once full of love for God and their brethren, are frozen by selfishness.

Christ presented before John a class who, in their self-satisfaction, say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." These know not that they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Christ counsels all such: "Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Love of self excludes the love of Christ. Those who live for self are ranged under the head of the Laodicean Church. The ardor of their first love has lapsed into a selfish egotism. When the love of Christ abides in the heart, it will be expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull, love for those for whom Christ has died will diminish. There may be an appearance of ceremony and zeal, but this is the only fruit of their self-inflated religion. Christ represents them as nauseating to His taste. "I know thy works," He says, "that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

Faith and love are precious treasures, represented by pure gold. These graces are to dwell in our hearts, making our characters complete in Christ. But until these graces possess the soul, how can we understand Paul's words, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."

Relief of Our Schools--No. 1. An Example of Liberality

When the Lord invited Israel to contribute for the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, there was a hearty response. The people "came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation." They came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted. Men came with their gifts of gold and silver, choice fabrics, and valuable wood. The rulers brought precious stones, costly spices, and oil for the lights. "And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun." They brought "free offerings every morning," until the report was given to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make." Ex. 35:21-25; 36:3,5. This generous-hearted, willing service was pleasing to God, and when the tabernacle was completed, He signified His acceptance of the offering. "A cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Ex. 40:34.

Akin to this example of willing service has been the work done by our people for the relief of our schools. The generous, whole-hearted way in which our publishing houses and our brethren and sisters in general have taken hold of this enterprise has brought great rejoicing. The Lord is pleased with the earnest effort made to free our schools from debt. It is according to His plan.

The Lord's Plan. There are, in the divine providence, particular periods when we must arise in response to the call of God, and make use of our means, our time, our intellect, our whole being,--body, soul, and spirit,--in fulfilling His requirements. The present is such a time as this. The interests of God's cause are at stake. The Lord's institutions are in peril. Because of the terrible burden of debt under which our schools are struggling, the work is hindered on every side. In our great necessity, God has made a way through the difficulty; and has invited us to co-operate with Him in accomplishing His purpose. It was His plan that the book, "Christ's Object Lessons," should be given for the relief of our schools, and He calls upon all who love the truth to do their part in placing this book before the world. In this He is testing His people and His institutions to see if they will work together and be of one mind in self-denial and self-sacrifice.

All to Co-operate. A good start has been made in the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons." What is needed now is for all our people to put their shoulder to the wheel. Let there be an earnest, united effort to complete the work that has been so well begun. In the Scriptures we read, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Rom. 12:11. Every branch of God's cause is worthy of diligence, but nothing could be more deserving than this enterprise at this time. A decided work is to be done in accomplishing God's plan. Let every stroke tell for the Master in the selling of "Christ's Object Lessons." Let all who possibly can, join the workers.

From the success of the efforts already made, we see that it is far better to obey God's requirements to-day than to wait for what we might think a more favorable season. We must become men and women of God's opportunity, for great responsibilities and possibilities are within the reach of all who have enlisted for life service under Christ's banner.

The present is an opportunity which we cannot afford to lose. God calls us to action, that our educational institutions may be freed from debt. Let God's plan be worked out after His own order.

We call upon all our people to help to the utmost of their ability just now. We call upon them to do a work which will be pleasing to God in purchasing the book. We ask that every available means be used to assist in its circulation. We call upon the presidents of our Conferences to consider how they can forward this enterprise. We call upon our ministers; as they visit the churches, to encourage men and women to go out as canvassers, and to make a decided forward movement in the path of self-denial by giving part of their earnings for the help of our schools.

A general movement is needed, but this must begin with individual movements. In every church let every member of every family make determined efforts to deny self. Let the children act a part. Let all work together. Let us do our best at this time to render to God our offering, to carry out His specified will, and thus make an occasion for witnessing for Him and His truth in a world of darkness. The lamp is in our hands. Let its light shine forth brightly.

Young men, you who think of entering the ministry, take up this work. The handling of the book placed in your hands by the Lord is to be your educator. In improving this opportunity you will certainly advance in the knowledge of God and of the best methods for reaching the people.

The Lord calls for young men and young women to enter His service. The youth are receptive, fresh, ardent, hopeful. When once they have tasted the blessedness of self-sacrifice, they will not be satisfied unless they are learning constantly of the Great Teacher. The Lord will open ways before those who will engage in His service. He will give them power and success.

Bring into the work an earnest desire to learn how to bear responsibilities. With strong arms and brave hearts go forth into the conflict which all must enter, a conflict that will grow more and more severe as we approach the closing struggle. Mrs. E. G. White.

To My Brethren and Sisters in the Faith, Nigh and Afar Off

Letters have come to me, asking in regard to the teaching of some who say that nothing that has life should be killed, not even insects, however annoying or distressing they may be. Is it possible that any one claims that God has given him this message to give to the people? The Lord has never given any human being such a message. God has told no one that it is a sin to kill the insects which destroy our peace and rest. In all His teaching, Christ gave no message of this character, and His disciples are to teach only what He commanded them.

There are those who are always seeking to engage in controversy. This is the sum of their religion. They are filled with a desire to produce something new and strange. They dwell upon matters of the smallest consequence, exercising upon these their sharp, controversial talents.

Idle tales are brought in as important truths, and by some they are actually set up as tests. Thus controversy is created, and minds are diverted from present truth. Satan knows that if he can get men and women absorbed in trifling details, greater questions will be left unheeded. He will furnish plenty of material for the attention of those who are willing to think upon trifling, unimportant subjects. The minds of the Pharisees were absorbed with questions of no moment. They passed by the precious truths of God's word to discuss the traditionary lore handed down from generation to generation, which in no way concerned their salvation. And so to-day, while precious moments are passing into eternity, the great questions of salvation are overlooked for some idle tale.

I would say to my brethren and sisters, Keep close to the instruction found in the word of God. Dwell upon the rich truths of the Scriptures. Thus only can you become one in Christ. You have no time to engage in controversy regarding the killing of insects. Jesus has not placed this burden upon you. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" These side issues which arise are as hay, wood, and stubble compared with the truth for these last days. Those who leave the great truths of God's word to speak of such matters are not preaching the gospel. They are dealing with the idle sophistry which the enemy brings forward to divert minds from the truths that concern their eternal welfare. They have no word from Christ to vindicate their suppositions.

Do not spend your time in the discussion of such matters. If you have any question as to what you should teach, any question as to the subjects upon which you should dwell, go right to the discourses of the Great Teacher, and follow His instructions. Study the counsel He gave the lawyer regarding the keeping of the law.

"Behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, What is written in the law? how readest thou?" The lawyer answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou hast answered right," Christ said; "this do, and thou shalt live."

The lawyer felt annoyed by the Saviour's reply; for he knew that he had not fulfilled the requirements of the law, and he asked, "And who is my neighbor?" In answer, the Saviour related, in the form of a parable, an incident which had lately taken place. He spoke of a man who, going from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, who robbed and wounded him, leaving him to die by the wayside. "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked in him, and passed by on the other side." They knew the precious lessons of mercy and compassion which from the pillar of cloud Christ had given to Moses to give to the children of Israel; but in utter disregard, they refused to help their suffering brother.

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

Then Christ asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?" So interested had the audience become in the narrative that many voices united with the lawyer's in saying, "He that showed mercy on him." Then said Jesus, "Go, and do thou likewise."

Do not allow anything to draw your attention from the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This is a life and death question, which we must each settle for eternity. Let the mind be weighted with the importance of the solemn truth which we possess. Those who allow the mind to wander in search of cheap, unimportant theories need to be converted.

The sixth chapter of John is full of elevating, ennobling instruction. "Labor not for the meat which perisheth," Christ said, "but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. . . . I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . . Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Read and study these words, instead of engaging in controversy regarding matters of little consequence. The character is built up from the food given to the mind. Let us, then, feed upon Christ. Let the mind dwell upon the subjects which are of eternal consequence. Let the people of God dig deep into the mines of truth, that they may secure the treasures of righteousness. Christ has the richest gifts of heaven to bestow on those who believe in Him. He has been intrusted with the greatest of all gifts,--the gift of eternal life. And to all He gives the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

This is the instruction which the people need. As we go to Christ in our helplessness, studying His word, applying it to our own experience, asking, "What saith the Master?" His word is made unto us life and strength, comfort and joy, hope and assurance. This is feeding on Christ.

Jesus offers himself for the life of the world. He stands before the Father, bearing the sins which man commits. To Him every believing soul may transfer his burden. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Innocent of all sin, He bears the guilt of the sinner, that to the sinner may be imputed the merits of His righteousness.

How important are these lessons! Yet how few seek to understand them. How many, forgetting them, stoop down to gather up small trivialities, which are not of the least importance. The life of Christ, His ministry and teachings,--this is the theme upon which we are to dwell. We have no time for empty, foolish talk. The keeping of God's commandments is to be the subject of our conversation and the highest aim of our lives. Heaven is worth everything to us.

In our search for the gifts of heaven, we are directed to do one thing, and this includes all others. We are to believe on Him whom God has sent as His commissioner to reconcile man to God. The attributes of Christ are to be studied and earnestly sought for, that we may be complete in Him, revealing His beauty of character. As through Christ man returns to his loyalty and draws nigh to God, rest and peace and security come to him.

To believe in Christ, we must come to Christ and follow Him. Repentance toward God means the confession and forsaking of all sin. It means laying hold of Christ as a personal Saviour, and continuing to hold fast to Him as the chief good. He is our Prince, our Saviour. Only through Him can we approach the Father. Loving Him day by day and hour by hour, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, taking Him as the man of our counsel, living by every word that proceedeth out of His mouth,--only thus can we reach heaven.

To us has been given the high privilege of living as Christ lived. Our life is to be hid with Christ in God. Then we shall have the richest blessings of heaven to impart to those in need. From the indwelling Saviour we shall receive each day a fresh supply of grace and power. Reveal Christ in your willing obedience, your meekness and lowliness of heart, your self-sacrificing devotion. Thus you will let your light shine, and God will be glorified. Preach the gospel; for it brings salvation to those who accept it. Live the gospel, in the highest, most sacred sense. Doing this, you are laborers together with God, carrying out the plans of the wonderful Counselor.

Erroneous theories, with no authority from the word of God, will come in on the right hand and on the left, and to weaklings these theories will appear as truth which makes wise. But they are as nothingness. And yet many church-members have become so well satisfied with cheap food that they have a dyspeptic religion. Why will men and women belittle their experience by gathering up idle tales and presenting them as matters worthy of attention? The people of God have no time to dwell on the indefinite, frivolous questions which have no bearing on God's requirements.

God desires men and women to think soberly and candidly. They are to ascend to a higher and still higher grade, commanding a wider and still wider horizon. Looking unto Jesus, they are to be changed into His image. They are to spend their time in searching for the deep, everlasting truths of heaven. Then there will be nothing frivolous in their religious experience. As they study the grand truths of God's word, they endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. They see that the most uplifting, ennobling truths are those most closely connected with the Source of all truth. And as they learn of Him, their motives and sympathies become firm and unchanging; for the impressions made by the All-wise are substantial and enduring. The living water, which Christ gives, is not like a surface spring, which babbles for a short time, and then dries up. The living water springs up unto everlasting life.

Let us follow the revealed will of God. Then we shall know that the light we receive comes from the divine source of all true light. Those who co-operate with Christ are on safe ground. God richly blesses them as they consecrate their energies to the work of rescuing the world from corruption. Christ is our example. By beholding Him we are to be changed into His image, from glory to glory, from character to character. This is our work. God help us rightly to represent the Saviour to the world. -

Saved by Grace

"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him."

This is the position that Satan now occupies toward the Church of God and the ministers of the gospel. He stands before the angel of the Lord to resist them in their official work, the ministry of the Word, to resist the Lord's working in behalf of His people. Satanic agencies are moved by a power from beneath to stir up wicked men to unite with the enemy in causing distress to the people who are keeping the commandments of God. The whole world is stirred against them because they will not worship the institution of the papacy. Satan is as full of bitter hatred and malignity against them as he was against Christ, when he stirred the world to choose a robber and murderer instead of the Son of God. When the question was asked, "Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?" the answer came back, "Release unto us Barabbas." The religious leaders and guides of the people--the men who ought to have led in right paths--persuaded the poor, ignorant multitude to reject the Son of God, and choose a robber and murderer in His place.

Let us remember that we are in the world in which the Son of God was crucified. Those who to-day allow the spirit of envy, hatred, and unbelief to control them will persecute the people of God even as the Jews persecuted Christ.

In the chapter preceding the one containing the words, "And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him," we read, "I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. . . . Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord."

God had given commandment for Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and the measuring of the city was a symbol that He would give comfort and strength to His affected ones. Satan and his army were greatly discomfited and alarmed by this. Satan stood before the angel, representing to him the imperfections of God's people, and urging the disregard of His commandments. The work which he saw in prospect stirred him to resist Jesus in His work of mercy. He did not wish the people who had been suffering because of transgression to be favored. He wished to see them remaining in depression and sorrow, weakness and suffering. He saw the work the Lord was about to do for His people through the Messiah. He claimed the Church as his own, declaring that its members had dishonored God by yielding to temptation and disobeying God's commandments.

Both priest and people were in a position of repentance unto obedience, and in answer to their prayers and in pity for their affliction the Lord had come to their relief.

"And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan: even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Unworthy though they might be to do His great work, Christ declared that His people were accepted through the righteousness of One who had resisted every art and device of the enemy.

"Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel." Satan had represented the chosen people of God as full of defilement and sin. He could well speak of the sins of which the people had been guilty; for had he not led the confederacy of evil in tempting the people to commit these very sins? But Israel had repented. The people had accepted Christ.

Christ looked pityingly and compassionately upon the punished, repenting people; "and He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment."

The Lord does not deny the charge of Joshua's unworthiness, but He demonstrates that He has bought him with a price. He clothes him with His garments of righteousness, not putting these garments over the filthy garments of disobedience and transgression, but saying first, "Take away the filthy garments from him." Then He said to Joshua, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." "Let them set a fair miter upon his head. So they set a fair miter upon his head," and on this miter was written, "Holiness to the Lord."

This change is made on condition of obedience. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by."

When God's professed people repent of their sin in departing from plain Bible truth, they will bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Jesus will hear their prayers. They will work the works of righteousness. If those who have departed from the Lord will take warning, if they will change their course of action, they will be received into favor, and their transgressions will be pardoned. If they make thorough work, according to the measurement of God, avoiding a repetition of their sins, God will bestow rich blessings upon them. God tests and tries His people. He waits for them to show true repentance, that He may say, "It is enough," and that He may grant them pardon.

Nothing else in this world is so dear to the Lord as His Church. Nothing else is guarded by Him with such jealous care. He paid a costly ransom for His heritage, and He is not willing that anything should separate them from Him, so that He cannot protect them and give them prosperity. He permits them to be sorely tried in the fiery furnace, that the dross may be separated from them. But as they are being purified, He watches them every moment, that they may not be consumed.

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts: After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. . . . Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee. . . . And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again." -

Obedience the Fruit of Union With Christ--No. 1

Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary. Lift Him up, and cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Keep Christ before the people, and this will be giving to every man his portion of meat in due season. Jesus has said, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. . . . Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day: for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

This plain, simple statement may be understood by all. We are to preach Christ to the people. We are to act as if the clouds were rolled back, and we were in full view of seraphim and cherubim. We are to realize that we are under the eye of Jehovah. We are to fight for an immortal crown. "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Every soldier engaged in the spiritual conflict must be brave in God. Those who are fighting the battles for the Prince of life, must point their weapons of warfare outward, and not form a hollow square and aim their missiles of destruction at those who are serving under the banner of Prince Immanuel. We have no time for wounding and tearing down one another. How many there are who need to heed the words that Christ spoke to Nicodemus: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. . . . Ye must be born again." There are many who claim to be followers of Christ, and whose names are enrolled on the church books, who have not been a strength to the Church. They have not been sanctified through the truth. In the prayer of Christ for His disciples, He says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." It is not simply receiving the truth, but practicing the truth, that sanctifies the soul. Let those who would be sanctified through the truth search carefully and prayerfully both the Old and the New Testament, that they may know what is truth.

When the grace of Christ enters the heart, the mind at once becomes interested to know what saith the Scriptures. Those who are truly converted to Christ keep constant guard lest they shall accept error in place of truth. Those who think that it matters not what they believe in doctrine, so long as they believe in Jesus Christ, are on dangerous ground. There are some who think that they will be just as acceptable to God by obeying some other law than the law of God, by meeting some other conditions than those which He has specified in the gospel, as if they obeyed His commandments and complied with His requirements; but they are under a fatal delusion, and unless they renounce this heresy and come into harmony with His requirements, they cannot become members of the royal family. Goodness and truth alone will dwell with goodness and truth. Men may claim to be sanctified, but unless their sanctification is witnessed to by the law and the prophets, it is not according to Bible requirements. There are some who refuse to listen to the words of the Scriptures. They declare that they will have nothing to do with the Bible, for the Lord himself speaks directly to their souls. They declare that they are inspired by the Spirit of God; but when reminded that the Bible was written by men who were moved by the Holy Ghost, they reveal the fact that they are following the inspiration of another spirit. True inspiration never rejects true inspiration, but is in harmony with the Bible. Anything that leads away from the word of God is proved to be inspired from beneath. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

Those who claim to be sanctified, and who give no heed to the words of divine authority spoken from Mount Sinai, make it manifest that they will not render to God the obedience that the Lawgiver requires. The very excuse they urge for evading the requirements of God proves their sanctification spurious. They say, "I am sanctified," and seek to prove this by setting up a standard of self-righteousness, a law of their own imagining. The law of God requires nothing short of spiritual perfection; and through the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God complete provision has been made that man may become a partaker of the divine nature, and through the merits of the blood of Christ be an overcomer. Of himself he has no perfection. "Without me," Christ says, "ye can do nothing." Provision for our perfection is found in union with Christ. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

What pleasure could it possibly be to souls who would not be drawn to Jesus in this life, to study His character, and to be with Him in the life that is to come? They would prefer to be anywhere else than in the presence and companionship of Him in whom they had no delight. They did not know Him while in the world, and could not learn to know Him in heaven. But of His disciples Jesus said, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." -

The Southern Work

During the night season I was in a meeting in which the work in the Southern field was being discussed. The questions were asked by a company of intelligent colored people: "Since it is true that the Lord is soon to come, is it not time that something was done for the Southern field? Are the white people and the colored people of the Southern States to be passed by? Have they no souls to save? Does not the new covenant include them?

"We do not question the need of missions in foreign fields. But we do question the right of those who claim to have present truth to pass by millions of their fellow beings in their own country, many of whom are as ignorant as the heathen. Why is it that so little is done for the colored people of the South,--a people ignorant and destitute, who need to be taught that Christ is their Creator and Redeemer? How can they believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can one preach except he be sent?

"The colored people have been freed from the bondage of national slavery; but they are still in the slavery of ignorance. Does there not rest upon ministers of the gospel the responsibility of setting in operation plans whereby this people can be instructed? Does not the commission of the Saviour teach this? Is it right for professed Christians to hold themselves aloof from this work, allowing the burden to rest on a few? In all your plans for medical missionary work and for foreign missionary work, has God given you no message for us? Why have you not a deeper sense of the necessities of the Southern field?

"We lay this matter before you. O how thankful we shall be if this meeting is the means of bringing the needs of this people to your notice."

Then He who has authority arose, and called upon all to give heed to the instruction the Lord has given in regard to the Southern work. He said: "Much more evangelistic work should be done in the South. Scarcely anything has been done for this field. There should be a thousand workers there where there is now but one.

"The Southern field is represented by the man who, robbed and beaten, was left by the roadside to die. A priest came that way, looked at the suffering man, gave a sigh of pity, and passed by, wishing he had not seen him. Then came a Levite, who also passed by on the other side. 'But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.'

"After relating this incident, Christ asked in a clear, solemn voice, 'Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?' From many voices came the answer, 'He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus,...Go, and do thou likewise.'

"The wrong use of means has hindered the work which should have been done in the Southern field. Those who know their duty and do it not, are accountable to God. To Him they must answer for their neglect.

"Let the professed people of God awake. Think you that the Lord will bless those who have felt no burden but to hedge up the work in the South?"

As these words were spoken, deep feeling was manifested by some. Some offered themselves as missionaries for the Southern field, while others sat in silence, apparently taking no interest in the subject.

Then these words were spoken: "The South is a most unpromising field. But what a change would now be seen in it if, after the colored people had been released from slavery, Christians had worked for them as the followers of Christ ought to work, teaching them how to take care of themselves.

"Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of the Heavenly Father. Will not God pronounce unfaithful stewards those who have left the colored race uncared for and uneducated? Some have worked nobly, and God will bless them. Others have made a few feeble efforts, and have then allowed their means to be diverted into wrong channels. God will hold them responsible for leaving the Southern field so largely unworked. He will call to account those who, have used selfishly the means lent them to be used in helping and blessing humanity. The word of God plainly points out their duty, but they refuse to obey. Unless they repent, they must answer at the bar of heaven for their neglect." Mrs. E. G. White. -

Obedience the Fruit of Union With Christ--No. 2

Those who are truly sanctified by a knowledge of God will render perfect obedience to God's requirements. They will understand for themselves what saith the Scriptures, and will present themselves as loyal children of God before their Maker. But many who claim sanctification refuse to comply with the conditions upon which the promises are made, and yet they presume to expect the blessing that God has promised to the obedient. Their hearts are at enmity with the law of God, and they are self-deceived and self-righteous. Unconsciously they yield to the suggestions of the first great rebel, who led Adam and Eve to transgress the holy law of Jehovah. They are breakers of God's law, and yet claim that they are sanctified and made perfect, and thus they are false lights in the world. Many others are deceived by their pretensions, and are led to practice the same iniquity that they do, to show the same disregard for God's law, and to teach others that they may transgress with impunity. This was the very attitude and work of Satan in bringing sin into our world, and through his agents he still continues his work of deception upon human minds, repeating the same story by which he led Adam and Eve to disregard the word of God, and to fail to bear the single test that God put upon them.

But that which God required of Adam in paradise before the fall, He requires in this age of the world from those who would follow Him,--perfect obedience to His law. But righteousness without a blemish can be obtained only through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Through the provision that God has made for the forgiveness and restoration of sinners, the same requirements may be fulfilled by men to-day that were given to Adam in Eden.

It was the transgression of the law that resulted in sin, sorrow, and death. Satan declared that he would prove to the worlds which God has created, and to the heavenly intelligences, that it was an impossibility to keep the law of God. When Adam yielded to the temptation of the enemy, and fell from his high and holy estate, Satan and his angels exulted. But from the throne of God a voice was heard speaking words of mysterious import. "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." When man fell, Christ announced His purpose of becoming man's substitute and surety. Who was He? Isaiah says of Him, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." John says of Him, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When we accept God's free gift, we become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and are complete in Him. But those who do not obey God's law, make it manifest that they have not accepted the righteousness of Christ. They may claim sanctification, but it is of a spurious character; for they array themselves against the plainest Thus saith the Lord, and by their actions deny the Lord who bought them.

Satan claimed to be sanctified, and exalted himself above God even in the courts of heaven. So great was his deceptive power that he corrupted a large number of angels, and enlisted their sympathy in his selfish interest. When he tempted Christ in the wilderness, he claimed that he was sanctified, that he was a pure angel from the heavenly courts; but Jesus was not deceived by his pretensions, and neither will those be deceived who live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. God will not accept a willfully imperfect service. Those who claim to be sanctified, and yet turn away their ears from hearing the law, prove themselves to be the children of disobedience, whose carnal hearts are not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be.

From Genesis to Revelation the conditions upon which eternal life is promised, are made plain. God requires that those who shall enter heaven shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Keep my commandments and live, is the requirement of God. But one says, "My conscience does not condemn me in not keeping the commandments of God." But in the word of God we read that there are good and bad consciences and the fact that your conscience does not condemn you in not keeping the law of God, does not prove that you are uncondemned in His sight. Take your conscience to the word of God, and see if your life and character are in accordance with the standard of righteousness which God has there revealed. You can then determine whether or not you have an intelligent faith, and what manner of conscience is yours. The conscience of man cannot be trusted unless it is under the influence of divine grace. Satan takes advantage of an unenlightened conscience, and thereby leads men into all manner of delusions because they have not made the word of God their counselor. Many have invented a gospel of their own in the same manner as they have substituted a law of their own for God's law. The gospel of Jesus Christ gives full recognition to the law of God, and declares the authority of God supreme. The gospel of Christ requires penitence for sin; and sin is the transgression of the law. Paul, the great gospel preacher, declares, "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Repentance toward God is sorrow for sin, the transgression of the law of God. The sinner sees himself condemned by the holy law, and as there is no saving quality in law to save the transgressor of law, he must not only exercise repentance toward God, but have faith in Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, surety, and mediator. Through the merits of Christ the sinner may claim the pardon of God.

Christ is continually drawing men to himself. He continues to give the gracious invitation for the weary and the heavy laden to come unto Him and find rest unto their souls. He says, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Before one decides to come to Christ, the Holy Spirit is drawing him unto the Saviour. Many have stumbled over the way to come to Christ, and have not comprehended what it means to be converted, because they have not understood what is comprehended in repentance. As the sinner is convicted of sin, he is also attracted by the love and holiness of Christ; for Jesus is drawing him unto himself. No man can originate the repentance which is essential for the saving of the soul. He can no more bring himself to repentance than he can bring about his own conversion. Repentance is born in the heart by beholding the love of Christ, who gave His life to save the sinner. It is the love of God that softens the hardest hearts.

It is a mistake to think that you must come to repentance before you can come to Jesus. Come to Christ just as you are, and contemplate His love until your hard heart is broken. "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." We may say that except the sinner repents of his sin, he cannot be forgiven; but while this is true, let him not put off coming to Christ until he has wrought himself up to a certain pitch of excited feeling, until he thinks his sorrow is of sufficient depth to merit forgiveness. Let the sinner come just as he is, and contemplate the love that has been bestowed upon him, all unworthy as he is; and the first thing he knows, he will realize that Christ's love has broken every barrier down, and that he exercises repentance which is not to be repented of. The sinner must go to Christ in order that he may be enabled to repent. It is the virtue that goes forth from Jesus which strengthens the purposes of the heart to turn away from sin and to cleave to that which is truth. It is Christ's virtue that makes repentance sincere and genuine. It has been stated that him whom Christ pardons He first makes penitent. Peter declares the source of repentance when he says, "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."

When the sinner sees Jesus lifted up on the cross, dying that he might not perish but have everlasting life, he realizes something of the enormity of sin, and longs for pardon for all his transgressions, and for the favor of God. As the Holy Spirit impresses his mind, he prays most earnestly, and believes that if he asks, he shall receive. He presents the promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He rejoices in the pardoning love of God; and his sincerity in the service of God, the reality of his conversion, is made manifest by the vigor of his endeavor to obey all God's commandments. The soul who has found the Lord will renounce every evil work, will cease to do evil and learn to do well, because Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. -

No Other Gods Before Me

During the night I was sorely distressed. A great burden rested upon me. I had been pleading with God to work in behalf of His people. My attention was called to the money which they have invested in photographs. I was taken from house to house, through the homes of our people, and as I went from room to room, my Instructor said, "Behold the idols which have accumulated!"

As I visited the homes of our people and our schools, I see that all the available space on tables, what-nots, and mantelpieces is filled up with photographs. On the right hand and on the left are seen the pictures of human faces. God desires this order of things to be changed. Were Christ on earth, He would say, "Take these things hence." I have been instructed that these pictures are as so many idols, taking up the time and thought which should be sacredly devoted to God.

These photographs cost money. Is it consistent for us, knowing the work that is to be done at this time, to spend God's money in producing pictures of our own faces and the faces of our friends? Should not every dollar that we can spare be used in the upbuilding of the cause of God? These pictures take money that should be sacredly devoted to God's service; and they divert the mind from the truths of God's word.

This making and exchanging photographs is a species of idolatry. Satan is doing all he can to eclipse heaven from our view. Let us not help him by making picture-idols. We need to reach a higher standard than these human faces suggest. The Lord says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Those who claim to believe in Christ need to realize that they are to reflect His image. It is His likeness that is to be kept before the mind. The words that are spoken are to be freighted with heavenly inspiration.

Christ looks upon a world filled with the din of merchandise and trade, with the dishonesty and scheming of buyers and sellers. In their desire to get gain, men have lost sight of the laws of justice and equity. "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Satan has devised a multitude of ways in which to keep men from serving God. He has invested sports and games, into which men enter with such intensity that one would suppose a crown of life was to reward the winner. At the horse races and football matches, which are attended by thousands and thousands of people, lives for which Christ shed His blood are thrown away. What will become of the souls of the men and boys whose lives are thus extinguished? Will they be counted worthy of the redemption which Christ died to secure for them?

Looking upon these God-dishonoring scenes, Christ asks, "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" He calls the attention of men to the nobler world which they have lost from view. He points them to the threshold of heaven, flushed with the glory of the infinite God.

Those who have taken part in the solemn rite of baptism have pledged themselves to seek for those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; pledged themselves to labor earnestly for the salvation of sinners. God asks those who take His name, How are you using the powers that have been redeemed by the death of my Son? Are you doing all in your power to rise to a greater height in spiritual understanding? Are you adjusting your interests and actions in harmony with the momentous claims of eternity?

Let there be a reformation among the people of God. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Those upon whom the Lord has placed the burden of His work are struggling to proclaim the message, that souls perishing in ignorance may be warned. Can you not, by self-denial, do something to help them in their work? Arouse, and show by your unselfish zeal and earnestness that you are converted.

Every dollar is required in the work of saving souls. The money invested by the professed people of God in getting pictures made of human faces would support several missionaries in the field. Many small streams, when put together, swell into a large river.

We embezzle our Lord's goods when we use for selfish pleasure the means which should be used to proclaim the last message of warning. If you spend the Lord's money for self-gratification, how can you expect Him to continue to bestow His goods on you? How does the Master regard those who selfishly invest His money in photographs? That very money could have been used to purchase reading-matter to send to those in the darkness of ignorance.

The truth that God has given us must be heralded to the world. We have been given the privilege of doing this work. We are to sow the seed of truth beside all waters. The Lord calls upon us to practice self-denial and self-sacrifice. The gospel demands entire consecration. The necessities of the cause demand all that we can give. Our indulgence in photographs has been a selfish gratification on our part, which bears silent witness against us. By this indulgence a large amount of wood, hay, and stubble has been brought to the foundation, to be consumed by the fires of the last day.

After going from home to home, and seeing the many photographs, I was instructed to warn our people against this evil. This much we can do for God. We can put these picture-idols out of sight. They have no power for good, but interpose between God and the soul. They can do nothing to help in sowing the seeds of truth. Christ calls upon those who claim to be following Him to put on the whole armor of God. Our educational institutions need to feel the reforming power of the Spirit of God. "If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." Those who are engaged as teachers in our schools and sanitariums should reach a high standard of consecration. And the students in these institutions, who are fitting themselves to go forth as missionaries, should learn to practice self-denial.

We are God's stewards, and "it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." The money that God has intrusted to us is to be carefully husbanded. We are to increase in efficiency by putting to the best use the talents given us, that at God's coming we may return to Him His own with usury. -

A Time of Trouble

God is a vigilant observer of the actions of the children of men. Nothing occurs in earth or heaven without the knowledge of the Creator. Nothing can happen without His permission. He on whom the fate of an empire may depend is watched over with a vigilance which knows no relaxation by Him who "giveth salvation unto kings," to whom belong "the shields of the earth." And the poor man is as tenderly watched over as the monarch upon his throne.

God is constantly at work for the good of His creatures. Satan is also constantly at work, but for evil. The prince of the power of the air is the agent of destruction, the one who causes suffering and misery. Times without number God has interposed to avert death, to keep men, women, and children in safety when Satan purposed a result wholly disastrous.

God made everything good and beautiful; but evil gained entrance into the earth, and with it came defilement and degradation. It is God's purpose to obliterate all traces of sin from His handiwork, to restore human beings to their original purity. To fulfill this purpose, God's only Son, equal with the Father, assumed human nature. He stooped to our estate that He might lift us from a fallen, degraded condition to the pure and holy condition of Adam when he came from the hand of the Creator. As soon as man joined Satan in transgression, Christ took the field to fight in his behalf. He entered the conflict, and fought successfully the battle with the prince of evil.

This world has been signally blessed by God. Human beings are the recipients of countless mercies. Providence watches over and shields them. Upon them are poured the choicest gifts in heaven's treasury. Yet notwithstanding this, men show a growing disregard for God and a growing contempt for His law and for the salvation placed within their reach by the death of the Saviour.

Men have lifted themselves up in pride and self-sufficiency, casting down the needy and oppressing the hireling in his wages. Against them have been registered covetousness, pride, and self-indulgence. They show contempt for the laws which govern God's kingdom. God has borne long with them; but in response to His amazing forbearance, men are approaching that degree of iniquity which the antediluvians reached, to perish in the waters of the flood, and which the Sodomites reached, to be destroyed by fire from heaven.

Some believe Satan's assertion that there will be a second probation. They say that even though they now resist the Spirit of God, refusing to improve their day of grace, they will be given another opportunity to gain heaven. But those who cherish this belief are under a deception which leads to ruin. When God gave Christ to our world, He gave in this one gift all the treasures of heaven. He held back nothing. He can do no more than He has done to bring men to repentance. He has no means held in reserve for their salvation.

God bears long with the rebellion and apostasy of His subjects. Even when His mercy is despised and His love scorned and derided, He bears with men until the last resource for leading them to repentance is exhausted. But there are limits to His forbearance. From those who to the end continue in obstinate rebellion, He removes His protecting care. Providence will no longer shield them from Satan's power. They will have sinned away their day of grace.

God keeps a reckoning with the nations. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. Those who work evil toward their fellow men, saying, How doth God know? will one day be called upon to meet long-deferred vengeance. In this age a more than common contempt is shown to God. Men have reached a point in insolence and disobedience which shows that their cup of iniquity is almost full. Many have well-nigh passed the boundary of mercy. Soon God will show that He is indeed the living God. He will say to the angels, "No longer combat Satan in his efforts to destroy. Let him work out his malignity upon the children of disobedience; for the cup of their iniquity is full. They have advanced from one degree of wickedness to another, adding daily to their lawlessness. I will no longer interfere to prevent the destroyer from doing his work."

This time is right upon us. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. When the angel of mercy folds her wings and departs, Satan will do the evil deeds he has long wished to do. Storm and tempest, war and bloodshed,--in these things he delights, and thus he gathers in his harvest. And so completely will men be deceived by him that they will declare that these calamities are the result of the desecration of the first day of the week. From the pulpits of the popular churches will be heard the statement that the world is being punished because Sunday is not honored as it should be. And it will require no great stretch of imagination for men to believe this. They are guided by the enemy, and therefore they reach conclusions which are entirely false.

Satan will bring in pleasing fables to meet the minds of all who love not the truth. With angry zeal he will accuse commandment-keepers. Furious because he cannot pervert their faith, he will vent his rage upon them. He will give to his angels the work of hardening wicked men against the truth. Knowing that he has but a short time, he will work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. In the form of friends who have died, fallen angels will come to the children of men, just and unjust. Thus Satan will deceive those who, had they honored the law of Jehovah, would have been barricaded against temptation.

When Christ was upon this earth, He declared of the nation that rejected Him, "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." They made void the law of God by loading it down with needless ceremonies. They tore down the Lord's standard of righteousness, blinding the eyes and hardening the hearts of the people, leading them to believe a lie in the place of truth. Were Christ upon the earth today, He would say to many professed Christians, "Ye are both ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God."

Satan claims the world, but there is a little company who withstand his devices, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Satan sets himself to destroy this commandment-keeping company. But God is their tower of defense. He will raise up for them a standard against the enemy. He will be to them "as an hiding place from the wind," and "as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." He will say to them, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Without Excuse

The question is often asked, How is the existence of sin reconcilable with the government of a wise, merciful, and omnipotent God. Why was sin permitted to take up its abode in the earth to cause suffering and discord?

It certainly was not God's purpose that man should be sinful. He created him pure and noble, with no bias to evil. He placed him in the garden of Eden, surrounding him with every inducement to remain true to his allegiance. He placed His law around him as a safeguard.

There is no excuse for sin. It will be the final condemnation of Lucifer and his angels that when God shall ask, "Why have ye done this?" they will be able to assign no reason. And when at the last great day sinners are confronted with their sins, and are asked, "Why did you transgress?" every mouth will be stopped. The sinful will stand speechless before God.

Evil originated with Lucifer, who rebelled against the government of God. Before his fall he was a covering cherub, distinguished by his excellence. God made him good and beautiful, as near as possible like himself. Of him it is written, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." But self-exaltation entered his heart. Inspiration records the charge against him: "Thine heart wast lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."

When God placed Adam in Eden, He told him that he might eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden save one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thus Adam's obedience was to be tested. God left him free to obey or disobey. He could have held him back from touching the forbidden fruit, but had He done this, Satan would have been sustained in saying that God's rule was arbitrary. Adam was left perfectly free.

Looking upon the sinless pair in Eden, Satan saw an opportunity for carrying on the work which he had begun in heaven. Entering the garden in the disguise of a serpent, he told Eve that God was mistaken, that the fruit of the forbidden tree would not bring death, but wisdom. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." They fell under the temptation, and disobeyed God. Henceforth they could not live in Eden. God drove them forth, placing at the gate of the garden a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Through all the ages Satan's work has been the same,--to make of none effect the law of God, to lead men and women to transgress the divine commands. God requires of human beings to-day what He required of Adam,--perfect obedience. Satan strives to lead them to mistake darkness for light, and error for truth. He tells them that God has abrogated His law, and that all they have to do is to believe. Were this so, Satan would have accomplished on earth what he attempted to do in heaven, and he would therefore be entitled to the throne as ruler of the universe. But to-day, as in the beginning, his assertions are false. God's law is unchangeable; and though by human beings it has been slighted, scorned, and rejected, it will ever stand as firm as the throne of Jehovah.

Many cherish the false hope that God will change to suit their sinfulness. But He who rules the world in wisdom and love is a God who changes not. He governs the world in omnipotence, and all that His love inspires He will execute. Now, as ever, the only way in which we can gain admittance into heaven is by conforming to His standard of righteousness.

Of His law God says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward."

Satan declared that human beings could not keep the law. Christ has proved this statement false. He came to this earth, and lived among men the law of God. He died on the cross to bear witness to the unchanging character of the law. This law had been broken, and only by the offering of Christ's blood could the penalty be paid.

Christ came as a man, that He might meet men where they are. Had He come in all His glory, human beings could not have endured the sight. "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." He planted the cross between heaven and earth, and when the Father beheld the sacrifice of His Son, He bowed before it in recognition of its perfection. "It is enough," He said. "The atonement is complete."

Could the law have been changed, Christ need not have died. But it was impossible for God to change. The penalty of transgression must be borne. Therefore, that the human race might not perish, the Son of God came into this world to live in our behalf a life of perfect obedience, and by the sacrifice of himself to meet the demands of justice.

See the Saviour, sinless and undefiled, yet bearing the penalty of sin. Why?--That we might be spared. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God could not do more than He has done for us. He has left us without excuse.

How to Gain Spiritual Strength

"Search the Scriptures," Christ commanded; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." The Holy Spirit is beside every true searcher of God's word, enabling him to discover the hidden gems of truth. Divine illumination comes to his mind, stamping the truth upon him with a new, fresh importance. He is filled with a joy never before felt. The peace of God rests upon him. The preciousness of truth is realized as never before. A heavenly light shines upon the Word, making it appear as though every letter were tinged with gold. God himself speaks to the heart, making His word spirit and life.

Eternal life is the receiving of the living elements in the Scriptures, the doing of the will of God. This is what is meant by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. It is the privilege of all to partake of the bread of heaven by studying the word, and thus gain spiritual sinew and muscle.

Just before Christ's crucifixion one of the disciples asked Him, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Jesus answered, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

These words are not half comprehended by those through whom God wishes to communicate His truth. Let us believe the word. Let us practice the lessons given by Him who has bought us with His blood. He said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

A rich banquet is set before those who accept Christ as a personal Saviour. Day by day, as they partake of His word, they are nourished and strengthened.

Why do God's people pass by the words of the Great Teacher? Why do they rely upon human beings for help and comfort, when they have the great and grand promise, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. . . . He that eateth of this bread shall live forever"? He may die; but the life of Christ is in him, and at the resurrection of the just he will rise to newness of life. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life."

It is the privilege of all to gain strong consolation from these precious utterances. Those who partake of the banquet provided for them will gain an experience of the highest value. They will see that in comparison with the word of God, the word of man is as chaff to the wheat.

In every plan we make, we must act with entire dependence upon God, else we shall be deceived by a semblance instead of the reality. As stewards of the grace of Christ, we are to inquire at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?" The word of God is a character-detector, a motive-tester. We are to read this word with heart and mind open to receive the impressions that God will give. We must not think that the reading of the word can accomplish that which only He whom the word reveals, who stands behind the word, can accomplish. Some are in danger of hastening to the conclusion that because they hold firmly to the doctrines of the truth, they are actually in possession of the blessings which these doctrines declare shall come to the receiver of truth. Many keep the truth in the outer court. Its sacred principles have not a controlling influence over the words, the thoughts, the actions. They do not possess the faith which works by love and purifies the soul. An assent to the truth may quiet the conscience, but let every believer inquire, "Does my faith make me a daily, hourly follower of Christ? Has it a sanctifying influence on my soul? Can I say, The gentleness of Christ has made me great? A faultless creed and a carnal life are too often found together in professed believers. To be a means to a saving end, the word of God must be intelligently and practically understood and obeyed.

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the World. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

Here is the standard which all must reach who enter the heavenly city. The end of our faith is the perfection of human character, the sanctification of the entire being. The Lord knows what His people need, and through His chosen agents He manifests His benevolence to them. He is constantly working for the happiness of those who love and serve Him. He is pleased with harmonious service; and when He sees men and women obeying His commandments, He greatly blesses them.

By reason of the waste in the body, the blood must be constantly renewed by food. So with our spiritual life. The word must be daily received, believed, and acted upon. Christ must dwell in us, energizing the whole being, renewing the life-blood of the soul. His example is to be our guide. In our dealing with one another, we must reveal His sympathy. There must be a real working out of Christ's grace in our hearts. Then we can say with the apostle, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Christ's life abiding in the soul is the cause of our joy and the pledge of our glory.

A Blessing and a Curse

The prosperity of God's people is dependent on their obedience. The Lord declares, "It shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in the fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. . . .

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but . . . go after other gods, which ye have not known."

"Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them."

These words should be as distinctly stamped upon every soul as though written with a pen of iron. Obedience brings its reward, disobedience its retribution.

God has given His people positive instruction, and has laid upon them positive restrictions, that they may obtain a perfect experience in His service, and be qualified to stand before the heavenly universe and before the fallen world as overcomers. They are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Those who fall short of making the preparation essential will be numbered with the unthankful and the unholy.

The Lord brings His people by ways they know not, that He may test and prove them. This world is our place of proving. Here we decide our eternal destiny. God humbles His people that His will may be wrought out through them. Thus He dealt with the children of Israel as He led them through the wilderness. He told them what their fate would have been had He not laid a restraining hand upon that which would have hurt them. He speaks to them. Hear what He says: it is a revelation of the ministration of angels: "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end. . . . Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord."

It is a solemn thought that by our present course of action we are deciding our eternal destiny. Let those who know the truth practice the truth, remembering that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and is of more value than all the treasure which the world contains. The world is the Lord's vineyard, and to each one of us He says, "Go work to-day in my vineyard. As I have cared for you, so you are to care for the honor of my name."

In His dealing with ancient Israel God has given us an illustration of the result of disobedience. Even as He punished the children of Israel, so He will punish all who cause His glory to be reproached. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, even as Jerusalem, by her own course of action, was humiliated and brought low. Her people chose Barabbas, and God left them to their choice. They would not submit to God's way, so He permitted them to have their own way, to carry out the purposes of their unsanctified hearts.

Christ warned the Jews of their danger, and entreated them to return to Him; but they were too proud to accept His overtures of mercy. They persisted in their rebellious course, and as a result the protection of God's Spirit was withdrawn from them.

When Christ predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, He predicted also the destruction of the world. He saw that till the end of this earth's history men would refuse God's mercy. God has given men and women talents that they may work in His service; but many in their selfishness misuse these talents. By a love of money and a desire for the supremacy they rob God and hurt their brethren.

God blesses the work of men's hands that they may return to Him His portion. They are to devote their means to His service, that His vineyard may not remain a barren waste. They are to study what the Lord would do were He in their place. They are to take all difficult matters to Him in prayer. They are to reveal an unselfish interest in the building up of His work in all parts of the world.

Money and goods, houses and lands,--these the Lord has intrusted to His human agents for the advancement of His work. Those who use for self-gratification the talents which have been lent them are not following in Christ's footsteps. Their course of action shows self-exaltation, and hinders the work the Lord desires to accomplish.

God's people are to maintain the elevated character of His work. They are to carry forward this work in His lines. Christ is their pattern, and He says, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Let us remember that we are laborers together with God. We are not wise enough to work by ourselves. God has made us His stewards, to prove us and to try us, even as He proved and tried ancient Israel. He will not have His army composed of undisciplined, unsanctified, erratic soldiers, who would misrepresent His order and purity.

Those who think that they can please God by obeying some other law than His, and by performing works other than those which the gospel has enjoined, are mocking God. They are insulting the Holy One of Israel. Warning after warning is given in the last message of mercy to the world. Appeal after appeal is made. The worst of sinners are to hear the call. All are to be given a final test. Loath to give up, sorrowful, yet hoping, Christ knocks at the door of the heart.

When the Saviour saw in the Jewish people a nation divorced from God, He saw also a professed Christian Church united to the world and the papacy. And as He stood upon Olivet, weeping over Jerusalem till the sun sank behind the western hills, so He is weeping over and pleading with sinners in these last moments of time. Soon He will say to the angels who are holding the four winds, "Let the plagues loose; let darkness, destruction, and death come upon the transgressors of my law." Will He be obliged to say to those who have had great light and knowledge, as He said to the Jews, "If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes"?

God's Helping Hand

By the great law of God, man is bound up with his fellow man. To the answer given by the lawyer, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself," Christ said, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."

In these few words are laid down the terms of eternal life. True godliness is measured by the work done. Profession is nothing; position is nothing; a character like the character of Christ is the evidence we are to bear that God has sent His Son into the world. Those who profess to be Christians, yet do not act as Christ would were He in their place, greatly injure the cause of God. They misrepresent their Saviour, and are standing under false colors.

He in whose heart Christ abides shows forth to the world Christ's love for humanity. He is God's helping hand. The glow of spiritual health thrills his whole being as he receives from the Saviour grace to give to others. This is true missionary work. Its performance heals the wounds inflicted upon disordered human nature by the one who was once a covering cherub, but who through self-exaltation lost his high and holy estate, and took up a warfare against God and man. By his subtlety he led human beings into the pit of degradation, and it cost the life of the Son of man to redeem them. Christ gave His life to save every sinner. He is the light and life of men. He came as a mighty physician, a great medical missionary, to heal the wounds that sin had made in the human family. His mighty healing power sends a glow of spiritual health into the soul.

Pure and undefiled religion is not a sentiment, but the doing of works of mercy and love. This religion is necessary to health and happiness. It enters the polluted soul-temple, and with a scourge drives out the sinful intruders. Taking the throne, it consecrates all by its presence, illuminating the heart with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. It opens the windows of the soul heavenward, letting in the sunshine of God's love. With it comes serenity and composure. Physical, mental, and moral strength increase, because the atmosphere of heaven, as a living, active agency, fills the soul. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.

God calls upon us to show, by the exercise of true piety, that we are under divine enlightenment. When those connected with the service of God center their hopes on Jesus, a change will be seen in their deportment. Supreme love for God and unselfish love for their fellow men will place them on vantage ground.

The gospel is good tidings of great joy. Its promises bring light to the soul and shine forth to the world. Therefore Christ says to those who have received the gospel, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Again: He illustrates the living reality of a Christian life by the saving properties of salt. "Ye are the salt of the earth," He says; "but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" Solemn question! If the saving principles of truth are not exemplified by professing Christians, what benefit does the world derive from their lives? When salt has lost its savor, "it is thenceforth good for nothing; but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men." When Christians do not reveal Christ, of what value are they? Are they not like savorless salt, "good for nothing"? But when they reveal in their lives the saving principles of the truth, poor, sin-hardened souls are not left to perish in corruption. Good works are seen; for the living principles of righteousness cannot be hidden. The gospel acted is like salt which contains all its savor. It is powerful in the saving of souls.

Christ inculcated the value of obedience, saying, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Is it not best for us to keep the commandments, so that through us God can reveal His power? If all God's people were obeying His law, they would indeed be lights in the world.

God's promises to the obedient gladden the humble, contrite soul. The life of the true Christian is radiant with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. If men and women would act as the Lord's helping hand, doing deeds of love and kindness, uplifting the oppressed, rescuing those ready to perish, the glory of the Lord would be their rearward. Then they would not send thousands of miles to learn from human beings their duty. They would call, and the Lord would answer, "Here am I." They would turn to the One close beside them, the One who has given them the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Look, thirsty, bewildered souls! Can ye not see the fountain of life, opened for the weary, wayworn traveler? Can ye not hear the voice of Mercy as she beckons to you, saying, "'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters;' 'whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely'"? The waters of this fountain contain medicinal properties which will heal both spiritual and physical infirmities. Drink deep from the fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem. Then you can take the refreshing cup to parched, fainting souls.

Christ said of His work, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." Notice, you are not to comfort only the few whom you are inclined to regard with favor, but all that mourn, all who apply to you for help and relief; and more, you are to search for the needy. Job says, "The cause which I knew not I searched out." He did not wait to be urged, and then turn away, saying, "I will not help him."

"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified."

Wake up, wake up, my brethren and sisters. You must do the work that Christ did when He was upon this earth. Remember that you may act as God's helping hand in opening the prison doors to those that are bound. Wonderful is the work that God desires to accomplish through His servants, that His name may constantly be glorified. He is waiting to work through His people. Those who are willing to be used will obtain a rich experience, an experience full of the glory of God.

Of those who act as His helping hand the Lord says, "Ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord; men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among all the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." "And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God."

Shall we not try to crowd all the goodness and love and compassion possible into our lives?

The Voice of Faithful Rebuke

"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."

At this time Israel was almost wholly given up to idolatry. Clouds and thick darkness covered the whole land. Images of Baalim and Ashtoreth were everywhere to be seen. Idolatrous temples and heathen idols occupied the sacred soil, and the air was polluted with the smoke of the sacrifices offered to false gods. Hill and vale resounded with the drunken cries of a heathen priesthood. Guided by the king and the priests, the people drank iniquity like water, and sported in shameful riot round their idols.

Alas! how had the glory of Israel departed! The light so graciously given them, despised and rejected, had indeed become darkness. The salt had lost its savor. The fine gold had become dim. So dense was the spiritual darkness that it could be felt.

Elijah saw that Israel had departed from God, that idolatry had become widespread, and he besought the Lord of heaven to arrest the people in their wickedness. He prayed that from those who had no appreciation of the mercies daily bestowed on them, these mercies might be withdrawn, that they might be brought to see their dependence, and to humble their hearts before God, confessing and forsaking their sins.

God answered his prayer by sending him to Ahab with the message of Heaven's curse. The prophet passed the guards,--they seemed to see him not,--and stood for a moment before the king, saying, "There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." Like a thunderbolt from a clear sky the message fell upon the ears of the wicked king, and before he could recover from his surprise, Elijah had disappeared, taking with him the key of heaven. The king made inquiry for him, but he was not to be found. No one had observed his coming or going.

No sooner had Elijah left the presence of Ahab than the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee." God placed His servant beyond the malice of a king who by his course of action had brought upon the land the terrible denunciation of an offended God.

The prophet's message had been delivered in the name of the Lord, and the judgment declared immediately followed. "There was a sore famine in Samaria." The country was desolated. Once flourishing cities and villages became places of mourning. The scorching rays of the sun and hot gusts of wind destroyed vegetation. Plants and trees withered and died. Streams dried up. The lowing herds and bleating flocks wandered hither and thither in distress.

"And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth."

Obeying the word of the Lord, Elijah presented himself before the king. "And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" He cast upon the prophet the blame of the heavy judgment resting upon the land. Thus it is to-day when the truth is presented. A son, a daughter, a father, a mother, may heed the message of mercy. The other members of the family refuse to walk in the light. A division takes place, and the unbelieving ones feel that a great injury has been done them because the harmony of the family is destroyed. They cherish hatred against the one who bore the message of truth. The faithful presentation of the message of truth will always cause division. And upon the messenger of truth the blame of the trouble will be cast. "If these men had not come and turned things upside down, all would have been well," it is said. But the blame rests upon the people, even as it did upon Ahab.

The messengers sent by God to deliver His warnings are hated by those whom they warn. The people charge upon them the calamities which are the result of their own departure from righteousness. Those who thus place themselves in Satan's power do not see things as God sees them. They are blinded by Satan. When God's mirror is held up before them, instead of repenting and turning from sin, they become indignant to think that they should be reproved. They think that an uncalled-for attack is being made upon them, and that the messengers of God are their enemies.

Elijah did not attempt to excuse himself or to flatter the king. He did not smooth down his message in order to save himself. He did not seek to evade the king's wrath by the good news that the drought was almost over. "I have not troubled Israel," he answered ; "but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." The prophet told the king plainly that his sins and the sins of his father's house had brought upon Israel the terrible calamity from which the land was suffering.

In this our day grievous sins have separated the people from God. Infidelity is fast becoming fashionable. "We will not have this man to reign over us," is the language of thousands. God's people must lift up the voice like a trumpet, and show the people their transgressions. The smooth sermons so often preached make no lasting impression. The trumpet does not give a certain sound. Men are not cut to the heart by the plain, sharp truths of God's word.

Many of those who profess to believe the truth would say, if they expressed their real sentiment, "What need is there of speaking so plainly?" They might as well ask, Why need John have said to the Pharisees, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Why need he have provoked the anger of Herodias by telling Herod that it was unlawful for him to live with his brother's wife? He lost his life by speaking so plainly. Why could he not have moved along without incurring the wrath of Herodias?

So men have argued, till policy has taken the place of faithfulness. Sin is allowed to go unrebuked. When will the voice of faithful rebuke be heard once more in the Church?

"Thou art the man." These words are almost unheard among us. If they were not so rare, we should see more of the power of God. The Lord's messengers should not complain of their efforts being without fruit until they repent of their own love for approbation, their desire to please men, which leads them to suppress the truth, and to cry, Peace and safety, when God has not spoken peace.

The world is full of flatterers and dissemblers. Those who are men-pleasers, who cry Peace, peace, might well humble their hearts before God, asking for pardon for their insincerity and lack of moral courage. Such men do not smooth down their message from love for their neighbor, but because they are self-indulgent and ease-loving. True love is a love which seeks first the honor of God and the salvation of souls. Those who have this love will not evade the truth to save themselves form the unpleasant results of plain speaking. When souls are in peril, they will not consider self. They will not excuse or palliate evil.

Would that every minister of God realized the holiness of his work and the sacredness of his office. As divinely appointed messengers, ministers are in a position of awful responsibility. They are to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering. In Christ's stead they are to labor as stewards of the mysteries of heaven, encouraging the obedient, and warning the disobedient. Worldly policy is to have no weight with them. Never are they to swerve from the plain path in which Jesus has bidden them walk. They are to go forward in faith, remembering that they are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They are not to speak their own words, but the words which One greater than the potentates of earth has bidden them speak. Their message is to be, "Thus saith the Lord." God calls for men like Elijah, Nathan, and John the Baptist, men who will bear His message with faithfulness, regardless of the consequences, who will speak the truth bravely, though it calls for the sacrifice of all they have.

Judge Not--No. 1

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

These words were spoken by the divine Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ, for us to hear and to obey. God has not given men the power to read hearts. He has not placed them in the judgment seat, to pass sentence upon their fellow men. God has committed all judgment to His Son. Why, then, are human beings not more careful in regard to passing judgment upon one another? Let us seek to realize our own ignorance. When we have a full realization of this, we shall not speak evil of our brethren.

God has forbidden us to think or speak evil of one another. "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?" Those who act toward their fellow men without mercy will one day themselves feel the need of mercy.

Christians have a most important work to do. They are commissioned by God to watch for souls as they that must give an account. They are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering. God said to the prophet Ezekiel, "So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

To speak the word of God with faithfulness is a work of the greatest importance. But this is an entirely different work from continually censuring, thinking evil, and drawing apart from one another. Judging and reproving are two different things. God has laid upon His servants the work of reproving in love those who err; but He has forbidden and denounced the thoughtless judging so common among professed believers.

Actions speak louder than words, and those who draw from their brethren show plainly that they do not wish to work with them, that they surmise evil of the men to whom the Lord has given a place in His work.

Those who show this lack of faith and confidence in their brethren grieve the Spirit of God. The Lord calls upon us to put away all haughtiness, to manifest sincere sympathy for the erring, who are seeking to recover themselves from the snare of the enemy.

"Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." Let not those who cherish feelings of envy and strife claim advanced spiritual knowledge, for by so doing they lie against the truth. "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

"My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. . . . The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. . . . The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." Only by the Lord's help can we bring our thoughts and words into subjection to the will of Christ.

The very first work we are to do is to unite in the bonds of Christian fellowship. Those who are working for God should put away all unkind criticism, and draw together in unity. Christ desires His soldiers to stand shoulder to shoulder, united in the work of fighting the battles of the cross. He desires the union between those who work for Him to be as close as the union between Him and His Father. Those who have felt the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit will heed the lessons of the divine Instructor, and will show their sincerity by doing all in their power to work in harmony with their brethren.

"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the Judge standeth before the door." "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

"Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?"

It is the one who has every reason to distrust his own principles who is keenly alive to the failings of others. If there were not some lack in our own experience, we would not be so suspicious of our brethren. It is the one whose conscience condemns him that so readily passes judgment. Let everyone tremble and be afraid of himself. Let him see that his own heart is right with God. Let him weed his own garden; he will find enough to keep him busily employed. If he does this work faithfully, he will not have time to find fault with the gardens of others. Instead of judging our brethren, let us judge ourselves. Let us make sure that we are among the number who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." -

Judge Not--No. 2

Peace and righteousness and love should fill the heart of every believer in Christ. Let the leaven of truth work by its sanctifying power in your life. Truth is a working element. It leads us on to aggressive warfare, not against our brethren, but against satanic agencies. The battle in which we are called to fight is not a warfare against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Do not think that you are doing God's work by warring against one another. This work is done to the shame of those who claim to believe the truth.

Criticise yourself as closely and severely as you know you deserve. Let your anxiety be not to find fault with your brethren, but to obtain more and still more knowledge of Christ, and to exert an influence which shall be a savor of life unto life. "Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

Christ's death and resurrection have opened before every soul an unlimited source of power from which to draw. This power will enable you to overcome the most objectionable traits in your character. God's supply of grace is awaiting the demand of every sin-sick soul. It will heal every spiritual disease. By it hearts may be cleansed from all defilement. It is the gospel remedy for the curse of sin. It unites human beings with Christ in the performance of good works, enabling them to run in the path of obedience, representing to the world the meekness and lowliness they have learned from the Saviour.

He who is wearing Christ's yoke has no time to judge others. His whole time is devoted to the rescue of sinners. He watches for opportunities to show that he has something worth imparting, something of the highest value, even the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.

Christ says to His followers, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." But in order to bring forth much fruit, we must be imbued with the vivifying, sanctifying power of Christ; for He says, "Without me ye can do nothing."

Our churches have no excuse for being without faith and without power. Christ says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

We are rapidly nearing the end. Strife and war and bloodshed and wickedness of every kind are making our world as it was in the days of Noah. Shall Christians war among themselves, when their one interest should be to advance God's kingdom?

The first chapter of 1 Corinthians contains instruction which all who are workers together with God should follow. Paul heard that there was contention among the church-members at Corinth, and he wrote to them, saying, "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Those who practice this instruction will reveal in their lives the purity of Christ, and will manifest His love in their dealings with one another.

Paul says, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Instead of seeking to find fault with our brethren, let us dwell on the great love of Christ. The Saviour humbled himself to bear the reproach of men. Step by step He descended in the valley of humiliation, that He might stand at the head of humanity, a perfect pattern in human flesh for every son and daughter of Adam. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Let those who name the name of Christ study His work. When divine inspiration comes to them, there will be repentance and confession and humiliation of soul in every church.

Listen, all who have ears to hear: "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Let the Church arise in the name of the Lord, and cast off all the works of darkness. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Heed the instruction God has given regarding the cultivation of patience, kindness, and long-suffering. Bear with one another, and forgive one another. God has placed us in this world in companionship with one another. Let us walk together in love, bending our energies to the work of saving souls. As we thus serve God in holy companionship, we shall prove that we are laborers together with Him. -

The Circulation of Our Health Journals

The circulation of our health publications is a most important work. It is a work in which all who believe the special truths for this time should have a living interest. God desires that now, as never before, the minds of the people shall be deeply stirred to investigate the great temperance question and the principles underlying true health reform.

The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. Both the physical and the mental powers, with the affections, are to be so trained that they can reach the highest efficiency.

That perfection of character which the Lord requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God will accept of nothing less than the service of the entire human organism. It is not enough to bring into action certain parts of the living machinery. All parts must work in perfect harmony, or the service will be deficient. It is thus that man is qualified to co-operate with God in representing Christ to the world. Thus God desires to prepare a people to stand before Him pure and holy, that He may introduce them into the society of heavenly angels.

Perfection of character cannot be attained when the laws of nature are disregarded; for this is transgression of the law of God. His law is written by His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every fiber of our being, upon every faculty which has been intrusted to man. These gifts are bestowed, not to be abused and corrupted, but to be used to His honor and glory in the uplifting of humanity.

But how far have men departed from fulfilling God's purpose! Wherever we look, we see defilement and corruption. The world is full of disease and misery, deformity and sin. Life is regarded as of little value. Crime is increasing on every side. By many, sins of the very darkest dye are lightly regarded, or even justified. The violation of physical law, with its consequent suffering, has so long prevailed that the terrible results of such violation are now regarded as the appointed lot of humanity: God is not pleased to have this suffering exist. This is not His work. It is the work of man. The wretchedness and misery, poverty and woe, that exist all around us are brought about by wrong habits,--by violating the laws that God has made to give health and happiness.

What can be done to press back the inflowing tide of evil? The people must be led to understand its cause. With unerring certainty the seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. He who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. In order that men may be more careful how and what they sow, they must be led to realize that they make their own harvest. This is the great need of the masses of mankind at the present time. The blessing that God gives as the result of obedience to the laws of health, is a healing power, a balm for many of the evils that are cursing the world to-day. Satan's strongest hold on man is through disobedience to these laws.

The relation that exists between mind and body is very intimate: when one is affected, the other is always more or less in sympathy. It is impossible for men, while under the power of sinful, health-destroying habits, to appreciate sacred truths. When the intellect is clouded, the moral powers are enfeebled, and sin does not look sinful. The most ennobling, grand, and glorious themes of God's word seem but idle tales. Satan can then easily snatch away the good seed that has been sown in the heart; for the soul is in no condition to comprehend or understand its true value. It is thus that selfish, health-destroying indulgences are counteracting the influence of the message which is to prepare a people for the great day of God.

We are living in a most solemn, awful moment of this earth's history. Not a soul whose life is one of careless self-degradation, through transgression of physical laws, will stand in the great day of trial just before us. There is a terrible account to be rendered to God by those who have but little regard for the human body, and treat it ruthlessly. Transgression of God's law is sin, and the punishment is death. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

Reform, continual reform, must be kept before the people, and by our example we must enforce our teachings. True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand. It is impossible to work for the salvation of men and women without presenting to them the need of breaking away from sinful gratifications, which destroy the health, debase the soul, and prevent divine truth from impressing the mind. Men and women must be taught to take a careful review of every habit and every practice, and at once put away those things that cause an unhealthy condition of the body, and thus cast a dark shadow over the mind.

If the word of God were studied as it should be, we would better understand the value which the Lord places upon men and women, whom He has purchased at infinite cost. Many of these are in great distress because they know not the truth in regard to these things. They are perishing for lack of knowledge. Our Heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of these poor souls who, ignorant of the result, are disregarding the great foundation principles of nature's laws. And it is in love and pity that He has caused light to shine upon this subject, showing the blessings that are sure to reward obedience, as well as the terrible punishment that will follow transgression.

The Saviour has told us in plain language what would be the condition of the world just before His second coming. And to-day we cannot fail to see that His prophecy is rapidly fulfilling. "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." We are told that in the days of Noah before the flood, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Christ has given a warning message that the fearful destruction so soon to come upon the inhabitants of the world may not find them unprepared. "Take heed to yourselves," He says, "lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." This message is to be given at this time. We are without excuse in failing to give it to the world with power.

God desires His people to be light-bearers to a world lying in midnight darkness. But if they refuse to go forward in the light which He causes to shine on their pathway, the light will finally become to them darkness; and instead of being light-bearers to the world, they themselves will be lost in the blackness that surrounds them. God desires His light-bearers ever to keep a high standard before them. By precept and example they must hold this perfect standard high above Satan's false standard, which, if followed, will lead to misery, degradation, disease, and death for both body and soul.

Those who act as teachers are to be intelligent in regard to disease and its causes, understanding that every action of the human agent should be in perfect harmony with the laws of life. The light of God has given on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the world. Men and women should be informed in regard to the human habitation, fitted up by our Creator as His dwelling-place, and over which He desires us to be faithful stewards. "For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Our bodies are wonderfully made, and the Lord requires us to keep them in order. All are under obligation to Him to keep the human structure in a healthful, wholesome condition, that every muscle, every organ, may be used in the service of God. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." God, who formed the wonderful structure of the body, will take special care to keep it in order, if men co-operate, instead of working at cross-purposes with Him.

These grand truths must be given to the world. We must reach the people where they are, and by example and precept lead them to see the beauties of the better way. The world is in sad need of instruction along these lines. The time has come when each soul must be stanch and true to every ray of light God has given, and begin in earnest to give this gospel of health to the people. We shall have strength and power to do this if we practice these truths in our own lives. If we all followed the light we have received, the blessing of God would rest on us, and we should be anxious to place these truths before those who know them not.

Those who are enjoying the precious blessings which come to them through obeying this message of mercy, will do all in their power that others may share the same blessings. But we may rest assured that Satan will do all in his power to prevent anything like a message of reform from being given to the world at this time. Shall God's people be found on the enemy's side, either by failing to heed it themselves, or by neglecting to give it to others? "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." If we would be safe, we must not fail to know on whose side we stand.

The people are in sad need of the light shining from the pages of our health and temperance journals. God desires to use these journals as mediums through which flashes of light shall arrest the attention of the people, and cause them to heed the warning of the message of the third angel. Our health journals are instrumentalities in the field to do a special work in disseminating the light which the inhabitants of the world must have in this day of God's preparation. They wield an untold influence in the interests of health and temperance and of social purity reform, and will accomplish great good in presenting these subjects in a proper manner and in their true light to the people.

In all our work, caution should be used that no one branch be made a specialty, while other interests are left to suffer. There has not been that interest taken in the circulation of our health journals that there should be. The circulation of these journals must not be neglected, or the people will suffer a great loss.

Let none think that the circulation of the health journals is a minor matter. All should take hold of this work with more interest, and make greater efforts in this direction. God will greatly bless those who take hold of it in earnest; for it is a work that should receive attention at this time.

Ministers can and should do much to urge the circulation of the health journals. Every member of the Church should work as earnestly for these journals as for our other periodicals. There should be no friction between the two. Both are essential, and both should occupy the field at the same time. Each is the complement of the other, and can in no wise take its place.

If men do not let their own minds and their own feelings come in to rule and change the Lord's design, there will be perfect harmony between these lines of work, and a most wonderful success will crown the efforts put forth to advance them. Unity will bring into the work a power that we have not yet seen. This will be the evidence to the world that the work is of God. The circulation of the health journals will be a powerful agency in preparing the people to accept those special truths that are to fit them for the soon coming of the Son of man. -

A Very Present Help

God desires His people to remember the message given to the Church of Ephesus: "These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. . . . He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

John was commanded to write this wonderful message for us. Why has it not more influence in our lives? Why are we satisfied with a low standard, when such wonderful incentives are placed before us to lead us to reach the standard of perfection?

If those who enter the service of God would strive earnestly to increase in fervency and genuine love, what a powerful and convincing evidence in favor of the truth would be given to the world! Hearts would be knit together. The believers would search the Scriptures daily, as did the noble Bereans. Their faith would rest upon a sure foundation, even the tried stone, which sustains the whole structure of Christianity. Founded upon truth, their convictions would not be shaken by storm or tempest. They would not depend on feeling, knowing that feelings are changeable. Their faith would lay hold of unchangeable, eternal truth.

When God gave Christ to our world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches. John writes of Christ, "And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."

This is the One who says to us to-day, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Then cling to Him. Do not, I beseech you, dishonor your Redeemer by turning from Him to seek help from human beings. Help those who are weak in faith by showing firm confidence in God. Do not encourage these souls to lean on any human prop. Do not insult the Saviour by turning from His promises, from the fullness of His love and assurance, to human resources. Speak not a word of doubt in the One who loves you, whose you are by creation and by redemption. Go not for help to those who are just as dependent as you are. Christ has declared, "Without me ye can do nothing." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Christians, do you believe this promise? Had there been a surer way of finding rest, would not the Lord have pointed it out to His weary, fainting children? But He has told us of no way in which to find rest except by wearing His yoke. "Take my yoke upon you," He says, "and learn of me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls." And the dear Saviour adds, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I wish to say to my friends here and in foreign countries, Do not waste time and money by writing to your friends for something with which to satisfy your soul-hunger. Christ says, "I am the bread of life."

When you need help, go to Him who alone is able to take away your sin. No human being can do this work. Then why do you appeal to men for wisdom? "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." In your unworthiness and helplessness, come to Christ, saying, "Lord, save, or I perish." From Him you can learn the manifold wisdom of God, wisdom more precious than words can tell. "Ask, and it shall be given you."

Have we not all acted disrespectfully and uncourteously toward the One to whom we owe all we have? God sees the dishonor we do Him, He knows that in humanity we shall find no solace for our woe, and He pities us because we are so needy yet so unwilling to make Him our confidant, our burden-bearer. He sees human beings slighting the love and mercy provided for them, and He says, sadly, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Our distrust is an insult to the One who has done so much for us. He will never neglect those who come to Him. Of the poor, fainting soul, tired of looking to humanity only to be betrayed and forgotten, Christ says, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me."

All are invited to eat of the bread of life. It is for our present and eternal happiness to accept this invitation. When we are in need of guidance, let us go directly to the One who says, "I know thy works." "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." Our Saviour is not lying in Joseph's new tomb. He has proclaimed over the sepulcher, "I am the resurrection, and the life." Then do not take your sorrows and difficulties to man. Present yourself to Him who is able to do "exceeding abundantly," more than you ask or think. He knows just how to assist poor, trembling souls. Do not turn from the loving, compassionate Redeemer to human friends, who, though they may give you the very best they have, may lead you into wrong. Take all your troubles to Jesus. Cast your helpless soul upon Him who will not only take your burdens, but will receive you and strengthen and comfort you. He is the great Healer of all maladies.

"Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." There is strength for us in Christ. He is our Advocate before the Father. He dispatches His messengers to every part of His dominion to communicate His will to His creatures. He walks in the midst of His churches. He desires to sanctify, elevate, and ennoble His followers. He holds the stars in His right hand, and it is His purpose to let His light shine forth through these to the world. He desires to say of His people, as He said of Israel of old, "Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." He desires to prepare His people for higher service in the Church above. He has given us a great work to do. Let us do it with accuracy and determination. Let us show forth in our lives what the truth has done for us. Let there be less dependence on human counsel. Why turn from Him who is all-sufficient to ask counsel of finite beings? Let us make the Saviour our confidence, saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." -

Bring an Offering to the Lord

During the General Conference the Lord wrought mightily for His people. Every time I think of that meeting, a sweet solemnity comes over me, and sends a glow of gratitude to my soul. We have seen the stately steppings of the Lord our Redeemer. We praise His holy name; for He has brought deliverance to His people.

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married."

"He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

We thank the Lord that He has wrought among us by His Spirit during the General Conference. Let His people offer Him praise and thanksgiving. Let them bring to Him their offerings of gratitude, that His work may go forward with power.

Think of the work the Redeemer accomplished in our behalf. Behold the cross of Calvary, erected to save us from eternal death. Above it, as though traced in characters of gold, shine the words, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Then shall we not offer Him praise and thanksgiving, in word and deed? He gives us talents to be employed in His service. We should gratefully return to Him a faithful tithe, with gifts and offerings, saying, "Of thine own we freely give thee." This we should do that His work in all parts of the vineyard may be sustained, that His name may be glorified by the memorials established for Him in every place.

Our hearts must be filled with unselfishness before we can enter the city of God. God's people should bring their offerings to Him in much greater abundance, and with much more cheerfulness. Man is permitted to handle the Lord's goods. Thus he is tested and proved. His heart must be perfumed with the incense of Christ's righteousness, the Saviour must work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure, in order for the handling of the goods intrusted to him to bear the indorsement of the God of heaven. Let us reveal Christ by the way in which we use His goods. Let us in every instance do as He would do. "For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

To men and women God has given varied talents, and to each one He says, "Use my gifts for the saving of souls." Man is ever to remember that he is to act as God's helping hand in behalf of the human race. He is not to use selfishly that which the Lord has intrusted to him for the carrying forward of the divine enterprise of mercy. He is to take the Lord's suggestions, and work upon them for the blessing of those around him. Constantly he is to stand before his Lord in the attitude of obedience, saying, in word and action, "I delight to do thy will, O my God."

Every temporal and spiritual blessing comes from the great first Cause. God declares, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." He is the benefactor of the universe. His tender mercies are over all His works. "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." It is God's desire that man shall proclaim the benevolence of His character. In word and deed His people are to reveal His mercy, calling attention to His compassionate designs. The world is to see in the believers who make it their first aim to fulfill the will of Christ, a true representation of Christianity.

There is robbery of God among Seventh-day Adventists. For years this great evil has been increasing, till it seems as though the people had lost their connection with Jehovah. The money which should be returned to the Lord in tithes and offerings is spent for useless purposes, such as producing pictures of human faces. The many, many photographs in your houses are a dishonor to God. They bear silent witness that you have backslidden from righteousness. I look to heaven and cry, "Lord, how long shall this evil divert means from thy treasury?"

Think of the money that for the last few years has been spent in photographs! Think of the good it would have done if invested in the cause of God! Had the money God has intrusted to His people been used in accordance with His will, His institutions would not now be loaded down with debt.

I speak as I am instructed. I have a message for every family that has been robbing God in smaller or larger sums. Repent! Humble your hearts before God. Crucify self and selfishness. No longer use your intrusted means for selfish indulgence. Do all in your power to redeem the past. Show your friends and neighbors and your children that you regard money as too precious to be used for selfish purposes. Give for the advancement of the Lord's cause the money you would otherwise spend for photographs.

Christ desires, by the fullness of His power, so to strengthen His Church that the whole world shall be encircled with an atmosphere of grace. Infinite benevolence is pouring out its treasures for the saving of souls from sin, that man may be made one with God. The Lord calls upon us to co-operate with Him in the carrying out of His great purpose. He has given us the privilege of carrying forward the work that He began.

There are many souls to be brought to a saving knowledge of the truth. Sinners are far from the Father's house, perishing with hunger. Do you ask, How does God regard those who have wandered from Him? I point you to Calvary. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

We have been chosen as laborers together with God. Then shall we not give the gospel plan our sympathy and co-operation? Shall we not, by denying self, advance God's enterprise of mercy? Shall we not refrain from spending money needlessly and selfishly, that we may bring to the Lord an offering in righteousness? Christ became poor, that through His poverty we might come into possession of eternal riches. Can we behold the suffering endured in our behalf by the Son of God without being filled with a desire to sacrifice something for Him? He left His home to die for us. Shall we not reveal to others His tenderness and compassion?

I call upon my brethren and sisters to bring an offering to the Lord, that His work may go forward with power. Bring a large offering if you can. But if your offering must be small, remember that the Lord will richly bless you in doing your best.

Robbing God--No. 1

The Lord desires His people to realize that selfishness is the great sin of the world, and that it has also become the prevailing sin of the Church. The Lord has been greatly dishonored by the failure of the Church to impart of their means for the advancement of the work which He desires to see going forward with power. I entreat my brethren and sisters throughout the world to awaken to the responsibility that rests upon them to pay a faithful tithe. Do not allow lax principles to lead you to rob God. Keep a faithful account with your Creator. Realize fully the importance of being just with Him who has divine foreknowledge. Let every one search his heart diligently. Let him look up his accounts, and find out how he stands as related to God.

He who gave His only begotten Son to die for you, has made a covenant with you. He gives you His blessings, and in return He requires you to bring Him your tithes and offerings. No one will ever dare to say that there was no way in which He could understand in regard to this matter. God's plan regarding tithes and offerings is definitely stated in the third chapter of Malachi. God calls upon His human agents to be true to the contract He has made with them. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," He says, "that there may be meat in mine house."

Duty is duty, and should be performed for its own sake. But the Lord has compassion upon us in our fallen condition, and accompanies His commands with promises. He calls upon His people to prove Him, declaring that He will reward obedience with the richest blessings. "Prove me now 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; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts." He encourages us to give to Him, declaring that the returns He makes to us will be proportionate to our gifts to Him. "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." God is not unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love.

How tender, how true God is with us! He has given us in Christ the richest blessings. Through Him He has put His signature upon the contract He has made with us. Are we trifling with God, selfishly robbing Him of the returns He has declared we should make to Him?

The Lord speaks, saying, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." "Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them." Souls are perishing in sin because church-members are robbing God, lavishing indulgences upon themselves, while the treasury of God is poorly supplied with funds. Thus God is dishonored, and His cause is impoverished. There is not means enough in the treasury to supply God's laborers in the field of service. Christ looks upon a vineyard unworked, a world unwarned, with wickedness increasing on every hand. Men and women are spending the Lord's goods in selfish gratification, preparing for the fearful punishment that must come upon them unless they repent.

The treasury must be supplied with funds, that Christian missions may be set in operation and supported. Schools must be established, that the youth may be prepared to stand at the last day. The multitudes going to ruin must be labored for. For the accomplishment of this good work the tithes and offerings of the people of God are needed. Let church-members do their very best in this matter. Withhold not your offering because it is small. If it is given with a willing mind and an understanding heart, the Lord will accept it, and in His hands it will be many times increased.

Can we not reason from cause to effect? Can we not see that because of our slothfulness in trading on the Lord's goods, because of our selfishness in refusing to return to Him His own portion, His work is retarded?

When Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the applause of the multitude was at its height. Hosannas were on the lips of the people; but the Saviour felt no joy. He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." He saw the thousands and thousands soon to be involved in the terrible destruction of the doomed city. How deep must His emotion have been as He thought of the nation that had forged its own fetters, sealed its own doom, gathered about it the cloud of Jehovah's wrath. "You have defiantly resisted all my pleadings," He said. "Again and again I have averted the bolts of justice. In love I have waited for your penitence and repentance. I have borne with you as a man beareth with his own son that serveth him. But ye would not come unto me that ye might have life."

But Christ's agonizing tears were not shed only for Jerusalem. He wept as He thought of the terrible retribution to fall upon an unrepentant world. He is still working in patience and love for the salvation of sinners. Is not the divine Messenger knocking at the door of the heart for entrance? Is not the Spirit striving with sinners? Has not Christ invited sin-sick souls to sit at His feet and learn of Him, to wear His yoke of submission and obedience? Has He not traversed the length and breadth of the land, scattering blessings in His path? There is no wearying of His patience, no repressing of His love. Hear His voice speaking to the weak, the weary, the helpless. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Will you not let grace soften the heart of stone?

God says to His people to-day, "It is my desire that you shall exemplify before a world sunken in sin and selfishness the sinlessness of the Redeemer's character. By the testimony you bear, men and women are to understand that this is the day of healing, the day of opportunity." How many who claim to believe on Christ have learned His lessons of kindness, of tender pity, of unselfish love for the thousands perishing in their sins, scattered in all lands like wrecks on a desert shore? Those who share in Christ's glory must share also in His ministry. Help the weak, the wretched, the desponding. Over and over again repeat the gracious invitation, "Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest." -

Robbing God--No. 2

For our present and eternal good, God has given us temporal and spiritual blessings. He enjoins upon us to become servants of His love, to impart to others the grace He has bestowed upon us. We are to act as His helping hand. No narrow, indolent selfishness is to be cherished. We are to inquire, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Those who love Christ will love the souls for whom He gave His life, and will daily reveal this love. Let the members of the Church arouse. Let them not cherish a narrow, self-centered religion. Christ calls upon them to be earnest, energetic, persevering workers. Those who truly believe in Christ and truly love Him are drawn by Him to act a part in the great, grand work of heaven's love, giving thanks to God for His unspeakable gift.

Think of God's boundless compassion. He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Think of the Saviour's matchless love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died to save us from eternal death. In return for the great love wherewith Christ has loved you, you are to bring to Him your thank offering. You are to make a gratitude offering of yourself. Your time, your talents, your affections,--all are to flow to the world in a tide of love for the saving of the lost. Jesus has made it possible for you to accept His love, and in happy cooperation with Him to work under its fragrant influence. He requires you to use your possessions in unselfish service, that His plan for the salvation of souls may be carried forward with power. He requires you to give your undivided energies to His work. To have your name on the church book does not make you a Christian. You are to bring your gifts to the altar of sacrifice, co-operating with God to the utmost of your ability, that through you He may reveal the beauty of His truth. Withhold nothing from the Saviour. All is His. You would have nothing to give, did He not first give to you.

Selfishness has come in, and has appropriated to itself that which belongs to God. This is covetousness, which is idolatry. Men monopolize that which God has lent them, as though it were their own property, to do with as they please. When their power to grasp wealth is gratified, they think that their possessions make them of value in the sight of God. This is a snare, a deception of Satan. What does outward pomp and show avail? What do men and women gain by pride and self-indulgence? "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Worldly treasure is fleeting. Only through Christ can we obtain eternal riches. The wealth that He gives is beyond all computation. Having found God, you are supremely rich in the contemplation of His treasure. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

Ask yourself the question, What am I doing with the Lord's talents? Are you placing yourselves where the words are applicable to you, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation"? We are living in a time of solemn privilege and sacred trust, a time in which our destiny is being decided for life or for death. Let us come to our senses. You who claim to be children of God, bring your tithes to His treasury. Make your offerings willingly and abundantly, according as God has prospered you. Remember that the Lord has intrusted you with talents, upon which you are to trade diligently for Him. Remember also that the faithful servant takes no credit to himself. All the praise and glory is given to the Lord: Thou deliveredst unto me thy pound. No gain could have been made unless there had first been a deposit. There could have been no interest without the principal. The capital was advanced by the Lord. Success in trading comes from Him, and to Him belongs the glory.

Oh, if all who have a knowledge of the truth would only obey the teaching of this truth! Why is it that men, standing on the very threshold of the eternal world, are so blinded? There is not a dearth of means, generally speaking, among Seventh-day Adventists. But many Seventh-day Adventists fail to realize the responsibility which rests upon them to co-operate with God and Christ for the saving of souls. They do not show forth to the world the great interest God has in sinners. They do not make the most of the opportunities granted them. The leprosy of selfishness has taken hold of the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ will heal the Church of this terrible disease if she will be healed. The remedy is found in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah.

Let us work earnestly and unselfishly for God, "knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof."

To us has been given the greatest wealth of truth ever committed to mortals. God desires us to have a true understanding of the words, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Enlarge your hearts. Embrace more and still more of the heavenly goods.

What shall we render to God for all His benefits to us? Does the weight of your obligation to your Creator rest heavily upon you? Are you seeking to save the souls who are perishing in sin? Do you realize that now is the time to work for the Master, that now is the time to bring your tithes and offerings into the storehouse? Upon His people God has placed the solemn charge of representing Him in this world. "Ye are the light of the world," He says to them. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." If the truth is not carried into new territory, if the warning message is not given to those who are in darkness, the Church will be held responsible.

Rightly appreciate the gifts of influence and property. Rightly estimate the value of the capital intrusted to you. It places you where you are held responsible to see and relieve the needs of God's cause. Labor for the advancement of the interests which are dearest to the heart of God. With your money, your time, your strength, your influence, work for the upbuilding of these interests. The Lord God of Israel needs the co-operation of every soul, because there is a large field to be worked. Hasten, my brethren and sisters, to bring to God a faithful tithe, and to bring Him also a willing thank offering. There are many who will not be blessed till they make restitution of the tithe which they have withheld. God is waiting for you to redeem the past. The hand of the holy law is laid upon every soul who enjoys God's benefits. Let those who have kept back their tithe make an accurate reckoning, and bring to the Lord that of which they have robbed His work. Make restitution, and bring the Lord peace offerings. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." If you acknowledge that you have done wrong in misappropriating His goods, and freely and fully repent, He will forgive your transgression.

In heaven the angelic beings delight to do the will of God. On earth shall we be backward? God is waiting for you to bring your means to His treasury, that there may be meat in His house. First consecrate yourselves to Him; then bring to Him your gifts.

Wonderful blessing attended the liberality of the early Christian Church. Paul writes, "Our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. . . . Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many in our behalf. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-ward." "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: . . . being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God."

Unselfish liberality threw the early Church into a transport of joy. The members knew that thus the power of God was being borne to the needy. Their benevolent energy testified that they had not received the grace of God in vain. What could produce such liberality but the sanctification of the Spirit through the word? In the eyes of believers and unbelievers it was a miracle of grace.

We too often fail to tell of God's faithfulness in rewarding those who obey Him. By murmuring and complaining we darken our own pathway and the pathway of others. It is to be regretted that the Church to-day feels so little inclination to express thanksgiving to the Lord for enriching her with His grace, for giving her His talent of means, that she may have wherewith to supply His treasury.

The barren portions of the Lord's vineyard cry to God, saying, "Men have neglected to care for me." By allowing their fellow beings to remain in the bondage of want and degradation, men and women allow Satan to reproach God for permitting His children to suffer for the necessaries of life. God is insulted by the indifference of those to whom He has intrusted His goods. His stewards refuse to notice the distress which they might relieve. Thus they bring a reproach upon God.

Let no one trifle with his responsibilities. If you are not trading upon dollars, but only upon cents, remember that the blessing of God rests upon unwearied diligence. He does not despise the day of small things. A wise use of the littles will bring a wonderful increase. One talent wisely used will bring two to God. Interest is expected in proportion to the intrusted capital. God accepts according to what a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

God calls for what you owe Him in tithes and offerings. He calls for consecration in every line of His work. Act faithfully your part at your appointed post of duty. Work earnestly, remembering that Christ is by your side, planning, devising, and constructing for you. "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." Give cheerfully, gladly, willingly, thankful that you are able to do something to advance God's kingdom in the world. Empty the heart of selfishness, and brace the mind for Christian activity. If you are in close connection with God, you will be willing to make any sacrifice to place eternal life within the reach of the perishing.

In the name of the Lord, I beseech my brethren and sisters, at this crisis in our work, to come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Withholding from God always brings a curse. Spiritual prosperity is closely bound up with Christian liberality. Hunger only for the exaltation of imitating the divine beneficence of the Redeemer. You have the precious assurance that your treasure is going before you to the heavenly courts. Would you make your property secure? Place it in the hand that bears the nail prints of the crucifixion. Retain all in your possession, and it will be to your eternal loss. Give it to God, and from that moment it bears His inscription. It is sealed with His immutability. Would you enjoy your substance? Then use it to bless the suffering. Would you increase your possessions? "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

If all will act their part, the barrenness of the Lord's vineyard will no longer speak in condemnation of those who profess to follow Christ. Medical missionary work is to open the door for the gospel of present truth. The Third Angel's Message is to be heard in all places. Economize! Strip yourselves of pride. Give to God your earthly treasure. Give what you can now, and as you co-operate with Christ, your hand will open to impart still more. And God will refill your hand, that the treasure of truth may be taken to many souls. He will give to you that you may give to others. -

Bring an Offering Unto the Lord

"Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God."

We need to realize the importance of consecrating our talents to God. We should give ourselves to Him, soul, body, and spirit, to do His will. Our talents are not our own; they are but lent to us; and they are to be sacredly employed in God's service. Let us not trifle with the responsibility of using them wisely. God will require them again at our hands.

In the parable of the talents, Christ has plainly declared the use He expects us to make of our endowments. "The kingdom of heaven," the Saviour said, "is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey."

Read carefully the record of the use made of these talents. The one who had received five talents, and the one who had received two, put their money out to usury, and on the return of their master, they were able to give back to him the principal and interest. These servants were equally commended. To each the master said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

The servant who had received one talent did not appreciate the gift, but bound up his talent, and hid it in the earth. He did no good with that which his lord gave him. With murmuring and complaining he came to his lord, saying, "Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath."

Christ has made for us a complete offering, an offering without defect or blemish. Let us make an offering of whole-hearted service to God. Let us bring our money to God as a thank offering for what He has done for us, even as the wise men brought to Christ their offerings of gold and frankincense and myrrh. As we do our best, making our gift proportionate to our ability to give, God will accept our offering. Remember the offering that Christ made,--the offering of himself to a life of suffering, humiliation, and shame, in order to save a world perishing in sin. Had not this offering been made, we must have perished. How much do we owe to Him who gave His life for us? As we look upon the self-sacrifice of Christ, do not the sacrifices we are called upon to make for Him sink into insignificance?

Christ has compassion upon fallen man. He places himself in his stead, to suffer the penalty of transgression. Thus He has made it possible for sinners to return to their allegiance, to take their place under the royal standard of the Prince of life. But many in the world are perishing in sin. Careless and worldly, they give no thought to God or to eternal realities. They are dishonest in dealing with God's property. They love not the truth. They turn away from the righteousness of Christ to the beggarly elements of the world. They trample under their feet the precepts of God's law, especially the Sabbath commandment. The heart of the Saviour is grieved by their conduct. He desires to save every soul whom He has purchased. Oh that men would understand this, and place themselves in connection with the great Master Workman, making willing sacrifices to save their fellow men!

Soon the Lord is coming to this earth with power and great glory. The work that we are to do is outlined in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Who is doing this work? Who is building the Lord's altars? Who is preparing the people for the great day of the Lord? Now, just now, every one who claims to be a child of God should bring his means to the Lord's treasury, that there may be a supply to draw from to supply His workers with facilities for entering new places to present the truth to those who have never heard it. From His storehouse God supplies all our necessities. Shall we be only consumers? Shall we not be producers, giving of our means that the truth may be presented to those who will accept the message, and in turn give back to God His own?

There is ever to be in the treasury of the Lord means to be used for enlarging the work, for entering new territory, and building sanctuaries where those who accept present truth may worship Him in the beauty of holiness. God calls upon His people to bring of their means, in tithes and freewill offerings, to Him, that His workers may have wherewith to establish memorials for Him in villages, towns, and cities. These memorials will constantly bear witness that after creating the world in six days, God gave the seventh day to His people as a day of rest, to be a sign between Him and them, that they might know that He is the Lord who sanctifies them.

We are not merely to receive God's gifts. With a full sense of our accountability, we are to bring to Him a return, that His workers may carry His message from city to city and from country to country. God's self-sacrificing workers must be provided with sufficient facilities to make their work a success. Let us not forget the work in foreign fields. The sight as it is presented to me is deplorable. There is great need of workers, and of facilities to enable the workers to do successful work.

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." This earth is the Lord's storehouse, from which we are ever drawing. He has provided fruits and grains and vegetables for our sustenance. For us He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall. The whole human family, good and evil, are constantly drawing from God's storehouse. It makes every difference with those so highly privileged how they receive the Lord's gifts, and how they treat the contract the Lord has made with them. He has made them His almoners, directing them to draw from His storehouse, and then make a return to Him in gifts and offerings, "that there may be meat in mine house," He says.

In the third chapter of Malachi is found the contract God has made with man. Here the Lord specifies the part He will act in bestowing His great gifts on those who will make a faithful return to Him in tithes and offerings. To the selfish ones God says, "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 now 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."

There is no time to lose. Let God's people bring their offerings to Him, that they may worship Him with hearts full of rejoicing. Remember that God has imparted to you of His blessings, that you may have wherewith to give to Him. The Lord's work is now languishing because men do not realize the claims God has upon them. Our institutions in Europe are struggling under a burden of debt. The work of freeing these institutions from debt and embarrassment must be carried forward. They must not be left under a burden of debt.

Let the Lord see that His people are willing to make offerings of self-denial for the honor of His work; that they toil, not for selfish ends, but that under His prospering grace they may have wherewith to give to the objects in need of their help. Shall we not make an effort "to give to him that needeth"? Of what is there greater need than to release the Lord's instrumentalities from debt, and establish them upon a solid basis?

Just now we need to make special effort to help the departments of God's work which are in need of help. Those who are laboring in new fields should be encouraged to plant the standard in new places, to annex new territory for God. Camp-meetings are to be held in many places. Churches are to be raised up and organized. There is to be a pressing into new territory. Will not my brethren and sisters throughout the world consecrate themselves and their possessions to God? God help them to bring freewill offerings to Him who gave His only begotten Son to save them from eternal death! Let the believers in Christ deny self, take up the cross, and follow their Leader. Let them make decided efforts to place themselves under His discipline, to take His yoke upon them, and learn of Him. Those who do this will find rest unto their souls.

Let believers in the truth bring to God a faithful tithe. Let them bring Him peace offerings and thank offerings for the great love wherewith He hath loved them. Then there will be no dearth of means in His treasury.

How long shall the apathy remain that is upon the people of God? The words in the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah are for us: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called."

Our time for work is short. We have not a moment to lose. Let us do something for Christ, and do it now. -

The Needs of Missionary Effort

Missions at home and missions abroad demand much more consideration than has been given them. Christ came to our world to teach us the importance of missionary effort. Laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, to rescue human beings from eternal death. He took His position at the head of a fallen race, uniting in His body humanity and divinity, in order that all might be done that could be done for the complete restoration of the image of God in man.

Christ is the example for all who go forth as missionaries. His work is the model for all missionary endeavor. It calls for unreserved surrender, for the consecration of time and talents. It calls upon us to return to God the goods He has intrusted to us, with the interest which has come to us as we have traded on them. All is to be put into the cause, to advance the work which Christ came to the world to do.

In the night season I was in a council meeting. We were seeking the Lord with earnest prayer in regard to opening new fields when there was little encouragement given by those at the head of the work that financial aid would be forthcoming. One of authority spoke to us words of instruction, the substance of which I shall trace.

Every family that is converted is to act as God's helping hand. Had every child for centuries in the past been trained to realize his accountability to God to do missionary work, what a change would be seen in the world to-day. Every morning and evening, sincere, earnest prayer should ascend from every family altar. The Lord will accept individuals from every family for special service, according to their several ability. Fathers and mothers are to act in the place of God to their children, representing Him whose they are by creation and by redemption. They should spare no pains to train their children in the right way, preparing them for service in the Lord's work.

In this age of the world, apostasy is the fashion. God's people are to make constant, untiring efforts to press upward. Gratitude offerings of prayer and praise are to be offered to God, but these are unacceptable unless serious, prayerful consideration is given to destitute, unworked fields. What mean the narrow, defective plans on which Christians are working? Why do parents neglect to train their children to go forth as missionaries?

While the Church, in comparison with past years, has made some advance, yet in comparison with what she should be, in comparison with the great sacrifice made in Gethsemane and on Calvary, she is far behind in the most important work ever given to mortals. May God help those to whom He has intrusted talents to awaken to His design and their individual responsibility. God says to them, "I have put you in possession of my goods, that by trading wisely on them, you may carry forward the Christian missions which are to be established far and near. I have given you the benefit of accumulated knowledge. The advantages of the past and the present are yours. Upon you rests the weighty burden of accumulated light."

With every age God's plan deepens and broadens to embrace the world. God's light-bearers are to adjust their movements to His progressive plans. They are to embrace new territory. The churches are to be wide awake, moving with the force of Omnipotence, because they move in harmony with God's purpose. They are to seize every opportunity for blessing a world lying in darkness.

Church-members should show greater devotion. They should labor with greater zeal for the promulgation of the last message of mercy. Now is the time for all to work. Now is the time to cut away every species of self-indulgence and idolatry. Those who are engaged in Christian ministry are to labor unselfishly for the Lord, dying to self, and pressing together in unity. They are to love as brethren; they are to be kind and courteous; their influence is to be a savor of life unto life.

Many young men and women now engaged in secular labor will feel earnestly stirred to give themselves to the service of God. Some will feel a burden to enter the canvassing field, and will become able evangelists. Let these be given an opportunity to obtain an education for the work of God.

Those who are impressed to take up the work in the home field or in the regions beyond are to go forward in the name of the Lord. They will succeed if they give evidence that they depend on God for grace and strength. At the beginning their work may be very small, but it will enlarge if they follow the Lord's plan. God lives; He will work for the unselfish, self-sacrificing laborer, whoever and wherever he may be.

God does not ask His servants to show their devotion to Him by burying themselves in monasteries, or by going on long, painful pilgrimages. It is not necessary to do this in order to show a willingness to deny self. It is by working for those for whom Christ died that we show true love. By humiliation, suffering, and death Christ purchased the salvation of human beings. Those who love Him will think of how He laid aside His glory, and came to this earth to live in our behalf the life of the poorest, suffering often with hunger. "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests," He said, "but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." Beholding this divine love, this wonderful sacrifice, they are filled with a desire to spend and be spent in the service of the Redeemer.

To each human being God has assigned a work. Abraham was called to go forth from his home, a light-bearer to the heathen. And without questioning he obeyed. "He went out, not knowing whither he went." So to-day God's servants are to go where He calls, trusting Him to guide them and give them success in their work.

God's people are to feel a noble, generous sympathy for every line of work carried on in the great harvest field. They are to be interested in everything which concerns the human brotherhood. By their baptismal vows they are pledged to make persevering, self-denying efforts to promote, in the hardest parts of the field, the work of soul-saving. God has placed on every believer the responsibility of striving to rescue the helpless and the oppressed. They are to break every yoke, letting the oppressed go free from the power of vicious habits and sinful practices.

Christians are to be Christlike in their earnest desire to save souls. They should regard it as the highest honor to be enlisted in Christ's army. They should thank God for the privilege of using the talent of speech to win souls to Christ. They should look upon no privilege as more precious than that of imparting to others the knowledge they have received.

My heart aches when I think of how many more might have been saved if men had done their duty. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

God says to those who profess to believe in Him, "Go forth into all parts of the world, and diffuse the light of my truth, that men and women may be led to Christ." Let us awaken to our duty. Let us do all we can to help forward the Lord's work. Let superficial excuses be blown to the winds of heaven. No longer grieve the Spirit of God by delaying. Forget not the words, "We are laborers together with God." Co-operate with angels sent from the heavenly courts to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.

Time is passing; the end is near. While you are unconsecrated, golden opportunities to help souls to see Jesus as He is--full of grace and truth--are being lost. That which you have not done as a devoted Christian in the year which has now almost passed into eternity, you cannot now do. But through the grace of Christ you may redeem the time by redoubling your exertions. Let your interest in the souls for whom Christ has died deepen and broaden. Inquire not, "What shall this man do?" for then Christ would say to you, as He said to Peter, "What is that to thee? follow thou me." Keep in the love of the truth, and work with untiring endeavor to win souls to the Saviour.

Look upon the world to-day. Is the voice of prayer heard amid the din of confusion? Altars are created, but it is not to God that the sacrifices are offered. Deceivers, robbers, and murderers are many. Pride of ancestry and pride of wealth minister to the work of soul-destruction. Avarice, sensuality, malice,--these are the attributes which bear sway. Thousands are standing on the brink of perdition. Do you see them?--many of them lost, eternally lost to Christ, while professing Christians sleep the sleep of indifference!

More earnest, self-sacrificing men are needed, men who will go to God, and with strong crying and tears plead for the precious souls who are going to ruin. There can be no harvest without seed-sowing, no result without effort.

Christ gave His life to save sinners, and He says to His people, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He has laid out before us the work to be done, and has declared that He will give us power to do this work. Shall we take Him at His word, believing that He meant just what He said when He declared that the whole world is to hear the message of mercy?

The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. Why do not those to whom God has given light move out into new places? They will have to do this, whether they wish to or not; for God will scatter them to many places.

God is not willing that any should perish. He has abundantly provided for the salvation of all. If His people had gone forth as they should, giving the invitation to thousands, many souls would have been added to the Church. Let us awaken from spiritual slumber, and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service. God is an overflowing fountain of efficiency and strength. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. When this power is utilized, it will be found to be more than sufficient to meet the power of the enemy.

It is impossible for the man who believes in Christ to see the work that needs to be done and not do anything. Daily the Church is to receive from heaven the healing balm of God's grace to impart to the needy and suffering. God's people are weighted with the most sacred responsibilities and the most glorious privileges. All who believe the message for this time will go forth into the field to do something for the Master, relying on the assurance, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." In practical obedience to the divine command, his confidence will increase, and his talents will multiply. The spiritual desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Arise, ye sleeping virgins, and trim your lamps. Take up your appointed work. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people." -

Godliness in the Every-day Life

When a man accepts Christ, he pledges himself to live the life of a Christian. If he fails of doing this, he dishonors the name of Christian. In all matters of dealing he is to be true and honest, just and liberal, following the perfect example set by the Saviour. He is to keep vigilant watch over himself, lest in word or action he misrepresent the Redeemer.

Ungodliness is not Christianity. Do not think that you can stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel unless as faithful soldiers you obey His orders. In word and action you must say, "I am a Christian. I realize that I must love my neighbor as myself."

Watch well your words; for Christ declares, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." The Lord is greatly dishonored when cheap, frivolous words fall from the lips of those whose names are registered on the church books.

The talent of speech was given to be used for the benefit of all. Let your praiseworthy example, your peaceable words and unselfish deeds, be a savor of life unto life. Pleasant, cheery words cost no more than unpleasant, moody words. Do you dislike to have harsh words spoken to you? Remember that when you speak such words, others feel the sharp sting.

In this life every one has difficulties with which to wrestle. Every one meets with grievances and disappointments. Shall we not bring sunshine instead of gloom into the lives of those with whom we come in contact? Shall we not speak words that will help and bless? Such words will be just as much a blessing to us as to those to whom they are spoken. Shall we not in word and deed sow seeds which will spring up to bear fruit unto eternal life?

Parents, bring practical godliness into the home. Angels are not attracted to a home where discord reigns. Educate your children to speak words that will bring sunshine and joy. Begin the work of grace in the Church in your own home, so conducting yourselves that your children shall see that you are co-operating with the heavenly angels. Be sure that you are converted every day. Train yourselves and your children for life in the kingdom of God. Angels will be your strong helpers. Satan will tempt you, but do not yield. Do not speak one word of which the enemy can take advantage.

In His word God has marked out a plan for the education of children, and this plan parents are to follow. They are to teach their children to overcome all indolence. Each child should be taught that he has a work to do in the world. Mothers, there is nothing more important than training your children for usefulness. It is in the home that a child gains fitness to wrestle with the problems of life.

The Holy One has spoken words to parents and children: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; . . . that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

Parents are to teach their children the need of obedience, and they are to live so that their children can honor and obey them. They are never to provoke their children to wrath, but are to deal with them as the younger members of the Lord's family. They are to require obedience, being sure at the same time that their own will is in subjection to the will of God. Parents who desire their children to be patterns of piety must be patterns of piety themselves.

It is impossible to depict the evil which results from leaving a child to its own will. Some who go astray because of neglect during childhood, will, through patient, painstaking effort, be brought to the light, and led to walk in the narrow way; but many are lost forever because in childhood they received only a one-sided culture. The precious motive-power of the life is wasted, and the sin lies at the door of the parents, who must answer to God for their neglect.

To the parents who have received the truth of God, I am instructed to say, Be sure to give your children patient instruction and tender care. When the parents in our churches do the work the Lord has laid upon them, His work will advance with mighty power.

Let no parents betray their trust. Let them do their work with the fear of God ever before them. Let the determination of each member of the family be, "I will be a Christian; for in the school here below I must form a character which will give me entrance into the higher grade in heaven. I must do to others as I desire them to do to me; for only those who thus reveal Christ can enter the heavenly courts."

Make the home life as nearly as possible like heaven. Let the members of the family forget not, as they gather round the family altar, to pray for those in positions of responsibility in God's work. The physicians in our sanitariums, the ministers of the gospel, the workers in our publishing houses and schools,--these need your prayers. They all have temptations. As you plead with God to bless them, your own hearts will be subdued and softened by His grace. The more we pray, the nearer will heaven be to us.

Christ reads the heart. He knows the motives that prompt to action. Let us watch ourselves. Let us weed our own gardens before we attempt to weed the gardens of others. Let not a day pass in known sin. God says, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Before the setting of the sun, settle every difficulty. Thus will you gain a victory over self.

The commonness of sin does not make it less objectionable to God's sight, nor render its penalty less sure. You may think your transgression small, but its smallness does not make it any the less a sin. Adam's sin was seemingly small, but it opened the floodgates of woe upon our world.

The Church militant is not the Church triumphant. Unless the people of God wage a valiant warfare against every species of sin, they will never pass through the portals of the holy city. And we shall have no second trial. Now is the accepted time, the time in which we are to obtain the education that will enable us to live in the heavenly courts. The whole heavenly universe is watching with the deepest interest to see who in this primary school is practicing the lessons of Christ.

What does the Scripture say? -- "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?"

This is the great day of atonement. How much better it is for us to afflict our souls than to be engaged in strife for the highest place, causing heart-burning and discord. Never think or speak evil. When tempted to do this, go by yourself, and ask God to help you to overcome this hateful sin. Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and He will lift you up. Let us praise God that when we humble ourselves, His merciful hand lifts us up. -

Our Failure to Fulfill the Saviour's Commission

"Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God."

What has prevented this promise of the gospel from being fulfilled in all who believe in Christ? Why has not the truth of the living God filled the hearts of the church-members with power, that it may be carried to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples? Why has not the plan of divine benevolence, with its saving, restoring qualities, brought a much larger number to the standard of loyalty to God? The reason is the unfaithfulness of those who have a knowledge of the truth. They have not fulfilled the commission given them by Christ. They have not taken the truth to those who are in the darkness of error. Their selfishness has placed the candlestick of truth under a bushel.

The condition of the world to-day is represented by the condition of the world in Noah's day. Then, we read, "the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. . . . And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. . . . Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee."

The forms of wickedness existing in Noah's day are current in the world to-day. God's word declares: "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

Noah was given a message to give to the antediluvians. But they scorned his warning. So to-day the message that God has sent to be given to the world will be rejected. But this message must be given. The people of God are to make every other interest secondary to its proclamation.

Every provision has been made for the salvation of the fallen race. All power has been given to Him who offered himself as a sacrifice for the redemption of every son and daughter of Adam. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."

Christ came to this world and stood before men with the hoarded love of eternity. The whole ocean of divine love was flowing forth from its great center. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were working in behalf of man. Every power in the heavenly universe was put into activity to carry forward the plan of redemption. The cross of Calvary was erected, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Just suffered for the unjust, that He might become the justifier of all who believe in Him. He took human nature upon himself, that He might be a partaker with us in all our temptations. He clothed His divinity with humanity, that by enduring the agony of the cross, He might make His soul an offering for sin.

Christ died to save a selfish world from the sure consequences of selfishness. He has opened His heart in love and pity and sympathy for the whole world. He invites fallen beings to come to Him and receive full and free forgiveness. His character stands before the heavenly universe free from every taint of selfishness. He has made a complete sacrifice to bring to men and women that benevolence which dwells in His own heart. He has sent His Holy Spirit to impress the mind and heart, to lead men to love their fellow men as Christ has loved them.

Infinite benevolence is pouring out all its treasures for the saving of souls from sin, that man may be made one with God. God calls upon human agencies to co-operate with Him in the carrying out of His great purpose. The Lord has given to His people the privilege of carrying forward in the earth the work which He did while here. He calls upon us to co-operate with Him in restoring and saving our fellow men. Christ desires, by the fullness of His power, so to strengthen His Church that the whole world will be encircled with an atmosphere of grace.

God wants those who have accepted the truth and have identified themselves with His chosen people, elect and precious, to unite with Christ in His work of drawing men, women, and children to the cross of Calvary. Behold the Man who said, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." He arose from the dead, and over the rent sepulcher of Joseph proclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life. I was dead, but behold, I am alive for evermore."

The cross teaches the lesson of self-sacrifice. As by faith men behold the royal Sufferer, the conviction comes to them that the sure result of sin is death. Let the believing soul stand beside the cross of Calvary, and with a heart swelling with grateful love, cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" Behold Him! Say it with heart and soul and voice. Induce the sinner to look. When his gaze is arrested, amazed at such wonderful condescension, he steps nearer, and learns of the Saviour the lesson all must learn,--the lesson of meekness and lowliness. The believing soul sees Jesus as He is, and beholding, is changed into His image. The experience of those who are truly converted testifies that God is the author of eternal salvation, and that the grace of Christ is wisdom and power.

Christ loves the human race; and in every action of His life He has expressed this love. He calls upon men to love one another as He has loved them. His saving power and love are ever to be the theme of those who believe in God. Just before His ascension, He gave to His disciples the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Thus was given to the disciples a most precious trust. They were to be the executors of the will in which Christ has bequeathed to the world the treasure of eternal life. They realized the responsibility of their work. They knew that they held in their hands the bread of life for a famishing world, and they went everywhere preaching the word. The love of Christ constrained them, and they could not forbear breaking the bread of life to all who were in need. The last words of the Saviour were constantly sounding in their ears.

In the trust given to the first disciples, each believer has a share. Each one is to be an executor of the Saviour's will. Each one has been given sacred truth to give to the earnest seeker. Every believer is to be a laborer together with God.

I appeal to all who claim to believe the truth, to realize the importance of the message God has given us to bear to the world. In city after city self-sacrificing work must be done. Province after province must be enlightened. The truth is to go forth as a lamp that burneth. Those who profess to know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, must not fall into the cold, selfish practices of the world. Their zeal must not die. They must not allow spiritual declension, with all its baleful influence, to come in. Church-members are in great danger of forgetting the peculiar benefits and blessing which have been given them, and the responsibility which rests upon them,--in danger of turning away from Christ and allowing their thoughts to run in worldly channels for the sake of gain.

The gospel will not sustain a final defeat; it will triumph. But for years it has been evident that selfishness, under the form of godliness, has been entering the Church. The perverse ways of Satan have taken the place of the ways of God. Unholy difference of opinion, under the garb of zeal for religion, has taken the place of Christian charity. By their bigotry, professed Christians have violated the principles which should ever be sacredly cherished. Criticism and denunciation have taken the place of sympathy and forbearance. An inquisition has been set up among those who should be free from all overbearing.

God calls for the extinction of this satanic devising. The love of Christ in the heart forbids all oppression. Remember His words to the disciples when they desired Him to permit them to call down fire from heaven upon those who did not give Him due honor. "He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Those who work for the Redeemer must cultivate Christian love. But for years, some, even among those who claim to believe present truth, have acted in an oppressive manner, cherishing in the heart that fearful, hateful thing which has led them to exclude their brethren from their fellowship and their councils, because they supposed them wanting in some respects, as though the Lord has made them judges of character. The spirit has been entertained which presumes to limit the Holy One in the judicial working of His grace. In the place of coming close to those for whom the Lord has seen fit to work, men have stood apart, saying, "I am holier than thou. I cannot connect with you in religious service. Your ways and my ways do not agree."

The Lord Jesus Christ is our judge and our lawgiver. Let those in God's service turn from everything that will mar their usefulness. A hasty temper, a lack of patience, an inclination to speak hastily,--these are things against which the Lord's servants must guard. They must remember that He who has appointed them their work, says to them, "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord."

Be very careful how you attempt to number Israel. Not to you nor to any other man has God given this work. You make a great mistake when you put your human measurement upon any of your brethren. You cannot read the heart. It is probable that the one with whom you find fault is more righteous in the sight of God than you are. "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." "For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

"Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? and shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

This instruction is for those who are living amid the perils of these last days. Be careful how you measure your brother. Take heed to yourself, and put no occasion of stumbling in your brother's way. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

Let us make diligent efforts to serve God. We need to reach a higher standard. The truth must not be kept in the outer court. Bring its principles into the inner sanctuary of the soul. Make Christ the guide of every action. Separate from the soul all selfishness. Hate it; for it is the destroyer of peace and godliness. "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." The grace of our Saviour is the grand, healing influence which conforms the life to the life of God. -

An Earnest Plea

ONE AFTERNOON OF THE RECENT SESSION OF THE ATLANTIC UNION CONFERENCE WAS OCCUPIED IN PRESENTING PRINCIPLES AND PLANS RELATING TO THE FORWARD MOVEMENT. SISTER WHITE SPOKE FIRST UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOWING THE LIGHT WHICH HAS BEEN GIVEN UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF HEALTHFUL LIVING, BOTH FOR OUR OWN SAKE AND THAT WE MAY BE A GREATER BLESSING TO OTHERS. THE FOLLOWING IS A PORTION OF HER TALK AT THAT TIME:--

In the twelfth chapter of Romans we read, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Much is comprehended in this. Here the apostle beseeches us to reach the high standard that it is possible to attain. Christ made it possible when He laid aside His royal robes, His royal crown, stepped down from His royal throne, clothed His divinity with humanity that humanity might touch humanity. He could not with His glory and majesty take His position among men. The glory must be laid aside He must take the rude garments of humanity that He might be afflicted with all the afflictions of humanity, that He might understand their temptations. He would become a faithful judge of how much they had to contend with in the conflict with satanic agencies. Through this experience Christ was enabled to give power to His people, for to "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." See where our power is. It is not in ourselves.

The Lord wants every one of us to educate himself for God. At baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost we were set apart to engage in the very work that Christ came to the world to do. What was He?--In the highest sense He was a missionary, and He was a healing missionary. He went from place to place healing the sick and suffering, and His disciples were gaining from Him that instruction which alone could be called higher education. The Lord wants the work that has been neglected in our cities to be taken hold of without delay. There is a great work to be done. Solemn interests are at stake in our cities: souls are hungering for the bread of life. Shall we receive the word from Christ to give to him that is hungry, and to impart to the thirsty the water of life? Why should we pass by and neglect the most wealthy classes? God gives somebody a message to them, a call to repentance, as did John, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." There is nothing in the world to accomplish this, to open doors where truth can enter, like the medical missionary work. This work will commend itself to the hearts of men whose whole life has been perverted. Indulgence of appetite has spoiled them. They have been in the habit of eating and drinking, and having their luxuries, and what is the result? -- They are broken down before they come to maturity. They are in need of heavenly truth, Bible enlightenment. Do you not think that there is hope of saving some of these? -- Certainly there is. There is nothing that will help them into right paths like the presentation of the necessity of becoming acquainted with the human temple that God has given them, the beautiful machinery to be brought into perfect order.

No one is to be indifferent in this matter. Life, eternal life, is presented to all as a gift of God, if they will receive it. Will they show wisdom, as did Daniel and his fellows, to refuse the meats and the wines which, if used, will spoil the Lord's wonderful and beautiful machinery? Will they reason from cause to effect? They -- yes, the supposedly wealthy men -- need wisdom as to how to conduct themselves so as to preserve their powers of mind and body. They are ignorant in regard to the effect of their eating and drinking, and do not know what a temperate diet will do for them.

We should not be prevailed upon to take anything into the mouth that will bring the body into an unhealthy condition, no matter how much we like it. Why? -- Because we are God's property. You have a crown to win, a heaven to gain, and a hell to shun. Then for Christ's sake I ask you, Will you have the light shine before you in clear and distinct rays, and then turn away from it and say, "I love this, and I love that"? God calls upon every one of you to begin to plan, to co-operate with God in His great care and love, to elevate, ennoble, and sanctify the whole soul, body, and spirit, that we may be workers together with God.

There is a work to be begun in every city, in every town. What are you going to do to help it forward? You are to obtain all the light and knowledge that you can. There are the health books. Our canvassers can take these books right along with them, and read them. As they go, they will find that there is light in them, which they can present to the families they visit. They will find persons sick, and they can read something in those books that will do these persons good. Many are going to work on this plan. God never sets a man to work, and leaves him without putting any ideas into his mind. God gave Daniel knowledge, superior knowledge, in all matters of difficulty, and the Lord gave him the power to obtain that education that placed him on the highest platform of higher education before all the astrologers and magicians in all the realm of mighty Babylon. Now what is God going to do for every diligent searcher for truth. You see what He gave to Daniel. Daniel would not touch the king's meat. Who of us are eating meat to-day? Who have thought that they must live upon the flesh of dead animals? We should not do it. We are composed of what we eat. God has given you those things that will make you healthy. Do not put corpses upon your tables; do not, I beg of you, eat the flesh of dead animals; for there is enough that you can live upon without that.

What does meat-eating do? -- It creates animalism in the human agent, it strengthens the animal propensities, which are already strong enough. You would better be strengthening the spiritual powers. God helps us that we may, by self-denial and self-sacrifice, keep a clear brain and an understanding mind. It is better to let sweet things alone. Let alone those sweet dessert dishes that are placed on the table. You do not need them. You want a clear mind to think after God's order. We should now come into line with health reform principles. There is a work to be done, and we want to unite with Dr. Kellogg in doing this work. He knows what he is talking about; and we want to take the light from the word of God, and form ourselves into companies to work for others. God will help us do this work.

There is an abundance to eat. We do not believe in a poverty-stricken diet; but we want to eat those things that shall not corrupt in our stomachs, and sour our tempers. It is bad eating and sour stomachs which make men that are called Christians act unreasonably. They get a little mote of difficulty before their mind's eye, and exalt that mote to a mountain; and then the mountain of eternal spiritual advantages that ought to be exalted will become a molehill. That is the way the enemy wants it to be; but we do not want to work in such a way; for it is not profitable. Let us reverse the whole matter. Eat wholesome, good food; and sweeten up in your disposition.

There is a work to be done, a large work to be done. There is a world to save, a world to put on the right track. What have you been doing these years with the light that God has been flashing upon your pathway? I ask you, What have you been doing?

Are you "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer"? You cannot do that unless you have a good, sweet stomach. With a sour stomach you are thinking all the time, "Oh, dear, how my stomach hurts me! What is the matter with me?" If you had thought just a little earlier, and eaten the right things, you would have avoided the difficulty. Let us all be temperate. It is our duty to be cheerful. We are not to be like a band that is marching along in a slow and mournful tread. That is not our place. What we want is to rejoice in hope.

You can go to the houses all around you, to those of the high as well as to those of the lowly, and find access. Their souls are just as hungry for the truth of God as the very lowliest among us; and we want to get together and organize for service. God will give us wisdom. He will give us strength for this work if we continue instant in prayer. The light of heaven will shine into our minds and hearts.

From the light which God has given me, there is a solemn accountability that rests upon you who for years have had the light on health reform. What have you been doing? Have you been living it out to the letter? Our sanitariums are to represent health reform. As they have patients there, they are to present the very best kind of food which will be for the health of these patients. If you expect to do your patients good, provide simple food, do not tempt them with sweet pies and puddings which will place them where it will take more than one or two baths and fomentations to take away the evil effects of that which you brought before them to eat. We want to teach all the people all these things. Teach them in every place that faith and works must harmonize. The Lord calls upon you to show your colors. Stand as eternal health reformers, and do not be in such a condition that when they ask you if you are a health reformer, you will blush for shame. No; you want to say, Certainly, I am; certainly I am a health reformer in every respect; and I want to help others to be health reformers. This work is the right hand of the gospel. It is this health reform, and this healthful living, that is cleaving the way for us right to the hearts of thousands who have nearly killed themselves with their improper diet. Now let us begin to save them. Ellen G. White. -

Perfect Service Required by God

Everything that God could do was done to save a perishing world. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God has made it impossible for it to be said that He could have done more than He has done for the fallen race. When He gave His Son, He gave himself. In one great gift He poured out the whole treasure of heaven. He has revealed a love that defies all computation, a love that should fill our hearts and lives with gratitude.

Christ loves human beings, and He died to save them. At an infinite price He ransomed them from the power of the enemy. He invites them to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. He desires to see them prepared to receive the crown of life. He longs to bestow on them the eternal riches. He came to restore in them the image of divinity. He calls upon those who have accepted Him to join Him in this work. He has chosen us as His instruments. By us He desires to carry out His merciful purposes. He says, You are laborers together with me. Shall we not cooperate with Him in His great plan, working earnestly to save His blood-bought heritage?

He has given us grand and solemn truths to impart to those who are in darkness. Let us not mar these truths by imperfect utterance. God has given us voices that we may speak His truth. He desires that the music of the voice shall aid in impressing His word upon minds.

We should train ourselves to take deep, full inspirations, and to speak clearly and distinctly. The voice should not be dropped at the end of a sentence, so that the closing words are hardly audible.

Those who open the oracles of God to the people should improve in their manner of communicating the truth, that it may be presented to the world in an acceptable way. Place proper emphasis upon the words that should be made impressive. Speak slowly. Let the voice be as musical as possible.

God desires His ministers to seek for perfection, that they may be vessels unto honor. They are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit; and when they speak, they are to show an energy proportionate to the importance of the subject they are presenting. They are to show that the power about which they speak has made a change in their lives. When they are truly united with Christ, they will give the heavenly invitation with an earnestness that will impress hearts. As they manifest zeal in proclaiming the gospel message, a corresponding earnestness will be produced in the hearers, and lasting impressions for good will be made.

The greater the influence of the truth upon us, the greater will be our earnestness in seeking for perfection in our manner of imparting truth.

Sin brings physical and spiritual disease and weakness. Christ has made it possible for us to free ourselves from this curse. The Lord promises, by the medium of truth, to renovate the soul. The Holy Spirit will make all who are willing to be educated able to communicate the truth with power. It will renew every organ of the body, that God's servants may work acceptably and successfully. Vitality increases under the influence of the Spirit's action. Let us, then, by this power lift ourselves into a higher, holier atmosphere, that we may do well our appointed work.

By constant obedience those who are born again are fitted for service. The entire being is to be placed under the molding, fashioning hand of God, that physical, mental, and spiritual perfection may be attained. Christians are to grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ.

The Lord desires His servants to improve in their manner of praying. He inquires, Where is the vivifying influence of your prayers? He does not accept the tame, lifeless, lengthy prayers, which are so destitute of His Spirit. He calls for a reformation, else He will remove the candlestick out of its place. He desires the candle to burn brightly, sending forth light to all parts of the world. When the Church turns fully to the Lord, lifeless, spiritless prayers will no more be heard.

I urge my ministering brethren to improve in their manner of praying. This can and must be done. I must say to them, The shorter you make your spiritless prayers, the better will it be for the congregation. It is generally the case that the less of heaven's vitality there is in a prayer, the more lengthy it is. Do not spend a long time in prayer before a congregation unless you know that God is inditing the prayer. Let the prayers made in public be short and full of earnestness. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much; but the prayer uttered in a low, monotonous tone and spiritless manner is not accepted by God. The voice of prayer should rise to God from hearts burdened by a sense of need. Let there be a revival of the Holy Spirit, that your prayers may be filled with the power of heaven.

Learn to seek the Lord most earnestly for power to reach sinners. Heed the message God has sent to His Church of to-day: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

The Lord calls for those in His service to make all the improvement He has made it possible for them to make. The truth in our possession is of infinite importance. How essential, then, that it should lose none of its power in passing from us to those who are in darkness. It should not be bereft of its luster by our inefficiency. Our expression of God's wondrous loving-kindness, frame our words as we may, will be tame enough as it falls from our lips. But when, with sanctified lips, we offer praise for God's love, hearts are reached. Let us pray that the wondrous message of Christ's love may reach hearts. Let us watch for the Lord more earnestly than they that watch for the morning. Let us hope in Him and walk in His ways. He is well-pleased when His servants work with implicit faith in Him, asking Him to supply all their needs.

From the experience of Jacob we may learn the power of importunate prayer. On his way to meet Esau, Jacob sent his family across the river Jabbok, while he alone remained behind. He had decided to spend the night in prayer, and he desired to be alone with God.

It was a lonely, mountainous region, the haunt of wild beasts and the lurking place of robbers and murderers. Solitary and unprotected, Jacob bowed in deep distress upon the earth. It was midnight. All that made life dear to him were at a distance, exposed to danger and death. Bitterest of all was the thought that it was his own sin that had brought this peril upon the innocent. With earnest cries and tears he made his prayer before God. Suddenly a strong hand was laid upon him. He thought that an enemy was seeking his life, and he endeavored to free himself from the grasp of his assailant. In the darkness the two struggled for the mastery. Not a word was spoken, but Jacob put forth all his strength, and did not relax his efforts for a moment. While he was thus battling for his life, the sense of guilt pressed upon his soul; his sins rose up before him to shut him out from God. But in his terrible extremity he remembered God's promises, and his whole heart went out in entreaty for His mercy. The struggle continued till near the break of day, when the stranger placed his finger upon Jacob's thigh, and he was crippled instantly.

The patriarch now discerned the character of his antagonist. He knew that he had been in conflict with a heavenly messenger, and this was why his almost superhuman effort had not gained the victory. It was Christ, "the Angel of the covenant," who had revealed himself to Jacob. The patriarch was disabled, and suffering the keenest pain, but he would not loosen his hold. All penitent and broken, he clung to the angel; "he wept, and made supplication," pleading for a blessing. He must have the assurance that his sin was pardoned. Physical pain was not sufficient to divert his mind from this object. His determination grew stronger, his faith more earnest and persevering, until the very last. The angel tried to release himself; he urged, "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" but Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."

Had this been a boastful, presumptuous confidence, Jacob would have been instantly destroyed; but his was the assurance of one who confesses his own unworthiness, yet trusts the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God.

Jacob "had power over the angel, and prevailed." Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender, this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp upon the promises of God, and the heart of infinite Love could not turn away the sinner's plea.

Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His experience testifies to the power of importunate prayer. It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories to the Church or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talents or education, by wealth, or the favor of men; they are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.

We can do nothing of ourselves. In our helpless unworthiness we must trust in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish while they do this. The long, black catalogue of our delinquencies is before the eye of the Infinite. The register is complete; none of our offenses are forgotten. But He who listened to the cries of His servants of old, will hear the prayer of faith, and pardon our transgressions. He has promised, and He will fulfill His word. -

Go Forward

I am commissioned to say that the prosperity of the medical missionary work is in God's order. This work must be done; the truth must be carried into the highways and byways. Ministers and church-members should awake to the necessity of co-operating in this work.

With earnest, untiring energy, those who have felt the burden of the Christian Help work have testified by their works that they are not content to be mere theoretical believers. They have tried to walk in the light. They have put their belief into practice. They have combined faith and works. They have done the very work the Lord has specified should be done, and many souls have been enlightened, and convicted, and helped.

The indifference among our ministers in regard to health reform and the medical missionary work is surprising. Even those who do not profess to be Christians treat the subject with greater respect than do some of our own people, and these are going in advance of us.

Why, I inquire, are some of our ministerial brethren so far behind in proclaiming the exalted theme of temperance? My brethren, the word given to you is, "Take hold of the work of health reform; go forward." If you think that the medical missionary work is assuming undue proportions, take the men who have been working in these lines with you into your fields of labor, two here, and two there. Receive these medical missionaries as you would receive Christ, and see what work they can do. You will not find them dwarfs in religious experience. See if in this way you cannot bring much of heaven's vital current into the churches. See if there are not some who will grasp the education they so much need, and bear the testimony, "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:4-6. Our great need is unity, perfect oneness in God's work.

The gospel ministry is an organization for the proclamation of the truth to the sick and to the well. It combines the medical missionary work and the ministry of the word. By these combined agencies, opportunities are given to communicate light, and to present the gospel to all classes and all grades of society. God wants the ministers and the church-members to take a decided, active interest in the medical missionary work.

To take people right where they are, whatever their position or condition, and help them in every way possible,--this is gospel ministry. Those who are diseased in body are nearly always diseased in mind, and when the soul is sick, the body also is affected. Ministers should feel it a part of their work to minister to the sick and afflicted whenever opportunity presents itself. The minister of the gospel is to present the message, which must be received if the people are to become sanctified and made ready for the coming of the Lord. This work is to embrace all that was embraced in Christ's ministry.

Those who understand physiology and hygiene will, in their ministerial labor, find it a means whereby they may enlighten others in regard to the proper and intelligent treatment of the physical, mental, and moral powers. Therefore those who are preparing for the ministry should make a diligent study of the human organism, that they may know how to care for the body, not by means of drugs, but from nature's own laboratory. The Lord will bless those who make every effort to keep themselves free from disease, and lead others to regard as sacred the health of the body as well as of the soul.

The ambassadors of Christ, those to whom have been committed the living oracles of God, can be doubly useful if they know how to help the sick. A practical knowledge of health reform will better qualify men and women to proclaim the message of mercy and retribution to the world. Mrs. E. G. White. -

Words to Ministers

"Unto the angel of the Church is Sardis write: These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."

The minister of the gospel of Christ is to watch for souls as he that must give an account. He is to be often on his knees in prayer, asking for heavenly wisdom, that he may strengthen "the things which remain, that are ready to die." By living in accordance with the will of God, he is to place himself under divine power. The word of God is to be his guide. In this word there are promises, directions, warnings, and reproofs, which he is to use in his work as the occasion may require. With a humble heart and a willing mind he is to search this word, that for the benefit of others he may draw from the storehouse of truth things new and old. He is ever to seek to lead minds to gain a personal knowledge of the truth. Many are sorely tempted and ready to die because they have not a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In every congregation that gathered about Jesus, there were souls who were hungering and thirsting for a knowledge of God. As they listened to the truths that fell from the lips of the divine Teacher, truths so different from the traditions of the rabbis, hope sprang up in their hearts. In the Saviour's teaching there was a power that sent the truth home to the heart. God's ministers are to learn Christ's method of teaching, that, like Him, they may present the great principles of truth in the power of the Spirit.

And the minister's work does not end with the presentation of truth from the pulpit. He is to do earnest, personal, house-to-house work, studying the Scriptures with the people, and praying with them. Thus many will be brought to a knowledge of God. Souls ready to perish will be imbued with the Spirit of Christ. But this work has been neglected; and therefore the churches are lacking in power. There are many ordained ministers who have never yet exercised a shepherd's care over the flock of God, who have never watched for souls as they that must give an account. The Church, instead of developing, is left to be a weak, dependent, inefficient body. The members of the Church, trained to rely upon preaching, do little for Christ. They bear no fruit, but rather increase in selfishness and unfaithfulness. They put their hope in the preacher, depending on his efforts to keep alive their weak faith. Because the church-members have not been properly instructed by those whom God has placed as overseers, many are slothful servants, hiding their talents in the earth, and still complaining of the Lord's dealing toward them. They expect to be tended like sick children.

The best help that ministers can give the members of our churches is not sermonizing, but planning work for them. Give each one something to do for others. Help all to see that as receivers of the grace of Christ they are under obligation to work for Him. And let all be taught how to work. Especially should those who are newly come to the faith be educated to become laborers together with God. If set to work, the despondent will soon forget their despondency, the weak will become strong, the ignorant intelligent, and all will be prepared to present the truth as it is in Jesus. They will find an unfailing helper in Him who has promised to save all that come unto Him.

I am pained, my brethren, as the weak, sickly condition of our churches is presented before me. "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" I have been instructed that our ministers are not as efficient as God desires them to be. He has made every provision that they may have His grace and power for the accomplishment of His work. But He is disappointed in them, because they do not co-operate with Him. The lifeless condition of many of the churches in our Conferences testifies to the lack of the grace of Christ in the hearts of the men appointed to act as His ambassadors.

Brethren, I appeal to you to change this order of things. To whom have you been looking for strength? Have you not been trusting in your own efficiency? Have you not been looking to men, and making flesh your arm? What a difference there would be in the character of your work if you kept before you a realization of the abiding presence of a just and holy God, who requires you not merely to go through the form of preaching, but to give full proof of your ministry by revealing clusters of precious fruit.

It is from God that we are to receive power for service. And He has promised to give this power to all who ask in faith. "If any of you lack wisdom," the apostle declares, "let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

Obedience to this word is the secret of success. God is the source of wisdom. From Him we must receive our supplies. What precious experiences would have been gained if those who have been trusting in man had trusted in God, relying on Him to do that which they cannot do. They would have found that His word is Yea and Amen. They would have been encouraged to ask, and ask again. They would have gained a knowledge of the Lord and Saviour; for they would have been brought into close companionship with Him. Love for Him would have burned more and more brightly on the altar of the heart as they proved Him, and found Him to be a very present help in every time of need.

"Come unto me," Christ said, "all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." No human being is wise enough or strong enough to sustain you. Take all your burdens to Jesus. You may lean your whole weight on Him, and He will uphold you; for He is all-powerful. He will not sink under the burdens placed on Him.

The parable of the wise and foolish virgins comes as a solemn warning to every church. In the parable, all the ten virgins went out to meet their lord. All had lamps, and vessels for oil. For a time there was seen no difference between them. So with the Church that lives just before Christ's second coming. All have a knowledge of the Scriptures. All have heard the message of Christ's soon approach, and confidently expect His appearing. But as in the parable, so it is now. A time of waiting intervenes, faith is tried; and when the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him," many are unready. They have no oil in their vessels with their lamps. They are destitute of the Holy Spirit.

Working, waiting, watching, and praying,--this constitutes genuine Christianity. Our work is not to be all waiting in idle expectancy; neither is it to be all bustle and excitement, to the neglect of personal piety. Working, waiting, watching, and praying are to be blended in the life of God's minister. He is to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." The needs of his soul must be supplied with the oil of grace. Constantly he is to increase in spiritual power.

He who taught the disciples is willing to teach His servants to-day. Christ is the true Light, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." If our labors amount to more than beating the air, we must have a close union with Christ. He must be an abiding presence in the heart. And in order for Him to enter the heart, it must be cleansed from defilement.

The minister of the gospel who is a laborer together with God will learn daily in the school of Christ. By his wisdom in dealing with minds, he will give full proof of his ministry. He will become acquainted with the parents and children in his congregation, and will speak kind, earnest words to them. No light, trifling words will fall from his lips; for is he not an ambassador for Christ, bearing a divine message to perishing souls? All jesting and joking, all lightness and trifling, is painful to the cross-bearing disciple of Christ. He is weighed down by the burden he feels for souls. Constantly his heart is drawn out in prayer to God for the gift of His grace, that he may be a faithful steward. He prays to be kept pure and holy, and then refuses to rush heedlessly into temptation. He heeds the injunction, "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." Daily he grows in grace, ever gaining a deeper knowledge of God. He overcomes selfishness. His affections are elevated and ennobled. Not only a Bible reader, but a Bible believer, he gives a portion of meat to every man in due season. Keeping close to his Master, he receives words from Him to speak to the people. Lifting as Christ lifts, loving as Christ loves, working as Christ works, he goes about doing good. He strives with all his power for self-improvement, that by precept and example he may lead others to a purer, higher, nobler life. -

The Importance of Personal Effort

In every land there are thousands of souls in darkness, without the knowledge of the truth, souls who have never heard the last message of mercy to a perishing world. They know not that the end of all things is at hand. "Peace and safety" is the cry that is sounded from the popular pulpits. And yet how many of God's professed people are at ease in Zion. The churches in general are weak and dependent. They think that some one must be with them every Sabbath to spread for them a gospel feast. They do not realize that they must individually appropriate to themselves the truth that has been unfolded to them, and communicate its light to those who know it not; and they are doing comparatively nothing, either in the home missions or in the "regions beyond." Can you, dear brethren and sisters, be doers of the word of God, while indifferent to the souls that are perishing around you? Can you listen to the truth Sabbath after Sabbath, and not impart its light to others?

The Church must not depend so fully as she has done in the past upon the ordained minister alone to carry the gospel to the world. God has given to every man his work. For many years He has been bidding His people, "Go work to-day in my vineyard." He calls upon men who understand the Scriptures to go into places where the message of truth has never penetrated, and there work, imparting to others what God has imparted to them. They can be as the salt, communicating saving properties to those with whom they come in contact.

The standard of truth may be raised by humble men and women; and the youth, and even the children, may be a blessing to others, by revealing what the truth has done for them. God will use the most feeble instruments if they are wholly submitted to Him. He can work through them to help souls to whom the minister could not obtain access. In the highways and byways the lost are to be sought. With your Bible in your hand, with your heart warm and glowing with the love of God, you may go out and tell others your experience; you may make known to them the truth that has impressed your heart, praying with faith that God will make your efforts successful in their salvation. Communicate light, and you will have more light to communicate. Thus you may become laborers together with God.

God desires that His children shall make use of all their powers; and in working to bless others, you may grow strong in the strength of Jesus. You may not be learned; you may not be thought capable of doing a great work for God; but there are things which you can do. You can let your light shine forth to others. Through the prophet Isaiah Christ has said, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. . . . And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

Every one may have an understanding of the truth, and exert an influence for good. Then go to work, my brethren and sisters. Gain an experience by working for others. You may make mistakes; but this is not more than the most intelligent, and those in positions of trust, have done again and again. You will not always meet with success; but you can never know the result of humble, disinterested effort to help those who are in darkness. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, you may win souls from error to truth, and in so doing your own souls will be filled with the love of God. Unaccustomed paths will open before you in your work of ministry. You will often have to step out of the beaten track, and, under the Holy Spirit's guidance, do special work for God; but if you make Him your dependence, He will give you wisdom and strength according to your need.

I pray that church-members may see the peril of departing from God's expressed commandment, and repent of their lifelong neglect of the service of Christ while professing to be His followers. If they would go forth as pilgrims and strangers, and make for themselves homes where there is work to be done, letting their light shine forth to those who are in darkness and error, they would then be able to say, "And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." We shall receive fresh supplies of grace as we impart to others that which we already have.

The Holy Spirit will impress upon the mind that the religion of the Bible is a grand and precious reality. You need not only to assent to the truth, but to put it into practice. Let every ray of light that shines from the word be heeded as the eternal truth of God. Then as you place your will on the Lord's side, look around for some work to do for the Master. Set to work at whatever your hand finds to do; for it is in practicing truth, in blessing others, that you work out your own salvation. If God works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, you will cultivate those traits of character that every heir of heaven must possess.

Many have a superficial experience because they do so much for themselves, and so little for Jesus. Intercourse with those who are in need of help, with the purpose of saving their souls, will lead us to pray for wisdom, and look to Jesus as our Helper. By unselfish labor for others, we shall establish ourselves in the faith far more firmly than by listening to so many sermons. The Holy Spirit will be our helper, giving us arguments with which to meet opposition, and in all our work giving us steadfast faith and unshaken confidence. Thus we shall gain an experience of more value than gold, or silver, or precious stones.

The Lord would awaken His Church to her calling,--to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and present Him to the world, that the world may say of His disciples, They have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him. Then let each engage in this work in all humility of mind. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren," said Christ, "ye have done it unto me." Shall we not, then, without delay, go without the camp, bearing the reproach for Christ's sake? In so doing, we shall share largely of the Holy Spirit's teaching and leading.

There must be no idlers in the work of God. He desires that His people shall engage in living missionary work, and thus be doers of His word. He desires that they shall labor in love for one another; that they shall pray most earnestly for themselves that they may be branches in the living Vine, daily drawing nourishment from it, and bearing rich clusters of precious fruit. "Herein is my Father glorified," He says, "that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." -

The Sale of Christ's Object Lessons

Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 27, 1901. To the ministers and other friends of the Berrien Springs School: There are times when things do not look as bright and cheerful as we could wish, because difficulties stand in the way of rapid advancement; but we hope, brethren and sisters, that you all will be encouraged to take a deep interest in the establishment of the school at Berrien Springs, and aid it by the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons," and in other ways. Let the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons" be taken hold of interestedly in our large cities and in the smaller settlements. Brethren, wake up! The good hand of the Lord has been with our people in the selection of a place for the school. This place corresponds to the representations given me as to where the school should be located. It is away from the cities, and there is an abundance of land for agricultural purposes, and room so that houses will not need to be built one close to another. There is plenty of ground where students may be educated in the cultivation of the soil. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."

We would have all understand, when canvassing for "Christ's Object Lessons," that they are doing a work that is essential. The school building should now be in course of erection. The Lord will help each one who will pray and work, and work and pray. The light which I have tried to present before our people is that we must arouse ourselves from sleep, and feel an interest in the school that is to be built up at Berrien Springs. Do not let this matter of erecting suitable buildings fade away from your interest. It is for this purpose that the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons," should now be vigorously carried forward. Let our prompt action enable the interested ones to make successful the work of moving our school out of Battle Creek.

The land has been secured, and now the work of preparing suitable buildings is to be engaged in without delay. Let all plans be laid, and the most desirable place be selected. Let those who have been faithful workers take hold and do their best. Let not this work fail. Let the students take hold of this matter in earnest. Let not managers, teachers, or helpers swing back in their old customary ways of letting their influence negative the very plans the Lord has presented as the best for the physical, mental, and moral education of our youth.

The Lord calls for steps in advance. Because the teachers may never have been trained in physical or manual labor, they are not easily persuaded in regard to the very best methods to secure for the youth an all-round education; and even the very ones who have been the most reluctant to come into line in this matter, had they been given in their youth the physical, mental, and moral education combined, might have saved themselves many attacks of illness, and their brain, bone, and muscle would at this time be in a more healthful condition because all the Lord's machinery would be proportionately taxed. The best instructors should be secured in spiritual lines, in agricultural employments, and also in the carpenter's trade, and in the printing business. The Lord would have these mechanical industries brought in and taught by competent men.

Whoever shall engage in the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons" should have the help and encouragement of their brethren.

Ellen G. White.

A Test of Gratitude and Loyalty

"Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

This scripture teaches that God, as the Giver of all our benefits, has a claim upon them all; that His claim should be our first consideration; and that a special blessing will attend all who honor this claim.

Herein is set forth a principle that is seen in all God's dealing with men. The Lord placed our first parents in the garden of Eden. He surrounded them with everything that could minister to their happiness, and He bade them acknowledge Him as the possessor of all things. In the garden He caused to grow every tree that was pleasant to the eye or good for food; but among them He made one reserve. Of all else, Adam and Eve might freely eat; but of this one tree God said, "Thou shalt not eat of it." Here was the test of their gratitude and loyalty to God.

So the Lord has imparted to us Heaven's richest treasure in giving us Jesus. With Him He has given us all things richly to enjoy. The productions of the earth, the bountiful harvests, the treasures of gold and silver, are His gifts. Houses and lands, food and clothing, He has placed in the possession of men. He asks us to acknowledge Him as the Giver of all things; and for this reason He says, Of all your possessions I reserve a tenth for myself, besides gifts and offerings, which are to be brought into my storehouse. This is the provision God has made for, carrying forward the work of the gospel.

It was by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who gave His life for the life of the world, that this plan for systematic giving was devised. He who left the royal courts, who laid aside His honor as Commander of the heavenly hosts, who clothed His divinity with humanity in order to uplift the fallen race; He who for our sake became poor that we through His poverty might be rich, has spoken to men, and in His wisdom has told them His own plan for sustaining those who bear His message to the world.

The Lord has devised this plan because it is best for us. Satan is constantly working to foster in men worldliness, covetousness, and avarice, that he may ruin their souls, and hinder the work of God. The Lord is seeking to cultivate in us gratitude and liberality. He desires to free us from selfishness, which is so offensive to Him, because so contrary to His character. In carrying out God's plan, men may, by His grace, so relate themselves to Him and to their fellow men that they will be registered in the books of heaven as co-laborers with Christ in the great plan of redemption.

Not only does the Lord claim the tithe as His own, but He tells us how it should be reserved for Him. He says, "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase." This does not teach that we are to spend our means on ourselves, and bring to the Lord he remnant, even though it should be otherwise an honest tithe. Let God's portion be first set apart. The directions given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul in regard to gifts, present a principle that applies also to tithing: "On the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." Parents and children are here included. Not only the rich, but the poor, are addressed. "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart [through the candid consideration of God's prescribed plan], so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." The gifts are to be made in consideration of the great goodness of God to us.

And what more appropriate time could be chosen for setting aside the tithe and presenting our offerings to God? On the Sabbath we have thought upon His goodness. We have beheld His work in creation as an evidence of His power in redemption. Our hearts are filled with thankfulness for His great love. And now, before the toil of a week begins, we return to Him His own, and with it an offering to testify our gratitude. Thus our practice will be a weekly sermon, declaring that God is the possessor of all our property, and that He has made us stewards to use it to His glory. Every acknowledgment of our obligation to God will strengthen the sense of obligation. Gratitude deepens as we give it expression, and the joy it brings is life to soul and body.

The duty and privilege of systematic giving to the cause of God is a matter that should by no means be neglected by our ministers. God has called them to watch for souls as they that must give an account. He has commissioned them to bear His message to the churches. They should see that none are left in ignorance concerning this subject. They should seek to impress the people with a sense of their entire dependence upon God, and their accountability to Him for all His benefits.

God has given special direction as to the use to which the tithe should be devoted. He does not design that His work shall be crippled for want of means. That there may be no haphazard work and no error, He has made our duty on all these points very plain. The portion that God has reserved for himself is not to be diverted to any other purpose than that which He has specified. Let none feel at liberty to retain their tithe, to use according to their own judgment. They are not to use it for themselves in an emergency, nor to apply it as they see fit, even in what they may regard as the Lord's work. God has shown honor to men in taking them into partnership with himself in the great work of redemption. He expects His agents to labor not against Him, but in unison with Him, that His treasury may be supplied.

The minister should, be precept and example, teach the people to regard the tithe as sacred. He should not feel that he can retain and apply it according to his own judgment, because he is a minister. It is not his. He is not at liberty to devote to himself whatever he thinks is his due. Let him not give his influence to any plans for diverting from their legitimate use the tithes and offerings dedicated to God. Let them be placed in the Lord's treasury, and held sacred for His service as He has appointed.

The tithe is God's portion, not at all the property of man, and the Scripture declares that he who withholds it is guilty of robbery. Who, then, will stand with clean hands before the Lord?

In the night season I was in my dreams in a large meeting, with ministers, their wives, and their children. I wondered that the company present was mostly made up of ministers and their families. The prophecy of Malachi was brought before them in connection with Daniel, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah. The teaching of these books was carefully investigated. The building of the temple, and the temple service, were considered. There was close searching of the Scriptures in regard to the sacred character of all that appertained to the temple service. Through the prophets, God has given a delineation of what will come to pass in the last days of this earth's history; and the Jewish economy is full of instruction for us.

The offering of beasts did not cleanse away sin, but was a symbol of the great and complete sacrifice that was to be made for the sins of the whole world. The rivers of blood that flowed at the harvest thanksgiving, when sacrifices were offered in such large numbers, were meant to teach a great truth. For even the productions of the earth, the bounties provided for man's sustenance, we are indebted to the offering of Christ upon the cross of Calvary. God teaches us that all we receive from Him is the gift of redeeming love. From His instruction to Israel, He would have us learn that He has made ample provision for the poor to receive the comforts of this life, and also for the gospel to be carried to all those who are perishing in their sins.

The whole sanctuary service was designed to impress the people with the fact that the things which God has set apart for himself are holy. They were ever to observe the distinction between the sacred and the common. Holy things must be kept holy.

All these things were closely studied by the company before me in my dream. Scripture was compared with scripture, and application was made of the word of God to our own time. After a diligent searching of the Scriptures, there was a period of silence. A very solemn impression was made upon the people. The deep moving of the Spirit of God was manifest among us. All were troubled, all seemed to be convicted, burdened, and distressed, as they saw their own life and character represented in the word of God, and the Holy Spirit was making the application to their hearts.

Conscience was aroused. The record of past days was making its disclosure of the vanity of human inventions. The Holy Spirit brought all things to their remembrance. As they reviewed their past history, there were revealed defects of character that ought to have been discerned and corrected. They saw how through the grace of Christ the character should have been transformed. The workers had known the sorrow of defeat in the work intrusted to their hands, when they should have had victory.

The Holy Spirit presented before them Him whom they had offended. They saw that God will not only reveal himself as a God of mercy and forgiveness and long forbearance, but by terrible things in righteousness He will make it manifest that He is not a man that He should lie.

Words were spoken by One, saying, "The hidden, inner life will be revealed. As if reflected in a mirror, all the inward working of the character will be made manifest. The Lord would have you examine your own lives, and see how vain is human glory." "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."

The period of our probation is fast closing. Soon our opportunity to give the last message of mercy to the lost will be forever past. The help of every one that loves Jesus is needed now, in the Lord's work. Let there be no idlers in the Master's vineyard. Let there be no robbery of God in tithes and offerings, which are needed to sustain His cause.

Those who are laborers in word and in doctrine will have all that they can possibly do in improving their God-given charge: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." The minister's wife may be a great help to her husband in seeking to lighten his burden if she keeps her own soul in the love of God. She can teach the word to her children. She can manage her own household with economy and discretion. United with her husband, she can educate her children in habits of economy, teaching them to restrict their wants. Those who have large families will have burdens in the home life. Those who have but one or two children to engage their time and attention may educate themselves to do service for the Lord in helping their husbands in more general work.

"The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand." "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." The promise to those who honor God with their substance still stands upon record on the sacred page. If the Lord's people had faithfully obeyed His directions, the promise would have been fulfilled to them. But when men disregard the claims of God, plainly set before them, the Lord permits them to follow their own way, and reap the fruit of their doings. Whoever appropriates to his own use the portion that God has reserved, is proving himself an unfaithful steward. He will lose not only that which he has withheld from God, but also that which was committed to him as his own.

Let all study with special care the third chapter of Malachi. That chapter contains warning and instruction in righteousness for every soul. The Lord is still testing us to see whether we will prove faithful servants. He is calling upon His people to consider His goodness, to respond to His mercy, and to give proof of their loyalty by bringing all the tithes into His storehouse. "Prove me now 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." -

Purpose of Man's Creation

All heaven took a deep and joyful interest in the creation of the world and of man. Human beings were a new and distinct order. They were made "in the image of God," and it was the Creator's design that they should populate the earth. They were to live in close communion with heaven, receiving power from the Source of all power. Upheld by God, they were to live sinless lives.

Satan determined to defeat God's plan. He began by bringing jealousy into the heavenly courts. To many of the angels he communicated his disaffection, and there was war in heaven, which ended in the expulsion of Satan and his sympathizers.

Thrust out of heaven, Satan determined to set up his kingdom on the earth. Through him sin entered the world, and death by sin. By listening to his misrepresentations, Adam fell, and the flood gates of woe were opened on the world.

There was no excuse for Adam's transgression. All his wants were generously supplied. Only one prohibition was laid upon him. God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

This prohibition Satan used as a means of insinuating his suggestions. "God doth know," he said to the woman, "that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

And God said to Adam, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

This lesson is for all mankind. By it God teaches that His word is to be sacredly respected, and His commands implicitly obeyed.

Through the ages that followed the expulsion of Adam from Eden, Satan strove to instill his evil principles into the minds of men, till, when Christ came to the earth, He found His chosen people filled with the selfsame jealousy that led Satan to stir up rebellion in heaven. The Jewish leaders would not receive Christ, because His coming and His work were not in harmony with their belief. And they were jealous of Him; for they saw that His influence over the people was greater than theirs. Spiritually blind, they made no effort to receive enlightenment, choosing rather to remain in darkness.

Christ's miracle of restoring the sight of the man who had been born blind was a convincing evidence of the divinity of His mission. When the people saw the transformation in the man, they said to him, "How were thine eyes opened?" He answered, "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not."

Then they brought him to the Pharisees, and "the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed; and do see."

But with hearts hardened by prejudice and unbelief, the Pharisees said, "Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is."

And the man answered, "Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out."

So the Pharisees made themselves even more blind than they already were; and not content with closing their own eyes, they tried to close the eyes of the man who had been healed. They saw that Jesus was working wonderful miracles, and they hated Him, fearing that He would be honored above them. Their hatred grew until they crucified Him, and mocked Him as He hung on the cross.

Can we afford to tamper with jealousy,--the cause of so much of the misery in the world today? Is it not best to work on Christ's plan,-- the plan outlined in the words, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them"?

In the condition of the world to-day we see the terrible result of living for self. God's Spirit is being withdrawn from the earth, which in its moral pollution is as it was before the flood, and as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. So great is the corruption of the cities, that the moral atmosphere is as poisonous as the atmosphere of a pesthouse. From generation to generation sin has demoralized society, bringing a continual increase of depravity and degradation. Soon, from the highest authority in the universe will come the word, Shorten the days, lest no flesh be saved.

The world is becoming more and more devoted to the service of sin. Each age, as it passes, bequeaths to the one following its accumulation of contamination. Satan is the god of the world. With despotic power he rules in palace and temple, working with intense earnestness to overthrow every plan set in operation to counteract the increasing disregard of God's law. The destructive power of his agencies is dedicated to bringing destruction and death into the world. In his hands temptation has become a science. Under his control, men sin by rule.

The enemy works with great power through children of disobedience who are church-members. The life of one who is a professed Christian, and at the same time an instrument in Satan's hands, is a terrible power for evil.

Is it not time for those who claim to believe the truth to awaken? Shall not the people who have had great light depart from all iniquity? Shall they not set a more Christlike example? Shall they not show with greater distinctness the power of the truth to sanctify? The Lord calls upon His Church to arise and shine amid the moral darkness. His people are to be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

If we realized the solemnity of the time in which we are living, if we realized how greatly the world needs to see Christ's grace revealed in His followers, we would work more earnestly and diligently for the Master. Let those who claim to believe the truth put their belief into practice. Let all unite in carrying out God's will. All are to work in perfect harmony, receiving from the same source their influence and their power.

Many who profess to love God and keep His commandments are making void His law. God is greatly dishonored by the failure of professed Christians to reveal the unity that should be seen among His children. No one can enter the heavenly portals who fails of practicing the great principle of love. Those who love God will love one another. They will show by a Christlike life that they are members of the royal family.

It is the plan of God that every Conference, every church, shall cherish the spirit of sympathy and helpfulness. We are to build one another up in the most holy faith, seeking the impartation of the Holy Spirit, that in clear, bright rays we may reflect the light of heaven. Shall we allow the enemy to enter to cause discord and separation, to rob families of happiness and the Church of usefulness? Shall we allow him to use us to prevent the great and blessed work of reformation? Who can say, "It is well with my soul," while evil-thinking and evil-speaking are allowed to rule in the heart?

Christianity transforms the character, bringing the will into harmony with the will of God. The Lord's people are plainly distinguished from worldlings because they follow God's plan. To those who are inclined to sow the seeds of jealousy and envy, Christ says, "Ye must be born again." God grant that they may be thoroughly converted.

When the truth is practiced, when God's people are obedient to all His commandments, there will be no contention as to who is the greatest. There will be no strife for the supremacy. Then will be cherished the love that brings peace and joy into the home, and usefulness into the Church. Then will the Redeemer be honored. Then will be obeyed the injunction: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." -

Moral and Physical Law

There is a close relation between the moral law and the laws that God has established in the physical world. If men would be obedient to the law of God, carrying out in their lives the principles of its ten precepts, the principles of righteousness that it teaches would be a safeguard against wrong habits. But as, through the indulgence of perverted appetite, they have declined in virtue, so they have become weakened through their own immoral practices and their violation of physical laws. The suffering and anguish that we see everywhere, the deformity, decrepitude, disease, and imbecility now flooding the world, make it a lazar-house in comparison with what it might be even now, if God's moral law and the law which He has implanted in our being were obeyed. By his own persistent violation of these laws, man has greatly aggravated the evils resulting from the transgression in Eden. How dishonoring to God is all this! how opposed to His design that men should glorify Him in their body and spirit, which are His! How destructive, too, to the health and happiness of mankind!

Against every transgression of the laws of life nature utters her protest. She bears abuse as long as she can; but finally retribution comes, and the mental as well as the physical powers suffer. Nor does the punishment fall on the transgressor alone; the effects of his indulgence are seen in his offspring, and thus the evil is passed on from generation to generation.

Many complain of providence when their friends suffer, or are removed by death; but it is not in the order of God that men and women should lead lives of suffering, and die prematurely, leaving their work unfinished. God would have us live out the full measure of our days, with every organ in health, doing its appointed work. It is unjust to charge Him with a result which, in many cases, is due to the individual's own transgression of natural law.

Because mankind have, by the transgression of these laws, departed so far from God's purpose in their creation, and have brought upon themselves such untold woe, a reform in habits relating to health has become an important branch of the great work of God in the earth. The soul temple has been polluted, and men are called upon to awake, and win back their God-given manhood.

There is an intimate relation between the mind and the body; they react upon each other. In order, then, to reach a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment and to secure a strong, well-balanced character, the laws that control our physical being must be heeded; both the mental and the physical powers must be developed. Such a training will produce men of strength and solidity of character, of keen perception and sound judgment,--men who will be an honor to God and a blessing to the world.

In the providence of God, the laws that govern our physical being, with the penalties for their violation, have been made so clear that intelligent beings can understand them, and all are under the most solemn obligation to study this subject, and to live in harmony with natural law. Health principles must be agitated, and the public mind deeply stirred to investigation.

As in everything else, the Bible is the standard on this subject. The teaching of the Bible has a vital bearing upon men's prosperity in all the relations of life. Compliance with its requirements will be a blessing to both soul and body. The fruit of the Spirit is not only love, joy, and peace, but temperance also,--health of body as well as health of mind. Mrs. E. G. White. -

Christian Liberality

"This I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; He hath given to the poor: His righteousness remaineth forever. Now He that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness); being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God."

God is in heaven, but He has delegated His work to those on this earth. This work is to represent Christ. Christ gave himself, a full, complete offering, for the life of the world; and God calls upon all men to make a complete surrender of all they have and are to Him, that they may be co-laborers with Christ. This call is just; for to whom is every member of the family indebted for his possession?--To God, who not only gave temporal blessings, but freely offered up His only begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

God has intrusted men with His gifts, that they may represent His benevolence toward those who are poor and needy. If they have the Spirit of Christ, they will reveal it unmistakably by their helpfulness to others, by a faithful discharge of their duty, by acting tenderly and kindly toward God's heritage. As God sees that His children manifest compassion toward those who are poor and needy, He will bless them as faithful stewards.

"Moreover, brethren," writes the apostle Paul, "we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, if faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. . . . For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

To a youthful ruler who inquired of Him, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered, "Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." This was not a hard requirement; for the ruler's property was not his own; it had been intrusted to him by the Lord. The choice was left with him; he must decide for himself. Did he accept the eternal treasure, or did he decide to gratify his desire for earthly treasure, and in so doing, refuse the eternal riches?--When he heard Christ's words, "he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions." He chose the earthly good, and lost the eternal weight of glory.

Individually we are tried as was the young ruler. God tests us to see if, as stewards, we can safely be trusted with the eternal riches. Shall we do as the ruler did,--fasten our grasp upon the treasures lent us by God, choosing that which appears most agreeable to the natural heart, and refusing to use our possessions as God plainly states He expects us to, or shall we take up our cross and follow our Saviour in the path of self-denial?

Millions of people in our world are making the choice of the young ruler. They have intelligence, but they cannot decide to be honest stewards of their Lord's goods. Many say, "I will bless and glorify myself; I will be honored as a man above his fellows." Jesus paid the price for their redemption; for their sake He became poor, that they might be rich; and yet, though wholly dependent on Him for all their earthly possessions, they refuse to do His will by showing love to their fellow men. They are not willing to alleviate the necessities of those around them with the means the Lord has placed in their hands for this purpose. They refuse to appropriate the Lord's capital for the benefit of those around them, and hold fast to their possessions. Like the ruler, they refuse the heavenly treasure, and choose that which is agreeable to themselves. By such selfishness they prove themselves unworthy of the eternal riches. They show that they are unfit for a place in the kingdom of God; if they were allowed to enter there, they would, like the great apostate, claim everything as if they had created it, and would spoil heaven by their covetousness.

Moses was called upon to choose between the world and God. Two conflicting objects were placed before him. The treasures of Egypt, the honor of a temporal crown, and the consequences that would follow his choice, were presented by the prince of this world. The opposite side was presented by the Prince of light, the world's Redeemer. He held out the recompense of reward, viewed by the eye of faith, and the path of affliction, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, that must be traveled in order to gain this reward.

The decision was left with Moses. As a free moral agent, he was at liberty to choose. All heaven was interested in the matter. What would be his choice,-- obedience to God, with the eternal recompense of reward, or obedience to that most agreeable to his own will? "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." This is a lesson for all who would have correct ideas of true service. We must not venture to remain where our associations will tend to draw us from God, and to obscure our view of the reward of obedience.

There is no saving faith in Christ only as it is revealed by obedience. Every human being is under a solemn responsibility to obey God. His present and eternal happiness depends upon his willing obedience to all God's requirements. Man's will and inclination are to be wholly yielded to God. When this is done, man will co-operate with the Lord, showing, by precept and example, that he has chosen to be, in all his ways, under the control of his Maker.

God rejoices when, like Moses, His children choose to serve Him rather than to enjoy the pleasures of this world. Could the curtain be rolled back, could men behold the angelic host as they glorify God with songs of gladness and rejoicing, they would realize that obedience ever causes joy, and disobedience sorrow. God and the angels rejoice over every victory gained by the Christian, but when temptation overcomes the soul, there is sorrow in heaven.

Men are tested while in this world by the society they choose, and by the attributes of character they develop. All who belong to the kingdom of Christ are of one family. They love God supremely, and their neighbors as themselves. "Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also,"--the grace of Christian liberality. "To do good and to communicate forget not." By this communicating the apostle means Christian liberality. God desires that the bounties He has freely given to His children be communicated to those who do not possess so many temporal blessings. By this communication, by the utterance of kindly words, accompanied with deeds of love, those who work for God will find entrance to hearts, and win others to Christ. This part of religion we are not to forget; "for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

"Charge them that are rich in this world," continues the apostle, "that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate." God would have those whom He has blessed with means take of their abundance, and relieve the necessities of the poor, giving of their means to help the needy. As they do this, they receive their reward; for they are "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

God's children should be educated to see that God has claims upon them. All our supplies come from Him. As regularly as the seasons come round, He gives us the harvest of the earth. His liberality is constant and systematic; and our returns to Him are to be made in accordance with the gifts which day by day He bestows upon us. The steady, unfailing flow of Jehovah's goodness testifies of His love and benevolence. Then shall we not, with hearts filled with gratitude for all His blessings, respond by giving Him what He claims in tithes and offerings?

All classes are intrusted with the Lord's gifts, and none are exempt from the work of Christian beneficence. There will be those who by their unfaithfulness will make God's benevolence to them a curse. Let us carefully follow God's directions in this work, and as we do this, He will supply grace for every time of need; for He is acquainted with the desires of the human heart to follow a wrong course, and with the temptations that surround us. Let us carry out God's requirements by imparting our blessings to others, not from compulsion, but because He has, for our own good, made us a part of His firm. He has ordained that we shall sustain and carry forward His work by an active, living benevolence, which has for its foundation a "Thus saith the Lord." In His strength we can do this; for He is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we, "always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." -

The Need of a Revival and a Reformation

"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

I am instructed to say that these words are applicable to Seventh-day Adventist churches in their present condition. The love of God has been lost, and this means the absence of love for one another. Self, self, self, is cherished, and is striving for the supremacy. How long is this to continue? Unless there is a reconversion, there will soon be such a lack of godliness that the Church will be represented by the barren fig tree. Great light has been given to her. She has had abundant opportunity for bearing much fruit. But selfishness has come in, and God says, "I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

Jesus looked upon the pretentious, fruitless fig tree, and with mournful reluctance pronounced the words of doom. And under the curse of an offended God, the fig tree withered away. God help His people to make an application of this lesson while there is still time.

Just before His ascension, Christ said to His disciples, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." God's people to-day are not fulfilling this commission as they should. Selfishness prevents them from receiving these words in their solemn significance.

In many hearts there seems to be scarcely a breath of spiritual life. This makes me very sad. I fear that aggressive warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil has not been maintained. Shall we cheer on, by a half-dead Christianity, the selfish, covetous spirit of the world, sharing its ungodliness and smiling on its falsehood?--Nay! By the grace of God let us be steadfast to the principles of truth, holding firm to the end the beginning of our confidence. We are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." One is our Master, even Christ. To Him we are to look. From Him we are to receive our wisdom. By His grace we are to preserve our integrity, standing before God in meekness and contrition, and representing Him to the world.

Sermons have been in great demand in our churches. The members have depended upon pulpit declamations instead of on the Holy Spirit. Uncalled for and unused, the spiritual gifts bestowed on them have dwindled into feebleness. If the ministers would go forth into new fields, the members would be obliged to bear responsibilities, and by use their capabilities would increase.

God brings against ministers and people the heavy charge of spiritual feebleness, saying, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children.

A revival and a reformation must take place, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Revival and reformation are two different things. Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend.

"Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Christ gave His life for a fallen race, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps. To him who does this will be spoken the words of approval, "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

The word of the Lord never represses activity. It increases man's usefulness by guiding his activities in the right direction. The Lord does not leave man without an object of pursuit. He places before him an immortal inheritance, and gives him ennobling truth, that he may advance in a safe and sure path, in pursuit of that which is worth the consecration of his highest capabilities,--a crown of everlasting life.

Man will increase in power as he follows on to know the Lord. As he endeavors to reach the highest standard, the Bible is as a light to guide his footsteps homeward. In that word he finds that he is a joint heir with Christ to an eternal treasure. The Guidebook points him to the unsearchable riches of heaven. By following on to know the Lord, he is securing never-ending happiness. Day by day the peace of God is his reward, and by faith he sees a home of everlasting sunshine, free from all sorrow and disappointment. God directs his footsteps, and keeps him from falling.

God loves His Church. There are tares mingled with the wheat, but the Lord knows His own. "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

Shall not the counsel of Christ have an effect on the churches? Why halt, ye who know the truth, between two opinions? "If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him." Christ's followers have no right to stand on the ground of neutrality. There is more hope of an open enemy than of one who is neutral.

Let the Church respond to the words of the prophet, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee."

God's people have lost their first love. They must now repent and make steady advancement in the path of holiness. God's purposes reach to every phase of life. They are immutable, eternal; and at the time appointed they will be executed. For a time it may seem that Satan has all the power in his hands; but our trust is in God. When we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, and will work with mighty power to accomplish His gracious purposes.

God rebukes His people for their sins, that He may humble them, and lead them to seek His face. As they reform, and His love reviews in their hearts, His loving answers will come to their requests. He will strengthen them in reformatory action, lifting up for them a standard against the enemy. His rich blessing will rest upon them, and in bright rays they will reflect the light of heaven. Then a multitude not of their faith, seeing that God is with His people, will unite with them in serving the Redeemer. -

The Need of Medical Missionaries

The Lord's people are to be as true as steel to principle. He has pointed out the work devolving on every church-member. He declares that the church-members are faithfully to do their duty to those within their own borders. They are generously to support their own poor. They are to engage in systematic missionary work, teaching their children to keep the way of the Lord, and to do judgment and justice.

But the light which for years has been before the churches has been disregarded. The work that ought to have been done for suffering humanity in every church has not been done. Church-members have failed to heed the word of the Lord, and this has deprived them of an experience they should have gained in gospel work.

There is a great work to be done in the cities throughout the States, and especially in the cities of the Southern States, so many of which are unworked. In this work there are many difficulties to meet, and the Lord calls for wise and understanding workers, who will surmount these difficulties. Little can be done in large cities unless the workers are humble and teachable, daily looking to the Lord for guidance.

Many have stood off to criticise and condemn; but what have they done to help in the great necessity? Had those claiming to believe the truth taken up the work of health reform, and gone forth to do missionary work in the cities of the South, a harvest of souls would have been gathered for the Lord. Men and women ought to be working in this field, preparing colored workers to labor for the colored people. This work must be done with the greatest caution. No careless, headstrong movements should be made. Medical missionary work,--Christlike ministry for the suffering,--this is the work that will remove the mist of ignorance and superstition which for so long has hung over the Southern field.

If God's workers had labored in new fields as they should, if they had done medical missionary work as they should, much fruit would now be seen in places that are yet barren. Had they sought the Lord diligently, He would have given them places in which to work.

The instruction the Lord has given me is that a field should not be shunned because it has objectionable features. This world was seared and marred by the curse, but still Christ came to it. He, the Son of the most high God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us. He willingly left His high command to take His place at the head of a fallen race, becoming poor, that through His poverty we might be made rich. He is the greatest medical missionary who ever blessed the world. He gave His disciples practical lessons, teaching them how to work in such a way that souls would be made glad in the truth. Constantly He went about doing good, sympathizing with the weary, the heavy laden, the oppressed, feeding the hungry and healing the sick. By His loving words and kindly deeds, He interpreted the gospel. Intelligence and virtue marked His work. Benevolence, compassion, and love were revealed wherever He went. He gave His life to save the world. His example rebukes our half-hearted efforts. How can He acknowledge us as laborers together with Him?

We read of Christ, "And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. . . . And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them."

The Lord continually performed deeds of loving ministry, and this every minister of the gospel should do. He has appointed us to be His ambassadors, to carry forward His work in the world. To every true, self-sacrificing worker is given the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Read carefully the instruction given in the New Testament. The work that the Great Teacher did in connection with His disciples is the example we are to follow in our medical missionary work. But have we followed this example? The glad tidings of salvation are to be proclaimed in every village, town, and city. But where are the missionaries? In the name of God I ask, Where are the laborers together with God?

It is only by an unselfish interest in those in need of help that we can give a practical demonstration of the truths of the gospel. "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Much more than mere sermonizing is included in preaching the gospel. The ignorant are to be enlightened; the discouraged are to be uplifted; the sick are to be healed. The human voice is to act its part in God's work. Words of tenderness, sympathy, and love are to witness to the truth. Earnest, heartfelt prayers are to bring the angels near.

The evangelization of the world is the work that God has given to those who go forth in His name. They are to be co-laborers with Christ, revealing to those ready to perish His tender, pitying love. God calls for thousands to work for Him, not by preaching to those who know the truth, going over and over the same ground, but by warning those who have never heard the last message of mercy. Work, with a heart filled with an earnest longing for souls. Do medical missionary work. Thus you will gain access to the hearts of the people. The way will be prepared for more decided proclamation of the truth. You will find that relieving their physical suffering gives you opportunity to minister to their spiritual needs.

The Lord will give you success in this work; for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation when it is interwoven with the practical life, when it is lived and practiced. The union of Christlike work for the body and Christlike work for the soul is the true interpretation of the gospel. -

Preach in Regions Beyond

"Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."

I would present before you the necessity of seeking most earnestly t heed the counsel of the True Witness; for now, "in this thy day," is your opportunity. The message to the Laodicean Church is applicable to all who have had great light and many opportunities, and yet have not appreciated them. "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire [the gold of faith and love], that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment [the righteousness of Christ], that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Unless missionaries shall constantly seek to reach a higher standard, they will become "lukewarm," "neither cold nor hot," and ready to be spewed out of the mouth of God. Unless they have a living connection with Him, they will mingle self and common, earthly practices and habits with the sacred, holy principles of truth. The truth should be placed before the people in its true, elevated position. All should constantly seek for the true faith that works, not by an earth-born, emotional element, but by love that purifies the soul. This love cleanses the soul-temple from pride, and expels every idol from the throne of the heart.

God is not glorified by those who claim to be missionaries, and who yet center their affections upon human beings to such an extent that they cherish inordinate affection, and commit the sin of idolatry. This quality of love is entirely selfish, and diverts the mind and draws the affection from God. Great activity on the part of such workers does not manifest that they have genuine religion. Let us listen to the voice of God. The word of inspiration says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. . . . And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth." "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. . . . Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."

You must be doers of the word, and possess that love that was manifested in the life and character of Christ. This love is no narrow, selfish affection. You are to be constrained by this love "to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth."

The Gospel Minister's Work

The work ever before the minister of Christ is to preach the gospel with earnest fidelity to them that are nigh, and to them that are in the "regions beyond." This involves self-denial, and necessitates cross-bearing. This kind of work that will lead us both to be faithful home missionaries and to press forward into new fields, must be carried on more and more as we near the close of earth's history. The gospel is not to be restricted to any time, nor confined to any place. The world is the field for the gospel minister, and the whole human family is his congregation. When he has finished giving a discourse, his work is only just entered upon; for the word of life is to be presented from house to house. The truth must be carried from city to city, from street to street, from family to family. Every method by which access may be gained to the homes of the people must be tried; for the messenger must become acquainted with the people. The truth must be carried from province to province, from kingdom to kingdom. The highways and byways must be thoroughly gleaned, and the message must spread from continent to continent until the whole earth is belted with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ministers and missionaries must ever keep in view the "regions beyond." The Saviour has said of His people, "Ye are the light of the world." The truth is to be proclaimed, the light is to shine forth in clear, steady rays. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, whole-heartedness, must be put into the work; the light must shine forth until precious souls are brought to take their stand on the Lord's side. Then the worker is to press on into the "regions beyond," where souls are to be gathered, and precious light shine amidst the moral darkness that enshrouds the people. Thus must the truth be preached until the minds of those who sit in darkness, as under the pall of death, are enlightened, elevated, and broadened. Every worker must stand at his post of duty, not only to preach, but to come close to souls, to become acquainted with them at their homes, as did Jesus, working unselfishly, devotedly, until the work is nicely bound off. When one company is raised up to carry light to the community, openings will be seen, inviting the laborers into the "regions beyond." The workers for God will ever be pressing onward, ever depending upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The minister or missionary and his wife must be vitalized by the Holy Spirit, leaving the things that are behind, and ever pressing onward and upward. The minister's wife may do a large work, if she realizes her dependence upon Christ, and finds Him to be her full sufficiency. It is poor work that any of us can do, even though we consecrate every ability to God. But if we do not thus consecrate ourselves, we become stumbling-blocks. I would urge upon all the necessity of aiming to reach the highest standard in spirituality. A form of godliness has but little value, indeed it is a positive curse when the heart is unrenewed, unregenerated. Great responsibilities rest upon the missionary's wife. A great deal will depend upon whether she is gathering heavenly treasures, or allowing her mind to grasp things of trifling importance. If she is dwelling upon heavenly things, she will have the true missionary spirit; her love for souls will flow out in copious streams, and will constrain her to seek and to save that which is lost.

Labor among the Churches

The Lord will not approve of ministers' spending much of their time with churches that already believe the truth. When they preach to those who understand the truth for this time, and labor with them, devoting their time to the flock, they teach the people to depend upon them in their various perplexities. It is needful that our churches should be visited by ministers, but the churches must not expect that the minister is to hold them up, and make them believe. By such a course, the church is weakened rather than strengthened. Ministers have a work to do that will call them forth from believing companies; for they are to preach in "regions beyond," and bear the warning message to those who have never heard the truth for this time.

The end of all things is at hand, and a world is to be warned. Eternity must be urged upon the people. Their attention must be called away from the things of this world, and attracted to everlasting realities. It is a time when the most poisonous errors are prevailing among men, working the destruction of souls. May God bless His messengers who feel the burden and the importance of the message which He has given them to bear to the world.

In all his labors, let the minister educate his hearers from the very first. Let him present to them the precious pearls of truth, and not confine his work to mere sermonizing, but let him minister to the people. Let him visit his hearers at their homes, not waiting for invitations, but going as one sent of God. Let him invite himself to the people's homes, in meekness and humbleness of mind seeking admission, and then present to them a sin-pardoning Saviour. The minister, when visiting at the homes of the people, is not to spend the precious time in mere talk upon common themes of conversation, but he is to watch for an opportunity to introduce them to his best Friend. Too often men and women are indifferent and careless in regard to that which concerns their spiritual interests, but even to this class, a word in season may be as seed dropped into good soil.

Necessity of Personal Work

Every one has his work. Paul said to Timothy, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." The ministers of Jesus Christ will have more than a mere casual interest for the people. They will seek to know the state of their spiritual being, even as a physician seeks to understand the physical difficulties of his patients. They will engage in personal conversation, and adapt their counsel to every individual case according to the need of the soul. This personal work cannot be looked upon as of secondary importance. The minister is the Lord's appointed under-shepherd to the flock of God, and it is his business to minister to the sin-sick, tempted, and erring. This very work is needed among all classes and in all places. It is the character of the work to be done in "regions beyond." In different places are families, and individual members of families, who have left their native land, and are sojourners and strangers in a strange land. In leaving their own country and coming to a new place, they have failed to form new church relations, and have grown cold to their best Friend, and have drawn away from Him at the very time when they most needed His presence. They have given up calling upon their strong and mighty Helper, because many perplexities have engaged their minds, and cares have come in between their souls and Jesus, who has assured them that He is a present help in every time of need. They do not pray, they do not lay hold upon Him who is mighty to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, believing that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. This class need Jesus, and the ministers should educate them, pointing them, as did John, to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." If they will only come to Jesus, He will hear them. Present to such souls, not doctrinal points, but a living Saviour, and open to them the Scriptures, showing them the way to find Jesus, Him who has promised to heal all their backslidings; thus great good may be accomplished.

If ministers who are called upon to preach the most solemn message ever given to mortals, evade the truth, they are unfaithful in their work, and are false shepherds to the sheep and the lambs. The assertions of man are of no value. Let the word of God speak to the people. Let those who have heard only traditions and maxims of men, hear the voice of God, whose promises are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus. If the character and deportment of the shepherd is a living epistle to the people of the truth which he advocates, the Lord will set His seal to the work. True friendships will be formed with the people, and the shepherd and the flock will become one, united by a common hope in Christ Jesus.

The love of Christ is not a fitful feeling, but a living principle, and it is not only to be expressed in words, but to be lived out in the life, and to be made manifest as an abiding power in the heart. Where this love exists, there will be unity, and in unity there is strength. The love of Christ warms the heart of both teacher and learners, and they are quickened together by the Holy Spirit. They all drink from the same fountain, and are all moved by the motive power that comes from love to Christ, which is revealed in good works for Jesus Christ and for those who are purchased by the infinite price of His own precious blood. When love wanes in the Church, it is a sure testimony that ministers and people have lost their first love, and that they need to hear the words of the True Witness as He says, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." -

Laborers Together With God

"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." And "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." When He gave Jesus to our world, He included all heaven in that one gift. He did not leave us to retain our defects and deformities of character, or to serve Him as best we could in the corruption of our sinful nature. He has made provision that we may be complete in His Son, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. In Christ the whole storehouse of knowledge and of grace is at our command; for in Him dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

Christ has given His life for us; we are His property. "Know ye not," He says, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." God's children are to show their love for Him by meeting His requirements, by giving themselves to Him. Then only can He use them in His service, that others, through them, may discern the truth and rejoice in it.

But the people of God are asleep to their present and eternal good. The Lord says to them, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." He desires them to go to work in unity, in faith, and love. He desires that the work of reformation shall begin in the home, with the fathers and mothers, and then the Church will realize the Holy Spirit's working. The influence of this work will go through the Church like leaven. Fathers and mothers need converting. They have not educated themselves to mold and fashion the characters of their children aright.

As God's ministers, dear parents, you must use the precious remnant of time in doing the work He has left for you. He desires that by wise methods in your home you shall train your children for Him. Learn of Jesus; be doers of His word. When you do this, you will not become angry at things that take place in the home. Harshness and threats do no good. Parents must be kind if they would teach their children to love Jesus as their best friend.

Religion to Be Made Attractive

Children need to have religion made attractive, not repulsive. The hour of family worship should be made the happiest hour of the day. Let the reading of the Scriptures be well chosen and simple; let the children join in singing; and let the prayers be short, and right to the point.

The minister alone cannot do the work that needs to be done for our churches. The members must have the savor of salt in themselves. But if the salt has lost its savor, how can the families be salted? how can they be preserved from the corruptions and immorality that exist in this age? "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh."

Christ is our pattern. In Him was perfection of character,--of outward manner, and inward grace. He never spoke a discourteous word; He was meek and lowly in heart. When He saw the hypocrisy, the deception, and the wicked devising of the priests and rulers, when He saw them misleading the people by false interpretation of the Scriptures, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, he was indignant at their boldness and their false statements. He could discern in all this the working of satanic agencies. It was Satan and his angels whom He had to meet in the specious, deceptive reasonings of priests and rulers. Keen and searching were His denunciations of sin. He had a holy wrath against the prince of darkness; but He manifested no irritated temper.

Christ knew with whom He was contending; Satan knew whom he was resisting. Our Redeemer wrestled not against flesh and blood, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

The follower of Christ will have these same agencies to meet. In his efforts to help his fellow beings, he will be opposed by the unseen forces of evil. But Christ has said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Consider, my brethren and sisters, that you are in the service of God, that you have access to One who is a present help in every time of need. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

How to Become Fruitful Branches

Christ says to His Church, "Ye are the light of the world." If each would let his light shine in the home, he would then be able to work earnestly for the Church. But the Christian is powerless unless he is in living connection with Christ. It is only through its connection with the vine, that the branch can bring forth the same fruit as does the vine. "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." This is the fruit that every branch which is grafted into the True Vine will bear. There will be no pomposity, no rash, independent, self-sufficient movements. No envy or jealousy, no evil surmisings or harsh denunciations, will be manifested by any who love Jesus. There will be no crowding, no climbing above one another; for there is room for all to work.

"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." This kind of fruit is not borne by the branch that abides in the Vine. "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. . . . But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

Through the apostle Peter the Holy Spirit admonishes us: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

By living and working upon this plan of addition, we shall receive the rich grace of God. For as we, with the grace given, work to benefit other souls in need, God will work in our behalf on the plan of multiplication: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

A Call to Service

Will God's people listen to His voice speaking to them through His word? will they take the instruction that comes from the source of all light? Will they receive the Holy Spirit's teaching? In the words of Scripture I have quoted is a sermon for every member of the Church. Will you receive it, and profit by it? Will you be wise in your conception of what constitutes Christian character and Christian experience? Will you hear and receive the truth because it is truth? Will you have the faith that works by love, and purifies the soul from every spiritual defilement?

The Lord is coming. This earth's history is soon to close. Are you prepared to meet the Judge of all the earth? Bear in mind that "he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy." How terrible it will be in the last great day to find that those with whom we have been familiarly associated are separated from us forever; to see the members of our family, perhaps our own children, unsaved; to find those who have visited our homes, and eaten at our tables, among the lost. Then we shall ask ourselves the question, Was it because of my impatience, my unchristlike disposition; was it because self was not under control, that the religion of Christ became distasteful to them?

The world must be warned of the soon coming of the Lord. We have but a little time in which to work. Years have passed into eternity that might have been improved in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and in diffusing the light to others. God now calls upon His people who have great light, and are established in the truth, having had much labor bestowed upon them, to work for themselves and for others as they have never done before. Make use of every ability; bring into exercise every power, every intrusted talent; use all the light that God has given you to do others good. Do not try to be preachers, but become ministers for God. As the truth is better understood, it will ever appear in a more striking light; as you seek to enlighten others, with your mind under the holy influence of the Spirit of God, your attention will be directed toward those things that are of eternal interest. In such efforts, mingled with prayer for divine light, your own hearts will throb with the quickening influence of the grace of God; your own affections will glow with more divine fervor, and your whole Christian life will be more of a reality, more earnest, more prayerful. Thus with Christ abiding in the heart, you may become laborers together with God. -

Opinion and Practice to Be Conformed to God's Word

Those who desire to know the truth have nothing to fear from the investigation of the word of God. But upon the threshold of investigation of the word of God, inquirers after truth should lay aside all prejudice, and hold in abeyance all preconceived opinion, and open the ear to hear the voice of God from His messenger. Cherished opinions, long-practiced customs and habits, are to be brought to the test of the Scriptures; and if the word of God opposes your views, then, for your soul's sake, do not wrest the Scriptures, as many do to their soul's destruction in order to make them seem to bear a testimony in favor of their errors. Let your inquiry be, What is truth? not, What have I hitherto believed to be truth? Do not interpret the Scriptures in the light of your former belief, and assert that some doctrine of finite man is truth. Let your inquiry be, What saith the Scriptures? Let God speak to you from His living oracles, and open your heart to receive the word of God.

Many are following the traditions of men; but as the traditions of men are erroneous, and no error has sanctifying power, their souls are not sanctified to God. Yet they hold on to the doctrines of men with firm tenacity, and will not be moved by the testimony of Scripture. They have been educated to believe falsehood, and they use every ingenious method to make it appear that the Bible supports them in their position of error, making falsehood appear to be truth. But the first work to be done by those who would know the truth, is to open the Bible with a determined purpose to conform to the requirements of the word of God, establishing their faith upon "It is written." Make up your mind that your former theories must change if they are not in harmony with the doctrines of the Bible. You are called upon to put forth diligent effort to discover what is truth. This should not be thought a hard requirement; for men are called upon to toil for their temporal and earthly blessings, and it is not to be expected that we shall find the heavenly treasure unless we are willing to dig in the mines of truth, and exercise all our powers of mind and heart to understand.

We thank God for the Bible; for it is the treasure-house of knowledge, and it is the duty and privilege of every son and daughter of Adam to search the pages of both the Old and the New Testament with diligence, in order that all may know what are the terms of salvation. We are to explore the sacred word as a miner searches the earth, and examines the rocks for hidden treasures, for the gold and the silver concealed in the veins of the mountains. Those who come to the searching of the sacred mine of truth with a humble and teachable spirit, will soon discover jewels of truth that will reward the earnest seeker. The Bible contains the science of salvation, and directs the way to Christ. Do you want to know more of the character of God? then bear in mind that the Bible gives the revelation of Him in the character of Jesus Christ. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

How to Read God's Word

Beware lest you read the word of God in the light of erroneous teaching. It was on this very ground that the Jews made their fatal mistake. They declared that there must be no different interpretation placed upon the Scriptures than that which had been given by the rabbis in former years; and as they had multiplied their traditions and maxims, and had clothed them with sacredness, the word of God was made of no effect through their traditions; and if Jesus Christ, the Word of God, had not come into the world, men would have lost all knowledge of the true God. Christ was the light of the world. All the communications of the Old Testament were from Jesus Christ; but the rabbis, the scribes, and the Pharisees had perverted the meaning of the Scriptures, and while pretending to be worshipers of God, they held to their own tradition. Christ said of them, "In vain they do worship me, teaching the doctrines the commandments of men." "Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and men that walk over them are not aware of them. . . . Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them."

He told them that they made the commandments of God of no effect through their tradition. The requirements of men were placed where the requirements of God should have been, and Jesus charged them with being ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. It is Satan's studied plan to pervert the Scriptures, and to lead men to put a false construction on the words of God. He has led the Roman Church to take a position that the Bible is to be read in the light of the interpretation of the Fathers and of the Church, and therefore the Lord cannot penetrate the minds of the members of this Church until they read the Bible as the word of the infinite God. All articles of faith, all doctrines and creeds, however sacred they have been regarded, are to be rejected if they contradict the plain statements of the word of God. If the Bible supports the doctrine we have held in the past, we are justified in retaining it; for the word of God gives us foundation for our faith.

The holy oracles should be studied with humble hearts and earnest prayer, in order that we may bring the truth which we see plainly stated into our practical, every-day life. Thus we shall make it evident that we conform our life to the teachings of God's word. Jesus presents to us two classes who have been blessed with an understanding of divine truth. One class not only hear His sayings, but they also do them, and another class hear, but do them not. He says, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Those who see evidences of truth, and yet refuse to walk in its light, because they see that in so doing they would be obliged to make some sacrifice of opinions, of business, or of some other temporal advantage, who put aside their convictions, and reject the plain "Thus saith the Lord," and turn from the truth unto fables, misapplying and misinterpreting the Scriptures in such a way as to make them appear to sustain their errors,--these persons come under the woe pronounced upon Chorazin and Bethsaida. In the days of Christ it was this class who were approved by His words when He said, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."

Experience to be Tested by the Word

There are many who claim that they have been sanctified to God, and yet when the great standard of righteousness is presented to them, they become greatly excited, and manifest a spirit which proves that they know nothing of what it means to be sanctified. They have not the mind of Christ; for those who are truly sanctified will reverence and obey the word of God as fast as it is opened to them, and they will express a strong desire to know what is truth on every point of doctrine. An exultant feeling is no evidence of sanctification. The assertion, "I am saved, I am saved," does not prove that the soul is saved or sanctified. Many who are greatly excited are told that they are sanctified, when they have no intelligent idea of what the term means; for they know not the Scriptures nor the power of God. They flatter themselves that they are in conformity to the will of God, because they feel happy; but when they are tested, when the word of God is brought to bear upon their experience, they stop their ears from hearing the truth, saying, "I am sanctified," and that puts an end to the controversy. They will have nothing to do with searching the Scriptures to know what is truth, and prove that they are fearfully self-deceived. Sanctification means very much more than a flight of feeling. Excitement is not sanctification. Entire conformity to the will of our Father which is in heaven is alone sanctification, and the will of God is expressed in His holy law. The keeping of all the commandments of God is sanctification. Proving yourselves obedient children to God's word is sanctification. The word of God is to be our guide, not the opinions or ideas of men. Let those who would be truly sanctified search the word of God with patience, with prayer, and with humble contrition of soul. Let them remember that Jesus prayed. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

Christianity is simply living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We are to believe in, and live in, Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. We have faith in God when we believe His word; we trust and obey God when we keep His commandments; and we love God when we love His law. Believing a lie will not put any one of us in the way of being sanctified. Should all the ministers in the world tell us that we were safe in disobeying a single precept of the holy standard of righteousness, it would not lessen our obligations, nor make our guilt less, if we reject a plain "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not." We need not think that because our fathers did a certain way, and died happy, we may follow in their footsteps, and be accepted in rendering the same service, and doing the same works, that they did. We have had more light than they had in their day; and if we would be accepted of God, we must be as faithful in obeying the light and walking in it as they were in receiving and obeying the light that God sent to them. We must accept and improve the light that shines upon our pathway, as faithfully as they accepted and improved the light that fell upon their pathway in their generation. We shall be judged according to the light that shines into the soul-temple in our day; and if we follow the light, we shall be free men and women in Christ Jesus.

Instruction to Church Members

In the Church to-day there are tares among the wheat. Christ declared: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. . . .

"Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house: and His disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Read this instruction carefully, doing all in your power to understand the parable. The Holy Spirit will impress the minds of those who desire a clear comprehension of this parable.

How the Growth of the Gospel Seed is Hindered

The Saviour said again: "Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."

Those who do not follow true Christian principles, whose natural and cultivated tendencies to wrong have not been changed by the grace of God, have no root in themselves; and therefore they lose the interest which they once felt in the truth. They return to their sinful practices. They may continue to make a profession of Christianity, but they do not honor the truth. They do not go on from grace to grace. For a time they are neither cold nor hot, but they finally become hardened to all good impressions. They grow careless, worldly, inattentive. They hear the truth, but do not receive it. Of this class Christ says: "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Of Chorazin and Bethsaida, cities in which so many of Christ's mighty works were done, which were exalted to heaven by being honored with His presence, the Saviour declared: "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."

Those who have been favored with great light and many opportunities, but who have not accepted the light nor improved the opportunities, who have not followed correct principles in dealing with their brethren or with unbelievers, will receive punishment in accordance with their sin. They will meet with some sad surprises in the last great day, when every case shall be brought up in review before God. In their record they will see that which will fill them with shame, but nothing can be changed. All is beyond recall.

Christ has made every provision for the sanctification of His Church. He has made abundant provision for every soul to have such grace and strength that he will be more than a conqueror in the warfare against sin. The Saviour is wounded afresh and put to open shame when His people pay no heed to His word. He came to this world and lived a sinless life, that in His power His people might also live lives of sinlessness. He desires them by practicing the principles of truth to show to the world that God's grace has power to sanctify the heart.

Church Members Are to Help One Another

Christ has given direction for their guidance, declaring that they are to show Christian interest in one another. If one commits sin, do not talk of it among yourselves. Go first to the one who has offended. "Tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Do church members obey this word? Suppose that in every institution established among us, in publishing houses, sanitariums, and schools, God's people had sought to understand and follow His plan, as it is outlined in the Old and New Testaments. Suppose that the instruction given by Christ to the children of Israel had been woven into the life-practice. Would not we as a people stand to-day on vantage ground?

The instruction given in Matthew presents the work that must be done to keep the Church purified from error and defilement. The brethren in the Church are to be faithful to one another, and this is in every sense applicable to the sisters also. When you bring an offering to God, ask yourself, Am I cherishing wrong feelings toward any of my brethren in the faith? If you are, do all in your power to be reconciled to the one with whom you are at variance.

It is a sin to cherish anger against a brother or a sister in the Church. Christ treats anger as murder. He declares, "I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause" -- O, how much there is of this in the Church to-day! -- "shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." God has a controversy with that man. He thinks he has occasion for feeling angry, for calling his brother raca, "vain fellow;" but these passionate words are a savor of death unto death. He who utters them is not co-operating with God, but with Satan. In heaven his wicked railing is placed in the same list as swearing. -

Instruction to Church Members [Concluded]

Many things that do not now appear in a correct light, will be made plain in the day of the Lord. But the question of forgiveness needs not to be interpreted. There is never a time when it is right for you or me to say, "I will not forgive my brother; I will not walk in fellowship with him." He who does this places himself in opposition to the teachings of Christ. If your brother does you an injustice ignorantly, and then holds out the hand of fellowship, saying, "If I have erred and have done you an injury, forgive me," and you draw away from him, refusing to forgive, you walk away from the great Counselor, and need yourself to repent and be forgiven.

If he does you an injury knowingly, and afterward repents, saying, "Forgive me," it is not for you to turn away, refusing to forgive because you may think that he does not feel humble enough, and does not mean what he says. You have no right to judge him, for you cannot read the heart.

If a brother errs, forgive him if he asks you. If he is not humble enough to ask, forgive him in your heart, and express your forgiveness in word and action. Then the weight of his sin will not in any degree rest on you. "Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." "If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." And we are not only to forgive seven times, but seventy times seven. Just as often as God forgives us, we are to forgive one another.

One man is never to say to another, "When I see that you have reformed, then I will forgive you." This is not God's plan. This is in accordance with the promptings of human nature. By showing that you do not desire fellowship with your brother, you not only hurt his soul and your own, but you also wound and bruise the heart of Christ.

While hatred is cherished, there is not an iota of love in the heart; therefore when a man has an offering to present to God, he is to clear away all hatred, that his path may not be blocked. If he humbles his heart before God, confessing his mistake in giving way to the passion which opened the door for Satan to enter and take control of the mind, God will forgive his sin and accept his offering.

Christ sees that little heed is paid to his instruction. His people come to him in prayer, asking favors of him, while at the same time they are cherishing hatred against their brethren, not only thinking, but speaking evil of them. God cannot bless them; for they refuse to put out of the way that which causes discord and variance. They would not appreciate the blessing of God should he give it to them as they desire.

O how much better it would be if church members would humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, seeking to remove everything that hinders pure, loving fellowship. Christ points his followers to the path of self-sacrifice and self-surrender. Those who walk in this path not only help themselves, but help their brethren and sisters, clearing away the cloud of misunderstanding which Satan throws across the pathway.

My brethren and sisters, prepare the way, that you may come to God and be forgiven. Act your part in the work of confession. It is not your brother's sin that you are to confess, but your own. In doing this, you are making straight paths for his feet, and softened and subdued, he will fall on the Rock, and be broken. And the Lord will look with pleasure on the offerings brought to him.

Study the Saviour's words, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case" -- whatever your position -- "enter into the kingdom of heaven." The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was of a selfish character, consisting of external forms. The righteousness which God requires is internal as well as external. The heart must be purified, else Christ cannot be enthroned there. The life must be conformed to the will of God.

There is no need to marvel that the church is not vivified by the Holy Spirit's power. Men and women are setting aside the instruction Christ has given. Anger and covetousness are obtaining the victory. The soul-temple is full of wickedness. There is no room for Christ. Men follow their own perverse ways. They will not heed the words of the Saviour. They take themselves into their own hands, rejecting reproofs and warnings, until the candlestick is moved out of its place, and spiritual discernment is confused by human ideas. Though deficient in service, they justify themselves, saying, "The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are we." They set the law of God aside to follow the light of their own imagination.

God is true to his covenant with his people. His word is infallible. His people bring suffering on themselves by forsaking his counsel for their own human wisdom. It is impossible for their prayers to reach his throne, because the rebellion of disobedience is the substance of their petitions. Christ came from heaven to teach the word which his Father committed to him for the fallen members of his family. Those who hear and obey walk in safe paths, under the protection of the Lord of heaven. Through the power of Christ they are victorious over every foe. Those who do faithful, unselfish service for God will be blessed in their unity, as they work in obedience to Jehovah.

When the church allows within her borders those who are working on lines of worldly ambition, when church members cherish feelings of animosity toward one another, God is greatly dishonored. He cannot bless them with grace and power while they continue in sin, and therefore, unwatered by his grace, they become dry and spiritless. God has given all power to his Son to give to his people as largely as they prepare themselves for its reception. This power is in every way adapted to the necessities of perishing sinners, and God will use the members of his church as his helping hand, if they will place themselves where they can be used. But he does not communicate through impure channels; for this would dishonor his holy name.

All who love Jesus will search the Scriptures, that they may know and obey his will. Christ will be to them a very present help in time of need; for God's power is pledged to faithfulness. He will fulfill his word to all who are true. Christ triumphs in the triumph of his people; therefore prepare his way, that he may bestow his richest gifts on his church.

Tell in every church what the individual members must be and do if they work successfully. In God alone is our strength. In quietness and forbearance we shall conquer. Those who reveal the patience of Christ will obtain deliverance. But those who forsake the way of the Lord, marking out new methods and following human surmisings, will surely lie down in sorrow. Perversity, carried into the religious experience, will place them outside the city of God.

"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. . . . I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." -

The Evidence of Apostleship

"Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?"

These words were written by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church. Some had charged Paul with self-commendation in writing his former epistle. Paul refers to this by asking the members of the church if they thus judge his motives. Did he or his fellow laborers need any recommendation or testimony as to their Christian character? There were those who had come to Corinth with letters of commendation from other churches; but the leading workers, the founders of these churches, the apostles of Christ, had no need of such commendation. The Corinthians, who had been led from the worship of idols to the faith of the gospel, were themselves all the recommendation Paul needed. Their reception of the truth, and the reformation seen in their lives in response to the labors of the apostle, was a testimony that spoke to all nations, tongues, and peoples.

Paul regarded the Corinthian brethren as his testimonial. He loved them; for they were the fruit of his labor. The reformation wrought in them was sufficient evidence of his authority to counsel, reprove, exhort, and command as a minister of Christ. "Ye are our epistle," he says, "written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart."

The conversion of sinners and their sanctification through the truth, is the very best proof a minister can have that God has called him to the ministry. If these evidences attend his labors, he needs no other recommendation. The evidence of his apostleship is written upon the hearts of the ones converted, and is witnessed to by their reformed lives. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. They are zealous for the truth they have received. They realize that their lives must harmonize with this truth.

True Measure of Usefulness

The usefulness of a minister of Christ is measured by the results of his labors. When men and women receive the truth, and in their lives adorn it, following the example of their Lord, they recommend the truth and the minister who presented it. The minister is greatly strengthened by these seals of his ministry.

In this age there are many preachers, but there is a great scarcity of able, holy ministers, men filled with the love that dwelt in the heart of Christ. To-day the ministers of Christ should have the same witness as that which the Corinthian church bore to Paul's ministry. But pride, self-confidence, love of the world, fault-finding, bitterness, envy, are the fruit borne by many who profess the religion of Christ. Their deportment is in sharp contrast to the character of Christ. Such an epistle, known and read of all men, is, alas, a sad testimony to the character of the ministerial labor under which these souls received their spiritual mold. With such conversions Christ had no connection. In some instances, it is true, men may dishonor God by their claim to be his followers, while the minister under whose labor they professed to receive the truth was faithful, sincere, and thorough in his work. But this is seldom the case.

There is no greater honor than to be accepted by God as an able minister of the gospel. But those whom the Lord blesses with power and success do not boast. They acknowledge their entire dependence on God, realizing that of themselves they have no power. With Paul they say, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament."

There are many ministers who lose their efficiency because they do not make God their trust. They do not depend on his strength.

Many church members act unwisely toward the minister. Often when a teacher of truth has a measure of success in his labor, he is spoiled by those for whom he has worked. Petted and praised, he begins to cherish self-admiration. Thinking that he has superior qualifications, he grows careless in regard to asking God for help. He does not watch unto prayer; and Satan obtains an easy victory over him.

The true minister does the work of the Master. He feels the importance of his work as one who has charge of the flock of God, realizing that in a degree he sustains to the church and to the world the same relation that Christ sustained. He is interested in everything that concerns the salvation of souls. He works to lead sinners from a life of sin to a nobler, higher life, that they may obtain the reward of the overcomer.

The Minister Is God's Watchman

Weighty is the responsibility resting on ministers of the gospel. The Lord calls them his watchmen. The watchmen anciently placed on the walls of the cities occupied a most important position. Upon their faithfulness depended the safety of all within the walls. When danger was apprehended, they were not to sleep day or night. Every few minutes they were required to call to one another, to see that all were awake, and that no harm had come to any. From one to another the cry of warning or good cheer was to be sounded, till it went the entire rounds of the city.

These watchmen represent the ministers of Christ, upon whose fidelity depends the salvation of souls. These ministers are to stand as watchmen on the walls of Zion, and if they see the sword coming, they are to sound the warning.

"O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me." The watchmen are to live very near to God, where they can hear his word and be impressed by his Spirit, that the people may not look to them in vain. "When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

If the man who feels that he is called of God to be a minister will humble himself and learn of Christ, he will become a true preacher. If his lips are touched with a live coal from the altar, he will lift up Jesus as the sinner's only hope. When the heart of the speaker is sanctified through the truth, his words will be living realities to himself and to others. Those who hear him will know that he has been with God, and has drawn near to him in fervent, effectual prayer. The Holy Spirit has fallen upon him, his soul has felt the vital, heavenly fire, and he is able to compare spiritual things with spiritual. Power will be given him to tear down the strongholds of Satan. Hearts will be broken by his presentation of the love of God, and many will inquire. "What must I do to be saved?" -

The Righteousness of Christ in the Law

The greatest difficulty Paul had to met arose from the influence of Judaizing teachers. These made him much trouble by causing dissension in the church at Corinth. They were continually presenting the virtues of the ceremonies of the law, exalting these ceremonies above the gospel of Christ, and condemning Paul because he did not urge them upon the new converts.

Paul met them on their own ground. "If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious," he said, "so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory."

The law of God, spoken in awful grandeur from Sinai, is the utterance of condemnation to the sinner. It is the province of the law to condemn, but there is in it no power to pardon or to redeem. It is ordained to life; those who walk in harmony with its precepts will receive the reward of obedience. But it brings bondage and death to those who remain under its condemnation.

So sacred and so glorious is the law, that when Moses returned from the holy mount, where he had been with God, receiving from his hand the tables of stone, his face reflected a glory upon which the people could not look without pain, and Moses was obliged to cover his face with a veil.

The glory that shone on the face of Moses was a reflection of the righteousness of Christ in the law. The law itself would have no glory, only that in it Christ is embodied. It has no power to save. It is lusterless only as in it Christ is represented as full of righteousness and truth.

The types and shadows of the sacrificial service, with the prophecies, gave the Israelites a veiled, indistinct view of the mercy and grace to be brought to the world by the revelation of Christ. To Moses was unfolded the significance of the types and shadows pointing to Christ. He saw to the end of that which was to be done away when, at the death of Christ, type met antitype. He saw that only though Christ can man keep the moral law. By transgression of this law man brought sin into the world, and with sin came death. Christ became the propitiation for man's sin. He proffered his perfection of character in the place of man's sinfulness. He took upon himself the curse of disobedience . The sacrifices and offerings pointed forward to the sacrifice he was to make. The slain lamb typified the Lamb that was to take away the sin of the world.

It was seeing the object of that which was to be done away, seeing Christ as revealed in the law, that illumined the face of Moses. The ministration of the law, written and engraved in stone, was a ministration of death. Without Christ, the transgressor was left under its curse, with no hope of pardon. The ministration had of itself no glory, but the promised Saviour, revealed in the types and shadows of the ceremonial law, made the moral law glorious.

The Jewish Economy Revealed Christ

Paul desires his brethren to see that the great glory of a sin-pardoning Saviour gave significance to the entire Jewish economy. He desired them to see also that when Christ came to the world, and died as man's sacrifice, type met antitype.

After Christ died on the cross as a sin offering, the ceremonial law could have no force. Yet it was connected with the moral law, and was glorious. The whole bore the stamp of divinity, and expressed the holiness, justice, and righteousness of God. And if the ministration of the dispensation to be done away was glorious, how much more must the reality be glorious, when Christ was revealed, giving his life-giving, sanctifying Spirit to all who believe?

The proclamation of the law of ten commandments was a wonderful exhibition of the glory and majesty of God. How did this manifestation of power affect the people?--They were afraid. As they saw "the thunderings, and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking," they "removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." They desired Moses to be their mediator. They did not understand that Christ was their appointed mediator, and that, deprived of his mediation, they would certainly have been consumed.

"Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."

The pardon of sin, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, access to God only through a mediator because of their lost condition their guilt and sin,--of these truths the people had little conception. In a great measure they had lost a knowledge of God and of the only way to approach him. They had lost nearly all sense of what constitutes sin and of what constitutes righteousness. The pardon of sin through Christ, the promised Messiah, whom their offerings typified, was but dimly understood.

Paul declared, "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: but their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away."

The Jews refused to accept Christ as the Messiah, and they cannot see that their ceremonies are meaningless, that the sacrifices and offerings have lost their significance. The veil drawn by themselves in stubborn unbelief is still before their minds. It would be removed if they would accept Christ, the righteousness of the law.

Many in the Christian world also have a veil before their eyes and heart. They do not see to the end of that which was done away. They do not see that it was only the ceremonial law which was abrogated at the death of Christ. They claim that the moral law was nailed to the cross. Heavy is the veil that darkens their understanding. The hearts of many are at war with God. They are not subject to his law. Only as they shall come into harmony with the rule of his government, can Christ be of any avail to them. They may talk of Christ as their Saviour; but he will finally say to them, I know you not. You have not exercised genuine repentance toward God for the transgression of his holy law, and you cannot have genuine faith in me, for it was my mission to exalt God's law.

The Moral Law a Transcript of Christ's Character

Paul did not represent either the moral or the ceremonial law as ministers in our day venture to do. Some cherish such antipathy to the law of God that they will go out of the way to denounce and stigmatize it. Thus they despise and pour contempt on the majesty and glory of God.

The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man's creation, and will endure as long as God's throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of his law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of his government. It is unchangeable, unalterable, infinite, and eternal. In order for man to be saved, and for the honor of the law to be maintained, it was necessary for the Son of God to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He died for us on Calvary. His death shows the wonderful love of God for man, and the immutability of his law.

In the sermon on the mount, Christ declared, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Christ bore the curse of the law, suffering its penalty, carrying to completion the plan whereby man was to be placed where he could keep God's law, and be accepted through the merits of the Redeemer; and by his sacrifice glory was shed upon the law. Then the glory of that which is not to be done away--God's law of ten commandments, his standard of righteousness--was plainly seen by all who saw to the end of that which was done away.

"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Christ is the sinner's advocate. Those who accept his gospel behold him with open face. They see the relation of his mission to the law, and they acknowledge God's wisdom and glory as revealed by the Saviour. The glory of Christ is revealed in the law, which is a transcript of his character, and his transforming efficacy is felt upon the soul until men become changed to his likeness. They are made partakers of the divine nature, and grow more and more like their Saviour, advancing step by step in conformity to the will of God, till they reach perfection.

The law and the gospel are in perfect harmony. Each upholds the other. In all its majesty the law confronts the conscience, causing the sinner to feel his need of Christ as the propitiation for sin. The gospel recognizes the power and immutability of the law. "I had not known sin, but by the law," Paul declares. The sense of sin, urged home by the law, drives the sinner to the Saviour. In his need man may present the mighty arguments furnished by the cross of Calvary. He may claim the righteousness of Christ; for it is imparted to every repentant sinner. God declares, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all righteousness."

An Example of Liberality

When the Lord invited Israel to contribute for the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, there was a hearty response. The people "came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation." They came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted. Men came with their gifts of gold and silver, choice fabrics, and valuable wood. The rulers brought precious stones, costly spices, and oil for the lights. "And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun." They brought "free offerings every morning," until the report was given to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make." Ex. 35:21-25; 36:3, 5. This generous-hearted, willing service was pleasing to God; and when the tabernacle was completed, he signified his acceptance of the offering. "A cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Ex. 40:34.

Akin to this example of willing service has been the work done in behalf of our schools in the publication and sale of "Christ's Object Lessons." We rejoice that so large a number of our people have given themselves to this work, and that their efforts are proving so successful. We rejoice that our conference and tract society officers have given their influence and energy to this grand enterprise, and that ministers, Bible workers, colporteurs, and church members have engaged so heartily in the special effort for the speedy relief of our schools. The generous whole-hearted way in which our publishing houses and our brethren and sisters in general have taken hold of this enterprise is well pleasing to the Lord. It is in accordance with his plan. Mrs. E. G. White. -

The Glory of the Cross

"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not."

The apostle magnifies the grace and mercy of God, shown in his miraculous conversion and in the sacred trust committed to him as a minister of Christ. By God's abundant mercy he and his brethren have been sustained in affliction, difficulty, and danger. He declares that they have not walked in craftiness, nor handled the word of God deceitfully. They have been unselfish, showing no avarice. They have not modeled their faith and teaching to suit the desires of their hearers, nor kept back truths profitable for them in order to make their teaching less offensive. They have not clouded the truths of God's word, so that their meaning should not be understood. On the contrary, feeling the importance of their calling, they have presented the truth with simplicity and clearness, praying for the conviction and conversion of souls. They have endeavored to bring their conduct into harmony with the truth presented, that this truth might commend itself to every man's conscience.

Paul knew that, by many, conviction would be thrown off, that hearts would rise up against the truth, be it presented ever so wisely. The hearts of many were blinded by prejudice and lust. They could not see the beauty of the truth. But the apostle would not permit this to discourage him in his labor. If after he had plainly presented the truth, the hearts of the people were still covered by a veil, neither the truth nor the minister presenting it were at fault.

Man's Mind Blinded by Worldliness

In this age we find men and women professing godliness who refuse to walk in the light which shows that they have greater truths to accept,--truths which involve a cross,--truths which, if accepted, would separate them from the world. They refuse to recognize the sacred claims of God's law. In an effort to justify their theories and their course, they misinterpret the plainest statements of Scripture. Filled with the love of the world, they say, "I cannot see; I cannot see."

To such are applicable the words of Paul: "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Men are crying, "Christ, Christ; give us Christ; but the law we will not acknowledge." Turning from the law, they turn from the Giver of the law, and they turn also from Christ; for he declares, "I and my Father are one."

In every mind the solemn inquiry should be, "What must I do to be saved?" I must know for myself what is truth, that I may be sanctified by the truth, and thus obtain a fitness for the higher life. But Satan is untiring in his efforts to keep the transforming light of the gospel from the hearts of men. Those who do not willfully oppose, those who, like Paul, war against the truth ignorantly, may be converted. Yet it remains a stern, lamentable fact that among professed believers, as well as among unbelievers, the enemy blinds many to their ruin. They allow him to rob them of all desire to investigate the inspired word for themselves.

"We preach not ourselves," Paul continued, "but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The object of the apostles' ministry was not self-exaltation. They did not covet authority or pre-eminence. They preached Christ. This was their theme. They hid self in the Saviour. The great plan of salvation, and the life of Christ, the author and finisher of this plan, were exalted before their hearers. Christ, yesterday, to-day, and forever, was the burden of their teaching.

If those who to-day are preaching the word of God, would cease to glory in self, and would exalt the cross of Christ, their ministry would be far more successful. If sinners can be led to give one earnest look at the cross, to obtain a full view of the crucified Saviour, all is gained. But very few ministers point sinners as they should to the Lamb of God. Few have a just estimate of the worth of souls or of the power of Christ to save.

Satan's work is to make the truth of God of none effect. Cast out of heaven because of his transgression, his aim has ever been to defeat God's purpose for man. He seeks to make it appear that the law is imperfect, unjust, tyrannical. He declares that it is impossible for man to keep the law. And in his own power man cannot keep the law. Without a Saviour, he is without hope.

Christ saw the helpless condition of the race, and he came to redeem them by living the life of obedience the law requires, and by paying in his death the penalty of disobedience. He came to bring us the message and means of deliverance, an assurance of salvation, not through the abrogation of the law, but through obedience made possible by his merits.

To make it possible for human beings to be kings and priests to God, the Commander of the angels took the position of a servant. He set us a perfect example. He asks us to learn of him; for his life was an exemplification of the law. No act of sin marred his conduct. In word and deed he was without blemish.

Christ's death shows God's great love for man. It is the pledge of our salvation. To remove the cross from the Christian would be like blotting out the sun. The cross brings us near to God, reconciling us to him. Jehovah looks upon it with the relenting compassion of a Father's love. He looks upon the suffering his Son endured in order to save the race from eternal death, and he accepts us in the Beloved.

Without the cross, man could have no connection with the Father. On it hangs our every hope. In view of it the Christian may advance with the steps of a conqueror; for from it streams the light of the Saviour's love. When the sinner reaches the cross, and looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy; for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ; and the words of pardon are spoken: Live, O ye guilty sinners live. Your repentance is accepted; for I have found a ransom.

Through the cross we learn that our Heavenly Father loves us with an infinite and everlasting love, and draws us to him with more than a mother's yearning sympathy for a wayward child. Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"? It is our privilege also to glory in the cross of Calvary, our privilege to give ourselves wholly to him who gave himself for us. Then with the light of love that shines from his face on ours, we shall go forth to reflect it to those in darkness.

An Opportunity to Give Spiritual Help

I have never seen so good an opportunity for all who will work, to give spiritual help to their neighbors and to strangers, as is presented in the work of selling "Christ's Object Lessons." Let all who know the truth engage in this work, in the meekness of Christ and in the love of God, striving to communicate the light of truth. When you are called upon to defend a point of faith, do this in the meekness of wisdom, speaking the truth in love. "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." E. G. White.

An Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory

"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

To men has been given the great work of preaching Christ. The priceless treasure has been placed in earthen vessels. God could have proclaimed his truth by sinless angels, but this was not his plan. He could have intrusted his work to men of wealth, position, learning, and eloquence; but neither was this his plan. He chose men acquainted with poverty, hardship, and suffering, men who could reach the poor and lowly.

The power of the truth must not be accredited to men. Men must not be given the honor due to God. It must be seen that to God belongs all the glory. Therefore human beings, men compassed with infirmity, are chosen as instruments for God's work. Through them his blessings were to be conveyed to the world. Through them his glory is to shine forth into the darkness of sin. In loving ministry they are to meet the sinful and the needy. And in all their work they are to ascribe glory, honor, and praise to him who is above all and over all.

Paul speaks to his experience in connection with the service of Christ, showing that in choosing the Christian pathway he had not been prompted by selfish motives: for it is beset with trials and temptations, Of his own experience he says, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." The apostles were sometimes cast down in the conflict with evil men and evil angels, yet by the grace of God they were enabled to rise and press once more to the front. Their preservation under manifold dangers testified that Jesus lived. Deliverance, support, consolation, and fortitude came to them as they endured suffering for the Redeemer's sake.

Paul reminds his brethren that as Christ's messengers he and his fellow laborers were continually in peril. The hardships they endured were telling on their strength. "We which live," he says, "are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you." Wearing physically through privation and toil, these ministers of Christ were conforming to his death. But that which was working death in them was bringing spiritual life and health to the Corinthians, who by a belief in the truth were being made partakers of life eternal. In view of this they were to be careful not to increase the burdens and trials of the laborers by neglect and disaffection.

The Hope that Sustained Paul

Paul continues. "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." Firmly believing the reality of the truth intrusted to him, nothing could induce Paul to handle the word of God deceitfully, or to conceal the conviction of his soul. He would not purchase wealth, honor, or pleasure by a life of conformity to the opinions of the world. He was in daily expectation of martyrdom for the same faith that he had preached to the Corinthians, but he was not intimidated, knowing that he who died and rose again would raise him from the grave, and present him, with all the faithful who had accepted the truth through his labor, to the Father.

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God." Not for self-aggrandizement did the apostles preach the gospel. It was the hope of saving souls that led them to devote their lives to this work. And it was the hope of saving souls that kept them from fainting or from ceasing their efforts because of threatened danger or actual suffering.

"For which cause," Paul declares, "we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Paul felt the power of the enemy; but though his physical strength was declining, yet he faithfully and unflinchingly declared the gospel of Christ. Clad in the whole armor of God, this hero of the cross pressed forward in the conflict. His voice of cheer proclaimed him triumphant in the combat. Fixing his gaze on high, he beholds the reward of the faithful, and in tones of victory he exclaims, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

If Paul, troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, could call his trials light afflictions, of what has the Christian of to-day to complain? How trifling are our trials in comparison with Paul's many afflictions! They are not worthy to be compared with the eternal weight of glory awaiting the overcomer. They are God's workmen, ordained for the perfection of character. However great the deprivation and suffering of the Christian, however dark and inscrutable may seem the way of providence, he is to rejoice in the Lord, knowing that all is working for his good.

How Sorrows and Trials are Made Light

How many there are who grieve the Spirit of God by continual repining! This is because they have lost sight of Christ. If we behold him who bore our sorrows and died as our sacrifice, that we might have an exceeding weight of glory, we shall regard our heaviest sorrows and trials as light afflictions. Think of the Saviour upon the cross, bruised, smitten, mocked, yet uncomplaining and unresisting, suffering without a murmur. This is the Lord of heaven, whose throne is from everlasting. All this suffering and shame he endured for the joy that was set before him,--the joy of bringing to men the gift of eternal life.

When the attention is fastened on the cross of Christ, the whole being is ennobled. The knowledge of the Saviour's love subdues the soul, and lifts the mind above the things of time and sense. Let us learn to estimate all temporal things in the light that shines from the cross. Let us strive to fathom the depths of humiliation to which our Saviour descended in order to make man the possessor of eternal riches. As we study the plan of redemption, the heart will feel the throb of the Saviour's love, and will be ravished by the charms of his character.

It is the love of Christ that makes our heaven. But when we seek to tell of this love, language fails us. We think of his life on earth, of his sacrifice for us; we think of his work in heaven as our advocate, of the mansions he is preparing for those who love him; and we can but exclaim. "O the heights and depths of the love of Christ!" As we linger beneath the cross, we gain a faint conception of the love of God, and we say, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." But in our contemplation of Christ, we are only lingering round the edge of a love that is measureless. His love is like a vast ocean, without bottom or shore.

In all true disciples this love, like sacred fire, burns on the altar of the heart. It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Jesus. It is on the earth that his children are to let this love shine out through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross, to behold the Lamb of God.

Preparation for the Work

Those who engage in this work should first give themselves unreservedly to God. They should place themselves where they can learn of Christ and follow his example. He has invited them: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30. Angels are commissioned to go forth with those who take up this work in true humility.

We are to pray without ceasing, and we are to live our prayers. Faith will greatly increase by exercise. Let those who are canvassing for "Christ's Object Lessons" learn the lessons taught in the book for which they are working. Learn of Christ. Have faith in his power to help and save you. Faith is the very life blood of the soul. Its presence gives warmth, health, consistency, and sound judgment. Its vitality and vigor exert a powerful though unconscious influence. The life of Christ in the soul is as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. It leads to a constant cultivation of the heavenly graces and to a kindly submission in all things to the Lord.

I speak to the workers, young and old, who are handling our books, and especially to those who are canvassing for the book that is now doing its errand of mercy: Exemplify in the life the lessons given by Christ in his sermon on the mount. This will make a deeper impression, and have a more lasting influence upon minds, than will the sermons given from the pulpit. You may not be able to speak eloquently to those you desire to help; but if you speak modestly, hiding self in Christ, your words will be dictated by the Holy Spirit; and Christ, with whom you are co-operating, will impress the heart.

Exercise that faith which works by love and sanctifies the soul. Let none now make the Lord ashamed of them because of their unbelief. Sloth and despondency accomplish nothing. Entanglements in secular business are sometimes permitted by God in order to stir the sluggish faculties to more earnest action that he may honor faith by the bestowal of rich blessings. This is a means of advancing his work. Looking unto Jesus, not only as our example, but as the author and finisher of our faith, let us go forward, having confidence that he will supply strength for every duty.

Much painstaking effort will be required of those who have the burden of this work; for right instruction must be given, that a sense of the importance of the work may be kept before the workers, and that all may cherish the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice exemplified in the life of our Redeemer. Christ made sacrifices at every step, sacrifices that none of his followers can ever make. In all the self-denial required of us in this work; amid all the unpleasant things that occur, we are to consider that we are yoked up with Christ, partakers of his spirit of kindness, forbearance, and self-abnegation. This spirit will open the way before us, and give us success, because Christ is our recommendation to the people. Mrs. E. G. White.

Neglected Duties

God's people are called to aggressive warfare, not against one another, but against the armies of the enemy. Never are they to relax their vigilance. Never are those who claim to be Christ's disciples to feel at ease in their church capacity, content to do nothing to rescue fallen human beings, and win them back to their loyalty. Heavenly angels are constantly ascending and descending between heaven and earth, engaged in unselfish service for humanity. Where are the men and women who will unite with these heavenly messengers? Think of what God has done for you! When you were perishing out of Christ, did not the warning message come to you, convincing you of sin, and arousing you to repentance? Did not Christ reveal himself to you as a sin-pardoning Saviour? And in the light and warmth of your first love, were you not filled with a longing to impart to others the grace that gave you newness of life?

Do not allow your zeal for soul saving to decrease. You have become Christ's helping hand, and you are to work earnestly for those whom before your conversion you looked upon with indifference. Remember that they are in as favorable a condition as you were to be brought to repentance, and that their salvation may be of higher value to the church than was yours. Grudge not earnest, tender words and kindly deeds. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Open the windows of the soul heavenward, that the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine into your hearts. Fresh grace to impart will be given to those who keep their souls in the love of God. Duty and sacrifice are precious to them, because of their love for Christ's purchased possession.

Those who are truly converted are eager to communicate the knowledge of God. Thy feel the strength of the cords that bind men and women to Christ in loving, faithful service. Once they had no interest in sinners; now they are united with Christ, and they are bound up in love with his heritage. The heart once frozen by selfishness is melted by the influence of the Spirit. They rejoice that sinners are accepted in the Beloved.

Let the soldiers in Christ's army remember that while they are under his banner, they can never be conquered; for angels from heaven are fighting beside them. And let them remember also that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." What are our orders?--"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

The Lord Has Work for You

This is the work to which you are called. It is not for you to sit and listen to discourse after discourse, feeling content to do nothing, making no use of the word you hear, and often criticising the ministers. Go to work, helping on the right hand and on the left. Visit your neighbors and in a friendly way, and become acquainted with them. Use every favorable opportunity, in co-operation with the heavenly agencies, to draw them under Christ's banner.

Those who do not take up this work, those who act with the indifference that some have manifested, will soon lose their first love,and will begin to censure, criticise, and condemn their own brethren.

The Lord has a work for every one to do. As God's people act their part with faithfulness, the light will shine forth, extending farther and farther, from neighborhood to neighborhood. In places nigh and afar off there will be revivals and conversions. The light and power of the message will be seen and felt.

Let there be no indifference; for we are living amid the perils of the last days. Each one must act his part in extending and enlarging the kingdom of God. Every effort made by the human agent to co-operate with the Holy Spirit prepares him to accomplish the work God has been fitting him through his grace to do. God desires his people to use all their talents in his service. He wants them to labor for those outside the fold. He wants them to improve their capabilities, that they may become wise unto salvation, and by contemplating their duty to him and to their fellow men, learn to help others. Workers are to be trained who will train and educate others. Thus the good work will go forward, and whole communities will be blessed. Men and women will be brought into the fold at the eleventh hour, and if they are earnest and faithful, the Lord will accept them and work through them. As they put on Christ, their minds are filled with the treasures of heavenly truth, which they give to others, to be given by them to still others.

We are living in the time of the end, a time crowded with events in process of fulfillment, all working to bring about that great day when Christ shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The last years of probation are fast closing. The signs of the times--the wars and rumors of wars, the strikes, murders, robberies, and accidents--tell us that the end of all things is at hand. Who can doubt the truth of the prophet's words. "The wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand"? Many of the inhabitants of the world have given themselves into Satan's control. They co-operate with him, helping him to carry out his plans against the government of God. Under his guidance, men have lost their horror or bloodshed and murder.

Satan himself stands at the head of his army, striving with all his power to perfect the force over which he rules, that he may wreak his vengeance on God's people. Knowing that his time is short, he has come down with great power, to work against all that is good. In the Scriptures, he is represented as walking up and down as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He fills the minds of his instrumentalities with hatred against God and with an intense desire for revenge.

The Last Conflict

Determined to efface the image of God in man. Satan works with an intensity of effort to hide God from view. Not openly does he work, but secretly, mingling error with truth, so seeking to bring confusion and distress. But in proportionate power God works to counteract Satan's plans and to bring to light his hidden purposes. When the enemy has seemed to be gaining a signal victory over righteousness, God has been working with mighty power in behalf of his people.

The stress of great temptation is already upon us. We are now to unite with one another in doing the work that Christ did when he was upon this earth. We are to be one in Christ. Thus we are to show our faithfulness to God, to our Redeemer, and to all who are born into his kingdom. Among the people of God there is to be no dissension, no controversy, no warfare against one another. Satan's strong efforts against good, that terrible hatred of his agencies against God's agencies, emphasize the need of union and harmony among the forces of righteousness. We have no time to wrestle and contend among ourselves, no time to work on suppositions, or cherish prejudices. It is too late for this, brethren; for Christ is at the door.

A terrible conflict is before us. We are nearing the battle of the great day of God Almighty. That which has been held in control is to be let loose. The angel of mercy is folding her wings, preparing to step down from the throne, and leave the world to the control of Satan. The principalities and powers of earth are in bitter revolt against the God of heaven. They are filled with hatred against those who serve him, and soon, very soon, will be fought the last great battle between good and evil. The earth is to be the battlefield --the scene of the final contest and the final victory. Here, where for so long Satan has led men against God, rebellion is to be forever suppressed.

God's people are to bear a hold, decided testimony for the truth, unfolding the purposes of God by the witness of pen and voice. In place after place, they are to proclaim the message of God's word. By converted, sanctified, holy men and women the message of warning is to be proclaimed, that the prayer may be answered, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

All heaven is in activity, and the angels of God are waiting to co-operate with those who will devise plans by which the souls for whom Christ died may hear the glad tidings of salvation. Angels who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, are saying to every true saint, "There is work for you to do. Go, stand and speak to the people all the words of this life." -

All to Co-operate

A good beginning has been made in the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons." What is needed now is an earnest, united effort to complete the work that has been so well begun. In the Scriptures we read, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Rom. 12:11. Every branch of God's cause is worthy of diligence; but nothing could be more deserving than this enterprise at this time. A decided work is to be done in accomplishing God's plan. Let every stroke tell for the Master in the selling of "Christ's Object Lessons." Let all who possibly can, join the workers.

God calls us to action, that our educational institutions may be freed from debt. Let God's plan be worked out after his own order.

The present is an opportunity which we cannot afford to lose. We call upon all our people to help to the utmost of their ability just now. We call upon them to do a work that will be pleasing to God in purchasing the book. We ask that every available means be used to assist in its circulation. We call upon the presidents of our conferences to consider how they can forward this enterprise. We call upon our ministers, as they visit the churches, to encourage men and women to go out as canvassers, and to make a decided forward movement in the path of self-denial by giving a part of their earnings for the help of our schools.

A general movement is needed, and this must begin with individual movements. In every church let every member of every family make determined efforts to deny self, and to help forward the work. Let the children act a part. Let all co-operate. Let us do our best at this time to render to God our offering, to carry out his specified will, and thus make an occasion for witnessing for him and his truth in a world of darkness. The lamp is in our hands. Let its light shine forth brightly.

Young men, you who think of entering the ministry, take up this work. The handling of the book placed in your hands by the Lord is to be your educator. In improving this opportunity you will certainly advance in a knowledge of God and of the best methods for reaching the people.

The Lord calls for young men and women to enter his service. The youth are receptive, fresh, ardent, hopeful. When once they have tasted the blessedness of self-sacrifice, they will not be satisfied unless they are constantly learning of the Great Teacher. The Lord will open ways before those who will respond to his call.

The Work in All Lands

The work for the relief of our schools should be taken up by our people in all countries. Let it be entered upon by our churches in Australasia. Our school there is in need of help, and if our people will take hold of the work unitedly, they can do much toward lifting the burden of debt; they can encourage the hearts of those who are laboring to build up this, the Lord's instrumentality; and they can aid in extending its influence of blessing to far heathen lands and to the islands of the sea.

We trust that our publishing house in Australia will make liberal terms in the publication of "Christ's Object Lessons." The Lord has greatly blessed this institution, and it should present to him a thank offering by making no stinted donation toward freeing the school from debt. We feel sure that it will take up the work and act its part nobly. And this co-operation with God will prove to the Australian publishing house as great a blessing as it has proved to our institutions in America.

Move out in this work, my brethren in Australasia. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb. 11:1. Have we not proved this in the past? As we have moved out, trusting God's promise, things unseen, except by the eye of faith, have become things seen. As we have walked and worked by faith, God has fulfilled to us every word he has spoken. The evidence we have of the faithfulness of his promises should check every thought of unbelief. It is a sin to doubt, and we do not believe that our brethren in Australasia will be guilty of this.

The Lord has done much for you all through your borders. Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, already white for the harvest. Praise God that his word has been verified beyond all our conception.

I call upon our people to enter earnestly and disinterestedly upon the work of freeing the school from debt. Let the publishing house do its part in the publication of the book. Let our people throughout Australasia take hold of the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons." God will bless them in this work.

The workers in England should make every possible effort in the sale of this book, that a school may be established in that country. My brethren in England, Germany, and all other European countries where the light of truth is shining, take hold of this work. Let this book be translated into the different languages, and circulated in the different countries of Europe. Let our canvassers in all parts of Europe be encouraged to help in its sale. The sale of this book will do much more than to aid in freeing our institutions from debt. It will open the way for our larger books to find a ready market. Thus the truth will reach many who otherwise would not receive it.

I appeal especially to our brethren in Scandinavia. Will you not take hold of the work which God has given you? Will you not labor to the utmost of your ability to relieve the embarrassed institutions in your field? Do not look on in despair, saying, "We can do nothing." Cease to talk discouragement. Take hold of the arm of Infinite Power. Remember that your brethren in other lands are uniting to give you help. Do not fail nor be discouraged. The Lord will uphold his workers in Scandinavia if they will act their parts in faith, in prayer, in hopefulness, doing all they can to advance his cause and hasten his coming.

Let a most earnest effort be made by our people in England to inspire their brethren in Scandinavia with faith and courage. Brethren, we must come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

Remember that the nearer we approach the time of Christ's coming, the more earnestly and firmly we are to work; for we are opposed by the whole synagogue of Satan. We do not need feverish excitement, but that courage which is born of genuine faith. Mrs. E. G. White. -

Come Up to the Help of the Lord

As the children of Israel neared the borders of the promised land, Moses selected a man from each tribe, and sent them to view the land of Canaan, saying to them, "Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain: and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land."

After forty days the spies returned, bringing specimens of the fruit of the land. But all save two returned with a faithless report. "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us," they began, "and surely it floweth with milk and honey. . . . Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. And the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan."

The unbelief of the spies cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation; and the mighty power of God, so often manifested in behalf of his chosen people, was forgotten. The people did not wait to reflect. They did not reason that he who had brought them thus far would certainly give them the land of promise; they did not call to mind how wonderfully God had delivered them from their oppressors, cutting a path through the sea, and destroying the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh. They left God out of the question, and acted as if they must depend solely on the power of arms.

They were desperate in their disappointment and despair. A wail of agony arose and mingled with the confused murmur of voices. Caleb comprehended the situation, and, bold to stand in defense of the word of God, he did all in his power to counteract the evil influence of his unfaithful associates. For an instant the people were stilled to listen to his words of hope and courage respecting the goodly land. He did not contradict what had already been said: the walls were high, the Canaanites strong. But God had promised the land to Israel. "Let us go up at once, and possess it," Caleb urged: "for we are well able to overcome it."

Caleb's words excited the anger of the ten spies, and they cried vehemently, "We be not able to go up against the people: for they are stronger than we. . . . The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

Israel's Sin and Moses' Prayer

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night." Revolt and open mutiny quickly followed; for Satan had full sway, and the people seemed bereft of reason. They cursed Moses and Aaron, forgetting that God hearkened to their wicked speeches, and that, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, the Angel of God's presence was witnessing their terrible outburst of wrath. In bitterness they cried. "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!" With the utterance of their discontent, their bitterness grew, until they began to reproach God, saying, "And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said to one another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."

Cut to the heart by the rebellion of the people, feeling the enormity of their sin. "Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel." And again Caleb and Joshua tried to reassure the people. Above the tempest of lamentation and rebellious grief their clear, ringing voices were heard, saying: "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not."

But the congregation would not listen to the earnest entreaty. The unfaithful spies were loud in their denunciations of Caleb and Joshua, and the cry was raised to stone them. The insane mob seized missiles with which to slay these faithful men. They rushed forth with yells of madness, when suddenly the stones dropped from their hands, a hush fell upon them, and they shook with fear. God had interposed to check their murderous designs. The glory of his presence, like a flaming light, illuminated the tabernacle. All the people beheld the signal of the Lord. A mightier One than they had revealed himself, and no one dared continue his resistance. The spies who brought the evil report crouched, terror stricken, and with bated breath sought their tents.

Moses now arose, and entered the tabernacle. And God said to him, "How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they."

Unable to endure the thought of Israel's destruction, Moses pleaded: "If thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. . . . Let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy. . . . Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

And God said, "I have pardoned according to thy word: but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened unto my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers. . . . Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come unto the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised."

Israel's History Our Admonition

For our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, was this history recorded. How often the people of God to-day live over the experience of the children of Israel! How often they murmur and complain! How often they draw back when the Lord bids them go forward! The cause of God is suffering for want of men like Caleb and Joshua, men of fidelity and unshaken trust. God calls for men who will give themselves to him to be imbued with his Spirit. The cause of Christ and humanity demand sanctified, self-sacrificing men, men who will go forth without the camp, bearing the reproach. Let them be strong, valiant men, fit for worthy enterprises, and let them make a covenant with God by sacrifice.

Brethren, we must come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Remember that the nearer we approach the time of Christ's coming, the more earnestly we are to work; for we are opposed by the whole synagogue of Satan. We do not need feverish excitement, but that courage which is born of genuine faith.

We need greater faith in the progress of the cause of God. When the Lord gives us a work to do, let us not stop to inquire into the reasonableness of the command or the probable result of our effort to obey. Workers for Christ are never to think, much less to speak, of failure in their work. Though the outward appearance may be unpromising, energy and trust in God will develop resources.

If we restrain the expression of unbelief, and by hopeful words and prompt movements strengthen our own faith and the faith of others, our vision will grow clearer.

Be strong, and talk hope. Press your way through obstacles. God's word is your assurance. Approach your Saviour with the full confidence of living faith, joining your hands with his. Go where he leads the way. Whatsoever he says to you do. He will teach you just as willingly as he will teach some one else.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Have we not proved this in the past? As we moved out, trusting God's promises, things unseen, except by the eye of faith, have become things seen. As we have walked and worked by faith, God has fulfilled to us every word he has spoken. The evidence we have of the faithfulness of his promise should check every thought of unbelief.

Often the Christian life is beset with dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before, and bondage or death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, "Go forward." Let us obey the command, even though our sight cannot penetrate the darkness. The obstacles that hinder our progress will never disappear before a halting, doubting spirit. Those who defer obedience till every shadow of uncertainty disappears, and there remains no risk of failure or defeat, will never obey. -

A Reform Needed

If Seventh-day Adventists practiced what they profess to believe, if they were sincere health reformers, they would indeed be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. And they would show a far greater zeal for the salvation of those who are ignorant of the truth.

Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God's people, to walk no more with them.

In all our work we must obey the laws which God has given, that the physical and spiritual energies may work in harmony. Men may have a form of godliness, they may even preach the gospel, and yet be unpurified and unsanctified. Ministers should be strictly temperate in their eating and drinking, lest they make crooked paths for their feet, turning the lame--those weak in the faith -- out of the way. If while proclaiming the most solemn and important message God has ever given, men war against the truth by indulging wrong habits of eating and drinking, they take all the force from the message they bear.

Those who indulge in meat eating, tea drinking, and gluttony are sowing seeds for a harvest of pain and death. The unhealthful food placed in the stomach strengthens the appetites that war against the soul, developing the lower propensities. A diet of flesh meat tends to develop animalism. A development of animalism lessens spirituality, rendering the mind incapable of understanding truth.

The Word of God plainly warns us that unless we abstain from fleshly lusts, the physical nature will be brought into conflict with the spiritual nature. Lustful eating wars against health and peace. Thus a warfare is instituted between the higher and the lower attributes of the man. The lower propensities, strong and active, oppress the soul. The highest interests of the being are imperiled by the indulgence of appetites unsanctioned by Heaven.

Great care should be taken to form right habits of eating and drinking. The food eaten should be that which will make the best blood. The delicate organs of digestion should be respected. God requires us, by being temperate in all things, to act our part, toward keeping ourselves in health. He cannot enlighten the mind of a man who makes a cesspool of his stomach. He does not hear the prayers of those who are walking in the light of the sparks of their own kindling.

Common Errors in Diet

Intemperance is seen in the quantity as well as in the quality of food eaten. The Lord has instructed me that as a general rule we place too much food in the stomach. Many make themselves uncomfortable by overeating, and sickness is often the result. The Lord did not bring this punishment on them. They brought it on themselves, and God desires them to realize that pain is the result of transgression.

Daily abused, the digestive organs cannot do their work well. A poor quality of blood is made, and thus, through improper eating, the whole machinery is crippled. Give the stomach less to do. It will recover if proper care is shown in regard to the quality and quantity of food eaten.

Many eaten too rapidly. Others eat at one meal varieties of food that do not agree. If men and women would only remember how greatly they afflict the soul when they afflict the stomach, and how deeply Christ is dishonored when the stomach is abused, they would deny the appetite, and thus give the stomach opportunity to recover its healthy action. While sitting at the table, we may do medical missionary work by eating and drinking to the glory of God.

To eat on the Sabbath the same amount of food eaten on a working day, is entirely out of place. The Sabbath is the day set apart for the worship of God, and on it we are to be specially careful in regard to our diet. A clogged stomach means a clogged brain. Too often so large an amount of food is eaten on the Sabbath that the mind is rendered dull and stupid, incapable of appreciating spiritual things. The habits of eating have much to do with the many dull religious exercises of the Sabbath. The diet for the Sabbath should be selected with reference to the duties of the day on which the purest, holiest service is to be offered to God.

Eating has much to do with religion. The spiritual experience is greatly affected by the way in which the stomach is treated. Eating and drinking in accordance with the laws of health promote virtuous actions. But if the stomach is abused by habits that have no foundation in nature, Satan takes advantage of the wrong that has been done, and uses the stomach as an enemy of righteousness, creating a disturbance which affects the entire being. Sacred things are not appreciated. Spiritual zeal diminishes. Peace of mind is lost. There is dissension, strife, and discord. Impatient words are spoken, and unkind deeds are done; dishonest practices are followed, and anger is manifested,--and all because the nerves of the brain are disturbed by the abuse heaped on the stomach.

What a pity it is that often, when the greatest self-denial should be exercised, the stomach is crowded with a mass of unhealthful food, which lies there to decompose. The affliction of the stomach afflicts the brain. The imprudent eater does not realize that he is disqualifying himself for giving wise counsel, disqualifying himself for laying plans for the best advancement of the work of God. But this is so. He cannot discern spiritual things, and in council meetings when he should say Yea, he says Nay. He makes propositions that are wide of the mark, because the food he has eaten has benumbed his brain power.

Relation of Health Principles to Spirituality

The failure to follow sound principles has marred the history of God's people. There has been a continual backsliding in health reform, and as a result God is dishonored by a great lack of spirituality. Barriers have been erected which would never have been seen had God's people walked in the light.

Shall we who have had such great opportunities allow the people of the world to go in advance of us in health reform? Shall we cheapen our minds and abuse our talents by wrong eating? Shall we transgress God's holy law by following selfish practices? Shall our inconsistency become a byword? Shall we live such unchristianlike lives that the Saviour will be ashamed to call us brethren?

Shall we not rather do that medical missionary work which is the gospel in practice, living in such a way that the peace of God can rule in our hearts? Shall we not remove every stumblingblock from the feet of unbelievers, ever remembering what is due to a profession of Christianity? Far better give up the name of Christian than make a profession and at the same time indulge appetites which strengthen unholy passions.

God calls upon every church member to dedicate his life unreservedly to the Lord's service. He calls for decided reformation. All creation is groaning under the curse. God's people should place themselves where they will grow in grace, being sanctified, body, soul, and spirit, by the truth. When they break away from all health-destroying indulgences, they will have a clearer perception of what constitutes true godliness. A wonderful change will be seen in the religious experience.

The apostle plainly states that those who reach a high standard of righteousness must be temperate in all things. The Lord sends this message to his people: "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

"It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." -

An Appeal for the Southern Work

To Our Churches in America: There is a heavy burden on my soul in regard to the Southern work. Something has already been done in the South; but the work must advance much more rapidly than it has been advancing. A publishing house has recently been established in Nashville to print reading matter suitable for the different classes of people in that field. The needs of this new institution have been presented before our Northern churches, and, in response to the calls of our brethren, many gifts, large and small, have been made. We thank the Lord that he has aroused some of the brethren to establish and sustain the publishing house in Nashville. The establishment of this institution is an advance movement, and will accomplish much good. This institution will still need to be sustained by gifts and offerings, just as the publishing houses in Battle Creek and Oakland were sustained when they were first established.

Sanitarium work has also been begun in Nashville. This must be given support. Medical missionary work is indeed the helping hand of the gospel ministry. It opens the way for the entrance of truth.

These newly established interests should receive help from our people. Those living in places where the truth has been long established should remember the needs of the preparatory work to be done in Nashville. This place has been selected as a center because of the large educational institutions situated in and near it. In these institutions there are those who are doing a noble work for the people of the South. They must be given opportunity to hear the message that is to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord.

Words have come to me from the One highest in authority. My Instructor asked, "In establishing the work in the Southern field, will you do less than you have done in more favorable places,--less than you have done in Michigan and on the Pacific Coast?" I responded, "No, Lord." Then the word came: "You have no time to lose in establishing the work in the Southern field. Many are saying in their hearts, 'My Lord delayeth his coming.' But the Word of the Lord declares:--

"'There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.

"'And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.'"

It is high time that we awake out of sleep. In the Lord's vineyard there should be one hundred workers where now there is but one. If we move forward in faith, the Lord will care for us. He declares:--

"Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

"But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

The time has come for those who have a large amount of means invested in houses and lands, to begin to dispose of their possessions. "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

My brethren and sisters in the faith of Christ's soon coming, I ask you how it will be with you when you stand before the great white throne, to answer to God for the talents he has intrusted to you? If you hoard your money, if you invest it in houses and costly furniture, how can you meet your Lord in peace? Your heart will be where your treasure is.

If in the providence of God you have been given means, do not settle down with the thought that you need not engage in useful labor, that you have enough, and can eat, and drink, and be merry. Do not stand idle while others are struggling to obtain means for the cause. If you do less than your duty in giving help to the perishing, remember that your indolence is incurring guilt. Before it is forever too late, begin to reform. Invest less in worldly enterprises, and use your means in creating increased facilities for giving the third angel's message to the world. The time will soon come when no man can buy or sell, save he who has the mark of the beast. We have no time to lose. The end is near. But opportunity is still offered for your talent of means now buried in worldly possessions, to be transferred to the Lord's work.

God desires his people to do far more for the establishment of his church, far more for the maintenance of the cause of truth. Keeping the glory of God in view will enable us to make a wise use of his goods. If God gives us much of this world's goods, it is not that we may selfishly hoard them, or that we may crave for more, but that we may freely impart to those not so richly blessed. Nothing so refreshes the spirit as giving gladly and willingly of the blessings God has so freely given us. The life of the soul is revived by the sight of the good thus accomplished, and by a sense that a conscientious use has been made of the Lord's goods.

All are being tested and tried. By the way in which we do the work Christ has given us to do in his absence, we decide our future destiny. Many neglect their God-given work. They refuse to be his helping hand. Let us fear to fall short of God's plan for us. His servants are to be ever on duty, working always for the uplifting of those for whom he gave his life.

Christ, the Master of the household, has gone to prepare for us mansions in the heavenly city. We are waiting for his return. Let us honor him in his absence by doing with faithfulness the work he has placed in our hands. Waiting, watching, working, we are to prepare for his return. If we are faithful, if we serve him with full purpose of heart, he will receive us with the gracious words, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He will receive us with honor. To us will be given a crown of glory that fadeth not away, and a new name, "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Those who follow Christ here will one day "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth."

I am instructed to say that slowly, but surely, the wheel of Providence is turning. We know not how soon our Lord will say, "It is done." His coming is drawing nigh. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them."

Great and solemn events are soon to take place; and the Lord says, "I will scatter; and I will also gather together a people to serve me." God's judgments are in the land. To the whole world the warning message is to be given.

I inquire of those upon whom for so long the light of truth has been shining, In this time of such solemn importance, what are you going to do to advance the work necessary to be done in saving perishing souls? There is much to be done for the Master. He calls upon all to watch, that when he comes, they may open to him immediately. He asks you to do his commandments, to bring forth much fruit because you are branches of the true Vine. As you bear much fruit, his joy will remain in you.

My brethren, what are you going to do in regard to the Southern field? With earnest effort, you are to strive to establish memorials for God throughout the Southern States. A great work is before us in the South. The brethren there need means to erect inexpensive buildings that are necessary for the carrying forward of work that must be done speedily. Churches should be raised up; houses of worship should be built; small schools and sanitariums should be established; and the publishing interests should be strengthened.

I am instructed to call upon my brethren in the different conferences of America to take a greater interest in the Southern work than you have taken. From the light that the Lord has been pleased to give me, there is resting upon you a duty to look upon this destitute field, and to do more for it than you have yet done. The Lord has blessed you with means to help carry forward his work, and he now calls upon you to be faithful to your stewardship by helping advance the work in this long-neglected portion of his vineyard. Let the churches arise as one, and work earnestly, as those who are walking in the full light of truth for these last days.

In the name of the Lord, I call upon my brethren to do something to strengthen the publishing interests and to help establish other lines of work in the South, and to do it now . Soon it will be too late to do anything. Soon our opportunities to work will have passed by forever. The plagues of God are already beginning to be poured out upon the earth. The evidences before us indicate that God's Spirit is being withdrawn from the earth. Only a little while longer shall we be permitted to labor, and then in heaven it will be said, "It is done." "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still ."

Brethren and sisters, now is the time to make haste to do something. Will you now give of your means to advance the work in the South? If you have in your possession houses and lands that you do not need, will you sell them, and invest the means thus obtained in more firmly establishing the various lines of work that have been begun in the Southern field?

To rescue the fallen race from the thraldom of sin, Christ came to the world, and died on Calvary. He gave his all to us. What are we willing to give to him?

Those who at such a time as this defraud God, will suffer eternal loss. "Sell that ye have, and give alms." Put your money in the bank of heaven. Thus invested, it will yield an infinitely higher rate of interest than if placed in the banks of this world.

Divine grace accompanies those who deny self for the sake of the work of the Redeemer. This grace is woven into all they do. The blessing of good works will follow them into the eternal world. They are wise stewards. By their right use of the Lord's goods, they are laying up treasure that will endure through the ceaseless ages of eternity. Ellen G. White. -

A Warning to the Workers in God's Cause

The Lord reveals the power of his word to-day as he did to ancient Israel; but how difficult it is for the truth that is not in harmony with men's ideas to make a favorable impression on the mind. If the workers who have seen God's dealing with his people during the rise and progress of the cause will strengthen the faith of the people of God by reviewing past blessings and mercies, they themselves will be blessed, and their work will prove a blessing to those who have not had the experience they have had. As they recount the sacrifices made by those who led out in the work, and tell of the power God manifested to keep his work free from error and extravagance, they will have a molding influence for good.

Those who enter the work at the present time know comparatively little of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of those upon whom the Lord laid the burden of his work at its beginning. The experience of the past should be told them again and again; for they are to carry forward the work with the same humility and self-sacrifice that characterized the true workers in the past. A stern conflict is going on between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness--a conflict that calls for constant vigilance on the part of Christ's soldiers. There must be no sleepy watchmen on the walls of Zion.

God's workers must allow him to choose his own instruments for the work he is doing. If for any cause men refuse to accept the ways of the Lord, if they resist the light sent from heaven, they will at last be found among the workers of iniquity. And when men, after serving on the side of Christ, take a position against him, they exert an influence as much more dangerous than those who have never professed to serve Christ as their light has been greater. The only hope for such ones is to seek the Lord with humility of heart, that they may see the error they have made. Then let them honestly and frankly confess their sin. They have the sure word of God that if they do this, they will find pardon. But if they refuse to acknowledge their mistake, if they refuse to seek pardon, their sin will witness against them in the day of judgment.

Those who have laid stumbling-blocks before the feet of the inexperienced, clouding with doubt the minds of those who have not a personal knowledge of the Lord's dealing with his people in the past, can undo their work only by making their confession as broad as their influence for wrong has been, reaching all to whom, by their resistance of the Holy Spirit, they have brought uncertainty and confusion.

The Only Safe Way

Our God is a jealous God. He will not be trifled with. Those who make straight paths for their feet must confess their sins. Then God's wisdom will overrule their mistakes for their own good and for the good of his people. He will give them the heavenly anointing, and they will see that his hand is leading his people in the right way. They will see how dangerous was the path upon which they entered when they allowed Satan to control them.

It was very humiliating for Saul to learn that all the time he had thought he was doing God service, he had been persecuting Christ, using his power against the truth. The Saviour revealed himself to Saul, and the Pharisee was filled with abhorrence of himself and his work. He was made physically blind by the glory of him whom in the past he had blasphemed, but it was that he might have spiritual sight. During the days and nights of his blindness, he had time for reflection, and he no longer saw himself righteous but sinful, his thoughts, words, and actions, condemned by the law. The thought of his zeal in persecuting God's people filled him with bitter remorse. Hopeless and helpless, he cast himself on Jesus as the only one who could pardon him, and clothe him with righteousness.

My brethren, some of you have been doing as Saul did,--despising the messages God has sent for the salvation of his people. You have used your capabilities to make God's work of none effect. You need to repent and be forgiven. Unless you have this experience, you cannot be saved.

It was a hard struggle for Paul--heretofore able to say of himself, as far as outward acts were concerned, as "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless"--to see himself a transgressor, all his supposed goodness swept away. It was a hard struggle for him to give up his supposed righteousness, and cast himself for salvation on the One he had despised. But he yielded to the convictions of the Spirit. The far-reaching claims of the law of God took hold of his life, reaching to the thoughts and emotions of his sin-corrupted heart. With eyes anointed by the grace of God, he saw the mistakes of his life. From a proud Pharisee, who thought himself justified by his good works, he was changed to a humble suppliant for mercy. The tongue, once so ready to blaspheme the name of Christ, became eloquent in sounding the praises of him who had called him out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Writing later of this, Paul says, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." O that the same power that converted Paul might go forth to-day to soften and subdue hearts! Then wrongs would not be varnished over, but open-hearted confessions would be heard.

No way has been provided by which men can pass lightly over their errors. The only safe way is to send sins beforehand to judgment by coming to Christ with the humility and simplicity of a little child. Men must confess their sins, else they will be left in hardness of heart. Light rejected becomes to the rejecter darkness blacker than the darkness of midnight.

Beware of Prejudice and Unbelief

In the past some have followed a course of action that has been displeasing to God. They have viewed matters in a distorted light. That which might be to them joy and peace in the Holy Ghost appears inconsistent, and they put on the armor of Satan to war against the work of God. The testimony of the Spirit of God is no more to them than the word of men, because in their blindness they cannot distinguish between truth and error.

The messengers God has seen fit to send have not been infallible. They have been weak, erring human beings; but the Lord wrought through them as they gave themselves up to his service. The word spoken was adapted to the necessities of God's people; the evidence of truth was clearly and distinctly presented. The reason the word did not have the desired effect on the hearers was not that there was a lack of evidence; for link after link was produced until the chain was complete; but the minds of the hearers were filled with prejudice. They were not willing to accept evidence, and tried to make the Bible sustain their ideas, instead of changing their ideas to meet the Bible.

The Jews watched Christ, hoping to catch from his lips some word at which they might take offense. Is not this done to-day? Men refuse to give up their own ideas. They are not humble enough to acknowledge the divine origin of that which is not in harmony with their opinions.

The Lord knows the honest in heart. He hears their prayers, and sends them divine light. The Holy Spirit sends the truth home with power to the hearts of all who are not hardened by unbelief. Christ rejoiced when the evidence rejected by the men who thought themselves wise, was accepted by those who in comparison might be called babes in knowledge. He who feels secure in his own wisdom must become as a little child, else he will never wear the crown of eternal life. He must be willing to learn the lessons Christ has for him to learn, willing to say with John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

What words can I trace to arouse my ministering brethren to a sense of the responsibility resting on them? How fearful their position if, while professing to be watchmen on the walls of Zion, they lay stumbling-blocks in the way of their less experienced brethren, leading them to question the precious messages God sends! Christ promised success to his disciples if they would place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. They were not authorized to preach a single discourse except under the influence of the Holy Spirit. They had strict orders to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Do the workers to-day regard the possession of the Holy Spirit essential to the success of their work? We have had sermonizing and theorizing until the churches are ready to die. The Holy Spirit must come upon God's people. Then the truth will go forth with mighty power. -

Results of the Work

Through the work for the relief of our schools a fourfold blessing will be realized,--a blessing to the schools, to the world, to the church, and to the workers.

While funds are gathered for the relief of the schools, the best reading matter is being placed in the hands of a large number of people, who, if this effort had not been made, would never have seen "Christ's Object Lessons." There are souls in desolate places who will be reached by this effort. The lessons drawn from the parables of our Saviour will be to very many as the leaves of the tree of life.

It is the Lord's design that "Christ's Object Lessons," with its precious instruction, shall unify the believers. The self-sacrificing efforts put forth by the members of our churches will prove a means of uniting them, that they may be sanctified, body, soul, and spirit, as vessels unto honor, prepared to receive the Holy Spirit. Those who seek to do God's will, investing every talent to the best advantage, will become wise in working for his kingdom. They will learn lessons of the greatest value, and they will feel the highest satisfaction of a rational mind. Peace and grace and power of intellect will be given them.

As they carry this book to those who need the instruction it contains, the workers will gain a precious experience. This work is a means of education. Those who will do their best as the Lord's helping hand to circulate "Christ's Object Lessons," will obtain an experience that will enable them to be successful laborers for God. Very many, through the training received in this work, will learn how to canvass for our larger books, which the people need so much.

All who engage in the work aright, cheerfully and hopefully, will find it a very great blessing. The Lord does not force any to engage in his work, but to those who place themselves decidedly on his side he will give a willing mind. He will bless all who work out the spirit which he works in. To such workers he will give favor and success. As field after field is entered, new methods and new plans will spring from new circumstances. New thoughts will come with the new workers who give themselves to the work. As they seek the Lord for help, he will communicate with them. They will receive plans devised by the Lord himself. Souls will be converted, and money will come in. The workers will find waste places of the Lord's vineyard lying close beside fields that have been worked. Every field shows new places to win. All that is done brings to light how much more still remains to be done.

As we work in connection with the Great Teacher, the mental faculties are developed. The conscience is under divine guidance. Christ takes the entire being under his control.

No one can be truly united with Christ, practicing his lessons, submitting to his yoke of restraint, without realizing that which he can never express in words. New, rich thoughts come to him. Light is given to the intellect, determination to the will, sensitiveness to the conscience, purity to the imagination. The heart becomes more tender, the thoughts more spiritual, the service more Christlike. In the life there is seen that which no words can express,--true, faithful, loving devotion of heart, mind, soul, and strength to the work of the Master. -

After we have, by sanctified energy and prayer, done all that we can do in the work for our schools, we shall see the glory of God. When the trial has been fully made, there will be a blessed result.

If it is made in a free, willing spirit, God will make the movement for the help of our schools a success. He will enable us to roll back the reproach that has come upon our educational institutions. If all will take hold of the work in the spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ and the truth, it will not be long before the jubilee song of freedom can be sung throughout our borders. Mrs. E. G. White. -

The Promise of the Spirit

Just before leaving the disciples, Christ gave them the promise, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not; neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."

Had men been consulted in regard to their choice of the blessing to be bestowed, they would have asked for some inferior good. But the Lord took the matter into his own hands, and promised his Spirit,--a blessing which, when received, satisfies every need.

Christ had an infinite variety of subjects from which to choose in his teaching, but the one upon which he dwelt most largely was the endowment of his Holy Spirit. What great things he predicted for the church because of this endowment! Yet what subject is less dwelt upon to-day? what promise less fulfilled? Prophecies are dwelt upon, doctrines are expounded, but the promise of the Spirit, the fulfillment of which is necessary for the success of God's work, is incidentally touched upon, and that is all. Other blessings and privileges have been set before the church but the thought entertained regarding the promise of the Spirit is that it is not for the church now, that at some time in the future the church will receive this gift. But this promise belongs to us now as surely as it belonged to the disciples.

God's people seem to be incapable of comprehending and appropriating this promise. They seem to think that only the scantiest showers of grace are to fall on the thirsty soul. They act as if they must rely on their own efforts for salvation, and as a result they have little strength for the work of overcoming. They have little light to give to the souls dying in the darkness of error. Church members have long been content with little of the blessing of God. They have not felt the need of reaching for the exalted privileges provided for them at infinite cost. Their spirituality is feeble, their experience dwarfed and crippled; and therefore they are disqualified for the work of the Lord. They are unable to present in the power of the Spirit the great and glorious truths of God's Word.

It is not because of any restriction on God's part that the riches of his grace do not flow to men. His gift is godlike. He gave with a liberality that men do not appreciate because they do not love to receive. If all were willing to receive, all would be filled with the Spirit. By resting content with small blessings, we disqualify ourselves for receiving the Spirit in its unlimited fullness. We are too easily satisfied with a ripple on the surface, when it is our privilege to expect the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Expecting little, we receive little.

How Do You Treat Christ's Representatives?

The necessity of the Holy Spirit's working should be realized by all. Unless this Spirit is accepted and cherished as the representative of Christ, whose work it is to renew and sanctify the entire being, the momentous truths that have been intrusted to human beings will lose their power on the mind. It is not enough for us to have a knowledge of the truth. We are to walk and work in love, conforming our will to the will of God. Of those who do this the Lord declares, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." God is the mighty, all-powerful agency in this work of transformation. By his Holy Spirit he writes his law in the heart.

Thus divine relationship is renewed between God and man. "'I will be to them a God,'" he says, "'and they shall be to me a people.' There is no attribute of my nature that I will not freely give in order that man may reveal my image." When we allow God to work his will in us, we shall harbor no sin. In the refining furnace all dross will be consumed.

When the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, it was like a rushing, mighty wind. It was given in no stinted measure; for it filled all the place where the disciples were sitting. So will it be given to us when our hearts are prepared to receive it.

Let every church member kneel before God, and pray earnestly for the impartation of the Spirit. Cry, "Lord, increase my faith. Make me to understand thy word; for the entrance of thy word giveth light. Refresh me by thy presence. Fill my heart with thy Spirit that I may love my brethren as Christ loves me."

God will bless those who thus prepare themselves for his service. They will understand what it means to have the assurance of the Spirit, because they have received Christ by faith. The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means that sin is taken away, and that the vacuum is filled with the Spirit. It means that the mind is divinely illumined, that the heart is emptied of self, and filled with the presence of Christ. When this work is done for church members, the church will be a living, working church.

We are to seek most earnestly to be of one mind, of one purpose. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, and nothing less can bring us to this place. Let us by self-renunciation prepare our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit that a great work may be done for us, so that we can say, not, "See what I am doing," but, "Behold the goodness and love of God!"

A Spirit-Filled Church

After Christ's ascension, the disciples were gathered together in one place to make humble supplication to God. And after ten days of heart searching and self-examination, the way was prepared for the Holy Spirit to enter the cleansed, consecrated soul temples. Every heart was filled with the Spirit, as though God desired to show his people that it was his prerogative to bless them with the choicest of heaven's blessings. What was the result?--Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit flashed right and left. Newly edged with power, it pierced even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. The idolatry that had been mingled with the worship of the people was overthrown. New territory was added to the kingdom of God. Places that had been barren and desolate sounded forth his praises. Believers, reconverted, born again, were a living power for God. A new song was put in their mouths, even praise to the Most High. Controlled by the Spirit, they saw Christ in their brethren. One interest prevailed. One subject of emulation swallowed up all others,--to be like Christ, to do the works of Christ. The earnest zeal felt was expressed by loving helpfulness, by kindly words and unselfish deeds. All strove to see who could do the most for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom. "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul."

In the twelve disciples the leaven of truth was hidden by the Great Teacher. These disciples were to be the instruments in God's hands for revealing truth to the world. Divine power was given them; for a rise Saviour breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Imbued with this Spirit, they went forth to witness for the truth. And so God desires his servants to go forth to-day with the message he has given them. But till they receive the Holy Spirit, they cannot bear this message with power. Till they receive the Spirit, they cannot realize what God can do through them.

The mighty power of the Holy Spirit works an entire transformation in the character of the human agent, making him a new creature in Christ Jesus. When a man is filled with the Spirit, the more severely he is tested and tried, the more clearly he proves that he is a representative of Christ. The peace that dwells in the soul is seen on the countenance. The words and actions express the love of the Saviour. There is no striving for the highest place. Self is renounced. The name of Jesus is written on all that is said and done.

We may talk of the blessings of the Holy Spirit, but unless we prepare ourselves for its reception, of what avail are our works? Are we striving with all our power to attain to the stature of men and women in Christ? Are we seeking for his fullness, ever pressing toward the mark set before us,--the perfection of his character? When the Lord's people reach this mark, they will be sealed in their foreheads. Filled with the Spirit, they will be complete in Christ, and the recording angel will declare, "It is finished." -

Without Spot or Wrinkle

Order is heaven's first law, and the Lord desires his people to give in their homes a representation of the order and harmony that pervade the heavenly courts. Truth never places her delicate feet in a path of uncleanness or impurity. Truth does not make men and women coarse or rough or untidy. It raises all who accept it to a high level. Under Christ's influence, a work of constant refinement goes on.

Special direction was given to the armies of Israel that everything in and around their tents should be clean and orderly, lest the angel of the Lord, passing through the encampment, should see their uncleanness. Would the Lord be particular to notice these things? -- He would; for the fact is stated, lest in seeing their uncleanness, he could not go forward with their armies to battle.

He who was so particular that the children of Israel should cherish habits of cleanliness, will not sanction any impurity in the homes of his people to-day. God looks with disfavor on uncleanness of any kind. How can we invite him into our homes unless all is neat and clean and pure?

Believers should be taught that even though they may be poor, they need not be uncleanly or untidy in their persons or in their homes. Help must be given in this line to those who seem to have no sense of the meaning and importance of cleanliness. They are to be taught that those who are to represent the high and holy God must keep their souls pure and clean, and that this purity must extend to their dress, and to everything in the home, so that the ministering angels will have evidence that the truth has wrought a change in the life, purifying the soul and refining the tastes. Those who, after receiving the truth, make no change in word or deportment, in dress or surroundings, are living to themselves, not to Christ. They have not been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto purification and holiness.

Some are very untidy in person. They need to be guided by the Holy Spirit to prepare for a pure and holy heaven. God declared that when the children of Israel came to the mount, to hear the proclamation of the law, they were to come with clean bodies and clean clothes. To-day his people are to honor him by habits of scrupulous neatness and purity.

Christians will be judged by the fruit they bear. The true child of God will be neat and clean. While we are to guard against needless adornment and display, we are in no case to be careless and indifferent in regard to outward appearance. All about our persons and our homes is to be neat and attractive. The youth are to be taught the importance of presenting an appearance above criticism, an appearance that honors God and the truth.

The mother's dress should be simple, but neat and tasty. The mother who wears torn, untidy clothes, who thinks any dress good enough for home wear, no matter how soiled or dilapidated it may be, gives her children an example that encourages them in untidiness. And more than this, she loses her influence over them. They cannot help seeing the difference between her appearance and the appearance of those who dress neatly; and their respect for her is weakened. Mothers, make yourselves attractive, not by wearing elaborately trimmed garments, but by wearing those that are neat and well fitting. Let your appearance teach a lesson of neatness. You cannot afford to lose the respect of your children.

From their infancy, children should be taught lessons of purity. Mothers cannot too early begin to fill the minds of their children with pure, holy thoughts. And one way of doing this is to keep everything about them clean and pure. Mothers, if you desire your children's thoughts to be pure, let their surroundings be pure. Let their sleeping rooms be scrupulously neat and clean. Teach them to care for their clothing. Each child should have a place of his own for his clothes. Few parents are so poor that they cannot afford to provide for this purpose a large box, which may be fitted with shelves and tastefully covered.

To teach children habits of order will take some time each day; but this time is not lost. In the future, the mother will be more than repaid for her efforts in this direction.

See that the children have a daily bath, followed by friction till their bodies are aglow. Tell them that God does not like to see his children with unclean bodies and ragged garments. Then go further, and speak of inward purity. Let it be your constant effort to uplift and ennoble your children.

We are living in the last days. Soon Christ is coming for his people, to take them to the mansions he is preparing for them. But nothing that defiles can enter those mansions. Heaven is pure and holy, and those who pass through the gates of the city of God must here be clothed with inward and outward purity. They must be without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The charge to us is, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, . . . and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." -

Help the Relief Fund

The work being done with "Christ's Object Lessons" is a good beginning to the work the Lord desires to see carried forward by his people, because it calls for sacrifices and gifts, and old and young can engage. The Lord's plan has opened the way for all to do something. This is a work that is to be a blessing to all who engage in it. The more you do of this work, the less weary and the less perplexed you will be. As you go forth to sell the book the Lord has declared should be sold, you will realize that to you is spoken the benediction, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you." E. G. White. -

What the Sale of Christ's Object Lessons Will Accomplish

My heart is made glad in the Lord as I hear of the result of the effort to sell "Christ's Object Lessons." The sale of this book is the Lord's own plan, and his blessing is attending the effort being made to carry this plan to completion.

About two years ago, when I was asked what could be done to relieve our schools from debt, I laid the matter before the Lord, and there came to me the thought that I could give the book, "Christ's Object Lessons," to the schools. Then came another thought, "I have depended on this book to pay my workers, and I must be just before I am generous." In the night season I was considering the problem of my finances. I desired to save money to pay my debts, that I might be free from the burden of interest. But I could see no other way for the schools to be relieved than for me to give "Christ's Object Lessons" for this purpose, and I said, "It must be done." Then the conflict ended. Light filled my mind. I began at once to write to our publishing houses, asking them if they would not share the gift with me by giving the work that must be done in the publication of the book.

The plan was presented to me by the Lord as one that would be an all-around blessing. It was a plan by which leaders and people would be enabled to act a part and receive a blessing. Scene after scene was presented to me in which ministers were being aroused to act their part. Church members became interested, and whole families took part in the work. Angels of God united with the workers, opening doors for the canvassers to enter and tell the people of the work they were trying to do in selling "Christ's Object Lessons."

I saw that the book found ready sale. It was bought by thousands not of our faith; and some, after seeing the value of the matter it contained, bought several copies for distribution among their friends.

The workers gave their time, receiving nothing as far as money is concerned, but receiving a reward of infinitely greater value.

Individual action brought a consciousness of well doing. Those who engaged in the work improved in health of body and health of mind. They gained an experience that made their hearts glad in the Lord. They had no time to speak needless words. Their one thought was, "The book must be sold; for the debt must be lifted from the schools." It seemed as if in every place prayer could be heard; and faith in the work constantly increased. A happy enthusiasm filled the hearts of the workers.

I was made very happy by the result of the plan. And those who engaged in selling the book were happy. They helped one another to make the work a success.

I saw that in selling "Christ's Object Lessons," our people were learning how to handle larger books. They were being prepared to enter the canvassing field. The earnestness with which they took hold of the work showed that they appreciated the opportunity of learning how to canvass. Prejudice was removed. In becoming acquainted with the people, the workers gained a valuable experience. And as they were thus sinking fresh shafts, their example helped the church to see that all around them was work to do. There were those in the church who needed the experience to be gained by telling others of the truth; and as they went forth to this work, their talents were greatly increased. The Saviour went before them, and the blessing of the Lord became his people's strength. The pulpit became a place of power.

I saw that the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons" opened the way for the establishment of missions. In the church there was a revival of the missionary spirit. An earnest desire to learn how to work for the Lord was shown. Small companies gathered for prayer and Bible study. All moved forward with harmonious action. Believers went to places where the people have no opportunity to hear the Word of God, and gathered the children for Sabbath school. Efforts were made to help isolated families. Plans were laid for these families to meet with other families for Bible study. Thus the way was opened for light to shine forth from the Word of God.

The foregoing is a brief description of what can be done by those who know the truth. With this representation of the results of selling "Christ's Object Lessons" before my mind, I have looked for the success now attending the faithful workers. I believe that this effort will arouse our people to see what can and should be done.

A Work in Which All May Help

Many of the servants of Christ, although constantly reminded, seem to forget that they are stewards of their Lord's goods. I have been shown that many of them have become rusty from inaction. The Lord in his providence has now given them something to do, and has thus opened the way for them to help others to become acquainted with the special truths for this time. He has given them a work to do that will bring a great and grand result. In getting out of the easy-chair of self-satisfaction, and going forth to give the light of truth to their fellow men, they will learn an excellent lesson. By selling "Christ's Object Lessons," they are doing a twofold work,--helping to lift the debt from our schools, and at the same time giving the precious light of truth to those who need it.

I hope that no one who can engage in this work will excuse himself, and so lose the blessing that there is in it. This work is the means that the Lord has ordained for uniting the hearts of his people to one another by the same link that unites them to himself. "We are laborers together with God." These words seem so appropriate to the work now being done.

There are many, many souls that the Lord Jesus desires to save. And he asks for our co-operation in this work. These souls cost him an infinite price. Let the questions come home to us, "Are we willing to be workers together with God? Are we willing to go to those outside the faith, and plant in their hearts the seeds of truth?"

The work now being done with "Christ's Object Lessons" is a good beginning of the work the Lord desires to see carried forward by his people, because it calls for sacrifices and gifts, and because it enables all to act a part. It is a work in which old and young can engage. The Lord's plan has provided a way for all to do something. The more you do of this work, the less weary and the less perplexed you will be. As you go forth to sell the book the Lord has declared should be sold, you will realize that to you is spoken the benediction, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you."

The work of selling "Christ's Object Lessons" is to accomplish double and triple good in different lines. Those who purchase the book feel that they are doing something to advance a worthy cause. The work is done with an earnestness that appeals to their hearts. It is a lesson to them, and although they are not of our faith, they appreciate the effort that is being made. They are impressed with the earnestness of the workers. They realize that what they are doing is commended by the Lord, who blesses every good work. Light shines into their hearts. To many the conviction of the Spirit will come through the seed sown by this unselfish work for the Master. The saving of precious souls will be the result of the work done in canvassing for "Christ's Object Lessons."

In Company with Jesus

The Lord comes very near the workers, and angels go before them. My brethren and sisters, never forget whose company you are in. See by faith an angelic host around you. Believe that the Lord Jesus is by your side, that his glory enfolds you, that he is pouring upon you the refreshing showers of his grace. Speak and act to the glory of God. Say, "In thought, word, and deed I will be a blessing to those I meet. I will let light shine forth." Enter into conversation with the people. Become familiar with their experience, and from the book you are selling read passages that will help them. Take with you into their homes the sunshine of heaven. Outside of the truth, there is little enough of this sunshine now in the world.

As you seek to become acquainted with those who have no knowledge of the truth, as you strive to speak words in season, remember that you are God's helping hand, and that he will teach you to speak words which will cause light to shine into darkened minds. Doors will open for the work of soul saving. Many who enter Christ's service at the eleventh hour will labor with great earnestness for him. They will appreciate the wonderful truths of the Word of God, and will bring these truths into the daily life.

Let the workers remember that their spirit and their actions have a great influence on the minds of those they meet. Let them feel their dependence on God. It is only when we place ourselves in his hands, to be worked by his Spirit, that he can use us in breaking the power of the enemy over souls. Let them remember, too, that to those with whom they become acquainted in this work, they are to speak of the love of the Saviour, who, though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor, that we might be rich. He gave himself to a life of lowliness, privation, and poverty, that he might know how to reach every suffering child of his. In all our afflictions he is afflicted. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Let us follow where he leads the way, denying self, and taking up the cross. As we share his humiliation in this life, partaking with him in his suffering, we are preparing to share his glory in the future life.

I have never seen so good an opportunity for those who are willing to work, to give spiritual help to their neighbors and to strangers, as is presented in the work of selling "Christ's Object Lessons." Let all engage in this work, striving, in the meekness of Christ and the love of God, to communicate the light of truth. Go forward, brethren and sisters, and in forgetfulness of self and unselfish effort for others you will receive a rich reward. Trust in the Lord for aid. Remember that when with thankful hearts you do the very best you can, you are closely allied with the angels of heaven. There is sympathy and co-operation between divine and human agencies. The Lord will open ways for you. He does not limit his grace to any special time or special effort. Only have a heart to obey his word, and your example will make an impression in favor of the truth. Only be wide awake to see your opportunities, and God will help you to improve them. Only do what you can, in humility and sincerity, and you will not lose the blessing the Lord has for you. -

Do Not Weary in Welldoing

I am glad that there has been such harmonious effort to carry out the purpose of God and to make the most of his providence. This effort to circulate "Christ's Object Lessons" is demonstrating what can be done in the canvassing field. To ministers, students, fathers, mothers, young men, and young women who have engaged in this work I would say: Let not your interest flag. Let this good work go forward steadily, perseveringly, grandly, till the last debt is removed from all our schools, and a fund is created for the establishment of schools in important fields where there is great need of educational work.

As the ministers and Bible workers are called to other labors, let the members of our churches say to them, "Go forward with your appointed work, and we will continue to labor for the circulation of 'Object Lessons,' and for the freedom of our schools." Let no one feel that this work should stop with the special effort of 1900 and 1901. The field is never exhausted, and this book should be sold for the help of our schools for years to come.

Let us have faith in God. In his name let us carry forward his work without flinching. The work he has called us to do he will make a blessing to us. And when his plan for the relief of our schools has been vindicated, when the work pointed out has been fully accomplished, he will indicate to us what to do next.

As long as the message of mercy is to be given to the world, there will be a call for effort in behalf of other institutions and enterprises similar to that for the relief of our schools. And as long as probation continues, there will be opportunity for the canvasser to work. When the religious denominations unite with the papacy to oppress God's people, places where there is religious freedom will be opened by evangelistic canvassing. If in one place the persecution becomes severe, let the workers do as Christ has directed: "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Matt. 10:23. If persecution comes there, go to still another place. God will lead his people, making them a blessing in many places. Were it not for persecution, they would not be so widely scattered abroad to proclaim the truth. And Christ declares, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." Until in heaven is spoken the word, "It is finished," there will always be places for labor and hearts to receive the message.

Wherefore "let us not be weary in welldoing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal. 6:9. Mrs. E. G. White. -

Work in Christ's Lines

God has given men talents, not to be used for selfish purposes, for the gratification of human pride, but for the glory of his name, for the promotion and advancement of his work, for the benefit of suffering humanity.

Different gifts are imparted to different men, that they may see their need of one another, and connect with one another in the work. God's servants are to be a help and an encouragement to one another. The lines of work that are to represent in our world the truth of heavenly origin are to be carried forward in the name of the Lord. Not one thread of selfishness is to be drawn into the web. No worker is to tear down the work of another man in order to please himself. Those who are working for the Lord are to consult him at every step, that they may work together in unity. By faith they are to lay hold upon the unseen, that they may accomplish the work of preparing a people to stand before God at his coming.

God can communicate with his people to-day, and give them wisdom to do his will, just as he communicated with his people of old, and gave them wisdom in building the sanctuary. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee; the tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle, and the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot, and the cloths of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office, and the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do."

This is an object lesson for us. The tabernacle was to be sacred to the service of God. It was to stand continually in the sight of more than a million people as an illustration of the perfection of Christ's work; and all that was done in its building was to represent this perfection.

The Best for God

So with God's work to-day. Everything connected with his service is to be without a flaw. Those who are seeking to advance his work should give the very best they have, that the work may illustrate the perfection God requires.

God must be honored by the work that is done for him at this time. His work must move forward with stability. Faithfulness and fitness must appear in its every line. The buildings that are erected must correspond with the providences of God and with their relation to the work to be done in other places.

We are to follow God's design exactly in the formation and establishment of the work, small though it may be in some places. Outward show and a large outlay of means are not necessary in order to gain the blessing of God. Human taste, human devising, human inclination to ornament, are not to be encouraged. An unnecessary expenditure of money means that there will be less to invest in the work in other places.

He who is the author of every temporal and spiritual advantage is also the finisher of our faith. Into all the work we do for him we should bring purity of heart and sanctification of spirit. All our work should be an illustration, not of display and extravagance, but of sanctified judgment. And every move that is made should be made with reference to the work in other places.

Lines of work which will absorb means are not to be set in operation without reference to the work in other parts of the Lord's vineyard where there are few facilities. It is the Lord's plan that his workers shall consult together; for the work in one place has an influence on the work in another place. One institution is not to be regarded as a complete whole. The workers in one part of the field are not to feel that they need show no interest in the work in another part of the field. No one is to labor only for the special line under his supervision, feeling no care for other lines of work. All are to labor for the good of the whole cause. Day by day we should feel the greatest anxiety for the constant intercession of Christ, that the work started and the institutions established in different parts of the world may not be in vain.

Those who work for God are to be self-sacrificing. Christ gave his life for us, withholding nothing. Let those who work for him show a spirit of self-sacrifice and an earnest desire to carry the work forward with expedition, realizing that it is a work which must be done as speedily as possible. Let consecrated, zealous efforts be made. Let those who believe the truth represent Christ by working for him with willingness and love.

Fruits of the Spirit to be Revealed in Every Act

God's people are to mingle with all they do the incense of Christ's merits. In all their actions the fruits of the Spirit are to be revealed. Every day by faithful actions sermons are to be preached.

It is God's desire that those who are connected with him shall do their very best. When Christ was upon this earth, he was a diligent worker. Learn lessons from him as you work. And when you rest from your labor, tell one another what your experience has been in gaining a knowledge of God. Remember the words, "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."

We should return to God in freewill offerings the very best of what he has given us, gratefully acknowledging him as the giver of all our blessings. We should regard nothing as too good to be devoted to God's service. We should give freely for the establishment of memorials of his goodness. The largeness of his blessings speaks to us of our obligations to return to him his own.

All spiritual illumination and perfection come from Christ. He is able and willing to communicate in accordance with the needs of all in every line of his work. He desires all to feel their need of him, and to ask him for the help of his Holy Spirit in the work they have been given to perform. Holiness to the Lord was the great characteristic of the Redeemer's life on earth, and it is his will that this shall characterize the lives of his followers. His workers are to labor with unselfishness and faithfulness, and with reference to the usefulness and influence of every other worker. Intelligence and purity are to mark all their work, all their business transactions. He is the light of the world. In his work there are to be no dark corners where dishonest deeds are done. Injustice is in the highest degree displeasing to God. -

The Certainty of Hope

Very few of the thousands who daily express themselves as hoping for this or that, realize what hope really is. How often we hear of disappointed hopes, of "hopes dashed to the ground," of people who hoped for certain things, but did not get them; and even while telling of their "hope" for some desired thing, some will express the fear that they will be disappointed. Such ones know not what hope really is, and are deluding themselves with false hopes.

There is nothing true but God; for Christ, the revelation of God, is "the truth." He is also the reality, the fullness, of everything that is, because he is the life -- the whole of life. He is, and without him there is nothing. There is but one true God, and but one true love, "the love of God," because "God is love." So there is but one rightful Lord; but one faith -- "the faith of Jesus;" and but one real hope -- the hope of our calling in God. Eph. 4:4-7.

This hope does not disappoint. That is the force of the expression, "Hope maketh not ashamed," in Rom. 5:5. Real hope does not deceive us; we are not made ashamed by being obliged to admit that we have not received that of which we spoke so confidently. Often have we been embarrassed when we have been asked where a certain thing is, which we have spoken about expecting to receive. We were disappointed, and would be glad to have the matter forgotten. We feel perhaps a little ashamed of our former enthusiasm, and do not like to have it mentioned. But nothing of this sort happens when we have "the blessed hope" which comes with the experience of justification by faith.

Why is this? What is the reason that hope -- all hope that is hope indeed -- "maketh not ashamed"? The reason is given: "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." True hope has its origin in true love,--the love of God,--because love "hopeth all things." 1 Cor. 13:7. "Love is of God," for "God is love;" therefore love is as enduring and unchanging as God himself. He is "from everlasting to everlasting," and "the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." It must be evident to all that hope that is based upon such love can never disappoint one.

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whatsoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This was promised to Abraham, and the promise was confirmed by an oath,--God swearing by himself,--for our sakes, that "we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." Heb. 6:18-20. All things are assured to us in Christ, and only in him. Rom. 8:32. There is nothing in this world or in the world to come that we can have except through his cross. So the so-called hope for anything that is not to be found in him is sure to meet with disappointment; and the hope for everything that is in him, and that can be had with him, is as sure of fulfillment as that he lives.

Even this is not all; for hope is so very real that we truly have the thing hoped for. Thus: God's work was finished from the foundation of the world, and Christ was given before that. Heb. 4:3; 1 Peter 1:19, 20. On the cross he said, "It is finished." Infinite and everlasting love has bestowed everything. God asks: "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" Isa. 5:4. All heaven has already been poured out in the gift of Christ, so that all that we can possibly hope for we already have in him. We "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," and Christ in us is "the hope of glory." Col. 1:27. He is the brightness of the Father's glory (Heb. 1:3), and the glory that was given him he has given us (John 17:22); therefore; having him, we have all things. He is the same to-day that he is in eternity; therefore all the joys of eternity are ours in him to-day.

This is the "lively hope," the living hope, that we have by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3. There is no element of doubt or uncertainty in it. The Christian's hope is no vague longing after something in the dim and uncertain future, but a firm grasp of that which is, as well as is to come. This is not simply "the larger hope," but the largest hope; for we are taught to believe that God's mercy is upon us according as we hope in him. Ps. 33:22. Then let abiding hope abound.-- Present Truth . -

God's Interest in His Institutions

At various times the condition of our people has been laid open before me. They are in need of the converting power of God. The Lord is looking upon them with disapproval; for many have lost their first love.

We are now reorganizing, and we need much of the help of the Lord. Those in responsible places must stand where God can use them. On this earth we are to do God's work, and into this work we are to bring the order of heaven. All that is done is to be after the divine similitude. Self is to be put out of sight. We have been bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God. All that we have belongs to God, and is to be used in the Master's service. All that we have and are is to be consecrated to him. Then will Christ be glorified. Then will his prayers for his followers be answered. They will be one with him and with one another, and the world will see that God did indeed send his Son into the world.

Human instrumentalities are the Lord's helping hand. God expects men and women to work for him to the limit of their ability. Each is to strive to accomplish his God-given work. None are at liberty to turn from conformity to the will of God in order to follow their own desires. Even the thoughts are to be brought into captivity to the will of Christ. Not that man can, in his own strength, conform to the mind of God. But he can place himself where the Spirit can guide and control him.

"We are laborers together with God." In his service divine and human agencies are to co-operate. By the partnership of God and man, the work of warning the world is to be carried to completion. Without the Lord's co-operation, we can gain no success. Without his aid, the efforts of human labor, human science, are worthless. All true knowledge comes from him. When man accomplishes anything good, it is because he co-operates with his Maker.

God's Work is a Unit

God is to be brought into every pursuit of life. With every enterprise he is concerned. But he is especially interested in the various branches of his work, and in the institutions consecrated to their advancement. The offices of publication, by means of which the truth is to be given to the world, are sacred to his service. The sanitariums are his helping hand. Their work--the restoration of the sick to health, and the relief of suffering--is the work for this time. Our schools, where children and youth are to be trained for God, are an important part of his great plan.

There are to be no walls of partition between the different lines of work. This work is to be carried forward without division. In God's cause there are to be no territorial lines. Our schools are to be regarded as a part of his great plan. Our sanitariums also are to be thus regarded. Medical work is to be sacredly cherished and carefully conducted. It is as the right hand of the body, and is to open doors for the entrance of truth.

No line of work is to be pushed forward to the hindrance of another line. In some ways our sanitariums have more advantages than our schools. This is to be considered in the plans laid for the work. Every effort is to be made to place the schools where they will be self-supporting. Their interests are to be carefully guarded. They are to be placed on a high spiritual plane. Nothing is to be done to rob them of the advantages they should have. This would be selfishness, and will never bear the Lord's indorsement.

Our publishing houses should make more of an effort to help our schools than they have done in the past. The Lord will not excuse any effort to cripple the educational work. This work is second to none in importance. God's desire is that it shall be given the advantage of every facility that can be used for its advancement.

God is no respecter of persons. Those that honor him he will honor. Of those who obey his commandments it is written, "Ye are complete in him." They co-operate with him in the work of soul saving. God says to them. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."

Every Act is to Bear Heaven's Impress

In order to be successful in the service of God, man must be guided by the Holy Spirit. Christ declares, "Without me ye can do nothing." And the one who refuses to unite with Christ, the one who exchanges the pure principles of heaven for the corrupting principles of the world, thus searing his conscience, might better be separated from the work that is to represent in this world God's justice, mercy, truth, and holiness.

All that God's servants do is to advance the work of soul saving. All that is done in our institutions is to bear the impress of heaven. The policy followed by the Lord's workers is to be in marked contrast with the policy followed by worldlings. Those who are brought in contact with our institutions are to see distinctly the difference between the righteousness of Bible principles and the ungodliness of worldly principles.

Divine agencies are constantly working to counteract the human purposes and plans that are not in harmony with the purposes and plans of Jehovah. No worldly policy is to be brought into God's work. It is his design that his work shall be done by men who realize the broadness of his law and the greatness of his love, men who jealously guard their words and actions, lest they shall fail of doing his work exactly in his way. When men grow careless, the history of their past failures is repeated, greatly to the hindrance of the work the Lord desires to accomplish. If those handling sacred things in connection with God's cause are not more spiritual minded, more sensitive to his claims, more determined to carry out his plans in harmony with his high standard, regardless of human policy, he will overturn and overturn. After test and trial, he will remove those who are not spiritualized, whose words and works do not harmonize with his will. -

Rusty From Inaction

Many of the servants of Christ, although constantly reminded, seem to forget that they are stewards of their Lord's goods. I have been shown that many of those who claim to be the children of God have become rusty from inaction; and the Lord in his providence has given them something to do, and in thus doing, has opened the way for them to help others to become acquainted with the truth.

He has given them a work to do that will bring about a good and grand result. In getting up out of the easy chair of self-satisfaction, and going forth to give the light of truth to their fellow men, God's people will learn an excellent lesson. By selling "Christ's Object Lessons," they are doing a twofold work--helping to lift the debt from our schools, and at the same time giving most precious light to those who really need it. Mrs. E. G. White. -

An Appeal to Parents

My attention has been especially called to a work that has been strangely neglected,--the training of children. Parents have set aside the work that lies at the very foundation of soul saving. Child training is the grandest work ever committed to mortals. The child belongs to the Lord, and from the time it is an infant in its mother's arms, it is to be trained for him, trained to enter his service. For the first years of a child's life, the home is to be its school. In the home, parents and children are together to learn the way of the Lord. Carefully and untiringly parents are to watch the opening minds of their children, giving them the lessons they need in order to develop into Christian men and women. Parents should make all else subordinate to the work God has given them to do for their children.

It is the mother's privilege to bless the world by her influence, and in doing this, she will bring joy to her own heart. She may make straight paths for the feet of her children, through sunshine and shadow, to the glorious heights above. But it is only when she seeks in her own life to follow the teachings of Christ, that the mother can hope to form the character of her children after the divine example. The world teems with corrupting influences. Fashion and custom exert a strong power over the youth. If the mother fails in her duty to instruct, guide, and restrain, her children will naturally accept the evil, and turn from the good. Let every mother go often to God with the prayer, "How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?" Let her heed the instruction that God has given in his Word, and wisdom will be given her as she shall have need.

Few parents realize as they should that child training is God's appointed agency for the salvation of their children. They do not make it their first work to train their children for the Lord. They allow exhibitions of temper, pride, selfishness, to pass unnoticed; and the children grow up unlovely in character, an injury to their companions, a sorrow to their parents, and an offense to God.

Obedience and How it may be Taught

The first lesson that children are to be taught is the lesson of obedience. When they have learned to obey their parents, it will not be hard for them to obey God. Obedience becomes a part of their nature.

But before parents can teach their children obedience, they must learn the lesson themselves by obedience to God. How can they discipline their children aright till they learn the meaning and the value of self-discipline? How can they lead their children up the difficult heights of self-control, self-denial, patience, and truthfulness, unless they first climb these heights themselves?

A parent gives way to temper before the child, and then wonders why the child is so difficult to control. But what could he expect? Children are quick to imitate; and the child is but putting into practice the lessons taught him by his parents in their outbursts of anger.

Too often parents follow a course that develops evil in the child. Harsh and severe, they drive him to rebellion. Then they wonder why he has traits of character that are so unlovely, when they try so hard to break his stubborn will. It is in trying to break his will that they make their mistake. The child's will is to be trained, bent, not broken.

Disobedience and rebellion must be punished; but remember that the punishment is to be given in the spirit of Christ. Require obedience, never with a storm of angry words, but firmly and kindly. And when called upon to discipline your child, remember your own relation to your Heavenly Father. Have you walked perfectly before him? Are you not wayward and disobedient? Do you not grieve him continually? But does he deal with you in anger? Remember, too, that it is from you that your children have received their tendencies to wrong. Remember how often you act like grown-up children. In spite of your years of Christian experience, in spite of your many opportunities for self-discipline, how easily you are provoked to anger. Deal gently, then, with your children, remembering that they have not had the opportunities you have had to gain self-control.

You may have to punish your child with the rod. This is sometimes essential. But never, never strike him in anger. To correct him thus is to make two wrongs in trying to cure one. Defer the punishment till you have talked with yourself and with God. Ask yourself, Have I submitted my will to God's will? Am I standing where he can control me? Ask God to forgive you for transmitting to your child a disposition so difficult to manage. Ask him to give you wisdom, that you may deal with your wayward child in a way that will draw him nearer to you and to his Heavenly Father.

Be Christlike in the Home

Love breaks down all barriers. Let there be no scolding, no loud-voiced, angry commands. Obey the injunction, "Be still, and know that I am God." The Lord will give rich blessings to those parents who make diligent efforts to rule the spirit. The grace of Christ softens harsh traits of character and smooths out the rugged disposition.

Those who govern by force have far less influence than those who govern by love. Harshness hardens the heart and braces the will to resistance. Gentleness softens the heart and subdues the most stubborn will.

To every parent God says, "Take heed unto thyself," -- thyself, father; thyself, mother. Before you can do your children justice, you must surrender yourselves to God's training. You must be filled with high motives and noble aspirations. Each day you must endeavor to make yourself more worthy of your trust. Then God will co-operate with you.

The family firm should be well organized. Together the father and mother should consider their responsibilities. Together they should work for the highest good of their children. There is to be no variance between them. Never should they in the presence of their children criticise each other's plans or question each other's judgment. If the wife is inexperienced, she should try to find out where her work makes the work of her husband more difficult, as he labors for the salvation of the children. And the husband should hold up the hands of his wife, giving her wise counsel and loving encouragement.

A Christian father is the house-band of his family, binding them close to the throne of God. Never is his interest in his children to flag. The father who has a family of boys should not leave these restless boys wholly to the care of the mother. This is too heavy a burden for her. He should make himself their companion and friend. He should exert himself to keep them from evil associates. It may be hard for the mother to exercise self-control. If the husband sees that his wife's weakness is endangering the safety of the children, he should take more of the burden upon himself, doing all in his power to lead his boys to God.

Parents are not left to carry forward alone the work on which so much depends. Christ says, Come unto me. I will bear your burdens and your perplexities. All power in heaven and in earth has been given to me. I will give you strength. Go to him, fathers and mothers. Many of you cannot properly fulfill your trust until you are more closely connected with Christ. Some ask, "Why does not the Lord work miracles to-day, as he did when he was upon the earth?" Let parents live in the home the life of Christ, and the transformation in the lives of their children will testify to God's miracle-working power. -

The Lord Knew Best

The Lord knew just the best way to help us out of our difficulty in regard to the debt on the schools. The school work is to me a part of myself, and I am greatly encouraged by the success of the plan to relieve our schools from debt. My heart is made glad in the Lord as I hear of the money brought in by the sale of "Christ's Object Lessons." The sale of this book is the Lord's own plan, and his blessing is attending the efforts made to carry out this plan. I have already seen much more accomplished than I expected to see.

I hope that no one who can engage in this work will excuse himself, and so lose the blessing there is in it. This is the means the Lord has ordained for uniting the hearts of his people to one another by the same link that unites them to himself as his co-workers. "We are laborers together with God." These words seem so appropriate to the work now being done. Mrs. E. G. White. -

An Appeal to Parents--No. 2

God's great lesson book, his holy Word, gives parents instruction regarding the preparation they and their children must receive before they can be admitted into the heavenly family. Parents, hear the word of the Lord to you:--

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes."

"What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?"

Upon obedience depends the life and happiness, the health and joy, of men, women, and children. Obedience is for our well-being in this life and in the life to come. "The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us."

If the law of God were taught in the home, if obedience were enjoined upon children from their earliest years, how different the world would be to-day! Temperance, industry, and economy would be seen. Evil would be avoided. Virtue would be cherished.

The Scriptures given above are for our admonition and instruction. But they are not studied as they should be. The failure to follow God's plan is causing him to withdraw his blessing from parents and children. Many fathers and mothers will have a heavy charge brought against them when they stand before the Judge of all the earth. They do not obey the voice of the Lord. They permit their children to do wickedly. Their unruly, disobedient children testify to their neglect of duty.

God is watching the families who claim to be Christians, to see how they are conducting themselves. If ever evangelical work was needed, it is needed now in our families, our schools, our sanitariums, and our publishing houses. Let us consider the work to be done. Fathers and mothers need to feel the converting power of God. Their lives need to be cleansed. There are many professed Christians who have never been transformed in character. This is why the Holy Spirit cannot accomplish its work upon hearts.

"I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."

A Reformation Called For

God calls for a thorough purification of households and institutions. There is need, not merely of a revival, but of a reformation. Every church needs to be stirred as never before. When the great light that God has given shines forth through human agencies, a great work will be done. In demonstration of the Spirit, and with power, the truth will be revealed in clear, distinct lines. But this work must begin in the home.

As the right work is done in the home, parents will find their hearts subdued and melted. Strange prejudices that have been cherished by brethren and sisters in the church, prejudices that have borne evil fruit, will be overcome, and will disappear. A spirit of candor will come in, a spirit after Christ's likeness. God's people will give up the tenacious desire to have their own way and to urge their own ideas; for they will realize that they are in the presence of God's Son.

I beseech the parents in our churches to make a solemn covenant with God by repentance and confession. Confess your past neglect, and in the fear of God take up the work of educating your children in righteousness. Do you not think that it is time to seek the Lord with the whole heart, that you may find him, and co-operate with him in working for the salvation of your children? The Lord will not pass over a neglect to feed his lambs. Teach your children that they are the younger members of the Lord's family. Guide their feet in the way of holiness. Lead them to God. Guard well your words and actions, that by example as well as by precept you may give the lessons God has instructed you to give. Respond to the striving of the Holy Spirit. Thus you prepare the way for your children to respond to this striving.

O parents, for the sake of yourselves, and your children, I make this appeal to you. My heart is greatly burdened. I cannot sleep as I think of parental neglect and its fatal results. I pray that you may be impressed with the importance of the work on which so much depends. There is set before you "a blessing and a curse; a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, . . . and a curse, if ye will not obey." This is your day of trust. Soon will come your day of reckoning. Take up your work with earnest prayer and faithful endeavor. Let Christ find you his helping hand in carrying out his purposes. Prepare for the coming of the Lord. This is the preparation day. Set your own hearts in order, and work earnestly for your children. An unreserved surrender to God will sweep away the barriers that have so long defied the approaches of heavenly grace. When you take up the cross and follow Christ, when you bring your lives into conformity to the will of God, your children will be converted. The world will take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus and have learned of him. In word and deed they will bear witness to the power of Christ's grace. -

Neglected Duties

The church is the channel through which the Lord works to save the perishing. By the members of the church are to be made known his mercy, goodness, and power. What a wonderful work has been committed to us! All heaven is waiting for human channels through which to communicate the grace of God. But selfishness is hindering us in fulfilling God's purpose for us. Selfishness is hiding the Saviour from his people. Thorough conversation is what the church needs. God calls for men imbued with the love of Christ to do his work. He needs men of sound minds, clear heads, and tender hearts.

I am instructed to say: Unless our ministers and the leading men in our institutions believe and practice the word of God, they will never see the King in his beauty. God's law is his standard of character. And the foundation principles of this law are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Obedience to this law is the condition of gaining salvation. Upon our obedience depends our present and future happiness.

Will men and women claim to be Christians, and yet lose out of their lives the tenderness and love of Christ? Shall those who have a knowledge of the truth for this time allow themselves to speak and act harshly? Will they treat those connected with them in labor as if they were unworthy of notice?

When you see a fellow being striving to climb the hill, will you, standing securely at the top, reproach him because he is not there also? or will you descend the hill, and linking his arm in yours, guide his trembling feet in the upward path, soothing and encouraging him, till he stands at the summit, filled with hope and courage?

Have you not seen a fellow worker, pale and worn, bearing on his face the premonitions of death? How did you treat him? Was your heart touched, your sympathy aroused? Did you reach out to him the hand of fellowship? Did you do all in your power to help him? or did you selfishly seek gain for yourself at his expense,--you on vantage ground, he in sickness, sorrow, and want? Did you think it would please God for you to destroy your fellow worker's faith, his hope, his confidence in human brotherhood? And after you had acted thus, did you congratulate yourself upon your financial gain?

How did the pitying Redeemer look upon such a course? Think you that he placed on it the seal of his approval?

We are to Work the Works of Christ

Our work is to restore, not to destroy; to lift up, not to cast down; "to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." We are commanded to remember those that are bound, as bound with them. God asks, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"

Study your Bibles, my brethren. In the name of Christ I call upon you to work the works of Christ. Godliness is profitable for all things. It is the fruit of a repentance that needeth not to be repented of. The evidence of its worth is in itself, and is revealed by good works. True reform bears the fruit of the Spirit. He who loves God is a friend to those for whom the Son of God died.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

Neglected duties confront us. Too often, instead of doing the work the Lord has given us, we have watched for defects in those whom, instead of criticising, we ought to have helped. We have not worked faithfully. There are in our institutions untrained men and women. Jesus needs their service. With yearning tenderness he is inviting them to come to him, that he may use them as channels for the communication of his grace. But those whom he has appointed to co-operate with him in fitting these souls for service, have failed to manifest that loving tenderness which as Christians they should manifest for the young and the inexperienced. Not only do they themselves fail of following Jesus; they keep others from his side. How can the Lord bless them? Let us break the crust of selfishness that surrounds us. Let us not descend to bickering and strife, criticising and condemning one another. Christ is ashamed to call those who do this his brethren.

Christ's Work for Us an Incentive to Labor

A great work is to be done, and in doing this work, we are to labor on a much higher plane than we have labored on in the past. Brethren and sisters, this matter has been so forcibly presented to me that I cannot hold my peace. Into the church there has come a hard-hearted spirit, and with it principles of selfishness, which have excluded the light of Christ from our hearts.

Christ is constantly working for us. Our advocate in the heavenly courts, he is ever making intercession for us. The cry of the one ready to perish finds swift entrance to his ear. "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth: the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Shall we not work for him in the way he has marked out? Shall we not help those in need of help?

Christ suffered, being tempted; therefore he always sympathizes with those whom Satan is seeking to destroy. That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, he was in all things made like those he came to help. He has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way; for when he was on this earth, he was compassed with infirmities. He is ever willing and ready to help us in our perplexities. As he worked for us, let us work for others.

Many more than we suppose need a helping hand held out to them. There are many to whom words of sympathy would be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. Are you doing Christ service by ministering to weary, discouraged fellow beings? -

The Importance of a Knowledge of Health Principles

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

We have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of medical missionary work. The world is a lazar house filled with the victims of both physical and spiritual disease. Everywhere people are perishing for lack of a knowledge of the truths that have been committed to us. The members of the church are in need of an awakening, that they may realize their responsibility to impart these truths. Those who have been enlightened by the truth are to be light bearers to the world. To hide our light at this time is to make a terrible mistake. The message to God's people to-day is, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

On every hand we see those who have had much light and knowledge deliberately choosing evil in the place of good. Making no attempt to reform they are growing worse and worse. But the people of God are not to walk in darkness. They are to walk in the light, for they are reformers.

Before the true reformer, the medical missionary work will open many doors. No one need wait until called to some distant field before beginning to help others. Wherever you are, you can begin at once. Opportunities are within the reach of every one. Take up the work for which you are held responsible,--the work that should be done in your home and in your neighborhood. Wait not for others to urge you to action. In the fear of God, go forward without delay, bearing in mind your individual responsibility to him who gave his life for you. Act as if you heard Christ calling upon you personally to do your utmost in his service. Look not to see who else is ready. If you are truly consecrated, God will, through your instrumentality, bring into the truth others whom he can use as channels to convey light to many who are groping in darkness.

All can do something. In an effort to excuse themselves, some say, "My home duties, my children, claim my time and my means." Parents, your children should be your helping hand, increasing your power and ability to work for the Master. Children are the younger members of the Lord's family. They should be led to consecrate themselves to God, whose they are by creation and by redemption. They should be taught that all their powers of body, mind, and soul are his. They should be trained to help in various kinds of unselfish service. Do not allow your children to be hindrances. With you the children should share spiritual as well as physical burdens. By helping others they increase their own happiness and usefulness.

The Home Reading Circle

Let our people show that they have a living interest in medical missionary work. Let them prepare themselves for usefulness by studying the books that have been written for our instruction in these subjects. These books deserve much more attention and appreciation than they have received. Much that is for the benefit of all to understand has been written for the special purpose of instruction in the principles of health. Those who study and practice these principles will be greatly blessed, both physically and spiritually. An understanding of the philosophy of health will be a safeguard against many of the evils that are continually increasing.

Many who desire to obtain knowledge of medical missionary work have home duties that will sometimes prevent them from meeting with others for study. These may learn much in their own homes in regard to the expressed will of God concerning missionary work, thus increasing their ability to help others. Fathers and mothers, obtain all the help you can from the study of our books and publications. Read the Good Health , for it is full of valuable information. Take time to read to your children from the health books, as well as from the books treating more particularly on religious subjects. Teach them the importance of caring for the body,--the house they live in. Form a home reading circle, in which every member of the family shall lay aside the busy cares of the day, and unite in study. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, take up this work heartily, and see if the home church will not be greatly improved.

Especially will the youth who have been accustomed to reading novels and cheap storybooks, receive benefit by joining in the evening family study. Young men and young women, read the literature that will give you true knowledge, and that will be a help to the entire family. Say firmly, I will not spend precious moments in reading that which will be of no profit to me, and which only unfits me to be of service to others. I will devote my time and my thoughts to acquiring a fitness for God's service. I will close my eyes to frivolous and sinful things. My ears are the Lord's, and I will not listen to the subtle reasoning of the enemy. My voice shall not in any way be subject to a will that is not under the influence of the Spirit of God. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and every power of my being shall be consecrated to worthy pursuits.

The Lord has appointed the youth to be his helping hand. If in every church they would consecrate themselves to him, if they would practice self-denial in the home, relieving their careworn mother, the mother could find time to make neighborly visits; and when opportunity offered, they could themselves give assistance by doing little errands of mercy and love. Books and papers treating on the subject of health and temperance could be placed in many homes. The circulation of this literature is an important matter; for thus precious knowledge can be imparted in regard to the treatment of disease,--knowledge that would be a great blessing to those who cannot afford to pay for a physician's visits, or for drugs which, even if obtained, are only an injury.

Duty of Parents to Instruct and Train their Children

Parents should seek to interest their children in the study of physiology. But few among the youth have any definite knowledge of the mysteries of life. The study of the wonderful human organism, the relation and dependence of its complicated parts, is one in which many, even parents, take little interest. They do not understand the influence of the body upon the mind or of the mind upon the body. Needless trifles occupy their attention, and then they plead a lack of time as an excuse for not obtaining the information necessary to enable them properly to instruct their children.

If all would obtain a knowledge of this subject, and would feel the importance of putting it to practical use, we should see a better condition of things. Parents, teach your children to reason from cause to effect. Show them that if they violate the laws of health, they must pay the penalty by suffering. Show them that recklessness in regard to bodily health tends to recklessness in morals. Your children require patient, faithful care. It is not enough for you to feed and clothe them; you should seek also to develop their mental powers, and to imbue their hearts with right principles. But how often are beauty of character and loveliness of temper lost sight of in the eager desire for outward appearance! Parents, be not governed by the world's opinion; labor not to reach its standard. Decide for yourselves what is the great aim of life, and then bend every effort to reach that aim. You cannot with impunity neglect the proper training of your children. Their defective characters will publish your unfaithfulness. The evils that you permit to pass uncorrected--the coarse, rough manners, the disrespect and disobedience, the habits of indolence and inattention--will bring dishonor to your names and bitterness into your lives. The destiny of your children rests to a great extent in your hands. If you fail in duty, you may place them in the ranks of the enemy, and make them his agents in ruining others; on the other hand, if you faithfully instruct them, if in your own lives you set before them a godly example, you may lead them to Christ, and they in turn will influence others, and thus many may be saved through your instrumentality.

Fathers and mothers, do you realize the importance of the responsibility resting upon you? Do you realize the necessity of guarding your children from careless, demoralizing habits? Allow your children to form only such associations as will have a right influence upon their characters. Do not allow them to be out in the evening unless you know where they are, and what they are doing. Instruct them in the principles of moral purity. If you have neglected to teach them line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, begin at once to do your duty. Take up your responsibilities, and work for time and for eternity. Let not another day pass without confessing your neglect to your children. Tell them that you mean now to do your God-appointed work. Ask them to take hold with you in the reform. Make diligent efforts to redeem the past. No longer remain in the condition of the Laodicean church. In the name of the Lord I call upon every family to show its true colors. Reform the church in your own home.

As you faithfully do your duty in the home, the father as a priest of the household, the mother as a home missionary, you are multiplying agencies for doing good outside of the home. As you improve your own powers, you are becoming better fitted to labor in the church and in the neighborhood. By binding your children to yourselves and to God, fathers and mothers and children become laborers together with God. -

A Call to Service

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

True, indeed, are these words. Everywhere there are hearts crying out for the living God. The Lord has his representatives in all the churches. These persons have not had the special, testing truths for the last days presented to them under circumstances that brought conviction to heart and mind; therefore they have not, by rejecting light, severed their connection with God. There are those who have faithfully walked in all the light that has shone upon their pathway. They hunger to know more of the ways and works of God. All over the world, men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for light, for grace, for the Holy Spirit. Many are on the very verge of the kingdom, waiting to be gathered in. These demand the service of those to whom God has intrusted his truth.

And those also who are dead in trespasses and sins demand our service. The man who is wholly absorbed in his countingroom, the man who finds pleasure at the gaming table, the man who loves to indulge perverted appetite, the frequenter of the theater and the ballroom, put eternity out of their reckoning. The whole burden of their life is, What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed? They are not in the procession that is moving heavenward. They are led by the great apostate, and if they continue in this path, they will with him be destroyed. All around us are souls perishing in their sins. Every year thousands upon thousands are dying without God and without hope of eternal life. The plagues and judgments of God are in the earth, and souls are going to ruin because the light of truth has not been flashed upon their pathway.

The heart of God is moved. Souls are very precious in his sight. It was for this world that Christ wept in agony; for this world that he was crucified. God gave his only begotten Son to save sinners, and he desires us to love others as he has loved us. He desires those who have a knowledge of the truth to impart this knowledge to their fellow men.

Now is the time for the last warning to be given. There is a special power in the presentation of truth at the present time; but how long will it continue?--Only a little while. If ever there was a crisis, it is now.

The proclamation of the third angel's message is our work. We are to present the truth in regard to the Sabbath of the Lord. God's memorial of creation has been torn down, and in its place there stands a false sabbath. Satan has led men to declare that this is the true Sabbath, and in the belief of this delusion millions are passing into eternity. And the people to whom God has given his truth are hiding their light under a bushel, allowing the cares of this world to engross the time and attention that should be given to the Lord's work.

The Christian's Privilege and Responsibility

It is an eternal law of Jehovah that he who accepts truth which the world needs is to make it his first work to proclaim this truth. But where are those who make the burden of perishing sinners their own? As I look upon the professed people of God, and see their unwillingness to serve him, my heart is filled with a pain that I cannot express. How few are heart to heart with God in his solemn, closing work. There are thousands to be warned, yet how few consecrate themselves wholly to the work, willing to be or to do anything if only they may win sinners to righteousness. Jesus died to save the world. In humility, in lowliness, in unselfishness, he worked and is working for sinners. But many of those who ought to co-operate with him are self-sufficient and indifferent.

Who can sympathize with Christ in his distress and anguish, as with quivering lips he exclaimed, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not"? Who can say with Jeremiah, "Oh that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people"?

Among God's people to-day there is a fearful lack of the sympathy that should be felt for souls unsaved. Unless our hearts beat in union with the heart of Christ, how can we understand the sacredness and importance of the work to which we are called by the words, "Watch for souls as they that must give an account"? We talk of Christian missions. The sound of our voices is heard; but do we feel Christ's tender heart-longing for souls?

Church members are trifling with their responsibilities, unfitting themselves for service. What shall we say, what can we say, to arouse those who know the truth, both ministers and lay members, to a sense of their responsibility? How can they be led to feel the need of imparting to others the truth that God has given them? O that they were awake to the purposes of God and to their individual accountability! Then would they use every gift, every talent, in the work of giving to the world the truth for this time. The number of laborers would greatly increase, and the work would grow in influence and extent. God's people would be lights, shining amid the darkness of this degenerate age.

The work has extended so that it now covers a large territory, and the number of believers has increased. But there is still a great deficiency. A much larger work might have been done had the missionary spirit been shown that was shown in the earlier days. Our present numbers, the present extent of our work, are not to be compared with what they were in the beginning. We should think of what the work might have been had every worker consecrated himself, body, soul, and spirit, to God as he should have done.

A Forward Movement Called For

God has given all something to do. Those who are willing to work in self-denial and self-sacrifice will find their place. But those who seek only a safe and easy place need to be converted. Until their hearts are renewed, their purposes changed, God has no use for them in his work. By an unreserved consecration we are to prepare ourselves for service.

Our General, who never makes a mistake, says to us, Advance. Enter new territory. Lift up the standard, establish memorials in every place. Let it be known that God has a people on the earth who have not forgotten that he has a law, binding upon all human beings. In all the churches there are those who know not that the seventh day, and not the first day, is the Sabbath. These are to hear the message of present truth.

We need now to train men, and set them to work, giving them every facility for the impartation of truth. There is at this time a sad dearth of laborers. Scores of men and women might be set to work. This need should have been foreseen. Our faith is not proportionate to the light God has given us. When our hearts are emptied of selfishness, and cleansed by the Spirit of Christ, we shall be vessels meet for the Master's use.

God is waiting for men and women to awake to their responsibilities. He is waiting for them to link themselves with him. Let them mark the signals for advance, and no longer be laggards in working out the will of the Lord.

Do we realize how large a number in the world are watching our movements? From quarters where we least expect will come voices urging us forward in the work of giving to the world the last message of mercy. Ministers and people, wake up! Be quick to recognize and seize every opportunity and advantage offered in the turning of the wheel of providence. God and Christ and the heavenly angels are working with intense activity to hold in check the fierceness of Satan's wrath, that God's plans may not be thwarted. God lives and reigns. He is conducting the affairs of the universe. Let his soldiers move forward to victory. Let there be perfect unity in their ranks. Let them press the battle to the gates. As a mighty Conqueror, the Lord will work for them.

Let the gospel message ring through our churches, summoning them to universal action. Let the members of the churches have increased faith, gaining zeal from their unseen, heavenly allies, from a knowledge of their exhaustless resources, from the greatness of the enterprise in which they are engaged, and from the power of their Leader. Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by him, will catch the steady trend of the events ordained by him to take place. Inspired with the spirit of him who gave his life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they cannot do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth into the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that his omnipotence will supply their need. -

The Work of Soul Saving

We are living in solemn times. The end is near; and I have a message for our people. They must awake, spread their tents, and enlarge their borders. The present state of things must be changed. The world is to be warned. The truth is to be taken to men of the world, that they may see the duty that the Lord has placed on them. Those belonging to the higher classes are to hear the message of present truth. God says to his people, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."

The one work more precious than any other is the work of soul saving. God's servants are to move forward in this work, weighted with the importance of the message they are bearing.

To secure your present and future good, Christ gave himself as a sacrifice. Will you draw back from making a covenant with God by sacrifice? Christ died on the cross to save the world from perishing in sin. He asks your co-operation in the work of soul saving. You are to be his helping hand, to do in the world the work that needs to be done to place the truth before as many as possible. "Ye are not your own; for ye are brought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Refuse to admit the worldly interests that strive for the supremacy in your life. Regard yourself as pledged to Christ's service for time and for eternity. Enter into no business that will make you indifferent to his claims. Say, to those who seek to draw you from his work, I am not my own; Jesus has bought me. I belong to him. Every particle of my influence is to be used to magnify the principles of his law. God is mine, and I am his, united to him by a perpetual covenant of service. I must devote myself wholly to the service of the Lord God of hosts. He has put it out of my power to give him anything that is not already his. Every part of my being, every talent, every faculty, belongs to him. If I had more than one life, I would give it to him; for it would be his.

Have you so deep an appreciation of the sacrifice made on Calvary that you are willing to make every other interest subordinate to the work of saving souls? The same intensity of desire to save sinners that marked the life of the Saviour marks the life of his true follower. The Christian has no desire to live for self. He delights to consecrate all that he has and is to the Master's service. He is moved with an inexpressible desire to win souls to Christ. Those who have nothing of this desire might better be concerned for their own salvation. Let them pray for the spirit of service.

The Christian's Work Begins in His Own Family

The transforming power of Christ's grace molds the one who yields himself to the Saviour. Imbued with the spirit of the Redeemer, he is ready to deny self, ready to take up the cross, ready to make any sacrifice in the service of the Master. No longer can he be indifferent to the souls perishing around him. He is lifted above self-serving. He has been created anew in Christ Jesus, and self-serving has no place in his life. He realizes that every part of his being belongs to Christ, who has redeemed him from the slavery of sin; that every moment of his future has been bought with the precious life blood of God's only begotten Son.

God opens ways whereby such ones may work for him. Let them look ever to him, that they may know what he wants them to do. Let them do what they can; even though it be but little, it may result in great good.

How can I best glorify him whose I am by creation and by redemption?--this is to be the question we are to ask ourselves. With anxious solicitude the one who is truly converted seeks to rescue those who are still in Satan's power. He refuses to do anything that would hinder him in his work. If he has children, he realizes that his work must begin in his own family. His children are exceedingly precious to him. Remembering that they are the younger members of the Lord's family, he strives with all his power to place them where they will stand on the Lord's side. He has pledged himself to serve, honor, and obey Christ; and he puts forth patient, untiring effort so to train his children that they will never be hostile to the Saviour.

On fathers and mothers God has placed the responsibility of saving their children from the power of the enemy. This is their work,--a work that they should on no account neglect. Those parents who have a living connection with Christ will not rest until they see their children safe in the fold. They will make this the burden of their life.

Parents, do not neglect the work waiting for you in the little church in your own home. This is your first field of missionary effort. The most important work you can do is to place your children on the Lord's side. When they err, deal with them tenderly yet firmly. Let them unite with you in opposing the evil by which Satan seeks to destroy the souls and bodies of human beings. As you take them with you into the service of the Lord, what a victory you gain! Share with them the secret of the cross, the secret that to you means sanctification, redemption, and eternal victory.

If the families around you are opposed to the truth, strive to lead them to yield to the claims of Christ. Work patiently, wisely, considerately, winning your way by the tender ministry of love. Present the truth in such a way that it will be seen in all its beauty, exerting an influence that cannot be resisted. Thus the walls of prejudice will be broken down.

If this work were faithfully done, if fathers and mothers would work for the members of their own families, and then for those around them, uplifting Christ by a godly life, thousands of souls would be saved. When God's people are truly converted, when they realize the obligations resting on them to labor for those within their reach, when they leave no means untried to rescue sinners from the power of the enemy, the reproach will be removed from our churches.

The Formation of Small Bands for Soul-Saving Efforts

The Lord has presented before me the work that must be done in our cities. The believers in these cities can work for God in the neighborhood of their homes. They are to work quietly and in humility, carrying with them wherever they go the atmosphere of heaven. If they keep self out of sight, pointing always to Christ, the power of their influence will be felt on the side of truth.

As the human agent gives himself unreservedly to the work of the Lord, he gains an experience that enables him to work more and more successfully for the Master. The influence that drew him to Christ helps him to draw others to Christ. He may never have laid upon him the work of a public speaker, but he is none the less a minister for God; and his work testifies that he is born of God.

Why do not believers feel a deeper, more earnest concern for those who are out of Christ? Why do not two or three meet together and plead with God for the salvation of some special one, and then for still another? In our churches let companies be formed for service. In the Lord's work there are to be no idlers. Let different ones unite in labor as fishers of men. Let them seek to gather souls from the corruption of the world into the saving purity of Christ's love.

The formation of small companies as a basis of Christian effort has been presented to me by One who cannot err. If there are a large number in the church, let the members be formed into small companies, to work not only for the church members, but for unbelievers. If in one place there are only two or three who know the truth, let them form themselves into a band of workers. Let them keep their bond of union unbroken, pressing together in love and unity, encouraging one another to advance, each gaining courage and strength from the assistance of the others. Let them reveal Christlike forbearance and patience, speaking no hasty words, using the talent of speech to build up one another in the most holy faith. Let them labor in Christlike love for those outside the fold, forgetting self in their endeavor to help others. As they work and pray in Christ's name, their numbers will increase; for the Saviour says, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." -

Words to Ministers

In all departments of ministerial work there is need of greater earnestness. Time is passing, and the work that should be far advanced is almost at a standstill. God's servants are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." The lamp of the soul is to be kept trimmed and burning. People need the truth, and by earnest faithful effort it is to be communicated to them. Everything that can be done to save sinners should be done without delay. Souls are to be sought for, prayed for, labored for. Earnest appeals are to be made. Fervent prayers are to be offered. Our tame, spiritless petitions are to be changed into petitions of intense earnestness. God's Word declares, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Wake up, my brethren, into spiritual activity. Daily reveal a determined purpose to be good and to do good. It is not enough to live merely a quiet, prayerful life. Meditation alone will not answer the need of the world. Vigilant waiting is to be combined with vigilant working. We are to be living, wide-awake, energetic Christians filled with zeal to give to others the blessings of the truth.

Young ministers should not be encouraged to preach to the churches. This is not their work. They are to go forth without the camp, taking up the work in places where the truth has not yet been proclaimed. Let them go in the humility and meekness of Christ, obtaining strength from the source of all strength.

To every young man in the ministry, Paul's words to Timothy are spoken, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine." Thyself needs the first attention. First give yourself to the Lord for sanctification to his service. A godly example will tell more for the truth than the greatest eloquence unaccompanied by a well-ordered life. Trim the lamp of the soul, and replenish it with the oil of the Spirit. Seek from Christ that grace, that clearness of comprehension, which will enable you to do successful work. Learn from him what it means to labor for those for whom he gave his life. The most talented worker can do little unless Christ is formed within, the hope and strength of the life.

Let the young men who are preparing for service read and study the third chapter of Colossians, and the first chapter of Second Peter, and also the following scriptures:--

"The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."

The Preparation for True Service

The heart must be brought into conformity to the will of God. As is the health of the heart, so is the religious experience and the fruit seen in the life. Unless the heart is cleansed from all defilement, evil will appear in the life. No one can in truth fulfill the requirements of God's law unless this law is written on his heart. He only who makes righteousness a part of his life is prepared rightly to estimate the truth. The truth is no truth to the one who merely makes a profession, who is not sanctified by its power, upon whose heart its image is not stamped. Such a one keeps the truth in the outer court. His love for Christ is superficial, exercising little controlling power over his reason.

Young men, deal faithfully with your own souls. Seek the Lord most earnestly for grace and strength. Study the words of the Saviour, "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Worldly ambition, worldly plans, worldly principles, are not to be brought into the life of the Christian.

Christ said, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

Will you not remember that this prayer includes you? Will you not strive to answer it? Will you not give yourselves to the Lord? Willingness of heart and earnestness of purpose to carry out the principles of holiness will place you in such relation to God that you will give full proof of your ministry. You will see the fruit of your labor.

Give careful, prayerful thought to the preparation required in order to do true service for God. Then a decided reformation will be seen. In the place of drinking in iniquity, the heart will be filled to overflowing with the love of Christ. The whole being will be enlisted in God's service. The affections will be set on things above. A hearty response will be made to the words, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself."

The Minister is to be an Educator

O what a work there is before us! Ministers are not to spend their time laboring for those who have already accepted the truth. With Christ's love burning in their hearts, they are to go forth to win sinners to the Saviour. Beside all waters, God's messengers are to sow the seeds of truth. Place after place is to be visited; church after church is to be raised up. Those who take their stand for the truth are to be organized into churches, and then the minister is to pass on to other equally important fields.

Just as soon as a church is organized, let the minister set the members to work. They will need to be taught how to work. Let the minister devote more of his time to educating them to preaching. Let him teach the people how to extend the knowledge of the truth. While the new converts should be taught to ask counsel of those more experienced in the work, they should also be taught not to put ministers in the place of God. Ministers are not gods, but human beings, men compassed with infirmities. Christ is the One to whom all are to look for guidance. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,. . . full of grace and truth. . . . And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

The power of the gospel is to come upon the companies raised up, fitting them for service. Some of the new converts will be so filled with the power of God that they will at once enter the work, imparting that which they have received. They will labor so diligently that they will have neither time nor disposition to weaken the hands of their brethren by unkind criticism. Their one desire will be to carry the message of truth to the regions beyond.

God's servants are to make use of every resource for enlarging his kingdom. The apostle Paul declares that it is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." And James says, "Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Every minister is pledged to unite with his brethren in giving the invitation, "Come; for all things are now ready." Each is to encourage the other in doing whole hearted work. Earnest invitations will be given by a living church. Thirsty souls will be led to the water of life.

The apostles carried a weight of responsibility to enlarge their sphere of labor, to proclaim the truth in the regions beyond. From their example we learn that there are to be no idlers in the Lord's vineyard. His servants are constantly to enlarge the circle of their efforts. Constantly they are to do more, never less . The Lord's work is to widen and broaden until it encircles the world.

After making a missionary tour, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps, visiting the churches they had raised up, and selecting men to unite with them in the work. Thus God's servants to-day are to labor, selecting and training, worthy young men as co-laborers. God help us to sanctify ourselves, that others may be sanctified, enabled to do successful work in winning souls to Christ. -

Words to Lay Members

Our ministers are to go forth to proclaim the message of present truth to those who have not heard it. And our churches should not feel jealous and neglected if they do not receive ministerial labor. They should themselves take up the burden, and labor most earnestly for souls. Believers are to have root in themselves, striking firm root in Christ, that they may bear much fruit to his glory. As one man, they are to strive to attain one object,--the salvation of souls.

Let not church members wait for a verbal command to enter God's service. They know their duty. Let them do it in humility and quietness. There are hundreds who should be at work, who need to be encouraged to make a beginning.

Let church members begin to work where they are. Everywhere there are souls who know not the truth. Humble men, willing to make sacrifices, to work as Christ worked, are needed. The Lord calls for self-sacrificing workers, who will labor quietly and unobtrusively, living so near to the Lord that they continually receive grace to impart. As they take up their work in earnestness and sincerity, asking the Lord to give them tact and skill, hearts will be reached by their efforts.

It is not God's purpose that ministers should be left to do the greatest part of the work of sowing the seeds of truth. Men who are not called to the gospel ministry are to be encouraged to labor for the Master according to their several ability. Hundreds of men and women now idle could do acceptable service. By carrying the truth into the homes of their neighbors and friends, they could do a great work for the Master. God is no respecter of persons. He will use humble, devoted Christians who have the love of the truth in their hearts. Let such ones engage in service for him by doing house-to-house work. Sitting by the fireside, such men--if humble, discreet, and godly--can do more to meet the real needs of families than could a minister.

The Lord has a work for women, as well as for men. They may take their places in his work at this crisis, and he will work through them. If they are imbued with a sense of their duty, and labor under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they will have just the self-possession required for this time. The Saviour will reflect upon these self-sacrificing women the light of his countenance, and will give them a power that exceeds that of men. They can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their labor is needed.

It is not meet for us, my sisters, to wait for greater opportunities or holier dispositions. We are inexcusable if we allow God-given talents to rust from inaction. Christ asks, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" Let us consecrate all that we have and are to him, believing in his power to save, and having confidence that he will use us as instrumentalities to do his will and to glorify his name.

My brethren and sisters, do not pass by the little things to look for larger work. You might do successfully the small work, but fail utterly in attempting a larger work, and fall into discouragement. Take hold wherever you see that there is a work to be done. It is by doing with your might what your hands find to do, that you will develop talent and aptitude for large work. It is by slighting the daily opportunities, neglecting the little things, that so many become fruitless and withered.

There are many ways in which all may do personal service for God. Some can write a letter to a far-off friend, or send a paper to one who is inquiring for truth. Others can give counsel to those who are in difficulty. Those who know how to treat the sick can help in this way. Others who have the necessary qualifications can give Bible readings or conduct Bible classes.

The very simplest modes of work should be devised, and set in operation among the churches. If the members will unitedly accept such plans, and perseveringly carry them out, they will reap a rich reward; for their experience will grow brighter, their ability will increase and through their efforts souls will be saved.

The Waste Places of the Earth

The waste places of the earth are to be cultivated. In humble dependence upon God, families are to go forth and settle in the unworked places of his vineyard. As the reward of their self-sacrifice in order to sow the seeds of truth, they will reap a rich harvest. As they visit family after family, giving Bible studies, opening the Scriptures to those in spiritual darkness, many hearts will be touched.

Consecrated men and women are needed to stand as fruit-bearing trees of righteousness in the desert places of the earth. In fields where the conditions are so objectionable and disheartening that many workers refuse to go to them, most remarkable changes for the better may be brought about by the efforts of self-sacrificing lay members. These humble workers will accomplish much, because they put forth patient, persevering effort, relying upon no human power, but upon God, who gives them his favor. The amount of good that these workers accomplish will never be known in this world.

Self-Supporting Missionaries

Self supporting missionaries are often very successful. Beginning in a small, humble way, their work enlarges under the guidance of the Spirit of God. Let two or more persons start out together in evangelistic work. They may not receive any particular encouragement from those at the head of the work that they will get financial support; nevertheless, let them go forward, praying, singing, teaching, and living the truth. They may take up the work of canvassing, and in this way introduce the truth into many families. As they move forward in their work, they gain a blessed experience. They are humbled by a sense of their poverty and helplessness, but the Lord manifestly goes before them. Among the wealthy and the poor they find favor and help. They come close in friendship to those for whom they work, the one imparting the treasures of the word, the other imparting temporal sustenance. And both are blessed. Even the poverty of the people is a means of finding access to them. As these devoted missionaries pass on their way, they are helped in many ways by those to whom they bring spiritual food. Providence opens the way for them to go to isolated places, and if they bear the message God gives them, their efforts are crowned with success. Many will be brought to a knowledge of the truth, who, but for these humble teachers, would never have been won to Christ.

What more can I say than I have said to impress upon our churches the realization of the eternal loss they are suffering in not putting to use in God's service the ability that he has given them? If the members of our churches would but put their powers to use in well-directed efforts, following well-matured plans, they would do a hundredfold more for Christ than they are now doing. If they went forth with earnest prayer, with meekness and lowliness of heart, seeking personally to impart to others the knowledge of salvation, the message might reach the inhabitants of the earth.

God calls for workers to enter the whitening harvest field. Shall we wait because the treasury is exhausted, because there is scarcely enough to sustain the workers now in the field? Go forth in faith, and God will be with you. The promise is, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

Nothing is so successful as success. Let this be secured, and the work will move forward. New fields will be opened. Many souls will be won to the truth. What is needed is increased faith in God.

As humble, God-fearing men and women consecrate themselves to the Lord, he will accept them and work through them. As they place themselves in right relation to him, light from the throne above will shine upon them, making them channels of blessing to others. All that they accomplish may not now be seen, but they are sowing seed that will yield fruit unto eternal life. -

An Interesting Letter

Elmshaven, Sanitarium, Cal.,

April 5, 1902.

To Those Connected with Our Work at Nashville .

My Dear Brethren: You are engaged in an important work, and the Lord calls upon you to take heed to watch unto prayer, to make straight paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. Work with an eye single to the glory of God, and with a sense of your individual responsibility. Remember that the Lord alone can make your efforts successful. He is the author and finisher of your faith. In the past you have had the wrestling part of your work to do. You have met with many trials. For your encouragement I am instructed to tell you that the Lord has a deep interest in the work at Nashville, and he will help every one of you if you will co-operate with him.

The Lord desires you to move onward and upward. He bids you to be careful to take the right path. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." "They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance."

Do you understand the question that the lawyer put to Christ, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ laid upon the lawyer the burden of answering his own question. "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" he asked. "And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus then related an incident that had lately taken place. A certain man, going from Jerusalem to Jericho, was robbed, and left by the roadside, wounded and dying. "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way." Did he help the one so sorely in need of help?--No; "he passed by on the other side."

"And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

"Which now of these three," Christ asked, "thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

This scripture certainly outlines our work.

"Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." When the Lord created trees, he commanded them to bear fruit. And to us Christ says, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Those who receive the truth into good and honest hearts will bear fruit to the glory of God. They will reveal the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

When Jesus would prove to John the Baptist that he was the Messiah, he said to John's messengers, "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." The fruit that he bore in his life was his answer to John's question.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." These words are to be engraved on the tablets of the heart. In the estimation of the world, it is going to extremes to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves; but this is what God requires. He says to us, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. . . . Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. . . . For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."

The plans and methods of God's workers are to be thoroughly sifted from worldly policy. Their work is to be carried forward with Christlike simplicity. Remember that he who takes the position of a criticiser greatly weakens his own hands. God has not made it the duty of men or of women to find fault with their fellow workers.

The world is filled with the same baleful influences that led the Jews to reject Christ, the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. Transgression is developing in a most marked manner. My brethren, avoid selfishness and covetousness; for it is idolatry. This sin is eating into the hearts of those who are determined to be rich. In their pursuit of gain, they place themselves in the most terrible danger.

Not a vestige of avarice nor a sign of greed will be seen in the life of a Christian. He will not be guilty of one dishonest act.

As Seventh-day Adventists, let us be sure that we bear the sign of God. Is this something that is seen?--No; it is unseen. It is the consecrated mind, placed wholly on the Lord's side.

Those who work in the Southern field, a field so difficult and so poverty-stricken, need constantly to receive grace from on high. They need a power outside of and above themselves. Only by the help of God can they gain true success. Again and again has this been evidenced. The workers who have not lived to themselves, who have put self out of sight, following where Jesus leads the way, practicing self-denial in order to open up the work in new fields, God has made to sit in heavenly places with Christ. Our help is from him.

I have not written to you for some time because I have not been able to do so. I have been under a heavy strain. My mind would not let me rest, and at last my strength gave way. I suffered great pain in my head and eyeballs. I have not yet fully recovered, and cannot endure much taxation. I am now sleeping better than I have been, but I cannot find the rest that I need, because I have so much writing to do.

I was sitting in my room on Sabbath morning, thinking about the perplexities of the work, and wondering, "What shall I do?" when a little bird hopped on to the window sill, and poured forth such a flood of song that it set my heart free for a time. I believe that the bird was God's messenger to me. I am determined to put my trust in God. I thank him that I have been so wonderfully sustained. I want to do much more work for him before I lay off my armor.

Encouraging Counsel

Elmshaven, Sanitarium, July 6, 1902. To Our Teachers at Berrien Springs . My Dear Brethren and Sisters: I have an earnest desire that you shall every day be learning of the great Teacher. If you will draw near to God, and then to your students, you can do a very precious work. If you are diligent and humble, God will daily give you knowledge and an aptitude to teach. Do your very best to impart to others the blessings he has given you. With a deep, earnest interest to help your students, carry them over the ground of knowledge. Come close to them. Unless teachers have the love and gentleness of Christ abounding in their hearts, they will manifest too much of the spirit of a harsh, domineering master.

The Lord wishes you to learn how to use the gospel net. In order for you to be successful in your work, the meshes of your net must be close. The application of the Scriptures must be such that the meaning shall be easily discerned. Then make the most of drawing in the net. Come right to the point. However great a man's knowledge, it is of no avail unless he is able to communicate it to others. Let the pathos of your voice, its deep feeling, make an impression on hearts. Urge your students to surrender themselves to God. "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."

Teachers, remember that the Lord is your strength. Strive to give the students ideas that will be to them a savor of life unto life. Teach by illustrations. Make your illustrations self-evident. Ask God to give you words that all can understand.

A little girl once asked me, "Are you going to speak this afternoon?" "No, not this afternoon," I replied. "I am very sorry," she said. "I thought you were going to speak, and I asked several of my companions to come. Will you please ask the minister to speak easy words, that we can understand. Please tell him that we do not understand big words, like 'justification' and 'sanctification.' We do not know what they mean."

The little girl's complaint contains a lesson worthy of consideration by teachers and ministers. Are there not many who would do well to heed the request, "Speak easy words, that we may know what you mean"?

Make your explanations clear. I know that there are many who do not understand much of what is said to them. Let the light flowing from the great Teacher flood your mind. Let his Spirit mold and fashion your speech, cleansing it from all dross. Speak as to little children, remembering that there are many well advanced in years who are but little children in understanding.

By earnest prayer and diligent effort we are to obtain a fitness for speaking. This fitness includes the ability to articulate every syllable distinctly, placing the force and emphasis where they belong. Speak slowly. Many speak rapidly, hurrying one word after another so fast that the effect of what they say is lost.

Into what you say put the spirit and life of Christ. On a certain occasion, when Betterton, the celebrated actor, was dining with Dr. Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury the archbishop said to him, "Pray, Mr. Betterton, tell me why it is that you actors can affect your audiences so powerfully by speaking of things imaginary." "My lord," replied Betterton, "with due submission to your grace, the reason is very plain: it lies in the power of enthusiasm. We actors on the stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary."

"Feed my sheep;" "feed my lambs," was the commission given to Peter. "And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." To those who hear, the gospel is to be made the power of God unto salvation. Present the truth in its simplicity. Follow Christ's example, and you will have the precious reward of seeing your students won to him.

Suggestions

We need now not merely resolutions but decided action. Our youth are in the highest sense to be learners, seeing God behind the teacher, and the teacher co-operating with him. Wherever students are trained, a work is to be done that will establish them in the principles of our faith. The religious phase of their work is of the greatest importance; for, like Daniel and his fellows, they are to bear witness of God. By diligent, persevering effort, they are to acquire knowledge. By self-denial, by obedience to the principles of strict temperance, they are to prepare themselves to endure trial.

The students should have abundant opportunity to gain an education in physical labor; for thus they will be better prepared to acquire the knowledge they need for their work.

In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah the Lord tells us plainly what the work is that he requires of us. In order that our young people may be fully prepared to do this work, small sanitariums are to be connected with our schools. The students are to be taught how to use nature's simple remedies in the treatment of disease. And as they learn to care for the sick, they are to be taught to act under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Words to the Students

Students, prepare yourselves to co-operate with your teachers. As you co-operate with them, you give them hope and courage. You are helping them, and at the same time you are helping yourselves to advance. Remember that it rests largely with you whether your teachers stand on vantage ground, their work an acknowledged success.

Our time for work is short. We have no time to spend in self-pleasing. You will gain true satisfaction and happiness only when you have a determined purpose to succeed. Make your student-life as perfect as possible. You will pass over the way but once. Precious are the opportunities granted you. You are not only to learn, but to practice the lessons of Christ. It rests with you yourself whether your work is a success or a failure. As you succeed in gaining a knowledge of the Bible, you are storing up treasures to impart.

It is your privilege to make the advancement spoken of in the first chapter of second Peter. Working on the plan of addition, you will add daily to your store of the knowledge of God and of Christ; and God will work for you on the plan of multiplication.

Be assured that as you advance, you will gain increased capabilities. If you see a fellow student who is backward, try to help him. Explain to him the lesson that he does not understand. This will be an aid to your own understanding. Use simple words. State your ideas in clear, comprehensive language. Thus you are helping your teachers. Often minds apparently stolid will catch ideas more quickly from a fellow student than from a teacher. This is the co-operation that Christ commends as a good work. The great Teacher stands beside you, helping you to help the one who is backward. The Lord Jesus meets every one, old or young, just where he is.

While obtaining your education, you may have opportunity to tell the poor and ignorant of the wonderful truths of God's Word. Improve every such opportunity. The grace of God will bless every minute spent in this way.

My brethren and sisters at Berrien Springs, you are doing a good work. The Lord is leading you. Just as long as you follow Christ, you will be guided aright. Maintain your simplicity and your love for souls, and the Lord will lead you in safe paths. The rich experience you will gain will be of more value to you than gold or silver or precious stones. Ellen G. White. -

A Letter to a Worker in New York City

Elmshaven, Sanitarium, Cal., July 8, 1902. My Dear Brother: I have no special light that you should remain in New York City. You must look to the Lord to teach you your duty. If that field, in its pitiful and sinful condition, does not speak for itself, what place can you find that expresses its need?

I understand why you feel discouraged. It is because the work is hindered by a lack of united and harmonious action on the part of those who were already in the field when you came.

If you go to the Lord in faith, believing his promises and taking special care of yourself, he will give you strength and blessing. Take periods of rest. Husband the strength that God has given you. If during the summer the heat is very severe, you must not endanger your life by remaining in the city.

O, who will rid himself of all hindrances, and take up the work in New York City? Will you, my brother, take hold of this work where you are, helping as best you can?

Let us remember Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us remember that he lived not to please himself. He left heaven to take his place in the ranks of fallen beings, to endure humiliation and abuse. Without humbling himself to the death of the cross, he could not have borne the penalty of transgression.

It must have been a very severe ordeal for our Saviour to lay aside his royal robe and kingly crown, and clothe his divinity with humanity, coming to this world as a little child, to live a life of obedience in behalf of the sinful race. Lest we should make a mistake in regard to what the redeemed must be, he came to give in his life a revelation of the character God requires of his children. He came that we might have an example of what human nature may become by receiving him as a perfect Saviour. He came to show us that we may be Christlike. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

Before the foundation of the world was laid, the plan of redemption was devised. In heaven a mysterious voice was heard saying, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. . . . Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;" "yea, thy law is within my heart."

Think you not that Christ suffered loneliness of spirit, as, unrecognized and unhonored, he lived in the world that he himself had made? Who is he? Ask Isaiah. He will tell you.

"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Ask him who was sent to announce his coming.

"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. . . . I indeed baptize you with water. . . but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Ask John, the beloved disciple.

"In the beginning was the Word," he declares, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . In him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."

We turn to Peter, and he declares of his Master,--

"Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."

We ask Christ himself who he is, and he replies,--

"Before Abraham was, I am." "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father."

We ask Paul, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?"

With strength and assurance comes the answer, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." "Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." In him "we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."

My brother, do not become discouraged. The light given me is that in our large gatherings, our camp meetings, we need all the ministerial talent that can possibly be spared from other work. Our ministers must not think that God has appointed them to hover over believers, or to tie themselves down to a business office. Let business men attend to the business, and let ministers be left free to labor in the camp meetings. At these meetings a special work is to be done.

Let each one offer the prayer, Lord, "give therefore thy servant an understanding heart."

Solomon called himself the Lord's servant, pleased that he could sustain this relation to the King of kings.

"In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said; Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of the people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?"

God gave this prayer to Solomon as a sample prayer, appropriate for all, high and low, rich and poor.

God said to Solomon, "Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honor: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days."

The Lord told Solomon that if he would walk in his way, his blessing would go with him, and wisdom would be given him. But Solomon failed to keep his contract with God. He followed the promptings of his own heart, and the Lord left him to his own impulses.

To-day each one has a part to act--duties to perform and responsibilities to bear. No one can act his part acceptably without wisdom from on high. May God help us all to understand the prayer that he gave to Solomon as a prayer appropriate for him to offer. Ellen G. White. -

Work While It Is Called To-day

My brethren and sisters, you have been bought with a price, and all that you have and are is to be used to the glory of God, and for the good of your fellow men. With earnest, unwearying effort you are to seek to save the lost. Christ's sacrifice on Calvary has made it possible for you to live a new, transformed life. You are to hold every new-found power as a precious trust, for use in God's service. Remember that it was your sins that made the cross necessary. When you accepted Christ as your Saviour, you pledged yourselves to unite with him in bearing the cross. For life and for death you are bound up with him, a part of the great plan of redemption. Before the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds and before fallen human beings you are to live the life of Christ, that unbelievers may be constrained to acknowledge, "They have been with Christ, and have learned of him." As you seek to draw others within the circle of his love, the purity of your language and the unselfishness of your actions will bear witness to the power of his grace.

"We are laborers together with God." Lay hold of his work with clean hands, a pure heart, and holy, consecrated endeavor. Press forward to win the triumphs of the cross. Are you not striving for a crown of immortality, for a life that measures with the life of God? O put your whole heart into the work! Let nothing cause your zeal to flag.

Do not depend on human aid. Look beyond human beings to the One appointed by God to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows and supply our necessities. Taking God at his word, move forward unitedly, with steadfast, unfaltering faith. Christ's presence and his word, "Lo, I am with you alway,"--these are our wisdom and righteousness. It is the living Presence that makes the living Word. The kingdom comes to us, not in word only, but in power. It is unwavering faith in Christ's presence that gives power.

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." At an immense cost, probation has been granted to human beings. At the day of judgment there will come to the lost a full realization of the meaning of the sacrifice made on Calvary. They will see what they have lost by refusing to be loyal. They will think of the high, pure association it was their privilege to gain. But it is too late! The last call has been made. The wail is heard, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

The world is to see God in his followers. Life and immortality are brought to light through those who are one with Christ. It is our privilege to have the Spirit that is the wisdom of heaven. Those who have the Spirit, in whatever position they may be, the highest or the lowest place of service, will reveal in their lives the power of Christ's grace.

Truth alone is to be our watchword. Self is to be hidden. Christ alone is to appear, full of grace and truth.

We have only a little longer time in which to prepare for eternity. May the Lord open the closed eyes of his people, and quicken their dulled senses, that they may realize that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. I desire if possible to impress our people with the importance of giving so pure and righteous a representation of God that the world shall see him in his beauty. I desire them to be so filled with the Spirit that dwells in him that the world shall have no power to divert them from the work of presenting to men the wonderful possibilities before every soul who receives Christ. My heart is so full of this matter that sleep departs from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids.

The Reward of Earnest Endeavor

Each worker, while preserving his individuality, should seek to labor in harmony with every other worker. Each is to be united with his fellow workers in bonds of Christian fellowship, and all are to be united with the Lord. The aim of every one is to be the advancement of the cause of truth. Each is to seek earnestly for the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Each is to look to Jesus, believing that he will receive the blessings he must have in order to be a strength to the work. Each may receive light from the Source of light. "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

All are to do their best. All are to keep looking to their Leader, studying the lessons he has given in his guidance of his people from the beginning. The experiences of Abraham, of Moses, of Daniel, contain lessons of great value to us at this time.

Those whom God chooses as his workers are not always talented, in the estimation of the world. Sometimes he selects unlearned men. These have a special work. They reach a class to whom others could not obtain access. Opening the heart to the truth, they are made wise in and through Christ. Their lives inhale and exhale the fragrance of godliness. Their words are thoughtfully considered before they are spoken. They strive to promote the well-being of their fellow men. They take relief and happiness to the needy and distressed. They realize the necessity of ever remaining under Christ's training, that they may work in harmony with God's will. They study how best to follow the Saviour's example of cross-bearing and self-denial. They are God's witnesses, revealing his compassion and love, and ascribing all the glory to him whom they love and serve.

Constantly they are learning of the great Teacher, and constantly they reach higher degrees of excellence, yet all the time feeling a sense of their weakness and inefficiency. They are drawn upward by their strong, loving admiration for Christ. They practice his virtues; for their life is assimilated to his. Ever they move onward and upward, a blessing to the world and an honor to their Redeemer. Christ says of them, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

Such workers are to be encouraged. Their work is done, not to be seen of men, but to glorify God. And it will bear his inspection. The Lord brings these workers into connection with those of more marked ability, to fill up the gaps they leave. He is well pleased when they are appreciated; for they are links in his chain of service. And it is his desire that every human instrumentality engaged in work for him shall be recognized, however small may be the work he does.

Men who are self-important, who are filled with the thought of their own superior abilities, overlook these humble, contrite workers; but not for one moment does God lose sight of them. He marks all that they do to help those in need of help. In the heavenly courts, when the redeemed are gathered home, they will stand nearest the Son of God. They will shine brightly in the courts of the Lord, honored by him because they have felt it an honor to minister to those for whom he gave his life. -

The Work in the Cities

Time is passing, and the Lord calls upon the laborers in all departments of his work to lift up their eyes and behold the fields all ripe for the harvest.

Our workers are not branching out as they should in their efforts. Our leading men are not awake to the work that must be accomplished. When I think of the cities in which so little work has been done, in which there are so many thousands to be warned of the soon coming of the Saviour, I feel an intensity of desire to see men and women going forth to the work in the power of the Spirit, filled with Christ's love for perishing souls.

Those in our cities--living within the shadow of our doors--have been strangely neglected. Organized efforts should now be put forth to give them the message of present truth. A new song is to be put into their mouths. They are to go forth to impart to others now in darkness the light of the third angel's message.

We all need to be wide-awake, that, as the way opens, we may advance the work in the large cities. We are far behind in following the instruction to enter these cities and erect memorials for God. Step by step we are to lead souls into the full light of truth. We are to continue working until a church is organized, and a humble house of worship built. I am greatly encouraged to believe that many persons not of our faith will help considerably by their means. The light given me is that in many places, especially in the great cities of America, help will be given by such persons.

The workers laboring in cities should read carefully the tenth and eleventh chapters of Hebrews, and appropriate to themselves the instruction that this scripture contains. The eleventh chapter is a record of the experience of the faithful. Those who work for God in the cities must go forward in faith, doing their very best. As they watch and work and pray, God will hear and answer their petitions. They will obtain an experience that will be invaluable to them in their after work. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

My mind is deeply stirred. In every city there is work to be done. Laborers are to go into our large cities and hold camp meetings. In these meetings, the very best talent is to be employed, that the truth may be proclaimed with power. Men of varied gifts are to be brought in. One man has not all the gifts required for the work. To make a camp meeting successful, several workers are needed. No one man should feel that it is his prerogative to do all the important work.

If in the camp meetings held in the cities the speakers proclaim the truth in the power of the Spirit, hearts will be reached. The love of Christ received into the heart will banish the love of error.

There is need of camp meetings like those held in the early stages of the work,--camp meetings separate from the business work of the conference. At a camp meeting the workers should be free to give the knowledge of the truth to those who attend from outside.

At our camp meetings arrangements should be made so that the poor may obtain wholesome, well-prepared food as cheaply as possible. There should also be a restaurant in which healthful dishes shall be prepared and served in an inviting manner, especially for the education of outsiders.

This work is not to be looked upon us separate from other departments of camp-meeting work. Each department of God's work is closely united with every other department, and all are to advance in perfect harmony.

"Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Let the indifferent ones arouse, and act their part in the work of the Lord, lest this curse be spoken against them. Let all who can, give themselves to the long-neglected work in our cities,--a work that has been looked at, and then passed by on the other side, as the wounded man was passed by the priest and the Levite. Take up the work in the cities wholeheartedly, intelligently, unselfishly.

There are men of talent and influence who are longing for something they have not yet received. Let the truth in its simplicity be presented to them.

God selects his messengers, and gives them his message; and he says, "Forbid them not." New methods must be introduced. God's people must awake to the necessities of the time in which they are living. God has men whom he will call into his service,--men who will not carry forward the work in the lifeless way in which it has been carried forward in the past. Many who have not yet heard the message to be given to the world, have learned the meaning of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Men will accept the truth who will work with earnestness and zeal, tact and understanding. Let none discourage these zealous workers. In some things they will make mistakes, and will need to be corrected and instructed. But have not men who have been long in the truth made mistakes, and needed correction and instruction? When they made mistakes, the Lord did not cast them off, but healed them and strengthened them, presenting them with his banner to hold aloft.

Our large cities are fast reaching the condition represented by the condition of the world before the flood, when "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." God-dishonoring sins are practiced by people living in lordly homes; but some of these very people, under the preaching of the last testing message, will be convicted and converted. From his inexhaustible store of grace, God can endow all who come to him. Looking upon humanity, fallen and degraded, he declares that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh. Many who have never heard the special truths for this time will feel the conviction of the Spirit as they listen to the message of startling importance.

In our large cities the message is to go forth as a lamp that burneth. God will raise up laborers for this work, and his angels will go before them. Let no one hinder these men of God's appointment. Forbid them not. God has given them their work. Let the message be given with so much power that the hearers shall be convinced. God will raise up workers who will occupy peculiar spheres of influence, workers who will carry the truth to the most unpromising places. Men will say, "Yea," where once they said, "Nay." Some who were once enemies will become valuable helpers, advancing the work with their means and their influence.

With intense interest God is looking on this world. He has noted the capacity of human beings for service. Looking down the ages, he has counted his workers, both men and women, and has prepared the way before them, saying, "I will send my messengers to them, and they shall see great light shining amid the darkness. Won to the service of Christ, they will use their talents to the glory of my name. They will go forth to work for me with zeal and devotion. Through their efforts the truth will speak to thousands in a most forcible manner, and men spiritually blind will receive sight, and will see my salvation. Truth will be made so prominent that he who runs may read. Means will be devised to reach hearts. Some of the methods used in this work will be different from the methods used in the work in the past; but let no one, because of this, block the way by criticism."

God will set in operation many plans for the accomplishment of his work. The means that he has intrusted to wealthy men will be used to sustain his cause. His people will concentrate their efforts more and more on the great consummation, believing and obeying the commission:--

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." -

Presenting the Truth in Love

The Lord is soon to come. The angels are holding the four winds, in order that God's people may do their long-neglected work. We are not half awake to what might be done in our world. The work moves slowly because the truth has not yet taken full possession of the men engaged in the ministry. Our ministers need to arouse and set in operation lines of work that will give the warning message to those who have never heard the truth. Let them plan and study as to the best way of removing prejudice and reaching the hearts of the people. Present truth has almost lost its power because of the way in which it has been handled.

House-to-house work is one very successful way of reaching souls. But it is not the only way that God has provided for the advancement of his work. Decided proclamations of truth are to be made. But in regard to this work, I am instructed to say to our people, Be guarded. In bearing the message, make no personal thrusts at other churches. Speak the truth in tones and words of love. Let Christ be exalted. Keep to the affirmative of truth. Never leave the straight path God has marked out, for the purpose of giving some one a thrust. That thrust may do much harm, and no good. It may quench conviction in many minds. Let the truth tell the story of the inconsistency of error.

People cannot be expected to see at once the advantage of the truth over the error they have cherished. The best way to expose the fallacy of error is to present truth. This is the greatest rebuke that can be given to error. Dispel the cloud of darkness resting on minds by reflecting the bright light of the Sun of righteousness.

You may have opportunity to speak in other churches. In improving these opportunities, remember the words of the Saviour, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Make no denunciatory speeches. Clear-cut messages are to be borne; but restrain all harsh expressions. There are many souls to be saved. In word and deed be wise unto salvation, representing Christ to all with whom you come in contact. Let all see that your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and goodwill to men. Wonderful are the results we shall see if we enter the work imbued with the Spirit of Christ. If we carry forward the work in righteousness, mercy, and love, help will come in our necessity. Truth will bear away the victory.

The truth is to be presented with divine tact, tenderness, and gentleness. It is to come from a heart that has been softened and made sympathetic. We need to have close communion with God, lest self rise up, as it did in Jehu, and we pour forth a torrent of words that are unbefitting, that are not as dew, nor as the still showers, which revive the withering plants. Let our words be gentle as we seek to win souls. God will be wisdom to him who seeks for wisdom from a divine source. We are to seek opportunities on every hand. We are to watch unto prayer, and be ready always to give an answer to every one who asks a reason for the hope that is in us. Lest we shall impress unfavorably one soul for whom Christ has died, we should keep our hearts uplifted to God, so that when the opportunity presents itself, we may have the right word to speak at the right time. If you thus undertake to work for God, the Spirit of God will be your helper. The Holy Spirit will apply the truth spoken in love for the soul. The truth will have quickening power when spoken under the influence of the grace of Christ.

Evangelistic Canvassers

Canvassing for our publications is an important and most profitable line of evangelistic work. Our publications can go to places where meetings cannot be held. In such places the faithful evangelistic canvasser takes the place of the living preacher. By the canvassing work the truth is presented to thousands who otherwise would never hear it.

I feel very sorry to know that so many of the books which should be finding ready sale are lying on the office shelves. These books contain the light that people need. May the Lord move upon many of our young people to enter his service as evangelistic canvassers. Our time for work is short. Many, very many, need the promptitude of the "quickly" in them, to lead them to arouse and go to work. The Lord calls for workers just now.

We need to feel the vivifying influence of the Holy Spirit as the disciples felt it on the day of Pentecost. Of their experience at that time we read: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own." Selfishness was expelled from the heart. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."

Why is there not now a more diligent seeking of the Lord, that hundreds may be filled with the Holy Spirit, and may go forth quickly to proclaim the truth, "the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following"? Our commission is to let the light shine forth everywhere from the press. By the printed page the light reaches the isolated ones, who have no opportunity to hear the living preacher. This is most blessed missionary work. Canvassers can be the Lord's helping hand, opening doors for the entrance of truth.

Let Christian youth be selected to circulate the books containing present truth. Youth who have no religious experience should not be accepted as canvassers for our books, because they cannot properly represent the precious truth to be presented. To send such youth into the canvassing field is unjust to them and to the Lord's work. This is a sacred work, and those who enter it should be able to bear witness for Christ.

In this work the youth should be connected with those older in experience, who, if they are devoted to God, can be a great blessing to them, teaching them in the things of God, and showing them how best to work for him. If the youth will work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, they will know by experience that God is working with them, to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Not only men, but women, can enter the canvassing field. And canvassers are to go out two by two. This is the Lord's plan.

As long as probation continues, there will be opportunity for the canvasser to work. When the religious denominations unite with the papacy to oppress God's people, places where there is religious freedom will be opened by evangelistic canvassing. If in one place the persecution becomes severe, let the workers do as Christ directed: "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another." If persecution comes there, go to still another place. God will lead his people, making them a blessing in many places. Were it not for persecution, they would not be so widely scattered abroad to proclaim the truth. And Christ declares, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." Until in heaven is spoken the word, "It is finished," there will be places for labor, and hearts to receive the message.

Young men, your help is called for. Make a covenant with God by sacrifice. Take hold of his work. He is your efficiency. "Be strong, yea, be strong." -

Christ the Missionary's Example

Christ said to his disciples, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

Satan's efforts against the advocates of the truth will wax more bitter and determined to the very close of time. As in Christ's day the chief priests and rulers stirred up the people against him, so to-day the religious leaders will excite bitterness and prejudice against the truth for this time. The people will be led to acts of violence and opposition which they would never have thought of had they not been imbued with the animosity of professed Christians against the truth.

And what course shall the advocates of truth pursue? They have the unchangeable, eternal Word of God, and they should reveal the fact that they have the truth as it is in Jesus. Their words must not be rugged and sharp. In their presentation of truth they must manifest the love and meekness and gentleness of Christ. Let the truth do the cutting; the Word of God is as a sharp, two-edged sword, and will cut its way to the heart. Those who know that they have the truth should not, by the use of harsh and severe expressions, give Satan one chance to misinterpret their spirit. As a people we must stand as did the world's Redeemer. When in controversy with Satan in regard to the body of Moses, Christ durst not bring against him a railing accusation. He had every provocation to do this, and Satan was disappointed because he could not arouse in Christ a spirit of retaliation. Satan was ready to misrepresent everything that was done by Jesus; and the Saviour would give him no occasion, not the semblance of an excuse. He would not turn from his straightforward course of truth in order to follow the wanderings, and twistings, and turnings, and prevarications of Satan.

We read in the prophecy of Zechariah that when Satan with all his synagogue stood up to resist the prayers of Joshua the high priest, and to resist Christ, who was about to show decided favor to Joshua, "the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"

The course of Christ in dealing even with the adversary of souls, should be an example to us in all our intercourse with others, never to bring a railing accusation against any; much less should we employ harshness or severity toward those who may be as anxious to know the right way as we are ourselves.

The Truth as it is in Jesus

Those who have been educated in the truth by precept and example should make great allowance for others who have had no knowledge of the Scriptures except through the interpretations given by ministers and church members, and who have received traditions and fables as Bible truth. They are surprised by the presentation of truth; it is as a new revelation to them, and they cannot bear to have all the truth, in its most striking character, presented to them at the outset. All is new and strange, and wholly unlike that which they have heard from their ministers, and they are inclined to believe what the ministers have told them, that Seventh-day Adventists are infidels, and do not believe the Bible. Let the truth be presented as it is in Jesus, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Speak of the love of God in words easy to be understood. Bible truth, presented in the meekness and love of Jesus, will have a telling influence upon many minds.

Many souls are hungering for the bread of life. Their cry is, Give me bread; do not give me a stone. It is bread that I want. Feed these perishing, starving, souls. Let our ministers bear in mind that the strongest meat is not to be given to babes who know not the first principles of the truth as we believe it. In every age the Lord has had a special message for the people of that time; so we have a message for the people in this age. But while we have many things to say, we may be compelled to withhold some of them for a time, because the people are not prepared to receive them now.

When a discourse is given, the people may listen with interest, but it is all strange and new to them, and Satan is ready to suggest to their minds many things that are not true. He will seek to pervert and misrepresent the speaker's words. What shall we do? The discourses presenting the reasons of our faith should be published in little leaflets, and circulated as widely as possible. Thus the falsehoods and misrepresentations which the enemy of truth constantly tries to keep in circulation would be revealed in their true character, and the people would have an opportunity of knowing just what the minister said. Those who introduce the leaven of truth amid the mass of false theories and doctrines may expect opposition. Satan's batteries will be opened upon those who advocate the truth, and the standard bearers must expect to meet many sneers, and much reviling that is hard to bear.

The message of warning is to be given in all the highways and byways. The cities are to be worked, not merely preached to; there must be house-to-house labor. After the warning has been given, after the truth has been presented from the Scriptures, many souls will be convicted. Then great carefulness is needed. The human agent cannot do the work of the Holy Spirit, we are only the channels through which the Lord works. Too often a spirit of self-sufficiency comes in, if a measure of success attends the efforts of the worker. But there must be no exaltation of self, nothing should be attributed to self; the work is the Lord's, and his precious name is to receive all the glory. Let self be hid in Jesus.

There is danger of indulging a controversial spirit. But those who really love the truth, who have received it into the heart as a living principle, will have the greatest desire to reveal in words and actions the sanctifying power of truth upon the life. They will be representatives of the truth, showing its transforming power upon their own character. When opposed, they will not retaliate. Children and youth cannot, unless they are under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, correctly represent the sanctifying power of truth upon mind and character. And there are many grown-up persons who need to enter the school of Christ and learn his meekness and lowliness of heart, else they will venture to do that which Michael the Archangel dared not do. The railing accusations will be at their tongue's end. There are many fathers and mothers who would to-day engage in the work of God if encouraged, but who, in their own home life, prove themselves unfit to handle sacred responsibilities. They are only grown-up children. There are very few parents who represent the character of Jesus in the home.

The Believer is Complete in Christ

Christ represented his Father; he knew how the Father would do under any and every circumstance, and he did just as the Father would do. He made manifest in his work the ways of God. The living God was working through his Son. Jesus, when he was found in fashion as a man, had a realizing sense of the world's needs, and he employed his human, God-given powers for the benefit of men, while in every act of mercy and healing he drew upon the divine power, even the power that made the worlds. The Lord Jesus is all ready to impart the very same aid to all who will consecrate their powers to his service, who feel the need of the impartation of his grace. To all who desire to be recipients of his Spirit, the virtue flows out from Christ. And it is in this way that the character of God, the perfection of Christ and the Father, is brought before the world. The human agent is complete in Christ. Learning in the school of Christ, daily studying his life, we become one with him, and reflect the virtues of his character.

He who is daily a learner in the school of Christ can say, "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." Thus did the Son of God in his human life, leaving us an example of perfect obedience, prefacing every deed with such words as these: That which the Son seeth the Father do, he doeth also. "This commandment have I received of my Father." The history of Christ's human life in our world is the record of his purpose toward us for the manifestation of his divine perfection. He was the light shining in darkness; and what is the record? "And the darkness comprehended it not." The standard is high, for Christ is our standard, and he could justly claim perfection in all his works. But how few, in their practice, will follow the Lamb of God whithersoever he goeth. Following Jesus, imbued with his Spirit moment by moment, the human agent would represent Christ, as Christ represented the Father. ( To be concluded ) -

Christ the Missionary's Example (Concluded)

Jesus has revealed to men that while the hatred of God against sin is as strong as death, his love to the sinner is stronger than death. Christ, in his life and his death, has forever settled the deep and comprehensive question whether there is self-denial with God, and whether God is light and love. This was the question agitated in the heavens above, which was the beginning of Satan's alienation from God. The change or abolition of the laws of his government in the heavenly courts was demanded as the evidence of the love of God. We see that the controversy has been kept up, Satan creating enmity against God because of his holy law. The satanic agencies are constantly at work, sowing and watering the seeds of rebellion against the law of God, and Satan is gathering souls under his black banner of revolt. He forms a confederacy with human beings to contend against purity and holiness. He has worked diligently, perseveringly, increasing the number who will confederate with him. By his representations he seeks to widen the distance between heaven and earth, and he grows into the conviction that he can wear out the patience of God, extinguish his love for man, and bring condemnation upon the whole human family.

God has given all heaven in the gift of Christ to our world; but the great gift is so interpreted as to work in behalf of Satan's schemes to annul the law of God, the very work that Satan began in heaven. God has given Christ to take the penalty of transgression, and die to ransom the world. This, his heaven-sent reconciliation, is to be proclaimed, and the condition of eternal life, that men obey the laws of the divine government. But when this message of mercy is proclaimed, Satan inspires men to scowl back in defiance, and exclaim, "Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, O God." Nevertheless God sends his delegated messengers to entreat attention. But too often their message is not respected. Hatred against the law of God has continued to increase in intensity. Men have beaten one of the messengers of God, and killed another, and stoned another. New methods are continually devised to turn men away from the truth. The materials for the last great warfare are collecting; already the conflict has reached large proportions. And as iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. As the occasion requires, the Lord giveth more grace to his chosen, tempted, tried ones. Jesus knows the strength of Satan's temptations, and with every temptation he makes a way of escape.

Just prior to the crucifixion of Christ, the whole universe of heaven was with intense interest watching every move of Satan and his evil confederacy. They were watching to see what move would next be made against Jesus, and what would be his action under the circumstances. He had carried the human nature triumphantly through every period of test and trial, assailed by the whole confederacy of fallen angels leagued with evil men. He finished his mission by committing his work to the human agents who were to carry it forward in his name. The message of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, was to be given to a fallen world. Beginning at Jerusalem, it was to go to all nations, tongues, and peoples.

Christ has demonstrated that through his grace humanity can keep the law of God. He has demonstrated to the universe of heaven and to the fallen world, that, by the invitation of our gracious Sovereign, all who will believe on him may receive pardon, and be restored to the favor of God. He would take those whose course had been the most offensive to God, impart to them his divine power, place them in the highest positions of trust, and send them forth into the camp of the disloyal to proclaim his grace, and offer a full pardon to all who will turn from sin unto God. "Ye have not chosen me," he says; "but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." Some of the very ones that were brought into closest connection with the work of Christ had not only felt, but said, "Come, let us kill him," and had thought that in this act they were doing God service. Our Saviour redeemed them, loaded them with divine favor, and sent them forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. He made them one with himself, and declared that those who refused to accept them and to hear the heaven-sent message, rejected the Lord Jesus himself. "If the world hate you," he said, "ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."

Presenting the Truth in New Places

But let every one bear in mind that we are in no case to invite persecution. We are not to use words that are harsh and cutting. Keep them out of every article written, drop them out of every address given. Let the Word of God do the cutting, the rebuking; let finite men hide and abide in Jesus Christ. Let the Spirit of Christ appear. Let all be guarded in their words, lest they place those not of our faith in deadly opposition against us, and give Satan an opportunity to use the unadvised words to hedge up our way. Do nothing before the time. When God gives a close, cutting message, it will be his work, not prompted by the impulse of finite beings. Man's cutting and slashing with the two-edged sword will hedge up our way, so that we shall find doors closed and locked against us.

We all need more of the deep love of Jesus in the soul, and far less of the natural impetuosity. We are in danger of closing up our own path by arousing the determined spirit of opposition in men in authority, before the people are really enlightened in regard to the message God would have us bear. God is not pleased when by our own course of action we bar the way so that the truth is prevented from coming to the people. -

God's Sign

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work."

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever."

God gave the Sabbath to his people to be a continual sign of his love and mercy and of their obedience. As he rested on this day and was refreshed, so he desired his people to rest and be refreshed. It was to be a constant reminder to them that they were included in his covenant of grace. Throughout your generations, he said, the Sabbath is to be my sign, my pledge, to you that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you, that I have chosen you and set you apart as my peculiar people. And as you keep the Sabbath holy, you will bear testimony to the nations of the earth that you are my chosen people.

During their bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel lost their knowledge of the true Sabbath, and with it their knowledge of the Creator. God called his people out of Egypt, and in the wilderness gave them his law, the expression of his character and authority. From Mount Sinai he spoke the commandments in an audible voice, and then wrote them with his own finger on tables of stone, thus denoting their enduring character. In this law God declared, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Before the law was given from Sinai, God wrought a miracle each week to impress the people with the sanctify of the Sabbath. He rained manna from heaven for their food, and each day they gathered this manna, but on the sixth day they gathered twice as much as usual, according to the directions of Moses: "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. . . . The Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day."

"And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan." Thus for forty years God worked each week a miracle before his people, to show them that his Sabbath was a sacred day.

Sacredness of the Sabbath

God directed that a tabernacle should be built, where the Israelites, during their wilderness-journeying, could worship him. Orders from heaven were given that this tabernacle should be built without delay. Because of the sacredness of the work and the need for haste, some argued that the work on the tabernacle should be carried forward on the Sabbath, as well as on the other days of the week. Christ heard these suggestions, and saw that the people were in great danger of being ensnared by concluding that they would be justified in working on the Sabbath that the tabernacle might be completed as quickly as possible. The word came to them, "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep." Though the work on the tabernacle must be carried forward with expedition, the Sabbath must not be employed as a working day. Even the work on the Lord's house must give way to the sacred observance of the Lord's rest day. Thus jealous is God for the honor of his memorial of creation.

The Sabbath is a token between God and his people. It is a holy day, given by the Creator to man as a day upon which to rest, and reflect upon sacred things. God designed it to be observed through every age as a perpetual covenant. It was to be regarded as a peculiar treasure, a trust to be carefully cherished.

As we observe the Sabbath, let us remember that it is the sign which heaven has given to man that he is accepted in the Beloved; that if he is obedient, he may enter the city of God, and partake of the fruit of the tree of life. As we refrain from labor on the seventh day, we testify to the world that we are on God's side, and are striving to live in perfect conformity to his commandments. Thus we recognize as our sovereign the God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

The Sabbath is the clasp which unites God and his people. But the Sabbath command has been broken. God's holy day has been desecrated. The Sabbath has been torn from its place by the man of sin, and a common working day has been exalted in its stead. In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah is outlined the work of God's people are to do. A breach has been made in the law, and this breach is to be repaired. The true Sabbath is to be restored to its rightful position as God's rest day. The law is to be magnified and made honorable. To those who do this work the Lord says: "Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." -

If Ye Know These Things, Happy Are Ye if Ye Do Them

Christ's last great struggle with the power of darkness should ever be kept fresh in the minds of all who believe in him as the propitiation for the sins of the world. God would have us study the lesson taught by the experience of the children of Israel, when they were bitten by serpents. Those bitten were directed to look at the brazen serpent which had been uplifted in the camp, and those who looked in faith lived. To-day we are standing in a position similar to that of the children of Israel. As we look upon the world in its moral defilement, we see the poisonous serpents abroad, ready to sting us to death. To the cross of Calvary, bearing a dying Saviour, we must look. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." Only the Lamb of God can take away our sins. We should think more of this than we do. Our eternal interests demand that we show faith in Christ.

In the words spoken by Christ when he gave a representation of true humility by washing the feet of his disciples, I would appeal to all who name the name of Christ: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Do you see the uplifted Saviour? Do you know that it was for your sins that he suffered and died? Do you do his will? Knowing is only a part of our duty. Our eternal interests demand that we do also. But to many who have had great light the words of Paul are sorrowfully appropriate: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" Though Christ had been set forth among the Gentiles, they had not had a personal sight of the divine Sufferer, enduring the weight of the sins of the world.

Christ crucified is to be presented by those who preach the word. The last scenes of his life, in which he achieved a victory for the world, are not to be set forth in a tame, listless manner, but earnestly, and by those who feel constrained to keep the memory of these mighty deeds from growing old. The past should be made a living reality, as if being transacted before us. But this cannot be done by human ability. Those who preach Christ must have the help of God's Spirit. Christ is our advocate in the heavenly courts, and he presents in our behalf the sacrifice he offered on Calvary. This we are to present to others. In this way we are to perpetuate the memory of the crucifixion. When this is done, heavenly instrumentalities work at the same time upon the hearts of the hearers. A power independent of human effort is felt. The speaker does not labor in his own unaided strength. He is endued with a power that is wholly from above. As the words flow from his lips, the Holy Spirit co-operates with him; and the hearers are impressed, as though Jesus were in reality before them.

Through the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacramental service, Christ has been set forth among us. The Lord's supper was ordained by Christ shortly before his death, and the ceremony of feet washing was instituted just prior to the Lord's supper. As we celebrate these ordinances, we are to remember that Christ is present, making the occasion one of great interest. Thus it will be to all who have a true sense of the situation. We should search our hearts, and confess the sins that we have cherished. If we are guided by the Holy Spirit, our thoughts will not be thoughts of self-exaltation, but of severe self-censure and humiliation. Selfishness, evil speaking, and evil thinking will be put away. We shall remember Christ's action, as he girded himself with a towel. While the dispute as to who should be greatest was still fresh in the minds of the disciples, Christ humbled himself, and washed their feet, wiping them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

After Christ had washed their feet, he said unto them, "Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

During this ceremony, the Holy Spirit was impressing the hearts of the disciples, sweeping away the selfishness that they had shown in their dealings with one another. Not long before, some of them had been offended because their brethren sought the highest place. All this now appeared so insignificant, the mountain was reduced to such a molehill, that shame took the place of disputing. "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant," declared Christ. He that doeth service will humble himself, and in so doing, he will be placed where the Lord can safely honor him, because he has the Spirit of Christ.

The Object of the Passover and of the Lord's Supper

The Jews had been strictly enjoined to celebrate the Passover. This had been instituted at the time of their deliverance from Egypt. Then the children of Israel ate the Passover supper in haste, with their loins girded, and with their staves in their hands, ready for their journey. The manner in which they celebrated this ordinance harmonized with their condition; for they had been thrust out of the land of Egypt, and were about to begin a painful and difficult journey through the wilderness. But in Christ's time this position had been changed. In harmony with the rest that had been given them, the people partook of the Passover supper in a reclining position. By God's direction, wine was drunk; but this was not fermented wine; it was the pure juice of the grape.

The Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that when their children asked the meaning of this ordinance, the history was to be repeated, that the wonderful deliverance from bondage might be kept fresh in the minds of all. The ordinance of the Lord's supper was given to the disciples to be celebrated till Christ should come the second time, with power and great glory. It is the means by which he designs that the great deliverance wrought out for us as the result of his sacrifice shall be kept fresh in our minds.

When the ordinances are celebrated as the Lord has commanded, messengers from the throne of God are present, listening to the words of confession and forgiveness. The Holy Spirit quickens the sensibilities of those who thus obey Christ, and turns their thoughts into spiritual channels. As the disciples of Christ, they seem to be passing through the garden consecrated by the agony of him who bore the sins of the world. They witness the struggle by which our reconciliation with God was obtained.

Reconciliation one with another is the work for which the ordinance of feet washing was instituted. By the example of our Lord and Master, this humiliating ceremony has been made a sacred ordinance. Whenever it is celebrated, Christ is present by his Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit that brings conviction to hearts. As Christ celebrated this ordinance with his disciples, conviction came to the hearts of all save Judas. So we shall be convicted as Christ speaks to our hearts. The fountains of the soul will be broken up. The mind will be energized, and, springing into activity and life, will break down every barrier that has caused disunion and alienation. Sins that have been committed will appear with more distinctness that ever before; for the Holy Spirit will bring them to our remembrance. The words of Christ, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them," will be clothed with new power.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Christ said to his disciples, "He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. . . . He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. . . . He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night."

After Judas went out to do the mission of Satan in the streets of Jerusalem, he was no longer favored by God, but abandoned. He found the council of Christ's enemies, and completed the work he had begun. After he had gone, Christ's countenance assumed a more cheerful aspect. The presence of the traitor had placed him under a painful restraint. His last interview with his disciples was sacred; but while Judas was there, he could not express his feelings. His utterances revealed this restraint. "Ye are not all clean," he said. "I speak not of you all." Now the restraint was removed. "Now is the Son of man glorified," Jesus said, "and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." Christ's face seemed radiant, so clearly was divinity seen. He spoke to his disciples with the tenderest affection. He wasted no words over the traitor's departure; he did not speak of the dreadful ordeal through which he must pass. He must endure his suffering alone. He seemed like an irrepressible, living spring of water.

The disciples looked upon Christ with admiration and love. Divinity was seen in humanity. He was transfigured, and exalted above everything earthly. He was about to be separated from his disciples in a way that they did not expect. But they caught the bright beams reflected from him, and lost all thought of contention or desire to be first. Every word Christ uttered impressed them with a sense of their co-partnership with him.

It was at this time that Christ gave his disciples the precious instruction found in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of John. He knew that they must have special instruction; for unless divine power were combined with human effort, their future work would prove a failure. He was about to be separated from them. They would no longer have him as their visible counselor, to take the responsibility in all matters. They must be instructed; for were they to leave the divine agency out of their efforts, they would not accomplish the work he had appointed them to do. In all their ministry, upon which they should enter to bless humanity, they must build upon a divine Christ.

To-day a great work is to be done. The Holy Spirit is to work through human agencies. A partnership between God and the workers must be maintained. Man works because God works in him; all the efficiency and power is of God. Yet God has so arranged that all the responsibility rests with the human instrument. These are the appointed conditions of partnership. Men are required to move among men, doing a divine work. God designs that they shall have power from on high, but if they fail to seek for this power, if they neglect to improve the facilities which God has provided whereby they may reach the highest standard, they fail to uplift fallen humanity. -

Sending Missionaries Abroad

Before his ascension, Jesus told his disciples not to depart from Jerusalem till they had received the promise of the Father. "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence," he declared. "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

The day of Pentecost came, Great additions were made to the church. In one day five thousand were converted. The disciples began to think that they had a work to do in Jerusalem, in shielding the members of the church from the snares of the enemy. They did not realize that strength to resist temptation is best gained by active service. They did not educate the new church members to become workers together with God in carrying the gospel to those who had not heard it. Instead, they were in danger of being satisfied with what had been accomplished. To scatter his representatives abroad, where they could work for others, the Lord permitted persecution to come upon his church. Stephen and several others died for their faith; then the members of the church were scattered; and the gospel was proclaimed with power "in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

In every age since the first advent of Christ, the gospel commission has impelled men and women to go to the ends of the earth as missionaries for God. We thank the Lord that during this camp meeting several of our workers have given themselves to go as missionaries to different countries outside our land. My brethren, we bid you Godspeed. Our prayers shall follow you wherever you go. How glad we are to send men and means to other countries!

Years ago I little realized that I should spend many years of service as a pioneer missionary in distant lands. But when the call came to go to Europe, I responded. Afterward, when asked to go to Australia, I went, notwithstanding I was over sixty years of age. Nine years I worked in that field. My heart is filled with the missionary spirit, and although nearly seventy-five years old, I feel such a desire to see souls saved that should the Lord call me to the work, I would go to the ends of the earth to bring to men and women a knowledge of the truth for this time.

To these our friends who expect soon to go from us to other lands, I wish to say: Remember that you can break down the severest opposition by taking a personal interest in the people whom you meet. Christ took a personal interest in men and women while he lived on this earth. Wherever he went, he was a medical missionary. We are to go about doing good, even as he did. We are instructed to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the sorrowing.

The sisters can do much to reach the heart and make it tender. Wherever you are, my sisters, work in simplicity. If you are in a home where there are children, show an interest in them. Let them see that you love them. If one is sick, offer to give him treatment; help the careworn, anxious mother to relieve her suffering child.

Some of you expect to go abroad as canvassers. Sometimes you may wish to canvass a man whose time is fully occupied. You may have to put off your canvass, and it may be possible that you can join him in his work, and talk with him then. The sermon which you thus preach by your helpfulness will be in harmony with the sermon which you preach with your tongue; and the two, together, will have a power that words alone could never have.

When staying at the homes of the people, share the burdens of the household. Be thoughtful enough to keep the water bucket filled. Help the tired father do the chores. Take an interest in the children. Be considerate. Work in humility, and the Lord will work with you.

My brethren and sisters who are under appointment as missionaries, I greatly desire that your hearts shall be filled with Christlike pity, love, compassion. As I bid you farewell and return to my home, do not think that I shall soon forget you. We will offer our petitions to God in your behalf, pleading with him to open the way before you. He will hear our prayers; he has promised to hear us. And he is just as ready to answer your prayers for strength and wisdom to do your work. He has said that he is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. Wherever you go, pray to him in the morning, at noon, and at night. Pray in faith, without wavering.

Church Members Called to Work

Some of the members of our churches may feel that we are sending away too many conference laborers, and that the work in the home field cannot be done by the few who remain. But this is not the proper view to take of this matter. Those in the employ of the conference are not the only ones who should work for souls. Let the church members go to work. Let them communicate to others the knowledge they have received. In many churches in California the members have heard discourse after discourse, and yet they do not seem to have a large measure of the Holy Spirit. While I was in Australia, many of them sent letters to me across the broad Pacific, inquiring why they did not receive more power from above, and requesting me to pray for them. They did not seem to comprehend the reality of the Saviour's promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." They did not seem to realize that they could gain spiritual strength by imparting to their neighbors and friends the light they had received. They had not learned of the blessing that comes to us from telling our fellow beings enslaved by appetite, of that divine power which will enable them to overcome the desire for every harmful indulgence.

Let those who teach the truth, teach in simplicity. Let them not try to drive the truth home with a vim that will arouse antagonism. Let the voice express sympathy and tenderness. Christ's voice was full of pathos. By persevering effort we can cultivate the voice, ridding it of all harshness. Let us ask in faith for a converted voice, a converted tongue, and for Christlike sympathy and tenderness, that we may win souls to the truth we teach.

None of our churches need be barren and unfruitful. But some of our brethren and sisters are in danger of starving to death spiritually even when they are constantly hearing the truth presented by our ministers; for they neglect to impart that which they receive. God requires every one of his stewards to use the talent intrusted to him. He bestows rich gifts upon us in order that we may bestow them freely upon others. He keeps the heart flooded with the light of his presence, in order that we may reveal Christ to our fellow men. How can those who fold their hands in ease, content to do nothing, except God to continue to supply their necessities? The members of all our churches should labor as those who must give an account.

Brethren and sisters, when these workers go to their fields of labor across the seas, will you close up the ranks in the home conference? Will you put on the Christian armor? "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Will you stand firm for the truth, even though your church may not often be visited by a minister? I ask you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to put on "the whole armor of God;" and be sure to wear the gospel shoes. Do not neglect to put them on. They will enable you to tread tremblingly, softly, in approaching the souls that you desire to lead to the Saviour.

"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace," you will be prepared to walk from house to house, carrying the truth to the people. Sometimes you will find it very trying to do work of this kind; but if you go forth in faith, the Lord will go before you, and his light will shine upon your pathway. As you enter the homes of your neighbors to sell or to give away our literature, and in humility to teach them the truth, you will be accompanied by the light of heaven. Learn to sing the simplest of songs. These will help you in house-to-house labor, and hearts will be touched by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Christ was often heard singing hymns of praise; and yet I have heard persons say, "Christ never smiled." How mistaken their ideas in regard to the Saviour! There was joy in his heart. We learn from the Word that there is joy among the heavenly angels over one repentant sinner, and that the Lord himself rejoices over his church with singing.

The Blessedness of Laboring for Others

What a privilege it is to labor for the conversion of souls! Our calling is high. We may enjoy the companionship of the heavenly angels. We may not discern their forms, but by faith we may know that they are with us. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Brethren, sisters, God invites us to unite with the angels in their ministry. Thus every one of us may become his helping hand. To fit us to do this work, he will strengthen our minds as verily as he strengthened the mind of Daniel. As we give to those in darkness the truths that have enlightened us, God will enable us to understand these truths still better. He will give us apt words to speak, communicating to us through the angel standing by our side. Let us pray for the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Let us seek for living power from above, that we may indeed be laborers together with God.

May the blessing of God rest upon every one in this congregation. The presence of God is here. His angels are in the midst of us. And the evil angels also are here. Let us close the windows of the soul earthward, and open them heavenward. Let us not allow earthly things to take possession of the mind, but let us keep it open to receive the communications that the heavenly angels are ready to give to us.

May the Lord bless and strengthen you who are under appointment to go to other lands. We may never meet again in this life, but I pray that we may meet in that glad day when the gates of the city of God shall swing back on their glittering hinges, and the nations that have kept the truth shall enter in, there to hear Christ saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Then with all the redeemed we shall cast our crowns at his feet, crying, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!

As we recognize among the ransomed ones some whom we were instrumental in saving, gladness unspeakable will fill our hearts. Touching our harps, we shall fill all heaven with rich music. O what songs of praise for redeeming love will resound through the heavenly courts!

While living this probationary life, shall we not encourage one another to be steadfast? Shall we not impart a knowledge of the truth for this time to those in our very neighborhoods who have not heard it? Shall we not, by our prayers and by our means, support those who are sent to other lands to proclaim this truth? Shall we not practice self-denial on every point, that we may have more to give for missionary work abroad? Shall we not keep before us and in our homes a contribution box in which to place offerings for missions?

Let us teach our children to deny self in order to help sustain the Lord's work. Let us tell them that God, in giving his Son, gave all heaven to save not only us, but those who as yet have not so much as heard of him. Let us tell them how, in order to redeem mankind, Christ laid aside his kingly crown and royal robe, left his high command in the heavenly courts, and came to this world to live a life of poverty and hardship, a life of toil and suffering, and to die a death of shame. Shall he have died in vain for us? Shall he have died in vain for those whom by self-sacrifice we could save?

Brethren and sisters, will you to-day pledge yourselves before God to pray for these workers who have been chosen to go to other lands? Will you pledge yourselves not only to pray for them, but to sustain them with your tithes and offerings? Will you pledge yourselves to practice strict self-denial in order that you may have more to give for the advancement of the work in the "regions beyond"? We feel moved by the Spirit of God to ask you to pledge yourselves before him to lay by something weekly for the support of our missionaries. God will help and bless you in doing this. Give those who are under appointment to go abroad evidence that you will sustain them by your prayers and by your means. Let those who willingly, freely, gladly make these pledges before God to-day, signify it by rising to their feet. [Nearly the whole congregation-- about one thousand--arose.]

Thank the Lord! As these missionaries go to their new fields, they will have an assurance that their brethren and sisters in this conference will be faithful in doing their part at home. The time may come when some of those who remain will go to distant fields. We expect to see the Lord taking men from the plow, and sending them out to proclaim the truth. We expect to see children bearing a message that their parents cannot bear. Let us all stand ready to respond to God's call to duty, whatever the sacrifice. -

A Message to the Church

Last night I had a wonderful experience. I was in an assembly where questions were being asked and answered. At one o'clock I awoke, and arose. For a time I walked the room, praying earnestly for clearness of mind, and for strength to write the words that must be written. I entreated the Lord to help me to bear a testimony that would arouse his people before it should be forever too late.

My soul was drawn out in the consideration of matters relating to the carrying forward of God's work. This work is to be carried forward without outward display. In establishing institutions we are never to compete with institutions of the world in size or splendor. We are to enter into no confederacy with those who do not love or fear God. Those who are unable to endure the seeing of him who is invisible, are surrounded with spiritual darkness that is as the darkness of midnight. Within, all is dreariness. They know not the meaning of joy in the Lord. They take no interest in eternal realities. Their attention is engrossed with the trifling things of earth. Having forsaken God, the fountain of living water, they hew out for themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Let it not be thus with those who have tasted the power of the world to come.

In establishing the work in new places, we are to economize in every way possible. The work of soul saving must be carried forward in the way that Christ marked out. He declares, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Only by obeying this word can we be his disciples. We are striving for a kingdom and a crown. We shall obtain both by following Christ's example.

We are nearing the end of this earth's history, and the different departments of God's work are to be carried forward with much more self-sacrifice than has yet been practiced. The work for these last days is a missionary work. Present truth, from the first to the last letter of its alphabet, means missionary effort. The work to be done calls for sacrifice at every step of advance. The workers are to come forth from trial, purified and refined, as gold tried in the fire.

Wearing Christ's Yoke

The Lord calls upon men and women to unite with Christ by wearing his yoke. But he tells them that they are to refuse the yoke which human hands would place on them; for this yoke would be galling and oppressive. There are those who refuse to wear the yoke of Christ, and yet would place upon others a yoke of human manufacture. What a terrible deception! It is as night amid the full blaze of gospel light. Such ones are not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can they be, until they pass through the death struggle, and are born again. All through their experience are woven the threads of worldly wisdom. They look upon their work as meritorious, but in the day of judgment they will learn--unless they learn it before--that they are corrupted with selfishness. They have barred their hearts against Christ's entrance, and unless they repent and open to him, they must one day hear the words. "Depart from me."

God's Purpose for His Church

Filled with the knowledge of the will of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might by his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness,--such were the early disciples. They sought above all things to know the will of God. But do these words describe the church in its present condition? Many who claim to believe the truth are far from practicing its principles. The church is weak and inefficient because many of its members follow their own impulses, refusing to do the will of God. Not by the Spirit of God, but by another spirit, are they led. They know not the meaning of the written Word. When they bring into the daily life the principles of God's law, they will be able to say from experience. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

In the hearts of many, God has a work to do, if they will allow him. They need a complete transformation of character. This is their only hope. Some now in the work will have to pass through the furnace of affliction before they will see the need of having all dross burned away from the religious experience.

The church must and will shine forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." God's servants must, by laboring together with Christ, roll away the curse that has made the church so lukewarm. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints," writes the great apostle to the Gentiles, "is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

When these words are believed and lived, the church will have a heaven below to go to heaven in.

These words were spoken by our Instructor: "Some are reckless, insensible of the results of sin, heedless of warning. Soon the handwriting on the wall, now unintelligible to them, will be read. But it will then be too late for them to repent. Like Belshazzar, they seem unable to see their peril. A straight testimony must be borne to our churches and institutions, to arouse the sleeping ones."

When the word of the Lord is believed and obeyed, steady advancement will be made. Let us now see our great need. The Lord cannot use us until he breathes life into the dry bones. I heard the words spoken: "Without the deep moving of the Spirit of God upon the heart, without its life-giving influence, truth becomes a dead letter."

Let us from this time use our powers for God. Let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that he works in us, to will and to do of his good pleasure. Let us humble ourselves before God. He is waiting for us to draw near to him, that our purposes may be more Christlike, that more of the purity and meekness and grace of the Redeemer may be brought into our work. We have walked in our own ways and followed our own counsel, as if we could counterwork the divine purposes. Let us now turn to the Lord. Let us seek him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Yes, this is God's plan. Let us come to him just as we are, and he will fulfill his purposes for us.

The experience that I had last night has impressed me very deeply. I seemed to have Christ close beside me. I was filled with hope and courage and faith. I pleaded with God to sustain me, and he lifted me up, and made me to triumph in him. I know that the Lord will work for his people when they sanctify their souls by obeying the truth. Then the whole being, body, mind, and soul, will be in harmony with him. We shall possess a freedom crowned with glory. Aug. 14, 1902 . -

How to Deal With the Erring

In dealing with those who are in error, we are to treat them as Christ would, seeking, by a loving, unselfish interest in them, to win them to repentance. O, we need so much men who are wise in dealing with tempted souls! There are many prodigals, needing the welcome of the loving Father, not the cold repulse of the elder brother. Let us be afraid to be harsh and condemnatory. Before we speak, let us ask ourselves whether what we are about to say would be pleasing to Christ. There are angels hovering round these poor erring ones, seeking to lead them into safe paths. Let human beings keep their hands off, and give the tempted ones opportunity to recover themselves from the snare of the enemy.

Among those who accuse, there are many who, by their manner of dealing, have set an example that has led others away from right doing. Their course is more offensive to God than is the course of those whom they condemn, because, while professing to be upright in their dealings, they have done a strange work, dishonoring to God.

On one occasion the scribes and Pharisees brought to Christ a woman whom they accused of having violated the seventh commandment. "Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned," they said; "but what sayest thou?" Jesus read their thoughts. He knew for what purpose this case had been brought to him. He knew that these would-be guardians of justice had themselves led their victim into sin, that they might lay a snare for Jesus. Giving no sign that he had heard their question, he stooped, and fixing his eyes upon the ground, began to write in the dust. Impatient at his delay, the accusers drew nearer, urging the matter upon his attention. But as their eyes, following his, fell upon the ground at his feet, their countenances changed. There, traced before them, were the guilty secrets of their own lives.

The law specified that in punishment by stoning, the witnesses in the case should be the first to cast a stone. Rising, and fixing his eyes upon the plotting elders, Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and stooping down, he continued writing on the ground.

The accusers had been defeated. With their robe of pretended holiness torn from them, they stood, guilty and condemned, in the presence of infinite purity. They trembled lest the hidden iniquity of their lives should be laid open to the multitude; and one by one, with bowed heads and downcast eyes, they went away, leaving their victim with the pitying Saviour.

Jesus arose, and looking at the woman, said, "Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

Were Christ on earth to-day, would he not hear many words of condemnation and harsh judgment? Would he not see men professing to be his followers crowding those who have erred into hard places, giving them no opportunity to recover themselves? Were he to say to them, as he said to the accusing Pharisees, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone," would they not, even as did the Pharisees, go away, filled with shame?

If one errs, and is brought to repentance, let all receive his confession with a sense of what it cost him, and welcome him back with heartfelt joy and gratitude that he has been enabled to obtain the victory. Let every tempted soul who has been weaving strange threads into the web of life, who has been doing that of which he would be ashamed could he see the result, remember that Christ is ready to pardon every one who comes to him. But the sin must be repented of, and restitution must be made.

"Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."

Conduct Toward the Young and Inexperienced

There are those who, though young men and young women in years, are but children in the knowledge of God. Weak in faith, inexperienced, they need the help of those whose opportunities for gaining knowledge have been greater than theirs. There are such youth as these connected with our institutions. Let those who have charge over them remember that they are to be patiently and kindly instructed. Show Christian forbearance in dealing with them. Let your hearts be filled with desire to place their feet in right paths. Do not speak to them as if they were slaves. Remember that they are inexperienced and ignorant, just as verily in need of wise guidance as is the little child just learning to walk. Remember that you yourselves are not faultless, that many times you are in need of help.

Those in authority have many lessons to learn. Many of them have brought into their manhood and womanhood the faults of their childhood. Let them be guarded in their speech. Let them curb their hasty temper. Let them overcome the inclination to scold and criticise. Let them learn the value of self-control and sweetness of temper. Before they can expect to control others aright, they must learn to control themselves. Let them beware of prejudicing and hardening the youth with whom they are dealing, making it impossible for them to be won to Christ. Let the one who, grown to manhood, has brought into his life a loveless dignity, learn how to be kind and courteous. Only thus can he hope to win souls to Christ.

The Word of God is our guide. By studying it carefully, we shall learn how to deal with the souls for whom Christ has died. By helping those who are in need of help, by speaking to them cheering, encouraging words, by revealing a Christlike spirit, we are to perfect our education.

Let those who have any part to act in the training of the youth remember their own faults and mistakes, and strive earnestly to be what they wish the youth to become. In their treatment of them let them be wise, pitiful, and noble. Let them not forget that the youth in their care are in this life to be prepared for admittance into the royal family. They are in need of wholesome, encouraging words and unselfish deeds. Treat them as Christ's children, whom he wants you to help in every time of need. They are very precious to him. He gave his life for them. Make friends of them. Bring Christlikeness into your dealing with them. Give them practical evidence of your unselfish interest. Help them over the hard places. Patiently, tenderly, strive to win them to Jesus. Let your words be loving and sympathetic, and the tones of your voice pleasant. Let the grace of Christ soften and subdue all that is harsh in your nature. Eternity alone will reveal the results of your earnest, unselfish efforts. -

The Results of Rejecting Light

Christ's lament over Jerusalem was for those also who to-day have had great light, and who have seen wonderful manifestations of his power and goodness, but who have not fulfilled God's purpose for them. Those who hear the voice of God and co-operate with him, using their capabilities in his service, will receive his blessing. But those who forget his instruction, and follow their own way, are a dishonor to him. A time will come when their wrong course of action, with its results and consequences, must be met.

"Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine," Christ declared, "and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Christ uttered a fearful denunciation against those who, though privileged to have him among them, did not profit by his ministry. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."

The calamity that was soon to come upon the Jewish people was no greater than they deserved. They had been given the best of opportunities, but they did not accept the truth that would have made them wise unto salvation. They heard the message of John the Baptist, but it did not lead them to repentance. They trifled with the things of eternal interest. Christ made every effort to bring them to a realization of their true position, that they might repent and be saved. But, filled with proud conceit, they rejected his warnings and despised his entreaties.

The Jews misrepresented Christ, and John his forerunner, saying of John, "He hath a devil." They imputed his severe denunciation of their sins to satanic inspiration, saying that he was not in his right mind, that he was a poor hypochondriac, full of fancies, led by a crazed imagination. And of Christ they said, "Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."

Salvation Offered to All

In sorrow Christ wept over those who, having the plainest evidence of his divinity, turned from him. His heart was filled with sadness as he thought of the result of their rejection of the message he came from heaven to bring to them. But he rose above his painful thoughts, and offered God thanksgiving, saying, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight."

Christ looked up to heaven with gratitude for the security of the covenant of redemption. Looking round on the people, beyond the priests and Pharisees, he made an offer of salvation to all the children of men, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. To all he offered a balm for the sorrow and pain that are brought by sin. All are invited to unite with God in the covenant of grace.

In our work to-day we shall meet with the same spirit that Christ met in his day. The world is filled with the same baleful influence that led the Jews to reject Christ. Transgression is developing in a most marked manner. We shall meet with those who have received light and evidence, but who in their perversity reject all that does not harmonize with their own plans, persisting in the determination to follow their own way. They refuse to receive truth themselves, and do all in their power to lead others to regard with indifference the word of the Lord.

The greatest scholars, the greatest statesmen, will in these last days turn from the light, because the world by wisdom knows not God. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. . . . God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are."

Men who are learned in the wisdom of the world may think that they can explain the mysteries of the world; but in the explanation of the mysteries of the gospel, babes and children in Christ are far in advance of them. Those whom the world account unlearned and ignorant men may be chosen by the Lord as teachers, because he sees that they are willing to learn as well as to teach. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The power that brings success is of God.

The truth is to be placed before the great men of the world, that they may choose between it and the world. God is not the author of their ignorance. He sets everlasting truth before them,--truth that will make them wise unto salvation,--but he does not force them to accept it. If they turn from it, he leaves them to themselves, to reap the fruit of their own doings. -

An Appeal for Unselfish Effort

If our ministers realized how soon the inhabitants of the world are to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God, to answer for the deeds done in the body, how earnestly they would work, together with God, to lead men and women to accept the truth. How untiringly they would labor to advance God's cause in the world.

"Prepare to meet thy God," is the message we are everywhere to proclaim. The trumpet is to give a certain sound. Clearly and distinctly the warning is to ring out, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. . . . Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

John writes, "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."

The words of this scripture are to be fulfilled. Soon the last test is to come to all the inhabitants of the earth. At that time prompt decisions will be made. Those who have been convicted under the presentation of the word, will range themselves under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. They will see and understand as never before that they have missed many, many opportunities for serving God. They will realize that they have not worked as zealously as they should to seek and save the lost, to snatch them, as it were, out of the fire.

Our work has been marked out by our Heavenly Father. Taking our Bibles, we are to go forth to warn the world. We are to be God's helping hand in saving souls. We are to be channels through which his love can flow to the perishing. A realization of the greatness of the work in which we have the privilege of taking part, ennobles and sanctifies the true worker. He is filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Nothing is drudgery to the one who submits to the will of God. "Doing it unto the Lord" is the thought that throws a charm over the work that God gives him to do.

The Lord's servants are to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Listlessness and inefficiency are not piety. When we realize that we are working for God, we shall have a higher sense of the sacredness of spiritual service than we have ever had. This realization will put persevering energy into the discharge of every duty. True religion is intensely practical. In the saving of souls nothing but earnest, whole-hearted labor will avail. We are to make our every-day duties acts of devotion, constantly increasing in usefulness because we look at our work in the light of eternity.

Only a little longer will the voice of mercy be heard; only a little longer will the gracious invitation be given, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." God sends his warning message to people everywhere. Let the messengers he sends work so harmoniously, so earnestly, that all will take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. Let them speak the words of "truth and soberness," words of reason and good sense.

My brethren, do you realize your responsibility? Are you doing the work that God has given you to do? Is the love of Christ abiding in your hearts, softening and subduing your words? Do you seek for the Holy Spirit's power, humbling yourselves before God? Have you surrendered yourselves to him for purification and sanctification? Do you pray earnestly for the heavenly power that alone can quell the quick-rising anger and check the hasty words? Have you put away all self-seeking? Are you doing your work faithfully? Are you drawing with all your might for Christ? Do you give such evidence that you are working with Christ that no one can justly question the worth of your labor?

Draw your power from the highest Authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will aid you in your efforts to save those who are out of the fold. Remember that you are working for God, not for man. Plead earnestly for the power of God. Show a constantly increasing devotion to his service, and leave with him the measurement of your work.

God will carry on his work through wholly consecrated workmen. If his ministers fail of representing Christ, he will turn to others, many of whom have not been prepared for the work by a regular course of study, and will put a message into their lips, even the last message of warning. He will call men from their various employments, and at his bidding they will go forth to proclaim present truth. -

Danger Through Self-Sufficiency

Just before Peter's fall, Christ said to him, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."

How true was the Saviour's friendship for Peter! how compassionate his warning! But the warning was resented. In self-sufficiency Peter declared confidently that he would never do what Christ had warned him against. "Lord," he said, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death." His self-confidence proved his ruin. He tempted Satan to tempt him, and he fell under the arts of the wily foe. When Christ needed him most, he stood on the side of the enemy, and openly denied his Lord.

But even when Peter was denying him, Christ showed his love for his erring disciple. In the judgment hall, surrounded by those who were clamoring for his life, Jesus thought of Peter, and turning, he looked upon him. In that look, Peter read the Saviour's love and compassion, and a tide of memories rushed over him. Christ's mercy, his kindness and long-suffering, his gentleness and patience toward his disciples--all was remembered. He recalled the caution, "Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." He saw that he was doing the very thing that he had declared he would never do. The realization of his terrible fall came over him with overwhelming force. He thought of his ingratitude, his falsehood, his perjury. Once more he looked upon his Master, and saw a sacrilegious hand raised to smite him in the face. Unable longer to endure the scene, he rushed, heart-broken, from the hall.

He pressed on in solitude and darkness, he knew not and cared not whither. At last he found himself in Gethsemane. The scene of a few hours before came vividly to his mind. He thought of how the Saviour, during his agony in the garden, had come for sympathy and comfort to those who had been so closely connected with him in labor. He remembered how he had said, "Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?" On the very spot where Jesus poured out his soul in agony, Peter fell upon his face, and wished that he might die.

Help came to him. Wonderful are God's ways of helping those who need help. Happy are those who will be helped in God's way.

Had Peter been left to himself, he would have been overcome. But One who could say, "Father, . . . I knew that thou hearest me always," One who is mighty to save, had interceded for him. Christ saves to the uttermost all who come to him.

Many to-day stand where Peter stood when in self-confidence he declared that he would not deny his Lord. And because of their self-sufficiency, they fall an easy prey to Satan's devices. Those who realize their weakness trust in a power higher than self. And while they look to God, Satan has no power over them. But those who trust in self are easily defeated. Let us remember that if we do not heed the cautions that God gives us, a fall is before us. Christ does not save from wounds the one who places himself unbidden on the enemy's ground. He does not impart power to those who reject his guidance. The self-sufficient one, who acts as if he knew more than his Lord, is allowed to go on in his supposed strength. Then come suffering and a crippled life, or perhaps defeat and death.

In the warfare, the enemy takes advantage of the weakest points in the defense of those whom he is attacking. At these points he makes his fiercest assaults. The Christian should have no weak points in his defense. He should be barricaded by the assurance that the Scriptures give to those who are doing God's will. The tempted soul will bear away the victory if he follows the example of him who met the tempter with the words, "It is written." He can stand securely in the protection of a "Thus saith the Lord."

There are some lessons that are never learned only through failure. Peter was a better man after his fall. The Lord permits his children to fall; and then, if they repent of their wrongdoing, he helps them to stand on vantage ground. As fire purifies gold, so Christ purifies his people by temptation and trial. If the heart has not been hardened by a disregard of great light, the temptation and fall will bring repentance. Humble, fervent prayer will save the soul from death, and confession and restitution will hide a multitude of sins.

Think on These Things

Another year has almost passed into eternity. A few more days, and we shall enter a new year. My brethren and sisters, employ wisely the remaining hours of the old year. If you have in any wise neglected your duty, repent before God, and return to the path from which you have wandered. Remember how brief the period of life allotted you. You know not how soon your probation may close. Say not presumptuously, "To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain." God may have different plans for you. Life is but a vapor, "that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth." You know not how soon your hand may lose its cunning, your step its firmness. There is peril in a moment's delay. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

What is your stewardship? Have you during the past year robbed God in tithes and offerings? Look at your well-filled barns, at your cellars stored with the good things the Lord has given you, and ask yourselves whether you have returned to the Giver that which belongs to him. If you have robbed the Lord, make restitution. As far as possible, make the past right, and then ask the Saviour to pardon you. Will you not return to the Lord his own, before this year, with its burden of record, has passed into eternity?

We ask your prayers for the advancement of the work. We need them. But we ask that prayer and giving may be united. Let your prayers and your alms rise as a memorial before God. Remember that faith without works is dead. We are to pray, and we are to give all that we can, both of our labor and of our means, for the fulfillment of our prayers.

From age to age Jesus has been delivering his goods to men and women. Soon will come the day when he will call each to account for the use made of these goods. It is God who gives men power to get wealth. He waters the earth with the dews of heaven and with the showers of refreshing rain. He gives the sunlight, which warms the earth, awakening to life the things of nature, and causing them to flourish and bear fruit. And he asks for a return of his own.

Hoarded wealth is not merely useless; it is a curse. In this life it is a snare to the soul, drawing the affections away from the heavenly treasure. In the great day of God its witness to unused talents and neglected opportunities will condemn it possessor.

There are many who in their hearts charge God with being a hard master because he claims their possessions and their service. But we can bring to God nothing that is not already his. "All things come of thee," said King David, "and of thine own have we given thee." All things are God's, not only by creation, but by redemption. All the blessings of this life and of the life to come are delivered to us stamped with the cross of Calvary.

The Home a Training School

Fathers and mothers, how stands your record? Have you been faithful to your trust? As you have seen your children inclined to follow a course that you knew would result in impurity of thought and word and act, have you, first asking God for help, tried to show them their danger? Have you pointed out to them the peril of following a path of their own choosing? Mothers, have you neglected your God-given work,--the greatest work ever committed to mortals? Have you refused to bear your God-given responsibilities? In the time of trouble just before us, when the judgments of God fall upon the impure and unholy, will your children curse you because of your indulgence?

Your home is a little world of itself. In it, order, prompt obedience, submission, should prevail. It is a duty that parents owe their children to make wise rules for the guidance of the household, and then to see that these rules are obeyed.

The home is a training school. The mother is the teacher. She is to choose for her children. She is to mold and fashion their characters. She is to teach them to bring God into their lives. She should be so closely connected with God that through her he can work out his will.

Mothers, have you neglected your work? Then I beseech you to take it up now in the fear of God. Be converted. Before the year closes, confess your neglect to your wayward children, and ask them to help you to begin the new year aright, and during its hours, to live for God.

Parents, you are the ones who must decide whether your children shall choose the service of God or the service of mammon, eternal life or eternal death. Watch them carefully and tenderly. Give them wise instructions, line upon line, precept upon precept. Study their dispositions, that you may know what traits of character to repress and what traits to encourage. Teach them to guard constantly against selfishness, fraud, cruelty, dishonesty, and to cherish all that goes to make human beings Christlike. Remember that what your children learn in the home, they will carry with them when they go out into the world, and that it will affect all their future experience.

If you have neglected your work, repent before it is too late, and strive to atone for your neglect. Think of the time you have lost, and be doubly earnest in your efforts to undo the wrong you have done. The result of your neglect you may see in the wayward course of your children, and in their lack of power to resist the corrupting influence of the age. And very plainly you will see it when they go forth to fight the battle of life for themselves. I entreat you to arouse before it is too late, and take up your work, lest you be found unfaithful. To the parent who neglects his life-work, God cannot say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Prayer and the Home

In many homes, prayer is neglected. Parents feel that they have no time for morning and evening worship. They cannot spare a few moments to be spent in thanksgiving to God for his abundant mercies,--for the blessed sunshine and the showers of rain, and for the guardianship of holy angels. They have no time to offer prayer for divine help and guidance, and for the abiding presence of Jesus in the household. They go forth to labor as the horse or the ox goes, without one thought of God or heaven. They have souls so precious that rather than permit them to be lost, the Son of God gave his life to ransom them; but they have little more appreciation of his goodness than have beasts that perish.

Like the patriarchs of old, those who profess to love God should erect an altar to him wherever they pitch their tent. If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now. Fathers and mothers should lift up their hearts in humble supplication for themselves and for their children. Let the father, as priest of the household, lay upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice, while the wife and children unite in prayer and praise. In such a household Jesus will love to abide.

From every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revealed in every act. It should flow out in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out,--homes where God is worshiped, and truest love reigns. From these homes, morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and his mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like morning dew.

A well-ordered Christian household is a powerful argument in favor of the reality of the Christian religion,--an argument that the infidel cannot gainsay. All can see that an influence is at work in the family that affects the children, and that God is with them. If the homes of professed Christians had a right religious mold, they would exert a mighty influence for good. They would indeed be "the light of the world." The God of heaven speaks to every faithful parent in the words addressed to Abraham: "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

An Appeal for More Earnest Effort

I ask those who have charge of our work: Why are so many places passed by? Look upon the towns and cities yet unworked. There are many large cities in America, not only in the South, but in the North, yet to be worked. In every city in America there should be some memorial for God. But I could mention many places where the light of truth has not yet shone. The angels of heaven are waiting for human instrumentalities to enter the places where witness has not yet been borne to present truth. The Lord's name is reproached. Please read your Bibles, and see if it is not true that our work has scarcely begun. We need to realize that to every man God has given his work. Shall those who know the truth feel no responsibility? Shall not the knowledge that the signs of the times are fulfilling rouse us from our lethargy?

Catch the spirit of the great Master Workman. Learn from the Friend of sinners now to minister to sin-sick souls. His heart was ever touched with human woe. Why are we so cold and indifferent? Why are our hearts so unimpressible? Christ placed himself on the altar of service, a living sacrifice. Why are we so unwilling to give ourselves to the work to which he consecrated his life? Something must be done to cure the terrible indifference that has taken hold upon us. Let us bow our heads in humiliation as we see how much less we have done than we might have done to sow the seeds of truth.

When we are converted, our desire for ease and elegance will be changed. Christ brought his desires and wishes into strict abeyance to his mission,--the mission that bore the insignia of heaven. He made everything subordinate to the great work that he came to this world to accomplish in behalf of the fallen race. When in his youth his mother found him in the school of the rabbis, and said to him, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing," he answered,--and his answer is the keynote of his life work,--"How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

My dear brethren and sisters, I speak to you in words of love and tenderness. Every earthly interest must be made subordinate to the great work of redemption. Remember that in the lives of the followers of Christ must be seen the same devotion, the same subjection to God's work of every social claim and every earthly affection, that was seen in his life. God's claims must ever be made paramount. "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." Christ's life is our lesson book. His example is to inspire us to put forth untiring, self-sacrificing effort for the good of others.

Union with Christ and with one another is our only safety in these last days. Let us not make it possible for Satan to point to our churches, saying, Behold how these people standing under the banner of Christ hate one another. We have nothing to fear from them while they spend more strength in fighting one another than in warfare with my forces.

The Call from Every Land

The world is looking on with gratification at the disunion among Christians. Infidelity is well pleased. God calls for a change among his people. Agents of mercy are needed, not merely in a few places, but throughout the world. Men and women in this field should be preparing for service in distant lands. From every country is heard the cry, "Come over and help us." Rich and poor are calling for light. Money and workers are needed.

We need to humble ourselves before God because so few of the members of his church are putting forth efforts that in any wise compare with the efforts that the Lord desires them to put forth. The privileges that he has given them, the promises that he has made, the advantages that he has bestowed, should inspire them with far greater zeal and devotion.

We need the vitalizing power of the Spirit,--the strong cry of a church travailing to bring forth souls. There is need of more earnest wrestling with God for the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Eager, earnest, importunate prayer is needed. There is efficiency in prayer. In answer to fervent prayer, God can turn the thoughts and hearts of men as he turns the waters of the sea.

God forbid that our churches and institutions shall be content to leave untouched the fields that are still unworked. The Saviour is saying to us, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Teaching them,"--not merely preaching a discourse now and then, but teaching them how to find the way to heaven.

In every age, but never so much as now, this has been the work of the church. Dare any one of us to withhold a jot of the influence that should be exerted for the recovery of the souls that are out of Christ? Dare we work out our ambitious projects and satisfy our selfish desires, and then bring to God's altar the fraction that remains of our time and our means? Think you that God will accept such an offering?

Entire Consecration Demanded

The members of the church of God in every place are to consecrate themselves to his service, body, soul, and spirit. Every addition to the church should be one more agency for the carrying on of the great plan of redemption. The church is to be a living, active, missionary agency, moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit. The members are to act as one, blending in perfect union. This miracle the cross of Christ is fully able to accomplish for the good of an unbelieving world.

Every power of God's servants is to be kept in continual exercise to bring many sons and daughters to God. In his service there is to be no indifference, no selfishness. Any departure from self-denial to self-indulgence, any relaxation of earnest supplication for the Holy Spirit's working, means so much power given to the enemy. Christ is reviewing his church. How many there are whose religious life is their own condemnation!

God demands that which we do not give,--unreserved consecration. If every Christian had been true to the pledge made on accepting Christ, so many in the world would not have been left to perish in sin. Who will answer for the souls who have gone to the grave unprepared to meet their Lord? Christ offered himself as a complete sacrifice in our behalf. How earnestly he worked to save sinners! How untiring were his efforts to prepare his disciples for service! But how little we have done! And the influence of the little that we have done has been terribly weakened by the neutralizing effect of what we have left undone, or undertaken and never brought to completion, and by our habits of listless indifference. How much we have lost by failing to press forward to accomplish our God-given work! As professed Christians, we ought to be appalled by the outlook.

Wake up, my brethren and sisters. There is a great work to be done. Unceasing activity is called for. Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Many are far from Christ, wandering in the wilderness of sin. They are strangers from the covenant of promise. God calls upon his people to wake up, to shake off their careless indifference, and to take up the work waiting for them in their families. Then let them reach beyond their families to others who need help. God calls upon them to take up their long-neglected work. Let them commune with him, that they may be imbued with his Spirit. Then let them go forth to bestow on those in need the grace they have received from him.

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. . . . I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. . . .

"Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken." -

The Ministry is Ordained of God

The Lord will work with humble men who reveal that they are ever learning, ever under the control of the Holy Spirit. Such men are not of the class represented as "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." True learners of Christ Jesus learn to a purpose, becoming more and more Christlike in word and action.

The great enemy of the church is determined to introduce among God's people things that will create disunion and variance. The prayer for unity that Christ offered to his Father just before his suffering and death is given to impress every heart. Jesus will work with those who by earnest watchfulness and prayer are daily converted. God will surely hear the prayers of his people. He will not permit one of his praying children to be overcome by the enemy.

"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." These words portray the happiness and overcoming grace revealed in families where unity and peace and love abide. The Lord is honored by these peaceful homes--symbols of the purity of our heavenly home.

When professing Christians are united as one,--one with Christ in God,--they are representatives of the church of the Firstborn. Unity should ever be the element of preservation in the Christian church. Men and women are united in church capacity by a most solemn covenant with God to obey his Word, and to unite in an effort to strengthen the faith of one another.

God deals with man in accordance with his faith. Those who, having united with the church, still feel at liberty to find fault with their brethren by passing on to others some evil injury. Every time they work in this way, they place themselves on Satan's side of the controversy, becoming channels through which he communicates darkness, creating doubt and suspicion among God's children. Satan has many, many men and women of opportunity. If they are members of God's church, the enemy is better served than if they made no profession of Christianity. They may go through the outward form of worship, but in word and deed they reveal the spirit of Satan, and, unless converted, will by his devices be led on and on to final ruin.

Unconverted church members may do the same things that Christians do, with altogether a different spirit and different motives. The words and acts of a Christian are a savor of life unto life; the words and acts of a hypocritical church member are a savor of death unto death.

Contention in the church is always attended with a dearth of spirituality. The Lord cannot be glorified by a contentious church. "All ye are brethren." Cultivate the grace of God. Lift up your hearts in prayer to him for his keeping power. Avoid all contention among yourselves. Use every means within your reach to restrain the unsanctified words that are ever upon the tongue,--words that would cast a reflection upon others. Be true to one another. We are bought with a price; therefore in word and act we should glorify God.

When the members of God's church see eye to eye, they will constantly guard the tongue, in order that they may not misuse the talent of speech. This talent is a precious gift. Let us study our words with care, and be a blessing to mankind by refusing to bring reproach upon one of our brethren by passing on to others some evil report that we may hear. If we speak evil of another, reproach will lie at our door. When we all love our neighbor as ourselves, idle, mischievous whisperings will cease. May the Lord by his converting power sanctify our talent of speech, that we may use it to his glory, and in no wise to the injury of souls.

Every watchman on the walls of Zion is under sacred obligation to watch for souls as one who must give an account. Through God's grace he can do a work that heaven shall approve, in laboring to keep the church in unity and peace. The work of a gospel teacher is to proclaim the truth. Let him remember that he is to publish peace, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

The church should respect the gospel ministry; for it is God's appointed means of communicating his messages to the people. Let the church members sustain the ministers in their work as ambassadors for Christ. God's ministers open to men and women the living oracles of truth Let no one venture to make a tirade on any minister; for it would be a tirade against Christ in the person of his messenger.

When Jesus sent forth the twelve, he "commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Christ instructed the disciples plainly not to go "into the way of the Gentiles" until they had first borne their testimony to the Jews. If the Jews refused to hear them, they were to go into new territory. The work before them was an important one. The time had come for the light of truth to be carried to the Jewish nation and to the whole world. But if those sent forth had at first worked among the Samaritans and the Gentiles, the doors of entrance to the Jews would have been closed. Afterward, the disciples were commissioned to go into all the world, and teach all nations.

Christ himself, in all his ministry, gave the Jewish nation the first opportunity to receive him as the Saviour. Upon the Jews was bestowed the honor of first hearing from the lips of Christ his message of salvation. The Lord Jesus gave a special and very wonderful gospel to the Jews. He regarded them as lost sheep, which he, as their Shepherd, came to seek and to save, gathering them out from the bypaths and the highways of sin and error, and bringing them back to his fold.

The work that the apostles were to do was clearly defined: "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." -

Extending the Triumphs of the Cross

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:32.

As this wonderful, priceless Gift was bestowed, the whole heavenly universe was mightily stirred in an effort to understand God's unfathomable love, stirred to awaken in human hearts a gratitude proportionate to the value of the Gift. Shall we, for whom Christ has given his life, halt between two opinions? Shall we return to God only a mite of the capabilities and powers lent us by him? How can we do this while we know that he who was Commander of all heaven laid aside his royal robe and kingly crown, and realizing the helplessness of the fallen race, came to this earth in human nature to make it possible for us to unite our humanity to his divinity? He became poor that we might come into possession of the heavenly treasure, "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Cor. 4: 17. To rescue us, he descended from one humiliation to another, until he, the divine-human, suffering Christ, was uplifted on the cross, to draw all men to himself. The Son of God could not have shown greater condescension than he did; he could not have stooped lower.

This is the mystery of godliness, the mystery that has inspired heavenly agencies so to minister through fallen humanity that in the world an intense interest will be aroused in the plan of salvation. This is the mystery that has stirred all heaven to unite with man in carrying out God's great plan.

To human agencies is committed the work of extending the triumphs of the cross from point to point. As the Head of the church, Christ is authoritatively calling upon every one who claims to believe on him to follow his example of self-denial and self-sacrifice in working for the conversion of those whom Satan and his vast army are exerting every power to destroy. God's people are called upon to rally without delay under the blood-stained banner of Christ Jesus. Unceasingly they are to continue their warfare against the enemy, pressing the battle even to the gates. And every one who is added to the ranks by conversion is to be assigned his post of duty. Every one should be willing to be or to do anything in this warfare. When church members put forth earnest efforts to advance the message, they will live in the joy of the Lord, and will meet with success. Triumph always follows decided effort.

Christ, in his mediatorial capacity, gives to his servants the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the efficiency of the Spirit that enables human agencies to be representatives of the Redeemer in the work of soul-saving. That we may unite with Christ in this work, we should place ourselves under the molding influence of his Spirit. Through the power thus imparted, we may co-operate with the Lord in the bonds of unity as laborers together with him in the salvation of souls. To every one who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results.

The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to every one who is sanctified through obedience to the truth. Christ, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, co-operates in sympathy with his instrumentalities,--the earnest souls who day by day partake of the living bread, "which cometh down from heaven." John 6:50. The church on earth, united with the church in heaven, can accomplish all things.

On the day of Pentecost the Infinite One revealed himself in power to the church. By his Holy Spirit he descended from the heights of heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, to the room in which the disciples were assembled. It was as if for ages this influence had been held in restraint, and now heaven rejoiced in being able to pour upon the church the riches of the Spirit's power. And, under the influence of the Spirit, words of penitence and confession were mingled with songs of praise for sins forgiven. Words of thanksgiving and of prophecy were heard. All heaven bent low to behold and to adore the wisdom of matchless, incomprehensible Love. Lost in wonder, the apostles and disciples exclaimed, "Herein is love." 1 John 4: 10. They grasped the imparted gift. And what followed?--Thousands were converted in a day. The sword of the Spirit, newly edged with power, and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, cut its way through unbelief.

The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying, God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were filled with an intense longing to add to the church such as should be saved. They called on the believers to arouse and do their part, that all nations might hear the truth, and the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord.

By the grace of Christ the apostles were made what they were. It was sincere devotion and humble, earnest prayer that brought them into close communion with him. They sat together with him in heavenly places. They realized the greatness of their debt to him. By earnest, persevering prayer they obtained the endowment of the Holy Spirit, and then they went forth, weighted with the burden of saving souls, filled with zeal to extend the triumphs of the cross. And under their labors many souls were brought from darkness to light, and many churches were raised up.

Shall we be less earnest than were the apostles? Shall we not by living faith claim the promises that moved them to the depths of their being to call upon the Lord Jesus for the fulfillment of his word, "Ask, and ye shall receive"? John 16: 24. Is not the Spirit of God to come to-day in answer to earnest, persevering prayer, and fill men with power? Is not God saying to-day to his praying, trusting, believing workers, who are opening the Scriptures to those ignorant of the precious truth they contain, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"? Matt. 28: 20. Why, then, is the church so weak and spiritless?

As the disciples, filled with the power of the Spirit, went forth to proclaim the gospel, so God's servants are to go forth to-day. Filled with an unselfish desire to give the message of mercy to those who are in the darkness of error and unbelief, we are to take up the Lord's work. He gives us our part to do in co-operation with him, and he will also move on the hearts of unbelievers to carry forward his work in the regions beyond. Already many are receiving the Holy Spirit, and no longer will the way be blocked by listless indifference.

Why has the history of the work of the disciples, as they labored with holy zeal, animated and vitalized by the Holy Spirit, been recorded, if it is not that from this record the Lord's people to-day are to gain an inspiration to work earnestly for him? What the Lord did for his people in that time, it is just as essential, and more so, that he do for his people to-day. All that the apostles did, every church member to-day is to do. And we are to work with as much more fervor, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit in as much greater measure, as the increase of wickedness demands a more decided call to repentance.

Every one on whom is shining the light of present truth is to be stirred with compassion for those who are in darkness. From all believers light is to be reflected in clear, distinct rays. A work similar to that which the Lord did through his delegated messengers after the day of Pentecost he is waiting to do to-day. At this time, when the end of all things is at hand, should not the zeal of the church exceed even that of the early church? Zeal for the glory of God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a longing to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and him crucified? Should not the power of God be even more mightily revealed today than in the time of the apostles? -

The Signal of Advance

It is an eternal law of Jehovah that he who accepts the truth that the world needs is to make it his first work to proclaim this truth. But who is there that makes the burden of perishing sinners his own? As I look upon the professed people of God, and see their unwillingness to serve him, my heart is filled with a pain that I cannot express. How few are heart to heart with God in his solemn, closing work. There are thousands to be warned, yet how few consecrate themselves wholly to the work, willing to be or to do anything if only they may win souls to Christ. Jesus died to save the world. In humility, in lowliness, in unselfishness, he worked and is working for sinners. But many of those who ought to co-operate with him are self-sufficient and indifferent.

Among God's people to-day there is a fearful lack of the sympathy that should be felt for souls unsaved. We talk of Christian missions. The sound of our voices is heard; but we do not feel Christ's tender heart-longing for those outside the fold. And unless our hearts beat in union with the heart of Christ, how can we understand the sacredness and importance of the work to which we are called by the words, "Watch for . . . souls, as they that must give account." Heb. 13:17.

God is waiting for men and women to awake to their responsibilities. He is waiting for them to link themselves with him. Let them mark the signal of advance, and no longer be laggards in working out the will of the Lord.

Do we realize how large a number in the world are watching our movements? From quarters where we least expect will come voices urging us forward in the work of giving to the world the last message of mercy. Ministers and people, wake up! Be quick to recognize and seize every o opportunity and advantage offered in the turning of the wheel of providence. God and Christ and the heavenly angels are working with intense activity to hold in check the fierceness of Satan's wrath, that God's plans may not be thwarted. God lives and reigns. He is conducting the affairs of the universe. Let his soldiers move forward to victory. Let there be perfect unity in their ranks. Let them press the battle to the gates. As a mighty Conqueror, the Lord will work for them.9

Let the gospel message ring through our churches, summoning them to universal action. Let the members of the church have increased faith, gaining zeal from their unseen, heavenly allies, from a knowledge of their exhaustless resources, from the greatness of the enterprise in which they are engaged, and from the power of their Leader. Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by him to take place. Inspired with the Spirit of him who gave his life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they cannot do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth to the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that his omnipotence will supply their need.

God's servants are to make use of every resource for enlarging his kingdom. The apostle Paul declares that it is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men" 1 Tim. 2: 3, 4, 1. And James says, "Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." James 5: 20. Every believer is pledged to unite with his brethren in giving the invitation, "Come; for all things are now ready." Luke 14:17. Each is to encourage the others in doing whole-hearted work. Earnest invitations will be given by a living church. Thirsty souls will be led to the water of life.

The apostles carried a weight of responsibility to enlarge their sphere of labor, to proclaim the gospel in the regions beyond. From their example we learn that there are to be no idlers in the Lord's vineyard. His servants are constantly to enlarge the circle of their efforts. Constantly they are to do more, never less. The Lord's work is to widen and broaden until it encircles the world.

After making a missionary tour, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps, visiting the churches they had raised up, and selecting men to unite with them in the work. Thus God's servants are to labor to-day, selecting and training worthy young men as co-laborers. God help us to sanctify ourselves, that by our example others may be sanctified, enabled to do successful work in winning souls to Christ.

We are nearing the close of this earth's history; soon we shall stand before the great white throne. Soon your time for work will be forever past. Watch for opportunities to speak a word in season to those with whom you come in contact. Do not wait to become acquainted before you offer them the priceless treasures of truth. Go to work, and ways will open before you.

At the day of judgment there comes to the lost a full realization of the meaning of the sacrifice made on Calvary. They see what they have lost by refusing to be loyal. They think of the high, pure association it was their privilege to gain. But it is too late. The last call has been made. The wail is heard, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Jer. 8:20.

Upon us rests the weighty responsibility of warning the world of its coming doom. From every direction, from far and near, are coming calls for help. God calls upon his church to arise, and clothe herself with power. Immortal crowns are to be won; the kingdom of heaven is to be gained; the world, perishing in ignorance, is to be enlightened.

The world will be convinced, not by what the pulpit teaches, but by what the church lives. The minister in the desk announces the theory of the gospel; the practical piety of the church demonstrates its power.

Enfeebled and defective, needing constantly to be warned and counseled, the church is nevertheless the object of Christ's supreme regard. He is making experiments of grace on human hearts, and is effecting such transformations of character that angels are amazed, and express their joy in songs of praise. They rejoice to think that sinful, erring human beings can be so transformed.

As the third angel's message swells into a loud cry, great power and glory will attend its proclamation. The faces of God's people will shine with the light of heaven.

The Lord will fit men and women--yes, and children, as he did Samuel--for his work, making them his messengers. He who never slumbers nor sleeps watches over each worker, choosing his sphere of labor. All heaven is watching the warfare which, under apparently discouraging circumstances, God's servants are carrying on. New conquests are being achieved, new honors won, as the Lord's servants, rallying round the banner of their Redeemer, go forth to fight the good fight of faith. All the heavenly angels are at the service of the humble, believing people of God, and as the Lord's army of workers here below sing their songs of praise, the choir above join with them in thanksgiving, ascribing praise to God and to his Son.

Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness, and relies wholly on the merits of the Saviour. God would send every angel in heaven to the aid of such a one, rather than allow him to be overcome.

The battle-cry is sounding along the line. Let every soldier of the cross push to the front, not in self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness, and with firm faith in God. Your work, my work, will not cease with this life. For a little while we may rest in the grave, but, when the call comes, we shall, in the kingdom of God, take up our work once more.--"Testimonies for the Church," Vol. VII. -

An Open Letter

WE HASTEN TO PLACE THIS LETTER IN YOUR HANDS, FOR IT IS INDEED A VERY PRECIOUS ONE. IT COMES AS A MOST TIMELY ADMONITION TO STIR US UP TO THE WORK WHICH MUST BE FINISHED WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY.

OUR HEARTS THRILL WITH JOY AS WE READ THE CHEERING WORDS, "I HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED THAT THE CANVASSING WORK IS TO BE REVIVED, AND THAT IT IS TO BE CARRIED FORWARD WITH INCREASING SUCCESS; AND A BLESSING WILL ATTEND THOSE WHO ENGAGE IN IT WITH EARNESTNESS AND DILIGENCE." BLESS THE LORD FOR THIS ASSURANCE AND PROMISE! OUR HEARTS RESPOND, "AMEN, EVEN SO, IT SHALL BE REVIVED." AND LET ALL THE PEOPLE SAY, "AMEN."

"FORWARD TO THE WORLD," MUST BE OUR MOTTO. SCORES ARE OFFERING THEMSELVES FOR SERVICE ACROSS THE SEAS. THERE WAS NEVER BEFORE SUCH A MOVEMENT AMONG US TOWARD FOREIGN LANDS. THE "SOUND OF A GOING" IS HEARD. LET US BE UP AND MOVING. WE CALL UPON OUR DEAR PEOPLE TO RESPOND TO THIS APPEAL BY A FULL CONSECRATION TO THE GOOD WORK, THAT ALL ISRAEL MAY BE ON THE MARCH FOR THE GOODLY LAND. MAY GOD BLESS YOU IS OUR PRAYER.

GENERAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.

"ELMSHAVEN," ST. HELENA, CAL.,

Dec. 6, 1902.

Dear Brethren and Sisters: The new year is just before us, and plans should be laid for earnest, persevering effort in the Master's service. There is much to be done to advance the work of God. I have been instructed that the canvassing work is to be revived, and that it is to be carried forward with increasing success. It is the Lord's work, and a blessing will attend those who engage in it with earnestness and diligence.

I thank my Heavenly Father for the interest that my brethren and sisters have taken in the circulation of "Christ's Object Lessons." By the sale of this book great good has been accomplished, and the work should be continued. But the efforts of our people should not be confined to this one book. The work of the Lord includes more than one line of service. "Christ's Object Lessons" is to live and do its appointed work, but not all the thought and effort of God's people are to be given to its circulation. The larger books, "Patriarchs and Prophets," "Great Controversy," and "Desire of Ages," should be sold everywhere. These books contain truth for this time,--truth that is to be proclaimed in all parts of the world. Nothing is to hinder their sale.

The effort to circulate "Christ's Object Lessons" has demonstrated what can be done in the canvassing field. This effort is a never-to-be-forgotten lesson on how to canvass in the prayerful, trustful way that brings success.

Many more of our larger books might have been sold if church members had been awake to the importance of the truths these books contain, and had realized their responsibility to circulate them. My brethren and sisters, will you not now make an effort to circulate these books? and will you not bring into this effort the enthusiasm that you brought into the effort to sell "Christ's Object Lessons"? In selling this book many have learned how to handle the larger books. They have obtained an experience that has prepared them to enter the canvassing field.

Sister White is not the originator of these books. They contain the instruction that during her life-work God has been giving her. They contain the precious, comforting light that God has graciously given his servant to be given to the world. From their pages this light is to shine into the hearts of men and women, leading them to the Saviour. The Lord has declared that these books are to be scattered throughout the world. There is in them truth which to the receiver is a savor of life unto life. They are silent witnesses for God. In the past they have been the means in his hands of convicting and converting many souls. Many have read them with eager expectation, and, by reading them, have been led to see the efficacy of Christ's atonement, and to trust in its power. They have been led to commit the keeping of their souls to their Creator, waiting and hoping for the coming of the Saviour to take his loved ones to their eternal home. In the future, these books are to make the gospel plain to many others, revealing to them the way of salvation.

The Lord has sent his people much instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light. O, how much good would be accomplished if the books containing this light were read with a determination to carry out the principles they contain! There would be a thousandfold greater vigilance, a thousandfold more self-denial and resolute effort. And many more would now be rejoicing in the light of present truth.

My brethren and sisters, work earnestly to circulate these books. Put your hearts into this work, and the blessing of God will be with you. Go forth in faith, praying that God will prepare hearts to receive the light. Be pleasant and courteous. Show by a consistent course that you are true Christians. Walk and work in the light of heaven, and your path will be as the path of the just, shining more and more unto the perfect day.

Take the books to business men, to teachers of the gospel, whose minds have not been called to the special truths for this time. The message is to be given "in the highways,"--to men who take an active part in the world's work, to the teachers and leaders of the people. Thousands can be reached in the most simple, humble way. The most intellectual, those who are looked upon as the world's most gifted men and women, are often refreshed by the simple words of one who loves God, and who can speak of that love as naturally as the worldling speaks of the things that interest him most deeply. Often the words well prepared and studied have but little influence. But the true, honest expression of a son or daughter of God, spoken in natural simplicity, has power to open the door to hearts that have long been closed against Christ and his love.

Let no one think that he is at liberty to fold his hands and do nothing. That any one can be saved in indolence and inactivity is an utter impossibility. Think of what Christ accomplished during his earthly ministry. How earnest, how untiring, were his efforts! He allowed nothing to turn him aside from the work given him. Are we following in his footsteps? He gave up all to carry out God's plan of mercy for the fallen race. In the fulfillment of the purpose of heaven, he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He had had no communion with sin, had known nothing of it; but he came to this world, and took upon his sinless soul the guilt of sinful man, that sinners might stand justified before God. He grappled with temptation, overcoming in our behalf. The Son of God, pure and unsullied, bore the penalty of transgression, and received the stroke of death that brought deliverance to the race. (To be concluded)

The Meaning of God's Providences

We have been made very sad by the news of the terrible loss that has come to the cause in the burning of the Review and Herald Office. In one year two of our largest institutions have been destroyed by fire. The news of this recent calamity has made us feel very sad, but it was suffered by the Lord to come upon us, and we feel that we should make no complaints, but learn if possible the lesson that the Lord would teach us. The destruction of this institution should not be passed by as something in which there is no meaning. Every one connected with the Review and Herald Office should ask himself, "Wherein do I deserve this lesson? Wherein have I walked contrary to a 'Thus saith the Lord,' that he should send this lesson to me? Have I heeded the warnings and reproofs that he has sent, or have I walked in my own way?"

Let the heart-searching God reprove the erring, and let each one bow before him in humility and contrition, casting aside all self-righteousness and self-importance, confessing and forsaking every sin, and asking God, in the name of the Redeemer, for pardon and forgiveness. God declares, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," and those who thus present themselves before him will be pardoned and justified, and will receive power to become the sons of God.

I pray that those who have resisted light and evidence, refusing to listen to God's warnings, will see in the destruction of the Review and Herald Office an appeal to them from God to turn to him with full purpose of heart. Will they not see that God is in earnest with them? He is not seeking to destroy life, but to save life. In the recent destruction, the lives of the workers were graciously preserved, that all might have opportunity to see that God was correcting them by a message coming not from a human source, but from heaven. God's people have departed from him; they have not followed his instruction, and he has come near to them in correction, but he has not brought extinction of life. Not one soul has been taken by death. All have been left alive to recognize the Power that no man can gainsay.

Let us praise the Lord that the lives of his children have been so precious in his sight. He might have cut off all the workers in their heedlessness and self-sufficiency. But no! He says, "They shall have another chance. I will let the fire speak to them, and will see if they will counterwork the action of my providence. I will try them as by fire, to see if they will learn the lesson that I desire to teach them."

When the Battle Creek Sanitarium was destroyed, Christ gave himself to defend the lives of men and women. In this destruction God was appealing to his people to return to him. And in the destruction of the Review and Herald Office, and the saving of life, he makes a second appeal to them. He desires them to see that the miracle-working power of the Infinite has been exercised to save life, that every worker may have opportunity to repent and be converted. God says, "If they turn to me, I will restore to them the joy of my salvation. But if they continue to walk in their own way, I will come still closer; and affliction shall come upon the families who claim to believe the truth, but who do not practice the truth, who do not make the Lord God of Israel their fear and their dread."

Let every one examine himself, to see whether he be in the faith. Let the people of God repent and be converted, that their sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Let them ascertain wherein they have failed to walk in the way that God has marked out, wherein they have failed to purify their souls by taking heed to his counsels.

There must be entire conformity to the will of God. There must be less self measurement, and more, very much more, Christlike practice. There must be more earnest, persevering prayer. Prayer is acceptable only when offered in faith and in the name of the Redeemer. Our faith must grasp the glorious fact that God hears and answers the prayers of every sincere seeker. As the believer bows in supplication before God, and in humility and contrition offers his petition from unfeigned lips, keeping his eyes fixed steadily on the Mediator of the new covenant, he loses all thought of self. His mind is filled with the thought of what he must have in order to build up a Christlike character. He prays, "Lord, if I am to be a channel through which thy love is to flow day by day and hour by hour, I claim by faith the grace and power that thou hast promised. "He fastens his hold firmly on the promise, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."

How this dependence pleases the Master! How he delights to hear the steady, earnest pleading! How quickly the sincere, fervent prayer is recognized and honored! How intensely interested the heavenly angels are! "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" With wonderful and ennobling grace the Lord sanctifies the humble petitioner, giving him power to perform the most difficult duties. All that is undertaken is done unto the Lord, and this elevates and sanctifies the lowliest calling. It invests with new dignity every word, every act, and links the humblest worker, the poorest of God's servants, with the highest of the angels in the heavenly courts.

The salvation of human beings is a vast enterprise, that calls into action every attribute of the divine nature. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have pledged themselves to make God's children more than conquerors through him that has loved them. The Lord is gracious and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. He has provided power to enable us to be overcomers. How full of comfort and love are the words of Christ to his disciples just before his trial and crucifixion. He was about to leave them, but he did not want them to think that they were to be left helpless orphans. "I go my way to him that sent me," he said, "and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."

Then comes the wonderful prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John,--a prayer that means much more to us than we realize. Let us receive it into the treasure-house of the soul, and make it the daily lesson of our lives:--

"As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me; be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Satan understands this prayer better than do the members of churches and the heads of families. He does not want the people of God to understand it, lest they should see the advantage God has bestowed on them, and know the day of their visitation. He would keep them in discord and strife over little misunderstandings and little differences, which, dwelt upon, grow into variance and hatred. He knows that if he can keep them thus, they will present before the world a showing exactly the opposite of that which God desires them to present.

I urge our people to cease their criticism and evil speaking, and go to God in earnest prayer, asking him to help them to help the erring. Let them link up with one another and with Christ. Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter. He will abide in their hearts, making their joy full. His words will be to them as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained they will be enabled to develop characters that will be an honor to God. Perfect Christian fellowship will exist among them. There will be seen in their lives the fruit that always appears as the result of obedience to the truth.

Let us make Christ's prayer the rule of our life, that we may form characters that will reveal to the world the power of the grace of God. Let there be less talk about petty differences, and a more diligent study of what the prayer of Christ means to those who believe on his name. We are to pray for union, and then live in such a way that God can answer our prayers.

Perfect oneness,--a union as close as the union existing between the Father and the Son,--this is what will give success to the efforts of God's workers. "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me," to bring about this union, this sanctified harmony. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." It is this union that convinces the world that God has indeed sent his Son to save sinners. Christ gives to his true disciples the glory of his character, that his prayer may be answered. Through the impartation of his Spirit, he appears in their lives.

Let us during the year 1903 cast all selfishness out of our lives. Let us live for the Master, striving to help one another. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Let us in our life-work strive constantly to answer the prayer of Christ, that we may be united with one another and with him. Let us always before undertaking anything, ask ourselves the question, Will this please my Saviour? Is it in harmony with the will of God? The consciousness that we are bringing the Christ-life into the daily experience will give a sacred dignity to the every-day duties. All that we do will be done with faithfulness, that the Master may be honored. Thus shall we show to the world what Christianity can accomplish for sinful human beings, giving them constantly increasing efficiency for service in this life, preparing them for the higher life in the world to come. -

An Open Letter [Concluded]

It was Christ's joy to help those in need of help, to seek the lost, to rescue the perishing, to lift up the bowed down, to heal the sick, to speak words of sympathy and consolation to the sorrowing and the distressed. The more fully we are imbued with his Spirit, the more earnestly we shall work for those around us; and the more we do for others, the greater will be our love for the work, and the greater our delight in following the Master. Our hearts will be filled with the love of God; and with earnestness and convincing power we shall speak of the crucified Saviour.

I ask those to whom the light of truth has come: What are you going to do during the year that is just opening? Will you stop to quarrel with one another, to weaken and destroy the faith of humanity in humanity? or will you devote your time to strengthening the things that remain, that are ready to die? As our people engage in earnest work for the Master, complaints will cease to be heard. Many will be roused from the despondency that is ruining them body and soul. As they work for others, they will have much that is helpful to speak of when they assemble to worship God. The testimonies they bear will not be dark and gloomy, but full of joy and courage. Instead of thinking and talking about the faults of their brethren and sisters, and about their own trials, they will think and talk of the love of Christ, and will strive earnestly to become more efficient workers for him.

Many are sad and discouraged, weak in faith and trust. Let them do something to help some one more needy than themselves, and they will grow strong in God's strength. Let them engage in the good work of selling our books. Thus they will help others, and the experience gained will give them the assurance that they are God's helping hand. As they plead with the Lord to help them, he will guide them to those who are seeking for the light. Christ will be close beside them, teaching them what to say and do. By comforting others, they themselves will be comforted.

I ask you, dear Christian workers, to do what you can to circulate the books that the Lord has said should be sown broadcast throughout the world. Do your best to place them in the homes of as many people as possible. Think of how great a work can be done if a large number of believers will unite in an effort to place before the people, by the circulation of these books, the light that the Lord has said should be given them. Under divine guidance, go forward in the work, and look to the Lord for aid. The Holy Spirit will attend you. Angels of heaven will accompany you, preparing the way.

If you have neglected the sowing time, if you have allowed God-given opportunities to pass unimproved, if you have given yourselves up to self-pleasing, will you not now repent, before it is forever too late, and strive to redeem the time? The obligation to use your talents in the Master's service rests heavily upon you. Come to the Lord, and make an entire surrender of all to him. You cannot afford to lose one day. Take up your neglected work. Put away your querulous unbelief, your envy and evil-thinking, and go to work, in humble faith, and with earnest prayer to the Lord to pardon you for your years of unconsecration. Ask the Lord for help. If you seek him earnestly, with the whole heart, you will find him, and he will strengthen and bless you.

In your work you will meet with those who are fighting against appetite. Speak words that will strengthen and encourage them. Do not let Satan quench the last spark of hope in their hearts. Of the erring, trembling one, struggling with evil, Christ says, "Let him come to me;" and he places his hands underneath him, and lifts him up. The work that Christ did, you, as his evangelists, can do as you go from place to place. Labor in faith, expecting that souls will be won to him who gave his life that men and women might stand on God's side. Draw with God to win the drunkard and the tobacco devotee from the habits which debase them till they are below the level of the beasts that perish.

The Lord calls for many more to engage in the canvassing work in the year 1903. For Christ's sake, my brethren and sisters, make the most of the hours of the new year to place the precious light of present truth before the people. The Angel of the covenant is empowering his servants to carry the truth to all parts of the world. He has sent forth his angels with the message of mercy; but, as if they did not speed on their way fast enough to satisfy his heart of yearning love, he lays on every member of his church the responsibility of proclaiming this message. "Let him that heareth say, Come." Every member of the church is to show his loyalty by inviting the thirsty to drink of the water of life. A chain of living witnesses is to carry the invitation to the world. Will you act your part in this great work?

Jesus is calling for many missionaries, for men and women who will consecrate themselves to God, willing to spend and be spent in his service. O, can we not remember that there is a world to labor for? Shall we not move forward step by step, letting God use us as his helping hand? Shall we not place ourselves on the altar of service? Then the love of Christ will touch and transform us, making us willing for his sake to do and dare.

Prepare to Meet Thy God

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. . . . Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not."

We are here warned not to defraud our souls of the privileges that the Lord has provided in order that we may be rich in faith, and heirs according to the promise. We are to watch vigilantly for the coming of the Lord. The first symptoms of spiritual slumber are to be sternly overcome. The first inclinations to spiritual indolence are to be firmly resisted. "Be sober, be vigilant," is the apostle's exhortation. Every moment is to be faithfully employed. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." We are told to work out our own salvation, and the way in which we are to do this is plainly stated: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Those who would be ready to meet their Lord must keep their lamps filled with the oil of grace. It was a neglect to do this that distinguished the foolish virgins from the wise. They had lamps, but no oil; their characters could not stand the test. The wise virgins had not only an intelligent knowledge of the truth, but through the grace of Christ their faith and patience and love constantly increased. Their lamps were replenished by their vital connection with the Light of the world. And while the foolish virgins awoke to find their lamps burning dimly or going out in the darkness, the wise virgins, their lamps burning brightly, entered the festal hall, and the doors were shut.

The oil with which the wise virgins filled their lamps represents the Holy Spirit. "The angel that talked with me," writes Zechariah, "came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. . . . Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

By the holy beings surrounding his throne, the Lord keeps up a constant communication with the inhabitants of the earth. The golden oil represents the grace with which God keeps the lamps of believers supplied. Were it not that this holy oil is poured from heaven in the messages of God's Spirit, the agencies of evil would have entire control over men.

God is dishonored when we do not receive the communications that he sends us. Thus we refuse the golden oil which he would pour into our souls to be communicated to those in darkness. When the call shall come, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him," those who have not received the holy oil, who have not cherished the grace of Christ in their hearts, will find, like the foolish virgins, that they are not ready to meet their Lord. They have not in themselves the power to obtain the oil, and their lives are wrecked. But if God's Spirit is asked for, if we plead, as did Moses, "Show me thy glory," the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts. The golden oil will be given to us.

Only by knowing God here can we prepare to meet him at his coming. "This is life eternal," said Christ, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." But many of those who profess to believe in Christ do not know God. They have only a surface religion. They do not love God; they do not study his character; therefore they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. They do not know what restful love is, or what it means to walk by faith. Opportunities to hear and receive the messages of God's love are unappreciated and unimproved. They fail of understanding that it is their duty to receive, in order that they may enrich others.

The world by wisdom knows not God. Many have talked eloquently about him, but their reasoning brings men no nearer to him, because they themselves are not in vital connection with him. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Their knowledge of God is imperfect. They are not conformed to him.

Christ is a perfect revelation of God. "No man hath seen God at any time," he says; "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Only by knowing Christ can we know God. And as we behold him, we shall be changed into his image, prepared to meet him at his coming.

So fully did Christ reveal the Father, that the messengers sent by the Pharisees to take him were charmed by his presence. As they heard the gracious words that fell from his lips, they forgot their commission. And when, returning without him, they were asked by the Pharisees, "Why have ye not brought him?" they answered, "Never man spake like this man."

Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet him cannot be attained in a moment's time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting and watching, combined with earnest work. So God's children glorify him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, hope, and faith. All they have and are is consecrated to the Master's service. Thus they prepare to meet their Lord; and when he comes, they will say, with joy, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us. . . . We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." -

Our Battle With Evil

The will of man is aggressive, and is constantly striving to bend all things to its purposes. If it is enlisted on the side of God and right, the fruits of the Spirit will appear in the life; and God has appointed "glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good."

When Satan is permitted to mold the will, he uses it to accomplish his ends. He often works under cover as an angel of light. He has synagogues for worship, and a multitude of followers. But with all his high professions, he is at enmity with God. He instigates theories of unbelief, and stirs up the human heart to war against the word of God. With persistent, persevering effort, he seeks to inspire men with his own energies of hate and antagonism to God, and to array them in opposition to the institutions and requirements of heaven and the operations of the Holy Spirit. He enlists under his standard all evil agencies, and brings them into the battle field under his generalship to oppose evil against good.

It is Satan's work to dethrone God from the heart, and to mold human nature into his own image of deformity. He stirs up all evil propensities, awakening unholy passions and ambitions. He declares, All this power, these honors, and riches, and sinful pleasures will I give thee; but his conditions are that integrity shall be yielded, conscience blunted. Thus he degrades the human faculties, and brings them into captivity to sin.

God calls upon men to oppose the powers of evil. He says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

The Christian life is a warfare. But "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In this conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness we can be successful only by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into submission to the will of the Infinite; the human will must be blended with the divine. This will bring the Holy Spirit to our aid; and every conquest will tend to the recovery of God's purchased possession, to the restoration of his image in the soul.

The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is his representative. Through it he infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for his kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of his Spirit, and submit to be molded by it, we shall stand complete in him. What a thought is this! In Christ "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him." Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the model, Jesus Christ. Through the influence of the Spirit, enmity against God is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.

It is by contemplating Christ, by exercising faith in him, by experiencing for ourselves his saving grace, that we are qualified to present him to the world. When the soul is renewed through the truth, and brought into harmony with God, the Lord will accept us as workers together with himself for the salvation of others. Jesus will be our theme; his love, burning upon the altar of our hearts will reach the hearts of the people. The truth will be presented, not as a cold, lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. But the power is of God through his Spirit, which works effectually on heart and mind. When Jesus left to his disciples the work that he had begun, he charged them: "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." And he promised, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." And the disciples "all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication," waiting for the fulfillment of the promise.

We should pray as earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the disciples prayed on the day of Pentecost. If they needed the Spirit's power at that time, we need it more to-day. All manner of false doctrines, heresies, and deceptions are misleading the minds of men; and without the Spirit's aid, our efforts to present divine truth will be in vain.

The warfare between good and evil has not grown less fierce than it was in the days of the Saviour. The path to heaven is no smoother now than it was then. All our sins must be put away. Every darling indulgence that hinders our spiritual progress must be cut off. The right eye or the right hand must be sacrificed, if it causes us to offend. Are we willing to renounce our own wisdom, and to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child? Are we willing to part with our self-righteousness? Are we willing to sacrifice the approbation of men? The prize of eternal life is of infinite value. Are we willing to welcome the Holy Spirit's aid, and co-operate with it, putting forth efforts and making sacrifices proportionate to the value of the object to be obtained?

Who are Representing Christ?

We are living in times that try men's souls. Those in high positions of trust, whom we may call--as God called some in the days of Noah--mighty men, men of renown, know little of the causes that underlie the present state of society. Many do not care to know; others do not study from cause to effect. Those who hold the reins of government are not able to solve the problem of moral corruption, poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime of every type, manifest in all classes, from the highest to the lowest. Many are struggling vainly to place business operations on a more secure basis. The great extremes of wealth and want produce unnumbered evils.

In our large cities there exists an appalling condition of poverty; multitudes are destitute of food, clothing, or shelter. In the same cities are men of wealth, who have more than heart could wish; who live luxuriously, spending their money upon richly furnished houses, upon personal adornment, or worse, upon the gratification of the sensual appetites, upon tobacco, liquor, and other things that destroy the power of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. While they are thus selfishly indulging themselves, all heaven is looking down upon these unfaithful stewards. God and angels mark how the means given to men with which to honor the Creator by blessing the world, are turned to the gratification of self, to the dishonor of God, and the neglect of his heritage.

The prince of darkness has set in operation every device to destroy man. He has legions of evil workers uniting with him to obliterate the image of God in the youth. I ask those who are acquainted with truth, who know righteousness, What are you doing? Are you uniting your influence to bring into the ranks of the Lord's army all whom you can possibly reach? Have you yourself enlisted to fight the battles of the Lord? As Christians it is our work to represent Christ. We are to set an example that shall be in striking contrast with the practices of this evil age.

While distrust and alienation are pervading all classes of society, Christ's disciples are to reveal the spirit that reigns in heaven. Because the world was ruined through sin, God gave his Son to draw men back to him. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He gave all that heaven could give for the saving of the lost. In every soul that receives this love, it will manifest itself in like manner. God so loved that he gave. If we love with his love, we too shall give all. We shall be co-workers with him whose mission it is to "preach the gospel to the poor; . . . to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." We shall do the work he has set before us,--"to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke; . . . to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house; when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh."

Again the Lord says, "Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." All about us are souls who have gone out of the way,--souls who have been wounded and bruised by the enemy, and who feel a craving for help, for sympathy. These souls, when brought in contact with us, should find a strong hand stretched out to clasp their hand, a strong, living faith that will help them to put their trust in Jesus.

All who pray in simplicity, "Be thou my pattern," will walk in Christ's footsteps; they will reveal that they themselves are striving to follow Christ, and as the natural result they will lead others to seek the higher life. The power of speech is a precious gift of God, and if used in speaking words of hope and courage to the oppressed, it is a savor of life unto life. But it may be a savor of death unto death. Harsh or even thoughtless words may be great hindrances to the struggling, fainting soul. They may sting and bruise until the soul shall be driven upon Satan's ground, never again to listen to the voice of Christ.

The Saviour marks all our work as if done unto himself; for he identifies his interests with those of suffering humanity. Every one who names the name of Christ is called, so far as lies in his power, to help every other soul in the heavenward way. But let none feel that Christ has placed him on the judgment seat, to pass judgment on a brother or a sister who is unfortunate, or who falls into error. Many hearts are sorely stricken, to whom words fitly spoken might bring peace and rest. These souls are a test to their brethren and sisters, revealing what is in the heart. All heaven is looking to see how we treat those that need our help. It is this that reveals whether the glowing fire of the first love is still burning upon the altar of the heart.

What a power the church would have in it if all its members were so imbued with the Spirit of Christ that they would speak to one another only words of comfort and peace and hope; if none felt it their prerogative to judge, to oppress, to cast a dark shadow on another's soul.

When the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" the Saviour "called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."

My brethren and sisters, be not deceived in regard to your own souls. They that are hearers and doers of the words of Christ are the only ones who have built upon the eternal rock, and whose house will stand secure when the storms beat upon it. What foundation have you been building upon,--sliding sand or solid rock? If you are not doers of the words of Christ, your house is sure to fall. Do you seek to save souls that are perishing, or do you fold your arms, and leave those unhelped whom you could help? You will gain no strength or encouragement by neglecting to work the works of Christ.

"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him," said Christ, "shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." "If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." -

Take Heed to Thyself

There are many who desire to command before they have learned to obey. The first lesson they need to learn is the lesson of submission,--submission to Christ. God bids me say to ministers, teachers, and leaders in every department of his work: You must be Christians in word and act, or you will fail of gaining entrance into the city of God. It is because of a neglect to heed the instruction given in the first six verses of the eighteenth chapter of Matthew that many of those who ought to conduct themselves as in the presence of Christ are making themselves obnoxious to him. To the members of our churches, from the oldest to the youngest, Christ says:--

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones,"--not only those young in years, but those young in experience and weak in faith. To him who fails to help and bless these "little ones," who does not treat them tenderly and courteously, but harshly and unkindly, discouraging and disheartening them, God says, "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Workers who do not heed the instruction so plainly given in the Word of God, who do not adorn the doctrines of Christ by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation, be they teachers in our schools, directors in our publishing houses, or physicians in our sanitariums, should not be retained in their position of trust, unless they repent, and change their attitude. Those who teach others must themselves learn daily in the school of Christ, that they may know how to reveal the love and tenderness of the great Teacher.

Christ's life of holiness is our textbook. The question that ministers and people must answer is, Am I eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God? Am I making his words a part of my daily experience. Were God's people molded and fashioned by the Spirit of Christ, they would constantly act out his words in their service for him. And so plainly would the Saviour be revealed, that many souls would be won to him.

Are we Christians,--Christlike in spirit, in word, in disposition,--or are we falling continually under the temptations of the enemy, with no power to escape from his snare? Every life is a sermon, telling either for good or for evil. A true, noble life tells more for Christ than do the most powerful discourses.

One of the chief reasons that so few sinners are won to Christ is that so much of self mingles with the words and acts of his professed followers. Their daily life witnesses against him; therefore sinners are not converted. Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of many of Christ's followers reveal self, self, self. Every day the Saviour is grieved by their misrepresentation of him. In spirit and word and manner they say of him, "I know not the Man." The sermons preached against him by their lives counteract the influence of the sermons preached for him in the pulpit.

The Saviour is grieved by the dissension, the lack of love, seen among his people. He says to them, You have left your first love, and unless you repent, unless you humble yourselves as a little child, and seek my guidance, I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of its place.

"Thou hast left thy first love." This is the secret of the lack of power in our churches. If those who have received such great truth would live this truth, they would have no time to quarrel, no time to do that which bears the testimony, "I know not the Man."

My brethren, be whole-hearted Christians, or else make no profession of Christianity. To many the words are spoken, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Their conduct is not in harmony with God's holy law. They present before the world a life of selfishness, corrupted by sin. They do not love Christ; if they did, they would love their brethren. They do not bear witness by unity and unselfish love for one another that God sent his Son to save sinners, to put the impress of divinity on all who believe on him. Ignorant of their true spiritual condition, they place a high estimate on themselves and their efforts. Boastingly, they say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." But God says to them, "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

These words describe the condition of many among the people of God. How much longer will they venture to delay, to remain in ignorance regarding their failure to reach God's standard of holiness? Will they not receive the message of warning? Will they not repent and be converted? Christ declares, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

"I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. . . . Repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place." Return to your first experience, when your soul was filled with love for Christ. Gather to your heart the obedience of a faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Obedience to the law of the Lord makes men pure, holy, undefiled. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." And this law is contained in two great principles,--love to God, and love to man. "A new commandment I give unto you," Christ said to his disciples, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

O that there might be seen among our people a deep and thorough work of repentance and reformation! O that they would fall on the Rock, and be broken! Let us crucify self, that in our hearts may grow up a strong love for Christ and for one another. Let us bring into the daily experience the instruction contained in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Self must be surrendered to God before there can take possession of the life that strong, steady belief in the truth that is broad and comprehensive; that casts out from the heart all enmity, all petty differences, and transforms coldness into Christlike affection.

Why should not believers love one another? It is impossible to love Christ, and at the same time act discourteously toward one another. It is impossible to have the Christ-love in the heart, and at the same time draw apart from one another, showing no love or sympathy. The deeper our love for Christ, the deeper will be our love for one another.

"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." "If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." -

A Neglected Work

God's people are neglecting a work that is close beside them. They do not realize the responsibility resting on them to proclaim the truth in the unwarned cities of America. There are many cities in which no effort has been made to give to the people the message for this time. I entreat those who know the truth to take up their neglected work, and no longer let the Master look on fields whose barrenness rebukes their neglect. Every one who believes the truth is responsible to give to those in darkness the light he has received.

God says to his people, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Why, then, do they feel so little burden to plant the standard of truth in new places? Why do they not obey the word, "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not"? Why do they not return to the Lord his own, to be invested in heavenly merchandise? Why is there not a more earnest call for volunteers to enter the whitening harvest field? Unless more is done than has been done for the cities of America, ministers and people will have a heavy account to settle with the One who has appointed to every man his work.

We repeat the prayer, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Are we doing our part to answer this prayer? We claim to believe that the commission which Christ gave to his disciples just before his ascension is given also to us. Are we fulfilling it? May God forgive our terrible neglect in not doing the work that as yet we have scarcely touched with the tips of our fingers. When will this work be done? It makes my heart sick and sore to see such blindness on the part of the people of God. There are thousands in America perishing in ignorance and sin. And looking afar off to some distant field, those who know the truth are indifferently passing by the most needy fields close by them. Christ says, "Go work to-day in my vineyard." "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors."

Wake up, wake up, my brethren and sisters, and enter the fields in America that have never been worked. After you have given something for foreign fields, do not think your duty done. There is work to be done in America. In New York City a few faithful laborers have been toiling for God. Have you shown a practical, unselfish interest in their efforts? Have you helped them by your sympathy and your gifts? I do not want any one to withhold help from foreign fields, but I do urge our people no longer to dishonor God by neglecting such fields as New York City. There is a work to be done in foreign fields, but there is a work to be done in America which is just as important. In the cities of America there are people of almost every language. These need the light that God has given to his church.

In the Power of the Spirit

The Lord lives and reigns. Soon he will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth. A special message is now to be borne,--a message that will pierce the spiritual darkness, and convict and convert souls. "Haste thee, flee for thy life," is the call to be given to those dwelling in sin. We must now be terribly in earnest. We have not a moment to spend in criticism and accusation. Let those who have done this in the past fall on their knees in prayer; and let them beware how they place their words and their plans in the place of God's words and his plans. Hundreds are waiting for the warning to escape for their life, and lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. Far less labor is to be given to those who know the truth, and far more to those who are without God and without hope in the world.

In every part of the world a straightforward message is to be proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. God says to his workers everywhere, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." We need to feel the importance of proclaiming the gospel message with earnestness and power. Not with tame, lifeless utterance is it to be given, but with clear, decided, stirring tones. The messengers themselves must know the power of salvation.

We have no time for dwelling on matters that are of no importance. Our time should be given to proclaiming the last message of mercy to a guilty world. Men are needed who move under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The sermons preached by some of our ministers will have to be much more powerful than they are now, or many backsliders will carry a tame, pointless message, which lulls people to sleep. Every discourse should be given under a sense of the awful judgments soon to fall on our world. The message of truth is to be proclaimed by lips touched with a live coal from the divine altar. Christ refers to the lifeless, purposeless messages given in our churches, when he says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Night after night I get up at twelve or one o'clock, and walk the floor in intense anguish, because of the tame messages borne by some of our ministers, when they have a message of life and death to bear to the people. The ministers are asleep; the lay members are asleep; and a world is perishing in sin. May God help them to arouse, and walk and work as men on the borders of the eternal world! Soon an awful surprise is coming upon the inhabitants of the earth. Suddenly, with power and great glory, Christ will come. There will then be no time to prepare to meet him. Now is the time for us to give the warning message.

We are stewards, intrusted by our absent Lord with the care of his household and his interests, which he came to the world to serve. He has returned to heaven, leaving us in charge, and he expects us to watch and wait for his second coming. Let us be faithful to our trust, lest coming suddenly, he finds us sleeping.

The Workers Needed

God's people have a mighty work before them, and it must continually rise to greater prominence. At the beginning, this work was small. Only a few were engaged in carrying it forward. But gradually the work has enlarged; God has brought it from a small beginning to great importance. His truth was to be defended; for men were placing contempt upon the Sabbath of creation. God wrought with power; as often as the opposers sought to destroy his work, they were defeated. And the progress of the work in the future is to be much greater than it has been in the past.

A great crisis is just before us. In their blindness men boast of wonderful progress and enlightenment, but to the eye of Omniscience is revealed the inward guilt and depravity. The heavenly Watcher sees the earth filled with robbery and crime. Wealth is obtained by every species of robbery, not robbery of men only, but of God. Men are using his means to gratify their selfishness. Everything that they can grasp is made to minister to their greed. Avarice and sensuality prevail. Men revenge themselves on those who, they suppose, have hindered the success of their ambitious projects. They cherish the attributes of the great deceiver. They have accepted him as God, and have become imbued with his spirit.

God is now restraining the forces of evil, that the last warning may be given to the world. Now is the time to work. Many more workers ought to be in the field. There should be one hundred workers where there is now but one. Many who have not been ordained or licensed may work in their own neighborhoods and in the regions about them.

There are lessons for us to learn at this time from the experience of those who labored for God in past generations. How little we know of the conflicts and trials and labors of these men, as they fitted themselves to meet the armies of Satan. Putting on the whole armor of God, they were able to stand against the wiles of Satan. Their word was: "My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

These men who in the past gave themselves to God and to the uplifting of his cause were as true as steel to principle. They were men who would not fail nor be discouraged; men who, like Daniel, were full of reverence and zeal for God, full of noble purposes and aspirations. They were as weak and helpless as any of those who are now engaged in the work, but they put their whole trust in God. They had wealth, but it consisted of mind and soul culture. This every one may have who will make God first and last and best in everything. Although destitute of wisdom, knowledge, virtue, and power, we may receive all these if we will learn from Christ the lessons that it is our privilege to learn.

In this time we have opportunities and advantages that it was not easy to obtain in generations past. We have increased light, and this has come through the work of those faithful sentinels who made God their dependence, and received power from him to let light shine in clear, bright rays to the world. In our day we have increased light to improve, as in times past men and women of noble worth improved the light that God gave them. They toiled long to learn the lessons given them in the school of Christ, and they did not toil in vain. Their persevering efforts were rewarded. They bound themselves up with the mightiest of all powers, and yet they were ever longing for a deeper, higher, and broader comprehension of eternal realities, that they might successfully present the treasures of truth to a needy world.

Workers of this character are needed now. Those who are men in the sight of God, and who are thus recorded in the books of heaven, are those who, like Daniel, cultivate every faculty in such a way as best to represent the kingdom of God in a world lying in wickedness. Progress in knowledge is essential; for when employed in the cause of God, knowledge is a power for good. The world needs men of thought, men of principle, men who are constantly growing in understanding and discernment. The press is in need of men to use it to the best advantage, that the truth may be given wings to speed it to every nation, and tongue, and people.

We need to make use of the youth who will cultivate honest industry, who are not afraid to put their powers to task. Such youth will find a position anywhere, because they falter not by the way; in mind and soul they bear the divine similitude. Their eye is single, and constantly they press onward and upward, crying, Victory. But there is no call for the indolent, the fearful and unbelieving, who by their lack of faith and their unwillingness to deny self for Christ's sake, keep the work from advancing.

There are men who possess excellent faculties, but who have come to a standstill. They do not go forward to victory. And the ability with which God has endowed them is of no value to his cause, because it is unused. Many of these men are found among the grumblers. They grumble because, they say, they are not appreciated. But they do not appreciate themselves sufficiently to co-operate with the greatest Teacher the world has ever known.

Of what use is it for those who do nothing to long to rise higher than they are? Let them work. Let them rise and advance. Keep step with the great Leader. If you have gone as high as your capabilities will permit, why do you cherish dissatisfaction? Why complain that others do not appreciate you? If you think that you can stand in a higher position, prove yourselves worthy of that position, and still advance.

Those who have sown the seeds of indolence and ignorance will reap that which they have sown. It is hard study, hard toil, persevering diligence, that obtain victories. Waste no hours, no moments. The results of work, earnest, faithful work, will be seen and appreciated. Those who wish for stronger minds can gain them by diligence. The mind increases in power and efficiency by use. It becomes strong by hard thinking. He who uses most diligently his mental and physical powers will achieve the greatest results. Every power of the being strengthens by action.

We need as workers men and women who are imbued with the Spirit of Christ, who realize that they are united in church capacity that they may use their influence and power to save those who are without God and without hope in the world. In the name of Christ we call upon every church-member to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Jesus.

God calls for those who will be workers together with him. Connected with Christ, human nature becomes pure and true. Christ supplies the efficiency, and man becomes a power for good. Truthfulness and integrity are attributes of God, and he who possesses these attributes possesses a power that is invincible. -

An Appeal in Behalf of the Washington (D. C.) Church

"Elmshaven," Sanitarium, Cal., Feb. 22, 1903. Dear Brethren and Sisters: I have been pleased to learn, through reading the Review, and from letters from Elder J. S. Washburn, that a church building in Washington, D. C., formerly known as the Central Methodist Protestant church, has been purchased by the Second Seventh-day Adventist church of that city. A house of worship was greatly needed by our people in the section of the city where this property is situated. The purchase of this church will provide a suitable place in which witness can be borne to the truths we advocate. The building will stand as a memorial for God.

This property must now be paid for. Some payments have already been made, but a large sum must yet be raised to complete the payments. We therefore ask those who have means, to act as the Lord's helping hand by doing something to help to free this church from debt. Every penny given will help. If all will give what they can, the indebtedness will soon be liquidated. We pray that those who can help in this enterprise may be constrained to do so by their love for Christ. We regard the purchase of this church property as a wise step, and your co-operation in assisting the brethren there to pay for it will bring you into harmony with the beneficent purposes of the gospel.

Let those who have means use it wisely. It is a talent lent them by the Lord to be used when called for to advance his cause. In the place of spending money for selfish pleasure, let every one deny self and lift the cross. God's blessing will follow.

Do not all our people desire to share in the privilege of paying for the house of worship in Washington, D. C.? If every one of the believers in this country would give something, the necessary sum would be raised, and the amount given by each would scarcely be missed. Let us help our brethren in the national capital; for they are too poor and too few in number to bear the burden alone. Those who share in this missionary enterprise by making gifts, large or small, according to their ability, will ever after feel a deeper interest in the progress of the Lord's cause in Washington. Those who respond to this call, making gifts to the Lord for the purchase of this church property, will receive rich blessing for so doing. Ellen G. White. -

The Worth of Souls

God's servants need a realization of the value of souls. Christ died for human beings. His sacrifice on the cross is the measure of their value in God's sight.

Of the high priest of Israel we read, "Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually." What a beautiful and expressive figure this is of the unchanging love of Christ for his church! Our great High Priest, of whom Aaron was a type, bears his people upon his heart. And should not his earthly ministers share his love and sympathy and solicitude? As ministers labor in connection with one another, they are to follow the example of Christ, manifesting his tenderness, his kindness, his courtesy, his love.

Christ as the great high priest, making a perfect atonement for sin, stands alone in divine majesty and glory. Other high priests were only types, and when he appeared, the need of their services vanished. "But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself."

"After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever," he "sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. . . . Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. . . . And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works."

Let human beings, subject to temptation, remember that in the heavenly courts they have a high priest who is touched with the feeling of their infirmities, because he himself was tempted, even as they are. And let those in positions of responsibility, especially, remember that they are subject to temptation, and wholly dependent on the merits of the Saviour. However sacred the work to which they may be called, they are still sinners, who can be saved only through the grace of Christ. One day they must stand before the throne of God, saved by the blood of the Lamb, or condemned to the punishment of the wicked.

Human beings are Christ's property, and they are not to be treated with disrespect because they do not follow the lines of action that men have marked out. Men err. Often they mark out false lines and set up false standards. But O how thankful I am that the Lord never makes a mistake! Those who follow his leading will never be disappointed. They will never be led astray.

How grieved Christ is by the lack of love and tenderness manifested by his people in their dealings with one another! He notes the words, the tones of the voice. He hears the harsh, severe judgment passed on those whom he, in infinite love, is presenting to the Father. He hears every sigh of pain and sorrow caused by human harshness, and his Spirit is grieved.

Apart from Christ we can do no good thing. How inconsistent, then, it is for human beings to exalt themselves! How strange that any should forget that they must repent, in common with their fellow men, and that those whom they condemn with severity may stand justified before God, receiving the sympathy of Christ and the angels.

Let God's messengers act as wise men. Let them not lift up their souls unto vanity, but cherish humility. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

Let no one be sharp and dictatorial in his dealing with God's workers. Let those who are inclined to censure remember that they have made mistakes as grievous as the mistakes which they condemn in others. Let them bow in contrition before God, asking his pardon for the sharp speeches that they have made, and the unchristlike spirit they have revealed. Let them remember that God hears every word they speak, and that as they judge, so they will be judged.

Christ is pleading the case of every tempted soul, but while he is doing this, many of his people are grieving him by taking their stand with Satan to accuse their brethren, pointing to their polluted garments.

Let not the criticised ones become discouraged; for while their brethren are condemning them, Christ is saying of them, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. By creation and by redemption thou art mine.

God's word is, "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood." Show all men respect, even though they do not reach the standard you have set for them. They may have made mistakes, but is your life faultless? Have you censured your own errors as severely as you have censured the errors of others?

Christ Our King

Before God's servants take up any work, they are to pray to him in all humility, and with a sense of their dependence on him, realizing that they must be worked by the Holy Spirit. They are to guard against setting themselves up as kings, because if they attempt to do this, they will dishonor the Lord, and make a failure of their work.

Man's ingenuity, his judgment, his power to execute, all come from God. To God's service they should be devoted. The principles of the Bible are to control the Lord's servants. His workers are ever to do justice and judgment, steadfastly keeping the way of the Lord. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." Make this the point round which your life centers, and then all things needful will be given you. Put the Redeemer's interests before your own or those of any other human being. He has bought you, and all your powers of mind and body belong to him.

Christ is our King--he who is called, "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." And he is not only our King, but our Saviour. To him you may go with your burdens. However great your sin, you need not fear repulse. If you have injured your brother, go to him, and confess the wrong that you have done him. Clear away the difficulty that exists between you and him. When you have done this, come to your King, asking him for pardon. He will never take advantage of your confessions. He will never disappoint you. He has pledged his word to forgive your transgressions and to cleanse you from all defilement. The names of his people are written in his book of life.

Remember that Christ is our only hope, our only refuge. He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." "If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." -

Words to Ministers

The minister who learns daily in the school of Christ will ever be conscious that he is a messenger of God, commissioned by him to do a work in its results as lasting as eternity. He will have no desire to call attention to himself, to his learning or his ability. His one aim will be to lead sinners to the Saviour. Self will be lost sight of in Christ. The realization of his weakness and unworthiness and of the feebleness of his efforts in contrast with those of his Redeemer, will keep him humble, self-distrustful, and will lead him to rely on Christ for strength and efficiency.

Such a man will speak with power, with authority from on high. His heart is filled with the sympathy and love of Jesus, and his earnest appeals melt hearts long hardened against God, and draw sinners to the cross.

Ministers should be instant in prayer. Among the ministers of Christ there is too little prayer, and too much self-exaltation. There is too little weeping between the porch and the altar, crying, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach." Too little is said about the love and compassion of Jesus. Christ is constantly interceding for sinners. Those who co-operate with him must do a work which corresponds to that which he is doing in heaven. Jesus has opened the door of heaven for us, and we may make intercession at the throne of grace, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting, presenting before God those for whom we are laboring. And by faith we may see heaven opened, and the glorified Son of God, the High Priest of our salvation, pleading for sinners.

It is not enough to preach to men. We must pray with them and for them. We can not help them while we hold ourselves coldly aloof from them. We must come close to them in Christlike sympathy and love.

As Enoch of old, ministers should walk with God. The Redeemer's boundless love should be the theme of their conversation. The earnestness and unselfishness that marked the work of Christ should characterize their efforts. If they would remove prejudice from the minds of those who listen to their words, their hearts must be filled with the Saviour's love. Converts to the truth seldom rise in spirituality above the level of their teachers. How important, then, that those who teach the word of God should be spiritual-minded men, who are in constant communion with heaven.

Divine power alone will melt the sinner's heart, and bring him, a penitent, to Christ. Neither Luther, Melanchthon, Wesley, Whitefield, nor any other great reformer and teacher could of himself have gained such access to hearts as to accomplish the great results that these men accomplished. But God spoke through them. Men felt the influence of a superior power, and involuntarily yielded to it. To-day those who forget self, and rely on God for their success in the work of soul-saving will have the divine approval, and their efforts will tell gloriously in the salvation of souls.

I feel constrained to say that the labors of many of our ministers are lacking in power. God is waiting to bestow his grace upon them, but they pass on from day to day, possessing only a cold, nominal faith, presenting the theory of the truth, but presenting it without that vital force which comes from a connection with heaven, and which sends the words spoken home to the hearts of men. O that our ministers might be aroused from their spiritual slumber, and that their lips might be touched with a live coal from the divine altar! They are half asleep, and all around them souls are perishing in darkness and error.

Ministers of Christ, with your hearts aglow with love for God and your fellow creatures, seek to arouse those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Let your earnest entreaties and warnings pierce their ears. Let your fervent prayers melt their hearts, and lead them in penitence to the Saviour. You are ambassadors for Christ, proclaiming his message of salvation to a perishing world, and upon you there rests a fearful responsibility. You are not your own. To redeem you, the Saviour paid a price of agony and blood. He has a just claim to your service. He expects your willing co-operation in the work of saving souls. He asks for all your powers of mind and body. He would employ them for the salvation of souls. You dishonor him when you are not continually growing in grace and in a knowledge of the truth.

Whatever suffering you may be called upon to bear, do not allow one murmur to escape your lips. Christ endured far more for you than it is possible for you to endure for him. He redeemed you by the sacrifice of his life. When he says to you, "Go work to-day in my vineyard," let no selfish desire, no worldly ambition, keep you from cheerful, unqualified obedience.

God calls upon those who in his name are bearing the most solemn message ever given to the world, to reveal the truth in the daily life. Were this done, many who have entrenched themselves behind the breastworks of infidelity would be brought to a belief of the truth. The influence of a true Christian is like the cheering rays of sunshine, which pierce the darkness wherever they are allowed to enter. Arguments may be resisted, persuasion and entreaty may be scorned, the most eloquent appeals may be disregarded; but a daily piety in all the walks of life, an unselfish love for others, beaming from the countenance and breathing in the word, make an appeal that it is well-nigh impossible to resist.

Ministers who would labor effectively for the salvation of souls must be both Bible students and men of prayer. It is a sin for those who attempt to teach the Word to others to be themselves neglectful of its study. Those who realize the worth of souls will flee to the stronghold of truth, where they may obtain wisdom, knowledge, and divine power. They will not rest until they have received an unction from on high. Too much is at stake for them to be careless in regard to their spiritual advancement.

My brethren, remember that a lack of prayer and of wisdom on your part may turn the balance for a soul, and send it to perdition. You can not afford to be careless and indifferent. I entreat you to be instant in season and out of season. You need power, and this power God is willing to give you without stint, if you will go to him, and take him at his word. The Lord asks only a humble, contrite heart, willing to believe and receive his promises. You have only to use the means God has placed within your reach, and you will obtain the divine blessing. -

Search the Scriptures

No one can attain Christian perfection while neglecting the Word of God. "Search the Scriptures," Christ said; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." This search enables the student to observe closely the divine model. And as he studies the life of the Redeemer, he discovers in himself many faults and weaknesses. He sees that he can not be a follower of Christ without surrendering all to him. Diligently he studies, with a desire to be like the great Exemplar; and he catches the spirit of his beloved Master. By beholding, he becomes changed. It is by thinking of Jesus, by talking of him, by studying his character, that we become changed.

After Christ's death, two disciples, on their way to Emmaus from Jerusalem, were talking over the scenes of the crucifixion. Christ himself drew near, unrecognized by the sorrowing travelers. Their faith had died with their Lord, and their eyes, blinded by unbelief, did not recognize their risen Saviour. Jesus, walking by their side, longed to reveal himself to them, but he accosted them merely as fellow travelers, saying, "What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" Astonished at the question, they asked if he were a stranger in Jerusalem, and had not heard that a prophet, mighty in word and deed, had been crucified. "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel," they said, sadly.

"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken," Christ said; "ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." He reproved them for not being more familiar with these scriptures. Had they known them better, their faith would have been sustained, their hopes unshaken; for prophecy plainly stated the treatment that Christ would receive from those he came to save.

The disciples had lost sight of the precious promises linked with the prophecies of Christ's death; but when these were brought to their remembrance, faith revived; and after Christ had revealed himself to them, they exclaimed, "Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?"

The word of God, spoken to the heart, has an animating power. Those who fail of becoming acquainted with this word can not fulfill God's requirements. Deformity of character is the result of their neglect. Their words and acts are a reproach to their Saviour.

The apostle tells us that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." If we would search the Scriptures, our hearts would burn within us as the truths revealed therein are opened to our understanding. Our hopes would brighten as we claim the precious promises strewn like pearls through the Sacred Writings. As we study the history of patriarchs and prophets, men who loved and feared God, walking with him, our souls would glow with the spirit that animated them.

Our youth should be far more desirous to become intelligent in the knowledge of the Scriptures than to excel in the study of the sciences. They should allow nothing to keep them from learning thoroughly the Sabbath-school lesson. Teachers in the Sabbath-school have before them a wide missionary field in the opportunity given them to instruct in the things of God the children and youth under their care. The teachers must themselves be filled with a love for God's Word, else how can they teach it to those in their charge in such a way that they will desire to learn more of it? And parents should co-operate with the teachers in the Sabbath-school, teaching their children the lesson during the week. But this many parents fail to do. They plead trifling excuses for not interesting themselves in their children's Sabbath-school lesson. Forgetfulness of God and his Word is the example they set before their children. Some parents while away hours in their own amusement, in unprofitable conversation, putting God and heaven out of their hearts. How much better it would be for them and for their children if they would search the Scriptures, becoming intelligent in regard to the truths given to guide us to the heavenly home.

Mothers are heard to regret that they have no time to teach their children, no time to instruct them in the things of God. But these same mothers find time to spend in needless stitching. They place the outward adorning above the inward adorning, which is in the sight of God of great price. In order to follow fashion, they starve their own minds and the minds of their children.

Fathers and mothers, I entreat you to take up your long-neglected work. Search the Scriptures for yourselves, and show your children how to study the Sacred Word. Do not send them away to study the Bible by themselves. Read and study it with them. Take them with you into the school of Christ.

The question is asked, What is the cause of the dearth of spiritual power in the churches? The answer is, We allow our minds to be drawn away from the Word. If the Word of God were eaten as food for the soul, if it were treated with respect and deference, there would be no necessity for the many repeated testimonies that are borne. The simple declarations of Scripture would be received and acted upon. The word of the living God is not merely written, but spoken. It is God's voice speaking to us just as surely as if we could hear it with our ears. If we realized this, with what awe we would open God's Word, and with what earnestness we would search its pages. The reading of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Most High. -

Rephidim

"And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, . . . and there was no water for the people to drink. . . . And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?"

It was by the express command of God that the children of Israel encamped at Rephidim. He knew of its lack of water, and he brought his people hither to test their faith. But how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom he could trust! Again and again he had manifested himself to them. With a high hand he had brought them out of the land of their captivity, slaying the first-born of all the families of Egypt to accomplish the deliverance of his people. He had fed them with angels' food, and had covenanted to bring them into the promised land. Now, when brought into difficulty, they broke into rebellion, distrusted God, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt only that they might die of thirst in the wilderness.

The lesson is for us. Many think that in the Christian life they will find freedom from all difficulty. But every one who takes up the cross to follow Jesus comes to a Rephidim in his experience. Life is not all made up of pleasant pastures and cooling streams. Trial and disappointment overtake us; privation comes; we are brought into trying places. Conscience-stricken, we reason that we must have walked far away from God, that if we had walked with him, we should not have suffered so. Doubt and despondency crowd into our hearts, and we say, The Lord has failed us, and we are ill-used. Why does he permit us to suffer thus? He can not love us; if he did, he would remove the difficulties from our path. Is the Lord with us, or not?

But of old the Lord led his people to Rephidim, and he may choose to lead us there also, to test our loyalty. He does not always bring us to pleasant places. If he did, in our self-sufficiency we should forget that he is our helper. He longs to manifest himself to us, and to reveal the abundant supplies at our disposal, and he permits trial and disappointment to come to us that we may realize our helplessness, and learn to call upon him for aid. He can cause cooling streams to flow from the flinty rock. We shall never know, until we are face to face with God, when we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known, how many burdens he has borne for us, and how many burdens he would have been glad to bear, if, with childlike faith, we had brought them to him.

The experience of the children of Israel is to help us in our work. The Word of God declares, "These things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." The Lord brought the children of Israel into trying places to test their faith. He had promised to lead them into the promised land, and if they had waited patiently for him, reviving their faith by recounting his great goodness and wonderful works in their behalf, he would have shortened their test. But they forgot their Leader. Murmuring and complaining, they vented their wrath upon Moses, forgetting that their emergency was God's opportunity.

To-day God says to his people, Do not imitate the conduct of the children of Israel at Rephidim by showing unbelief when brought into difficulties. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

God is declared in all his dealings with his people; and with clear, unclouded eyes, in adversity, in sickness, in disappointment, and in trial, we are to behold the light of his glory in the face of Christ, and trust to his guiding hand. But too often we grieve his heart by our unbelief. Our faith is short-sighted, and we allow trial to strengthen our natural tendency to distrust. Brought into strait places, we dishonor God by murmuring and complaining. Instead, we should help those in need of assistance, those who are seeking for light, but know not how to find it. Such have a special claim on our sympathy, but how often, instead of trying to help them, we pass by on the other side, intent on our own troubles.

God loves his children, and he longs to see them overcoming the discouragement with which Satan would overpower them. Do not give way to unbelief. Do not magnify your difficulties. Remember the love and power that God has shown in times past. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Christ has proved himself to be an all-powerful helper. He knows all about our trials, and in the hour of need can we not believe that he is as willing to help as in times past? No amount of tribulation can separate us from him. If he leads us to Rephidim, it is because he sees that it is for our good. If we look to him in trusting faith, he will turn the bitterness of Marah into sweetness. His word to us is, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

The way may be rough, but we have no time to spend in thinking about our difficulties. When we bemoan the hardness of the way, we turn from the path of faith. God is leading us, and he can make us fully able to go up and possess the promised land. He declares, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

Our path will not always be plain or easy, but let us look to God in faith, saying, The Lord has separated us from the world, and has chosen us as his peculiar people, and he will work for us. Let us go forward in the strength of the Lord God Almighty. So shall we be witnesses for him. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, . . . I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses," "that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me." -

The Work Before Us

I have been carrying a very heavy burden. For the last three nights I have slept very little. Many scenes are presented to me. I feel an intense interest in the advancement of the work of God, and I say to our leading brethren, As you consider the questions that shall come before you, you are to look beneath the surface. You are to give careful consideration to every question discussed.

There is need of means in foreign missionary work and in missionary work in America. It is a painful fact that although we have had a special message for the world for so many years, there are many, many cities in which we have done nothing to proclaim this message. In the calamities that have befallen our institutions in Battle Creek, we have had an admonition from God. Let us not pass this admonition carelessly by, without trying to understand its meaning. There are those who will say, "Of course the Review and Herald must be rebuilt in Battle Creek." Why did the Lord permit Jerusalem to be destroyed by fire the first time? Why did he permit his people to be overcome by their enemies, and carried into heathen lands?--It was because they had failed to be his missionaries, and had built walls of division between themselves and the people round them. The Lord scattered them, that the knowledge of his truth might be carried to the world. If they were loyal and true and submissive, God would bring them again into their own land.

We have a great work before us. The needs of the field demand that there shall be liberality on the part of the people of God. I point you to the city of New York. One hundred workers might be laboring there where now there is but one. How many of you have taken a practical interest in the work in this city? We have scarcely touched this field with the tips of our fingers. A few faithful workers have been trying to do something in this great, wicked city. But their work has been difficult, because they have had so few facilities. Elder Haskell and his wife have labored faithfully. But who has felt the burden of sustaining them in their labors? Who among our leading men have visited them, to learn the needs of the work, and have then gone forth to raise means for its advancement?

Who has visited the Southern field to do something to build up the work there? Who has gone there to study its needs? Some have allowed their minds to be leavened by prejudice and distrust. Some have tried to put blocks before the wheels of progress, though again and again our brethren have been warned against doing this.

A proposition has been made that our people purchase sanitarium bonds. But light has been given me that means is not to be thus drawn from our people. Last night, place after place that is still unworked was presented before me. These places are all ripe for the harvest. They are calling for workers, and the means of our people is not to be tied up so that it can not be used in this work.

If all our people paid a faithful tithe, there would be more means in the treasury to support the laborers already in the field, and to send forth still more laborers into the fields that are ripe for the harvest. One of authority, who pointed out these fields to me, asked the question, "Who will go forth to proclaim the message in these places?" Christ's commission is, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

There is a great and solemn work to be done for Seventh-day Adventists, if they will only be converted. The great trouble is the lack of unity among them. This is a sin in the sight of God,--a sin which, unless God's people repent, will withhold from them his blessing. There are those who are ready to die, those who are without God and without hope in the world. Those need to be sought out and labored for. We may endeavor to be faithful in our own little compass, but this is not sufficient. We are to have a faithfulness that goes outside of our little compass to the needy fields beyond.

God is not pleased with the present showing. Our means is not to be bound up for years where it is not available for missionary work. This God forbids. He sees the great work to be done in various places throughout the world. He sees the cities in which memorials for him are to be established to proclaim the truth for this time.

Regarding investment in bonds, I am instructed to say further, that if no voice were raised against this arrangement, if our people should tie up their money in such investment, when it became necessary to call for means for aggressive missionary work, it would be found that there was a greater dearth of means among us than there is now. Plans may be started that at the beginning seem very promising, but often the foresight would be much more pleasant than the aftersight, were these plans carried out. I have been commissioned to instruct our people to be economical, and always ready to give of their means to the Lord's work. If you have a thousand dollars to spare, God wants it; it belongs to him. If you have twenty dollars to spare, God wants it. His vineyard is waiting to be worked.

The light God has given me is that there are proper ways that the conference shall devise to help the Sanitarium in Battle Creek. I wish that a portion of the work of this institution had been taken elsewhere. But the Sanitarium has been erected in Battle Creek, and it must be helped. God will institute ways and means by which it can be helped. But he does not wish his people to invest their money in bonds.

There is a great field to be worked. God wants us to labor intelligently. We are not to grasp every advantage that we can for the part of the field in which we are laboring. We are to do for those working in hard, needy fields just what we would wish our brethren to do for us were we placed in similar circumstances. There are small sanitariums to be established in various places. Medical missionary work is the helping hand of God. This work must be done. It is needed in new fields, and in fields where the work was started years ago. Since this work is the helping hand of God and the entering wedge of the gospel, we want you to understand that you are to have a part in it. It is not to be divorced from the gospel. Every soul before me this morning should be filled with the true medical missionary spirit.

I present this matter before you that you may understand that our people are not to be encouraged to tie up their money for years by the purchase of bonds. I have nothing to say in regard to the sale of these bonds to the people of the world. It is in regard to our people tying up their money that I speak particularly. It is said that only a few of our people would take the bonds. But how long would it be before the few would increase to many? No; God wants his people to look upon the world as their great harvest field, and to use their resources in working this field.

More must be done to sustain the work in the Southern field. There are ministers there who are not properly paid, who are suffering for the comforts of life. I know this to be so. The Lord has kept the needs of this field before me all these years. He has shown me what should be done, and I dare not hold my peace. Do not all who have heard the truth belong to God? Did he not purchase all with the blood of his only begotten Son? Did not Christ die for all? Would you wish to come into judgment having done no more than you have for the colored people? Ever since their release from slavery, God has been appealing to you to help them. Yet how little has been done for them!

Earnest efforts must be put forth to raise means to sustain our workers. God does not approve of sending men to the most difficult fields, and then not giving them enough to sustain them. God calls for equality. The workers in our institutions have no right to grasp for high wages, while there are those laboring in the field who are suffering because there is not sufficient money in the treasury to sustain them.

The question has been asked, "Would it not be well to pay men of ability wages that are in accordance with their experience and ability, so as to secure the very best talent?" The most valuable workers that can be secured for service in the cause of God are those who understand and obey the word, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Justice, mercy, and the love of God are to be brought more decidedly into our work.

God bids me say to this people, "You have left your first love. You have left many fields unworked, and yet you appear to feel perfectly at ease." Will you heed the instruction that God is sending you? and will you work upon it? God desires his work to be carried forward on solid lines. He does not want one part of his vineyard to be left destitute of facilities, while to another part many facilities are gathered.

All that is done is to be carefully done. The standing of the Sanitarium is to be carefully examined. God's people are to understand just how it is to be conducted. It is to be managed by men whose feet are firmly planted on the platform of eternal truth, so that the helpers connected with the Sanitarium shall be taught how to present the gospel to people in their words and deportment. If the workers believe the truth, and are in living connection with the God of heaven, Christ will appear in their lives, and souls will be won to him.

We need to understand what our conferences are held for, whether to talk over a few preliminaries, or to set our souls in order before God, that when we return to the work, we may carry right principles into our churches and institutions. When we remember constantly that God has taken us into covenant relation with himself, our work in connection with his churches and institutions will be of such a character that he can say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Do we not all wish to hear these words?

We are not to tie up our means so that it can not be used in missionary enterprises. We are to help the fields in which the people know nothing of the truth. Those who go to these fields are to be missionaries in every sense of the word. No one man is to carry the work by himself. The different workers with their varied gifts, are to be linked together. Let none say, We can not do anything, because a certain brother is determined to do a special work. We are not all to take hold of the same lever. There are many different levers to be worked.

God wants us to receive the holy oil from the two anointed ones, "which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves." And as we receive the holy oil, we are to go forth for the saving of those who are ready to die. But let us not forget that different methods are to be employed to save different ones. "Of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."

When the work is done that should be done in our cities, we shall not have to present the needs of this work before every conference that assembles. You will have a wonderful testimony to bear regarding the way the Lord has blessed you as you have tried to follow his instructions.

These things are before me day and night. I pray that our conference presidents shall be very careful how they sanction this move or that move, until they are sure that it is according to the will of the Lord. If you are not sure whether by sanctioning these moves, you are helping or hindering the work of God, I beg of you to fall on your knees before God in prayer, and seek him until you find out.

Do not cut off any man's hands. I once read of a drowning man who was making desperate efforts to get into a boat close beside him. But the boat was full, and as he grasped the side, those in the boat cut off his hand. Then he grasped the boat with the other hand, and that hand was cut off. Then he grasped it with his teeth, and those inside had mercy on him, and lifted him in. But how much better it would have been if they had taken him in before they had cut off his hands.

My brethren, do not cut a man to pieces before you do anything to help him. God wants us to have hearts of pity. He wants us to have reason and judgment and the sanctification of his Spirit. He is in earnest with us. We are but his little children, and we should ever be learning of him. Do not stand in the way of others. Do not lose your first love. You may have much knowledge and much intelligence, but if the love of God is lacking, you are not prepared to enter heaven.

I have given you the instruction that has been presented to me. I felt constrained to speak these words this morning. I beg of you, for Christ's sake, to remember the words, Ye are laborers together with God. Alone, you can do no good thing. Let the Spirit of God guide and control you, and you will be rich in thoughts and suggestions. You will know how to plan and work intelligently. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." Then act as if you were.

These are the words that last night I was speaking to the people. May God give us a fresh baptism of his Holy Spirit. -

Our Duty to Leave Battle Creek

Talk by Mrs. E. G. White, Friday Morning, April 3.

It will be impossible for me to do justice to the question before us unless I take some time. The question is one that should be clearly and distinctly understood by us all. Few of our people have any idea of how many times light has been given that it was not in the order of God for us much to be centered in Battle Creek. Much was gathered there; many meetings were called there. A school, and a sanitarium, and a publishing house were there. These institutions had an influence upon one another. If this influence had always been good, more of a missionary spirit would have been developed. There would have been a clearer understanding of what must be done in the various cities of America. It would have been seen that in every city the standard must be planted and a memorial for God established.

It is God's design that our people should locate outside the cities, and from these outposts warn the cities, and raise in them memorials for God. There must be a force of influence in the cities, that the message of warning shall be heard.

For years the warning has been given to our people, Get out of Battle Creek. But because of the many interests established there, it was convenient to remain, and men could not see why they should move. At last Brother Magan and Brother Sutherland began to think of the advisability of moving from Battle Creek. They came to me, asking what they should do. I said: "Take the school out of Battle Creek, if you can possibly do so. Go out into a place where there are no people who believe as we do, and there establish the school on a location with plenty of land, that the students who come may be educated in right lines." They obeyed the instruction given. This was the first move made. It has been a success. God has been pleased with it. He indorsed the effort made to get away from the congestion of Battle Creek.

For the last fifteen or twenty years, light has been given that our people, by crowding into Battle Creek, have been leaving their home churches in a weak state. Some seemed to think that when they reached Battle Creek, they would be near heaven, that in Battle Creek they would not have many temptations. They did not understand the situation; they did not know that it was in Battle Creek that the enemy was working the hardest.

Again and again testimonies were given in regard to the principles that were coming in to leaven the publishing house. And yet, though the messages kept coming that men were working on principles which God could not accept, no decided change was made. The apprentices in the Office were not given the advantages that they should have had. They were not being prepared to go out as missionaries into various places as they might be called. They were not being prepared to stand as God's representatives. The influence of the Office was not what it should have been. God declared that this institution should be a sacred place, that angels of God were walking up and down through it. The words of contradiction spoken in the Office, and the general irritation shown, were condemned. He designed that it should be a school where workers should be trained to uphold the principles that God had ordained should ever be maintained by his people.

Before the fire came which swept away the Review and Herald factory, I was in distress for many days. I was in distress while the council was in session, laboring to get the right matter before the meeting, hoping, if it were a possible thing, to call our brethren to repentance, and avert calamity. It seemed to me that it was almost a life and death question. It was then that I saw the representation of danger,-- a sword of fire turning this way and that way. I was in an agony of distress. The next news was that the Review and Herald building had been burned by fire, but that not one life had been lost. In this the Lord spoke mercy with judgment. The mercy of God was mingled with judgment to spare the lives of the workers, that they might do the work which they had neglected to do, and which it seemed impossible to make them see and understand.

Notwithstanding the condition of things at the publishing house, a suggestion had been made to bring still more of our work to the Review Office, still more power into Battle Creek. This greatly alarmed me, and when the fire came, I breathed easier than I had for a long time. We were thankful that no lives were lost. There was a large loss of property. Again and again the Lord had shown me that for every dollar that was accumulated by unjust means, there would be ten times as much lost.

God desired that every movement should be in accordance with Bible principles. There was to be no sharp dealing. But there has been sharp dealing, and God has been displeased. For the last twenty years God has been sending reproofs and warnings regarding this. The very worst thing that could now be done would be for the Review and Herald Office to be once more built up in Battle Creek. The way has been opened for it to break up its association there,--association with worldly men, which ought to be broken. Unjustifiable commercial business has been carried on, because the money that it brought in was needed. I saw One of undisputed authority go into the Office, and look over the accounts with the leading men, noting how much had been taken in for the publication of matter that should never have seen the light of day. He asked, "How much do you gain on this work?" When the answer was given, he said, "The outlay necessary to do this work is larger than you estimate; but were your estimate correct, the loss in spirituality far outweighs the estimated gain." Pernicious matter has been published right in our Office, and if some part of the work had to be delayed, it was the work on the books containing the light of truth. This was greatly displeasing to the Lord. The apprentices were being educated in the false doctrines contained in the matter brought in. And the Review and Herald presses were sending these false doctrines out to the world.

When the printing office was first established, in a little wooden building, the Lord showed me that its presses were to be used to send forth to the world the bright rays of truth. They were consecrated to the Lord. Light was to shine all through the Office, which was to be a school of training for workers. But as the result of association with the world, many in the Office grew worldly, and worked more and more on plans of worldly policy, and neither the discipline nor training of the youth employed in the Office was as it should be.

I must say to our people that the Lord would have that institution established in an entirely new place. He would have the present influences of association broken up. Will those who have collected in Battle Creek hear the voice speaking to them, and understand that they are to scatter out into different places, where they can spread abroad a knowledge of the truth, and where they can gain an experience different from the experience that they have been gaining?

In reply to the question that has been asked in regard to settling somewhere else, I answer, Yes. Let the General Conference offices and the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. I know not where the place will be, whether on the Atlantic Coast or elsewhere. But this I will say, Never lay a stone or a brick in Battle Creek to rebuild the Review Office there. God has a better place for it. He wants you to work with a different influence, and be connected with altogether different associations from what you have had of late in Battle Creek.

There has been an anxiety to adopt a worldly policy. Warnings and reproofs and entreaties -- you would be astonished to know how many -- have been sent in regard to this. But they have not been heeded. Many have come to the place where they do not care to follow the directions that the Lord sends. They have walked in their own counsel, until the Lord has come near by judgment, and swept away the printing plant. Will you build up again in the same place that you were before? I ask you, brethren, shall we, because our books and papers have long borne the imprint of Battle Creek, again lay the foundation in the very place where our work has been destroyed by fire? Will it make a confusion to move? Better to have a little confusion. Let us have another imprint. Let us see if we can not make a reformation.

The Sanitarium

I need not speak any more on this point. I wish to speak now in reference to the Sanitarium in Battle Creek. Our brethren say: "Sister White has confused us. She said that we must not let this Sanitarium go into the hands of worldlings. And she said also that we must try to place the Sanitarium upon a right foundation." Yes, this I did say. Now I repeat it. For years light has been coming to me that we should not center so much in one place. I have stated distinctly that an effort should not be made to make Battle Creek the sign and symbol of so much. The Lord is not very well pleased with Battle Creek. Not all that has been done in Battle Creek is well pleasing to him. And when the Sanitarium there was burned, our people should have studied the messages of reproof and warning sent them in former years, and taken heed. That the lives of patients and helpers were spared was a providence for which every one of us should praise God with heart and soul and voice. He gave them an opportunity to live, and to study what these things mean. I had many things written out, but I thought, I will not say a word to condemn any one. I will keep quiet. When the planning for the new building was taken up, I think there were no questions or propositions sent to me about it, from those in charge.

It has been stated that, when the Sanitarium was first established in Battle Creek, my husband and I indorsed it. Certainly we did. I can speak for my husband as well as for myself. We prayed about the matter a great deal. So it was with the printing office, which was first established in a little wooden building. As the work grew, we had to add to it, and later, when ambitious men came in to take part in the management, more additions were made than should have been made, because these men thought that the buildings would give character to the work. That was a mistake. It is not buildings that give character to the work of God, but the faithfulness and integrity of the workers.

The Sanitarium grew, and, in 1887, Dr. Kellogg talked with me in regard to the necessity of having a hospital. I said, "Some months ago I was shown that we must have a hospital." Our brethren did not know what had been presented to me about this, and the opposition came hard and strong. They sat right down upon Dr. Kellogg. I took my position close by his side, and told them that the light God had given me was that we should have a hospital in Battle Creek. The hospital was erected, and it was soon full of patients.

Understand, brethren, that at that time we had not numerous sanitariums, as in later years we came to have. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was almost our only place for the care of the sick.

After a time the question came, "Shall we build a small, neat chapel in which the patients and helpers can assemble to worship God?" As soon as I possibly could, I sent off a letter, saying, Yes. Wherever there is a sanitarium, there should be a church, to which the patients can go to hear the word of life, and God will soften their hearts, leading many to accept Christ as the healer of the soul. I was in perfect union with this move.

But of late some things have been brought in that I could not indorse, and one of these is the attaching of many enterprises and lines of medical work to the medical association in Battle Creek. The Lord showed me that this should not be done. Many here know what I said to them,--that we must not center so much in Battle Creek; that if we did not take heed, God's judgments would visit Battle Creek. When I saw such an earnestness on the part of the leaders to connect all branches of the medical work with the association at Battle Creek. I told the brethren that the instruction given me was that they should not make the scratch of a pen to bind themselves to the restrictions of the rules and regulations that were arranged for them to come under. God wants his institutions to stand in fellowship with one another, just as brethren in the church should stand in fellowship. But they are never to be bound by written contracts to any one man or any group of men. They are to stand in their own individuality, accountable to God. The Lord of heaven is to be the leader and guide and counselor of his people. His institutions are to be managed under his theocracy. His people are to act as a chosen people, a people who are to do a sacred and an unselfish work.

When one institution gathers a large amount of responsibility and a large number of guests, the religious part of the work is in danger of being neglected. The managers of the Battle Creek Sanitarium have done nobly in the past in regard to trying to maintain a right religious influence in the Sanitarium. For a long time there were men connected with the institution whose work it was to hold Bible readings with the patients, as the way opened. Dr. Kellogg fully accorded with this. After the meeting at Minneapolis, Dr. Kellogg was a converted man, and we all knew it. We could see the converting power of God working in his heart and life. But as the institution has grown in popularity, there has been danger that the reason for which it was established would be lost sight of. Repeatedly I have given the instruction that was given to me,--that this institution should not be conducted after the manner in which worldly medical institutions are conducted; that pleasure-loving, card-playing, and theatrical performances should find no place in it. True piety was to be revealed in the lives of physicians and helpers. Everything connected with the institution was to speak in favor of the truth, and the truth in regard to the Sabbath would come to the patients.

It was the piety of the workers, not the largeness of the buildings, that was to bring conviction to hearts. Many souls have been converted; many wonderful cures have been wrought. The Lord stood by the side of Dr. Kellogg as he performed difficult operations. When the doctor was overwrought by taxing labor, God understood the situation, and he put his hand on Dr. Kellogg's hand as he operated, and through his power the operations were successful.

I wish this to be understood. Over and over again I have encouraged Dr. Kellogg, telling him that the Lord God of Israel was at his right hand, to help him, and to give him success as he performed the difficult operations that meant life or death to the ones operated upon. I told the doctor that before he took up his instruments to operate upon patients, he must pray for them. The patients saw that Dr. Kellogg was under the jurisdiction of God, that he understood the Lord's power to carry on the work successfully, and they had more confidence in him than in worldly physicians.

God has given Dr. Kellogg the success that he has had. I have tried constantly to keep this before him, telling him that it was God who was working with him, and that the truth of God was to be magnified by his physician. God will bless every other physician who will yield himself wholly to God, and will be with his hand when he works.

This was the light given. God worked that the medical missionary work might stand on the highest vantage ground; that it might be known that Seventh-day Adventists have a God working with them, a God who has a constant oversight of his work.

God does not indorse the efforts put forth by different ones to make the work of Dr. Kellogg as hard as possible, in order to build themselves up. God gave the light on health reform, and those who rejected it rejected God. One and another who knew better said that it all came from Dr. Kellogg, and they made war upon him. This had a bad influence on the doctor. He put on the coat of irritation and retaliation. God did not want him to stand in the position of warfare, and he does not want you to stand there.

Those who have turned away from the Battle Creek Sanitarium to get worldly physicians to care for them did not realize what they were doing. God established the Battle Creek Sanitarium. God worked through Dr. Kellogg; but men did not realize this. When they were sick, they sent for worldly physicians to come, because of something that the doctor had said or done that did not please them. This God did not approve. We have the authority of the Bible for our instruction in temperance.

But God has nothing to do with making every institution amenable in some way to the work and workers in Battle Creek. His servants should not be called upon to submit to rules and regulations made there. God's hand must hold every worker, and must guide and control every worker. Men are not to make rules and regulations for their fellow men. The Bible has given the rules and regulations that we are to follow. We are to study the Bible, and learn from it the duty of man to his fellow man. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

You were surprised to hear me say that we are not to let the Battle Creek Sanitarium go into the hands of the world; that we are to make another effort to place our institutions on solid ground. If you will trust in the Lord, this institution can be placed on vantage ground. When the Sanitarium is placed on its proper foundation; when our people can see it as it was when it was first established; when they can understand that the institution belongs to the work of the Lord, and can see that no one man is to have the control of everything in it, then God will help them all to take hold with courage to build it up. To-day you do not know just where it is. God wants us to know every timber of the foundation, where it is, and what it is; then he wants us all to put shoulder to shoulder, and labor understandingly. The Lord wants us to do our duty. He wants us to understand that Dr. Kellogg shall not be pushed out of his place, but that he shall stand acknowledged and supported in his God-given work. This he will be if his feet are planted on the truth of the living God. If they are not planted on this truth, specious temptations will come in, through scientific problems and scientific theories regarding God and his Word. Spurious scientific theories are coming in as a thief in the night, stealing away the landmarks and undermining the pillars of our faith. God has shown me that the medical students are not to be educated in such theories, because God will not indorse these theories. The most specious temptations of the enemy are coming in, and they are coming in on the highest, most elevated plane. These spiritualize the doctrines of present truth until there is no distinction between the substance and the shadow.

You know that Satan will come in to deceive if possible the very elect. He claims to be Christ, and he is coming in, pretending to be the great medical missionary. He will cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, to prove that he is God. We must stand barricaded by the truths of the Bible. The canopy of truth is the only canopy under which we can stand safely.

Our leading brethren, the men in official positions, are to examine the standing of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, to see whether the God of heaven can take control of it. When, by faithful guardians, it is placed in a position where he can control it, let me tell you that God will see that it is sustained.

God wants his people to place their feet on the eternal Rock. The money that we have is the Lord's money; and the buildings that we erect with this money, for his work, are to stand as his property. He calls upon those who have the truth not to quarrel with their brethren, but to stand shoulder to shoulder, to build up, not to destroy.

God would not have let the fire go through our institutions in Battle Creek without a reason. Are you going to pass by the providence of God, without finding out what it means? God wants us to study into this matter, and to build upon a foundation in which all can have the utmost confidence. He wants the interests started to be conducted in such a way that his people can invest their means in them with the assurance that they are part of his work. Let us labor intelligently and understandingly. There is altogether too little humiliation of soul.

The crisis is coming soon in Battle Creek. The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. Because of these unions and confederacies, it will soon be very difficult for our institutions to carry on their work in the cities. My warning is: Keep out of the cities. Build no sanitariums in the cities. Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children. When the question arose in regard to the establishment of a sanitarium in the city of Los Angeles, I felt that I must oppose this move. I carried a very heavy burden in regard to the matter, and I could not keep silent. It is time, brethren, that we heeded the testimonies sent us in mercy and love from the Lord of heaven.

Our restaurants must be in the cities; for otherwise the workers in these restaurants could not reach the people and teach them the principles of right living. And for the present we shall have to occupy meeting-houses in the cities. But erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me.

May God help you to receive the words that I have spoken. Let those who stand as God's watchmen on the walls of Zion be men who can see the dangers before the people,--men who can distinguish between truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness.

The warning has come: Nothing is to be allowed to come in that will disturb the foundation of the faith upon which we have been building ever since the message came in 1842, 1843, and 1844. I was in this message, and ever since I have been standing before the world, true to the light that God has given us. We do not propose to take our feet off the platform on which they were placed as day by day we sought the Lord with earnest prayer, seeking for light. Do you think that I could give up the light that God has given me? It is to be as the Rock of Ages. It has been guiding me ever since it was given. Brethren and sisters, God lives and reigns and works to-day. His hand is on the wheel, and in his providence he is turning the wheel in accordance with his own will. Let not men fasten themselves to documents, saying what they will do, and what they will not do. Let them fasten themselves to the Lord God of heaven. Then the light of heaven will shine into the soul-temple, and we shall see the salvation of God. -

Words to Our Workers

It is by bearing much fruit that God's workers testify to the power of his word. The tame, spiritless efforts that produce no fruit are an evidence that there is no living connection with God. "Herein is my Father glorified," Christ declared, "that ye bear much fruit."

In order to labor successfully for God, there must be in the heart an all-absorbing love for him. Heart-religion must rule in the life. Until the heart is humble and contrite before God, until the sins which his word denounces are put away, his blessing can not be given. Those who win sinners to Christ must cherish the principles of Christianity. Those who do not love God with heart and soul and strength and mind might better go apart and rest awhile. They might better take up some other work, until they breathe a higher, purer atmosphere; for God can not work with them until their hearts are purified through obedience to his word.

True workers will put away all self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. It is those who have the least evidence of the power of the Spirit of God in their labors who feel the greatest self-exaltation. These will try to repress those to whom God has given the precious truths for which his flock is starving,--the bread of life, which will satisfy the hunger of the soul.

The Lord calls for workers, not sermonizers, for men who will do real work. The time is coming when we shall take a retrospective view of the work that we have done in this life. Then every man's work will appear at its true value. Those who have souls to show as the result of their labor will receive recognition from God. And I have been instructed that not a few, but many souls will be saved through the labors of men who have looked to Jesus for their ordination and orders. Such men have taken up work in the hardest parts of the field, and have labored successfully for the Master.

There are thousands upon thousands dead in trespasses and sins. Thousands are passing into the grave unwarned and unconverted. Who will render an account for these souls? God calls for workers who will labor for those who know not the truth, who will go forth to rescue those who are out of the fold. Many to-day are rejoicing in the truth, full of thankfulness and hope, who would never have been reached if the Lord had not put into the hearts of human instrumentalities a desire to save souls.

When our ministers and teachers breathe the breathe of God, a high and holy consecration will be manifest. The Holy Spirit must come to every gospel worker, to every church member, if those who are perishing in sin are saved to Christ. The crown of life is gained by those who run with patience the race set before them. Brethren, God forbid that you should lose this prize. But there are among our workers those who are doing little to gain a high, noble spirituality. The torpor of spiritual death has been long upon them.

It is not orthodox theories, not membership in the church, not the diligent performance of a certain round of duties, that gives evidence of life. In an ancient tower in Switzerland I saw the image of a man that moved as if it possessed life. It looked like a living man, and I whispered when I came near, as if it could hear me. But though the image looked like life, it had no real life. It was moved by machinery.

Motion is not necessarily life. We may go through all the forms and ceremonies of religion; but unless we are alive in Christ, our work is worthless. The Lord calls for living, working, believing Christians. There are hundreds who, though professedly following the Lord, have no light from heaven to reflect to the dark places of the earth. O, if we realized how sadly the Lord looks upon the attitude in which some have stood for years, we would change at once, and earnestly seek the Lord! In the name of the Lord I call upon those who are offering God nothing but profession, to repent. They are in need of power from on high.

There are in the ministry many who are consumers and not producers. They have been bought with a price, and they should use in God's service the strength and energy that he has entrusted to them. God calls for sincere, earnest, persevering laborers. His delegated servants should look upon no work that he gives them as too taxing. Those who would be successful laborers in his cause must put to the tax brain and bone and muscle.

Improvement is needed in many departments of God's work. New lines of work must be organized. New workers must go into the field to labor for souls. These workers are to dig in God's Word for the precious ore of truth. As they search the Word, the truth will appear to them in a new aspect.

"Search the Scriptures," said the divine Teacher; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

The members of the church of God need to be instructed and educated, line upon line, as a Bible class. Nine tenths of our people, including many of our ministers and teachers, are content with surface truths.

The Bible is compared to treasure hid in a field, "the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." He desires the privilege of searching every part of the field, that he may make himself the possessor of all its treasures. I call upon my brethren to allow nothing to hinder them from a daily study of God's Word.

To us to-day comes the message to the church in Sardis: "These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

Words of Counsel

I have a message for those who are bearing responsibilities in God's institutions. The Lord calls upon them to bring his grace into their thoughts, their words, their deportment. They are not to leave their religion at home when they go to business for the day. Let them not, after praying to the Heavenly Father for grace and strength, go to their work with a surly, dictatorial, overbearing spirit, and a sour, disagreeable countenance. They are Christ's representatives, and they are to exert an influence that is a savor of life unto life.

God holds the managers of his institutions responsible to treat the youth in the employ of these institutions with courtesy, respect, and kindness. They are to deal with them as they themselves wish to be dealt with by Christ. Their first work is to be so kind to the youth, so thoughtful of their interests, that they will feel at home in their presence.

The Lord expects his people to bring religion into their business life as verily as into the assembly for his worship. How does he regard the testimonies borne on the Sabbath by those who during the week left Christ out of their work, and spoke harsh, unfeeling words? What impression do these testimonies make on those who have been hurt and wounded by the harsh words spoken?

Those who control others should first learn to control themselves. Unless they learn this lesson, they can not be Christlike in their work. They are to abide in Christ, speaking as he would speak, acting as he would act,--with unfailing tenderness and compassion. They are not to think, because they are in a position of responsibility, that they are at liberty to deal harshly with those connected with them. To the one who manages, God has given a measure of power, but this power he is ever to exercise in a pleasing and agreeable manner. He is not to feel at liberty to speak and act in an unchristlike way because an error has been made. Thus he aggravates the wrong. He arouses in the workers a spirit of retaliation, causing them to lose confidence in him as a Christian.

The Lord hears the petitions of his people when they mean what they say, and when they reveal a determined purpose to live in harmony with their prayers. But he can not honor those who rise from their knees to speak harsh, angry words, words which are entirely out of place, even though the one to whom they are spoken is in the wrong.

O what a power a converted man, transformed daily, can exert to bring blessing and gladness to those around him! Those who bear responsibilities in God's institutions are to grow in grace and in a knowledge of divine things. Ever they are to remember that the talent of speech is entrusted to them by God for the help and blessing of others. It is left with them to decide whether they will speak words that will honor Christ, or words that will be a hindrance to those who hear. O what a blessing are pleasant, sympathetic words,--words that uplift and strengthen! When asked a question, one should not answer abruptly, but kindly. The heart of the one that is asking may be sorely grieved by a hidden sorrow, that may not be told. This he may not know; therefore his words should always be kind and sympathetic. By a few well-chosen, helpful words, he may remove a heavy load from a fellow worker's mind.

To those bearing responsibilities in our institutions this word is given: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock."

In this charge there is a threefold duty. "Feed the flock of God,"--by preaching to them his Word, by giving them earnest, personal labor, by setting them a right example. "Feed the flock of God," "taking the oversight thereof," having a personal care for the blood-bought heritage committed to your charge, "being ensamples to the flock," following Christ in self-denial and sacrifice, in the life revealing holiness to the Lord. All this is to be done of a ready, cheerful mind, "neither as being lords over God's heritage," tyrannizing over them.

Let those who have been exalted to the high position of managers in the Lord's institutions, who are set as guardians of their fellow workers, pray most earnestly for divine grace. Before they take up the work of the day, let them make a solemn covenant with God, promising him that they will keep watchful guard over their lips, not speaking harshly, but kindly, to those who come to them for direction. Let them remember that they themselves are ever to be under the control of the Spirit of God, rendering prompt and cheerful obedience to his commands. Let them remember that they are living epistles, known and read of all men, and that because they are Christ's representatives, they are to be one with him, ever looking to him, and from him receiving strength for every conflict.

"Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." In our institutions let self-seeking give place to unselfish love and labor. Then the golden oil will be emptied from the two olive branches into the golden pipes, which will empty themselves into the vessels prepared to receive it. Then the lives of Christ's workers will indeed be an exposition of the sacred truths of his Word.

The fear of God, the sense of his goodness, his holiness, will circulate through every institution. An atmosphere of love and peace will pervade every department. Every word spoken, every work performed, will have an influence that corresponds to the influence of heaven. Christ will abide in humanity, and humanity will abide in Christ. In all the work will appear not the character of finite men, but the character of the infinite God. The divine influence imparted by holy angels will impress the minds brought in contact with the workers; and from these workers a fragrant influence will go forth to those who choose to inhale it. The goodly fabric of character wrought through divine power will receive light and glory from heaven, and will stand before the world as a witness, pointing to the throne of the living God.

Then the work will move forward with solidity and double strength. A new efficiency will be imparted to the workers. Men will learn of the reconciliation from iniquity which the Messiah has brought in through his sacrifice. The last message of warning and salvation will be given with mighty power. The earth will be lightened with the glory of God, and it will be ours to witness the soon coming, in power and glory, of our Lord and Saviour.

Work for the Master

With every age God's plan deepens and broadens. His people are to adjust their movements to his progressive plan. They are to move forward with the force of Omnipotence, because they move in harmony with the divine purpose. They are to seize every opportunity to bless the world lying in darkness.

Our church members should show greater devotion. They should labor with greater zeal for the promulgation of the last message of mercy. Now is the time for all to work. Now is the time to separate from every species of self-indulgence. Those who are engaged in the Lord's service are to labor unselfishly, pressing together in Christian unity. They are to love as brethren; they are to be kind and courteous; their influence is to be a savor of life unto life.

Many young men and women now engaged in secular labor will feel impressed to give themselves to the service of God. Some will feel a desire to enter the canvassing field, and will become able evangelists. Let these be given opportunity to obtain an education for the work of God.

Those who are impressed to enter the work, whether in the home field or in the regions beyond, are to go forward in the name of the Lord. If they depend on God for grace and strength, they will succeed. At the beginning their work may be small, but if they follow the Lord's plans, it will enlarge. God lives. He will work for the unselfish, self-sacrificing laborer, whoever or wherever he may be.

God does not ask his servants to show their devotion to him by burying themselves in monasteries or by going on long pilgrimages. It is not necessary to do this in order to show a willingness to deny self. It is by working for those for whom Christ died that we show true love for him. By humiliation, suffering, and death Christ purchased the salvation of human beings. Those who love him will think how he laid aside his glory, and came to this earth to live the life of the poorest, suffering often from hunger. "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests," he said: "but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

To each human being God has assigned a work. Abraham was called to go forth from his home, a light-bearer to the heathen, And without questioning, he obeyed. "He went out, not knowing whither he went." So to-day Christ's servants are to go where he calls, trusting him to guide them and give them success.

God's people are to feel a noble, generous sympathy for every line of work carried on in the great harvest field. By their baptismal vows they are pledged to make earnest, self-denying efforts to promote, in the hardest parts of the field, the work of soul-saving. God has placed on every believer the responsibility of striving to rescue the helpless.

To those who profess to believe in him, God says, "Go forth to all parts of the world, and diffuse the light of my truth, that men and women may be led to Christ." Let us awake to our duty. Let us do all that we can to help forward the Lord's work. Let superficial excuses be blown to the winds of heaven. No longer grieve the Spirit of God by delaying, Forget not the words, "We are laborers together with God." Cooperate with the angels sent down from the heavenly courts to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.

Time is passing; the end is near. While you are unconsecrated, golden opportunities for helping souls to see Jesus as he is--full of grace and truth --are passing by, never to return. That which you have not done as a devoted Christian in the past, you can not now do. But through the grace of Christ you may redeem the time by redoubling your efforts. Let your interest in the souls for whom Christ has died deepen and broaden, Inquire not, "What shall this man do?" for then Christ would say to you, as he said to Peter, "What is that to thee?" Keep your own soul in the love of the truth, and work with untiring endeavor to win souls to the Saviour.

Earnest, self-sacrificing workers are needed, workers who will go to God, and with strong crying and tears plead for the precious souls who are going to ruin. There can be no harvest without seedsowing, no result without effort.

The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. Let us awake from spiritual slumber, and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service. God is an overflowing fountain of strength. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. When this power is utilized, it will be found to be more than sufficient to meet the power of the enemy.-- Mrs. E. G. White, in Southern Watchman .

Our Privilege in Service

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Thus Christ has promised to guide, comfort, and sustain his people. He declares, "I will be with you in your work of persuading men and woman to be my disciples." The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have pledged themselves to aid you in your unselfish efforts to turn men from unrighteousness to righteousness, from darkness to the light of truth.

The commission given to the disciples is given to us. The power promised to them is promised also to us. But have we fulfilled the commission? Have we placed ourselves where God can give us the power that he gave the disciples,--power which enabled them to preach the gospel so mightily that thousands were converted in a day? How can we expect the approval of heaven while we leave our fellow beings unwarned? Our people in the home field have not felt as they should the responsibility of working for their neighbors. They have not prayerfully taken up the work lying before them. Earnest, sanctified efforts have not been put forth for those in America who are unenlightened. In this field there are many unworked cities, many places that should be made centers of truth.

The Need of the Hour

God's people should no longer fail to comprehend the needs of the present time. Every hour has its importance. They should see the need of standing in their lot and place, and of putting their powers to the stretch in doing their appointed work. Why are there so many idlers among those professedly engaged in the Lord's service? Every soul may catch the divine fervor. How can these idlers afford to hoard their wealth of knowledge and experience, while precious souls are out of the fold?

My brother, my sister, all your physical and mental and spiritual powers are God's gifts. Use them wisely. Develop the capabilities that the Lord has given you. Let every power of body and mind be used in earnest, willing service for God.

We need the deep moving of the Holy Spirit. All along the way we see souls dropping out of the ranks. Why?--Because they are not yoked up with Christ. United with him, we are safe in any peril. Faith cleaves to him, twining about him. The promise is fulfilled. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me."

Divine wisdom is at our command. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." The Lord Jesus is waiting for his people to feel their need of his grace. When they draw near to him, he will draw near to them, by his power supplying all their needs. As they become one with him, they receive the riches of his grace. They follow in his footsteps, helping those who need help, lifting up the hands that hang down, strengthening the feeble knees, and directing the gaze to him who gave his life for the life of the world.

Perils in the Closing Work

The coming of the Lord is nearer than when we first believed. What a wonderful thought it is that the great controversy is nearing its end! In the closing work we shall meet with perils that we know not how to deal with; but let us not forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring his purposes to pass. He will gather from the world a people who will serve him in righteousness.

Fearful perils are before those who bear responsibilities in the Lord's work,--perils the thought of which makes me tremble. But the Word comes, "My hand is on the wheel, and in my providence I will carry out the divine plan."

Whom He Chooses

The Lord will call young men from the humble walks of life into his service, just as he did when living in person on this earth. He passed by the learned rabbis, to choose as his first disciples humble, unlearned fishermen. He has workers whom he will call forth from poverty and obscurity. Engaged in the common duties of life, and clothed with coarse raiment, they are looked upon by men as of little worth. But they will become precious jewels, to shine brightly for the Lord. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."

Christ's perfect knowledge of human nature fits him to deal with minds. He knows just how to treat each soul. He judges not as man judges. He knows the real value of the material upon which he is working. He will give wisdom and knowledge to those who are willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, willing to be doers of the word, and not hearers only, willing to uplift Christ before the world.

On the Saviour's coronation day he will not acknowledge as his any who bear spot or wrinkle. But to his faithful ones he will give crowns of immortal glory. Those who would not that he should reign over them will see him surrounded by the army of the redeemed, each bearing the sign, The Lord Our Righteousness. They will see the head once crowned with thorns crowned with a diadem of glory.

In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and his trophies of victory--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by his redeemed ones,--the witnesses that his mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain.

Will You Accept His Offer?

You may be weak, erring, sinful, but the Lord holds out to you the offer of partnership with himself. He wants you to come under divine instruction. Uniting with Christ, you can work the works of God. It is his righteousness that goes before us, and the glory of the Lord that is our rearward. Ye churches of the living God, study this promise, and think how your lack of faith, of spirituality, of divine power, is hindering the coming of the kingdom of God. If you should go forth to do Christ's work, angels of heaven would go before you, preparing hearts to receive the gospel. Were every one of you a living missionary, the message for this time would speedily be proclaimed in all countries, to every people and nation and tongue. This is the work that must be done before Christ shall come in power and great glory. Are you individually workers together with God? If not, why not? When do you mean to do your heaven-appointed work?

The Ministry Is Ordained of God

Every watchman on the walls of Zion is under sacred obligation to watch for souls as he that must give an account. Through God's grace he can do a work that heaven shall approve, in laboring to keep the church in unity and peace. Let him remember that he is to publish peace, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

The church should respect the gospel ministry; for it is God's appointed means of communicating his messages to his people. The work of his ministers is to open to men and women the living oracles of truth. Let church-members sustain the ministers by their prayers and their co-operation. Let no one venture to make a tirade on a minister; for in so doing he would be making a tirade on Christ in the person of one of his saints.

Christ is represented by those whom he sends forth to work for him; therefore those who oppose his ministers are opposing him. This is just as verily the case when those who claim to have an experience in the things of God pursue a course that hinders and afflicts one of God's servants, by misstatements and false charges, setting themselves up as judges of his course of action, which they claim to understand, but which has been misrepresented to them, and which, therefore, they do not understand.

Let our people remember that the way in which they treat the Lord's workers means much to them. Let every one attend to his own work, and not regard himself as appointed by the Lord to watch for something to criticize in the work that his brother does. If a worker sees that a fellow laborer is in danger of doing wrong, let him go to him, and point out his danger, listening kindly and patiently to any explanation that may be offered. He dishonors the Saviour when, instead of doing this, he tells others of the mistakes that he thinks his fellow worker is making.

My brother, my sister, you are forbidden to make the mistakes of a fellow worker the subject of conversation. By speaking evil of another, you sow the seeds of criticism and denunciation. You can not afford to do this. Go to the one who you think is in the wrong, and tell him his fault "between thee and him alone." If he will hear you, and can explain the matter to you, how glad you will be that you did not take up a reproach against him, but followed instead the Saviour's directions.

Let us refuse to bear evil reports concerning our fellow laborers. The reputation of men and women is held of high value by him who gave his life to save souls. He has told us how those in fault should be dealt with. No one is sufficiently wise to improve on God's plan.

Parents should teach their children to speak ill of no man. Insinuations, words that hurt the reputation of one who is doing the Lord's work, grieve and dishonor the Saviour. And God's Word declares, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." To those who have educated themselves to speak unadvisedly, I am instructed to say, Unless you cease encouraging evil-speaking, unless you guard as Christians should the reputation of your fellow workers, you will endanger your own soul and the souls of many others. No longer talk about the wrong that someone is doing. Never, never repeat a scandal. Go to the one assailed, and ask him in regard to the matter. God has not appointed any man to be the judge of another man's motives and work. He who feels at liberty to dissect the character of another, he who intentionally detracts from the influence of a fellow worker, is as verily breaking God's law as if he openly disregarded the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

Unity of Action Essential

The great enemy of the church is determined to introduce among God's people that which will result in disunion and variance. Schism and division are not the fruit of righteousness; they are of the evil one. The great hindrance to our advancement is the selfishness that prevents believers from having true fellowship with one another.

The last prayer that Christ offered for his disciples before his trial was that they might be one in him. Satan is determined that this oneness shall not be; for it is the strongest witness that can be borne that God gave his Son to reconcile the world to heaven. But the union for which Christ prayed must exist among God's people before he can bestow on the church the enlargement and power that he longs to bestow on it.

Unity should be recognized as the element of preservation in the church. Those who are united in church capacity have entered into a solemn covenant with God to obey his word, and to unite in an effort to strengthen the faith of one another. They are to be one in him, even though they are scattered the world over. This is God's purpose concerning them, and the heart of the Saviour is set upon his followers fulfilling this purpose. But God can not make them one with Christ and with one another unless they are willing to give up their way for his way.

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." Thus is portrayed the happiness and grace that will be revealed when unity and love abide in the church.

Christ's Attitude Toward Judas

Among the chosen disciples of Christ there was a representative of Satan. At heart Judas was not a disciple. Often he led the other disciples to form opinions contrary to the teachings of the Master. He criticised Christ's words, and asked questions that led the minds of the disciples away from the subjects that the Saviour brought before them. It was because of the influence that Judas exerted to deceive the disciples that Christ had to repeat so many of his lessons. Judas did not come out boldly in opposition to Christ; and therefore he was the better able to deceive the eleven.

Christ knew, when he permitted Judas to connect with him as one of the twelve, that Judas was possessed of the demon of selfishness. He knew that this professed disciple would betray him, and yet he did not separate him from the other disciples, and send him away. He was preparing the minds of these men for his death and ascension, and he foresaw that should he dismiss Judas, Satan would use him to spread reports that would be difficult to meet and explain. The leaders of the Jewish nation were watching and searching for something that they could use to make of no effect the words of Christ. The Saviour knew that Judas, if dismissed, could so misconstrue and mystify his statements that the Jews would accept a false version of his words, using this version to bring terrible harm to the disciples, and to leave on the minds of Christ's enemies the impression that the Jews were justified in taking the attitude that they did toward Jesus and his disciples.

Christ did not, therefore, send Judas from his presence, but kept him by his side, where he could counteract the influence that he might exert against his work.

All the way along in the history of the third angel's message there have been found among the believers men who have done much harm to God's cause. These men are spots in our feasts of charity; tares among the wheat; wolves among the sheep, ready of bite and devour. Delighting to bear false witness, they cruelly injure the reputation of others. Every such one will be rewarded "according to his works." God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world." Then will be made the separation between the wheat and the tares. In that day it will be clearly revealed that those who seek to destroy the reputation of God's servants are hypocrites. By their own lips will be borne the testimony that will clear from suspicion those against whom they have reported evil.

Had not Christ borne with Judas as he did, his followers would have been in great peril after his resurrection and ascension. But when men thought of the fate of the betrayer of innocent blood, they were afraid to lay hands on the disciples. They could not but remember the final confession of the traitor, and his terrible death. "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," he exclaimed, when he had cast at the feet of the high priest the pieces of silver that had been the price of his Lord's betrayal. Then in despair he went and hanged himself. That same day, as the wicked throng who were leading Jesus to the place of crucifixion passed a retired spot, they saw at the foot of a lifeless tree the body of Judas. His weight had broken the cord by which he had hanged himself, and in falling, his body had been horribly mangled. His remains were immediately buried out of sight; but there was less mockery among the throng; and many a pale face revealed the thoughts within.

The death of Judas, and the resurrection and ascension of Christ, placed the disciples on vantage ground, and gave them courage. But if Christ had not borne with Judas until the end, the results of the betrayer's course would not have been sufficiently impressive to stay the hands of the persecutors, and after Christ's ascension the most terrible scenes would have been witnessed. But God worked by his Spirit, and five thousand were converted in a day. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Christ Jesus is at the helm. "Lo" he declares, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." -

To My Brethren in Battle Creek, Instruction and Response

A Special Service at the Battle Creek (Mich.) Tabernacle

[SOON AFTER THE BURNING OF THE REVIEW AND HERALD OFFICE AN ARTICLE BY MRS. E. G. WHITE WAS PRINTED IN THIS PAPER, IN WHICH IT WAS PLAINLY STATED THAT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SANITARIUM AND THE REVIEW OFFICE BY FIRE WAS A VISITATION FROM GOD ON ACCOUNT OF THE PERSISTENT DEPARTURE FROM HIS WAYS, AND THE FAILURE TO ACT UPON THE WARNING AND INSTRUCTION WHICH HAD BEEN GIVEN FOR MANY YEARS THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. THIS INSTRUCTION WAS READ TO THE BATTLE CREEK CHURCH. AT THE RECENT MEETING OF THE STOCKHOLDERS OF THE REVIEW AND HERALD THE STATEMENT WAS REITERATED BEFORE A PUBLIC AUDIENCE THAT THESE FIRES WERE NOT THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. A FURTHER COMMUNICATION BEARING UPON THIS MATTER WAS RECENTLY RECEIVED FROM SISTER WHITE, AND IT WAS THOUGHT PROPER, UNDER ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES, TO READ THIS TO THE CHURCH, AND TO GIVE THE CHURCH AN OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE ITS POSITION CONCERNING THE QUESTION INVOLVED. THE FOLLOWING IS A REPORT OF THE SERVICE ON SABBATH, MAY 9, AT WHICH THE LAST COMMUNICATION WAS READ.--ED.]

REMARKS BY W. W. PRESCOTT

"WHATSOEVER THINGS WERE WRITTEN AFORETIME WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR LEARNING, THAT WE THROUGH PATIENCE AND COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURES MIGHT HAVE HOPE;" AND IT WILL CERTAINLY BE HELPFUL TO RECALL THE LESSONS OF THE PAST IN GOD'S DEALING WITH HIS PEOPLE, AND TO KNOW THE INTERPRETATIONS THAT HE HIMSELF GIVES TO THESE EXPERIENCES, AND THEN TO SEE HOW THEY APPLY TO OUR OWN TIMES AND TO OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. ALTHOUGH GOD'S PEOPLE HAD DEPARTED FROM HIM, AND HAD DONE THOSE THINGS THAT DISHONORED HIM, YET THERE WAS PROVISION SO THAT IT WAS NOT NECESSARY THAT JERUSALEM SHOULD BE OVERTHROWN, OR THAT THEY SHOULD GO INTO CAPTIVITY. GOD MAKES ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR SINS OF IGNORANCE, BUT HE MAKES NO PROVISION FOR WILLFUL SINS. THE UNPARDONABLE SIN IS THE SIN THAT REFUSES TO BE PARDONED; IT IS THE REFUSAL TO HEAR HIM CONCERNING A SIN, AND TO TURN FROM THAT SIN; IT IS THE SIN OF REFUSING HIS INSTRUCTION; IT IS THE SIN OF UNBELIEF CONCERNING HIS WARNINGS; IT IS THE STUBBORNNESS OF THE HEART THAT WILL NOT TURN FROM SIN, WHICH SEALS THE FATE OF ANY PEOPLE OR ANY INDIVIDUAL.

I WILL DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION ESPECIALLY TO THE LESSONS GIVEN IN THE BOOK OF THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAH, DEALING WITH THE EXPERIENCE CONNECTED WITH THE DESTRUCTION AND OVERTHROW OF JERUSALEM, WITH THE HOPE THAT WE MAY MARK WELL THE REAL CAUSE OF ITS OVERTHROW AND THE CAPTIVITY OF THE PEOPLE.

[THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURES WERE THEN READ: JER. 4:1-4; 5:1-19; 7:1-14.]

THE PROPHET JEREMIAH CONTINUES HIS PROPHESYING TO THAT PEOPLE, EVEN SAYING, AFTER ALL THESE WORDS OF WARNING AND REPROOF, THAT IF THEY WOULD TURN TO THE LORD, AND ESPECIALLY IF THEY WOULD REGARD HIS LAW AND KEEP HIS SABBATH, JERUSALEM WOULD STAND FOREVER; BUT THEY REFUSED THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET, THEY PERSISTED IN BUILDING THEMSELVES UP IN THEIR OWN PRIDE, AND SO THE LORD THROUGH JEREMIAH NAMED NEBUCHADNEZZAR AS THE ONE WHO WOULD COME AGAINST THEM, DESTROY THEIR CITY, AND TAKE THEM INTO CAPTIVITY TO SERVE THE KING OF BABYLON FOR SEVENTY YEARS.

THOSE WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR WORK AND OUR INSTITUTIONS HERE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE LAST TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS, NEED NOT BE REMINDED OF THE MANY WORDS OF WARNING AND INSTRUCTION WHICH THE LORD HAS SENT TO US THROUGH HIS CHOSEN MOUTHPIECE, UNTIL THE JUDGMENT OF GOD HAS FALLEN UPON US FOR OUR FAILURE TO OBEY, AND IT IS UTTERLY USELESS, AND WORSE THAN USELESS, TO ATTEMPT TO HIDE THIS FROM OUR OWN EYES OR FROM THE EYES OF THE WORLD. WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE SAVED BY HEEDING THE WORDS OF INSTRUCTION AND WARNING HAS NOW BECOME A PUBLIC CALAMITY UPON US, BUT IN SPITE OF ALL THIS THERE ARE STILL VOICES RAISED WHICH SAY THIS IS NO JUDGMENT UPON US. NOW IT IS TIME FOR THOSE WHO FEAR GOD TO RESPOND TO HIS INSTRUCTION, AND WARNING, AND COUNSEL. [VOICES, "AMEN."] I BELIEVE IT IS TIME FOR GOD'S PEOPLE TO RISE UP IN RESPONSE, AND MAKE ANSWER THAT THEY BELIEVE IN THE LORD THEIR GOD, EVEN WHEN HE VISITS THEM WITH JUDGMENTS. I BELIEVE IT IS TIME THAT THIS PEOPLE AND THIS CHURCH OPENLY AND PUBLICLY SHOULD TAKE THEIR STAND IN RESPONSE TO THESE WORDS OF INSTRUCTION AND WARNING, AND ACKNOWLEDGE BEFORE GOD AND THE WORLD THAT THE LORD HAS VISITED US IN JUDGMENT, AND THAT WE DO REPENT AND TURN TO HIM.

AS SETTING THIS FORTH FURTHER I WISH TO READ A COMMUNICATION WHICH WAS RECEIVED SINCE OUR LAST GATHERING IN THIS TABERNACLE, DATED MAY 1, 1903, WRITTEN BY SISTER WHITE, AND ADDRESSED "TO MY BRETHREN IN BATTLE CREEK." MANY WORDS OF COUNSEL HAVE COME TO PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS, AND TO THOSE HOLDING RESPONSIBLE PLACES IN CONNECTION WITH THE WORK HERE IN BATTLE CREEK, BUT THIS ONE COMES TO US ADDRESSED "TO MY BRETHREN IN BATTLE CREEK." WE THEREFORE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS BELONGS TO THE BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN BATTLE CREEK, AND THAT IT SHOULD BE READ TO THE CHURCH; AND WE TAKE THIS FIRST OPPORTUNITY AFTER RECEIVING IT TO READ IT TO THE CHURCH.

"Sanitarium, Cal., May 1, 1903. "To My Brethren in Battle Creek: I am bowed down and greatly troubled. I am in sore distress. My whole being is full of pain. At times it seems to me that I can not live. The thought of the terrible spiritual destitution among our people presses heavily upon me. God's judgments have fallen upon our institutions in Battle Creek; but how little has this done to move hearts to repentance! Must the rebuke of God still continue to be felt? and will it still continue to be without effect? I am amazed at the apparent indifference of many who should see and understand. I know not what to say or do. Seeing that the judgments of God have made so light an impression on the minds of those occupying important positions, fear and trembling take hold of me as to what will be the next revelation of God's displeasure.

"Men have dishonored God by choosing their own way. They have brought into his institutions principles that he has condemned. They would not change the ways and works that displeased him and belittled the testing truth for these last days.

"Those who have disregarded the messages of warning have lost their bearings. Some, in their self-confidence, have dared to turn from what which they knew to be truth, with the words, 'Who has told Sister White?' These words show the measure of their faith and confidence in the work that the Lord has given me to do. They have before them the result of the work that the Lord has laid upon me, and if this does not convince them, no arguments, no future revelations, would affect them. The result will be that God will speak again in judgment as he has spoken heretofore. When for years his messages of warnings have come to institutions and individuals, and no special heed is taken, what power will convince them?--Only the power of God revealed in judgment. Yet his hand is stretched out still to save, if thorough repentance is shown.

"We need to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. On one occasion, as Christ was returning to Jerusalem from a missionary tour, he was speaking to those with him about the personal salvation that all must have who enter the kingdom of heaven. His words were becoming decidedly personal and very pointed, and one present, wishing to change the subject, said, 'Lord, are there few that be saved?' Then he said, 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us: and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say; I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.'

"In the great day of God, to many who make the entreaty, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us,' the answer will come, 'I know you not whence you are; depart from me.'

"There is a right way and a wrong way, and in one or the other each human being is following. Those who truly believe in Christ live a life of holy obedience. They are sanctified through the truth. Their piety is not a pretense, but a reality. They have a sanctified Christian experience in holy living.

"Let us make sure that we are perfecting Christian characters through belief of the truth. We can not be too particular in regard to this. If we fail here, our life work will bring us no reward. Those who believe in Christ, and give up their will and their plans for God's will and God's plans enter upon a life of Christlikeness. This is the only way to gain salvation. Ellen G. White."

I PROPOSE TO MAKE A PERSONAL STATEMENT OF MY ATTITUDE TOWARD THIS INSTRUCTION, AND TOWARD THESE JUDGMENTS THAT HAVE COME TO US, AND I WANT TO GIVE OPPORTUNITY TO EVERY ONE IN THIS PLACE WHO AGREES WITH THE STATEMENT, AND WHO WISHES TO TAKE THE SAME POSITION, AND TO STAND UPON THE SAME PLATFORM, TO RISE UP. I BELIEVE THAT THESE TESTIMONIES HAVE COME FROM GOD; THAT THESE WORDS OF INSTRUCTION HAVE BEEN GOD'S COUNSEL TO THIS PEOPLE DIRECTLY, AND THAT THESE COUNSELS HAVE NOT BEEN HEEDED. I WISH TO TAKE MY OWN PERSONAL SHARE OF RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS MATTER, CONNECTED AS I HAVE BEEN WITH THE WORK IN THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AS A MEMBER OF THE REVIEW AND HERALD BOARD. I DO BEFORE GOD ACCEPT THIS AS A REBUKE TO ME IN MY CONNECTION WITH IT. I HAVE ASKED GOD'S FORGIVENESS IN THIS MATTER. I ACCEPT THESE WORDS OF COUNSEL HERE TO-DAY, AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THESE CALAMITIES THAT HAVE BEFALLEN US ARE GOD'S JUDGMENTS UPON THIS PEOPLE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT INTERPRETATION MAY BE PLACED UPON THEM; AND FOR MY OWN PART I DESIRE TO ACCEPT THIS INSTRUCTION, TO TURN TO GOD WITH TRUE REPENTANCE. IT SEEMS AS IF THESE WORDS THIS MORNING WERE IN THE NATURE OF A LAST CALL TO THIS PEOPLE TO WARD OFF WHAT FINALLY CAME TO JERUSALEM--NOT BECAUSE THEY HAD SINNED, ALTHOUGH THAT WAS THE FOUNDATION OF IT, BUT BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE WORDS OF WARNING AND COUNSEL; THEY REFUSED TO REPENT AND TURN TO GOD THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED FROM THE OVERWHELMING DESTRUCTION THAT CAME TO THEM. IT IS IMPRESSED UPON MY HEART AND MIND THAT WE ARE COMING VERY CLOSE TO THE LAST DAYS, AND GOD IS DEALING WITH US IN A VERY PLAIN WAY, AND IT BEHOOVES EVERY ONE OF US TO TAKE A STAND VERY DECIDEDLY FOR GOD AND HIS TRUTH, AND ON THE SIDE OF HIS WARNINGS THROUGH THE MOUTHPIECE HE HAS CHOSEN TO GUIDE AND CORRECT THIS PEOPLE.

[NEARLY ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE LARGE CONGREGATION SIGNIFIED, BY RISING TO THEIR FEET, THAT THEY DESIRED TO JOIN IN THIS STATEMENT, AS EXPRESSING THEIR OWN ATTITUDE CONCERNING THIS MATTER. THE SERVICE CLOSED WITH AN EARNEST PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND CONSECRATION, IN WHICH THE CONGREGATION WAS LED BY ELDER A. G. DANIELLS.]

Repent, and Do the First Works

"Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

The words fall from the lips of One who can not lie. The picture reveals eternal vigilance. Christ is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, walking from church to church, from congregation to congregation, from heart to heart. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. If the candlesticks were left to the care of human beings, how often the light would flicker and go out! But God has not given his church into the hands of men. Christ, the One who gave his life for the world, that all who believe in him may not perish but have everlasting life, is the Watchman of the house. He is the Warder, faithful and true, of the temple courts of the Lord.

"These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." The words are spoken to the teachers in the church,--those entrusted by God with weighty responsibilities. The sweet influences that are to be abundant in the church are bound up with God's ministers, who are to reveal the precious love of Christ. The stars of heaven are under his control. He fills them with light. He guides and directs their movements. If he did not do this, they would become fallen stars. So with his ministers. They are but instruments in his hands, and all the good they accomplish is done through his power. Through them his light is to shine forth. The Saviour is to be their efficiency. If they will look to him as he looked to his Father, they will do his work. As they make God their dependence, he will give them his brightness to reflect to the world.

Christ walks in the midst of his churches through the length and breadth of the earth. He looks with intense interest to see whether his people are in such a condition spiritually that they can advance his kingdom. He is present in every assembly of the church. He knows those whose hearts he can fill with the holy oil, that they may impart it to others. Those who faithfully carry forward the work of Christ, representing in word and deed the character of God, fulfill the Lord's purpose for them, and Christ takes pleasure in them.

"I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience." Christ is acquainted with the history and experience of every one who has accepted him. To his people he says, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." He cherishes carefully every act of love and endurance performed by them.

"And how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." While we should not find fault and accuse, we should never give encouragement to evil. There are those who are vain talkers. Their influence is misleading. Unless they repent, they will be weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Faithful reproof may save them.

"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." At the first , the experience of the church at Ephesus was marked by childlike fervor and simplicity. An ardent, heartfelt love for Christ controlled the believers. They rejoiced in the love of God because Christ was an abiding presence in their hearts. In sentiment and action they were united. Love for Christ was the golden chain that bound them together. They followed on to know the Lord more and still more perfectly, and brightness and comfort and peace came into their lives. They trusted in the Lord. They did not think of hoarding the precious treasures of the grace of Christ. Their highest aim was to win souls to the Saviour. They felt the importance of their calling; and weighted with the precious message of the gospel,--peace on earth and good will toward men,--they called upon all to come to Christ.

Visiting the fatherless and the widow was part of their daily experience. They kept themselves unspotted from the world. They knew that a failure to do this would be a denial of the Redeemer.

In every city the work was carried forward. Warm, inspired appeals were made, and sinners were brought to the cross. In their turn they felt that they must tell of the inexhaustible treasure they had found. They could not rest until the beams of light which had illumined their minds were shining into the minds of others. Multitudes of believers were made acquainted with the reason of the hope held by the Christians. Precious light was flashed into minds darkened by error.

After a time coldness crept into the church. Differences unworthy of notice sprang up, and the eyes of the believers were taken from beholding Jesus as the author and finisher of their faith. Their love for one another began to wane. The multitudes that might have been convicted and converted by a faithful practice of the truth were left unwarned.

How is it with the church of to-day, which has received such great light? God sees that its members have lost the love for souls which Christ revealed to them when first they saw his unspeakable mercy for the fallen race. Then they could not keep silent. They were filled with desire to give to others the blessings they had received. Thus it is with all who are truly converted. Those who love sinners with the love of God will work the works of God.

Let the church arise and shine; for their light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon them. Let them understand that Christ expects them to do the work that he did while on this earth.

The leaven of truth needs to be introduced into society. The means of God's people should be used to carry forward his work in new fields. But many have selfishly grasped for themselves all the means they dared, and have coveted more. Grave evils have sapped the life and zeal and virtue of the church. Let us change quickly, or he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, will say to us, as he said to the church of Ephesus, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place." The work that God desires to see done by Seventh-day Adventists is not done. Unless there is a decided change, the people will accept as truth that which is not truth.

A Call to Activity and Zeal

Nigh and afar off the laws of God's kingdom are to be proclaimed. Let the churches arouse. Let the ministers clothe themselves with zeal as with a garment. God says to them, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." Anything less than active, earnest service for the Master gives the lie to our profession of Christianity. Only the Christianity that results in practical work will make an impression upon those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Praying, humble, believing Christians, who show by their actions that their greatest desire is to make known the saving truth that is to test all people, will gather a rich harvest of souls for the Master.

We need to break up the monotony of our religious labor. We are doing a work in the world, but we are not showing enough activity and zeal. If we were more in earnest, men would be convinced of the truth of our message. The tameness and monotony of our service for God repels many who are looking to see in us a deep, earnest, sanctified zeal. Legal religion will not answer for this age. We may perform all the outward acts of service, and yet be as destitute of the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit as the hills of Gilboa were destitute of dew and rain. We need spiritual moisture; and we need also the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to soften and subdue our hearts.

In times past there were those who fastened their minds upon one soul after another, saying, "Lord, help me to save this soul." But now such instances are very rare. How many act as if they realized the peril of sinners? How many take to God in prayer those they know to be in danger, pleading with him to save them?

Remember that there are those who will perish unless we as God's instrumentalities work with a determination which will not fail or become discouraged. The Lord will provide ways and means for those who will seek him with all the heart. He has in readiness the most precious revelations of his grace to strengthen and encourage the sincere, humble worker. There is no excuse for the faith of our churches being so feeble. "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." There is strength for us in Christ. He is our Advocate. He dispatches his messengers to every part of his dominion to communicate his will to his creatures. He walks in the midst of his churches. He desires to sanctify, elevate, and ennoble his followers. The influence of those who truly believe in him will be a savor of life in the world. Christ holds the stars in his right hand, and it is his purpose to let his light shine forth through them to the world. Thus he desires to prepare his people for higher service in the church above. He has given us a great work to do. Let us do it faithfully. Let us show forth in our lives what divine grace can do for humanity. -

Directions for Work

Men and women are not to be spiritually dwarfed by a connection with the church, but strengthened, elevated, ennobled, prepared for the most sacred work ever committed to mortals. It is the Lord's purpose to have a well-trained army, ready to be called into action at a moment's notice. This army will be made up of well-disciplined men and women who have placed themselves under influences that have prepared them for service.

God's workers are to watch for souls as they that must give an account, and they need the abiding presence of Christ in their hearts, in order that they may win sinners to him. They must themselves have surrendered all to God, that they may tell those for whom they labor the need and meaning of unreserved surrender. They must remember that they are laborers together with God, and must guard against dilatory uncertain movements. Satan watches untiringly for opportunities to gain control of those whom they are seeking to win to Christ. Only through ceaseless vigilance can the worker for Jesus beat back the enemy. Only in the strength of the Redeemer can he lead the tempted one to the cross. It is not learning nor eloquence that will accomplish this, but the presentation of the truth of God, spoken in simplicity and with the power of the Spirit.

There is only one power that can turn the sinner from sin to holiness,--the power of Christ. Our Redeemer is the only one who can take away sin. He alone can forgive sin. He alone can make men steadfast, and keep them so.

The truth is not merely to be spoken by those who work for Christ; it is to be lived . People are watching and weighing those who claim to believe the special truths for this time. They are watching to see wherein their life represents Christ. By humbly and earnestly engaging in the work of doing good to all, God's people will exert an influence that will tell on all with whom they are brought in contact. If those who know the truth will take hold of this work as opportunities are presented, day by day doing deeds of love and kindness in the neighborhood where they live, Christ will be revealed in their lives. Those with whom they associate will see that they have been with Jesus, and have learned of him. The gospel will be proclaimed with living power. It will be seen to be a reality, not the result of imagination or enthusiasm. The lives of such Christians will have more power to convict and convert sinners than sermons, professions, or creeds.

Those who put their hand to the work of God must depend on the blessing and wisdom that come from above. It is the Holy Spirit that makes powerful the presentation of the truth, and changes the temper and habits of man. He who submits to its working is changed from a sinner into a child of God. "The Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more"

He who calls men to repentance must commune with God in prayer. He must cling to the Mighty One, saying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Give me power to win souls to Christ. There is not one tithe of the pleading with God that there will be when Christ breathes on us, and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Be assured, my brethren and sisters, that God's Spirit will plead for the conversion of souls, with groanings that can not be uttered. Be instant in season and out of season, warning the young, pleading with sinners, your heart filled with the love that led Christ to give his life for the life of the world.

When there comes from the lips of the sinner the cry, "I fear that my sins are too grievous to be forgiven," point to Jesus, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Lead him to look away from himself to the Saviour, and the victory is won. He sees for himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Sun of Righteousness sheds his bright beams into his heart. The strong tide of redeeming love pours into the parched and thirsty soul, and the sinner is saved to Christ.

Christ crucified--talk it, pray it, sing it, and it will break and win hearts. Set, formal phrases, the presentation of merely argumentative subjects, is productive of little good. The melting love of God in the hearts of the workers will be recognized by those for whom they labor. Souls are thirsting for the water of life. Do not allow them to go from you empty. Reveal the love of Christ to them. Lead them to Jesus, and he will give them the bread of life and the water of salvation.

In our work we have an ever-present Helper. If we feel our great need, and draw near to God, he will draw near to us, and will use us as channels through which to communicate the vital energy that will rouse souls from careless indifference, and lead them to seek God before it is too late. It is because of a lack of faith that God's people have no more of his power. Earnest, living faith is needed,--faith that will take firm hold of the promises made to the followers of Christ.

How important it is that God's messengers walk worthy of the truth they present! When they do this, when they are men of prayer and faith, obedient to the Lord's commands, the Holy Spirit will work through them, and the people will be willing in the day of his power.

Christ has opened a fountain for the sinful, suffering world, and the voice of divine mercy is heard, Come, all ye thirsting souls; come and drink. You may take the water of life freely. "Let him that heareth say, Come. . . . And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Let every soul, men as well as women, sound the message. Then the truth for this time will be carried to the waste places of the earth. The word will be fulfilled. "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys;" and "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." -

A Call for Canvassers

The canvassing work should no longer be neglected. Many times I have been shown that there should be a more general interest in our canvassing work. The circulation of our literature is one very important means of placing before men and women the light that the Lord has committed to his church to be given to the world. The books sold by our canvassers open to many minds the unsearchable riches of Christ.

In the service of God there is work of many kinds to be performed. In the service of the temple there were hewers of wood, as well as priests of various orders bearing different degrees of responsibility. Our church-members are to arise and shine because their light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon them. Let those who know the truth arouse out of sleep, and make every effort to reach the people where they are. The work of the Lord must no longer be neglected by us, and made secondary to worldly interests. We have no time to be idle or discouraged. The gospel is to be proclaimed to all the world. The publications containing the light of present truth are to go forth to all places. Canvassing campaigns are to be organized for the sale of our literature, that the world may be enlightened as to what is just before us.

Why are we not more wide awake? Each worker may now understand his special work, and receive strength to take hold of it anew. Distinct and peculiar developments of the boundless glory of God will bring tributary offerings of varied kinds to the feet of Jesus. Every new disclosure of the Saviour's love turns the balance for some soul in one direction or the other. The end of all things is at hand. The men of the world are rushing on to their ruin. Their schemes, their confederacies, are many. New devices will continually be brought in to make of no effect the counsel of God. Men are heaping up treasures of gold and silver to be consumed by the fires of the last days.

Canvasser-evangelists are needed, to hunt and fish for souls. The canvassing work should now be earnestly and decidedly taken up. The canvasser whose heart is meek and lowly can accomplish much good. Going out two and two, canvassers can reach a class that can not be reached by our camp-meetings. From family to family they carry the message of truth. Thus they come into close touch with the people, and find many opportunities to speak of the Saviour. Let them sing and pray with those who become interested in the truths they have to give. Let them speak to families the words of Christ. They may expect success; for theirs is the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Canvassers who go forth in the spirit of the Master have the companionship of heavenly beings.

I beg those bearing responsibilities in God's cause to let no commercial enterprises interpose between them and the work of soul-saving. Let no business be allowed to absorb the time and talents of workers who ought to be engaged in preparing a people for the coming of the Lord. The truth is to go forth as a lamp that burneth. Time is short; the enemy will make every effort to magnify in our minds matters of lesser consequence, and to lead us to regard lightly the very work that most needs to be done.

The things of this world are soon to perish. This is not discerned by those who have not been divinely enlightened, who have not kept pace with the work of God. Consecrated men and women must go forth to sound the warning in the highways and the byways. I urge my brethren and sisters not to engage in work that will hinder them from proclaiming the gospel of Christ. You are God's spokesmen. You are to speak the truth in love to perishing souls. "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Christ says. Do not these words plainly outline the work of the canvasser? With Christ in his heart he is to go forth into the highways and byways of life, giving the invitation to the marriage supper. Men of wealth and influence will come, if they are invited. Some will refuse, but thank God, not all.

O that thousands more of our people had a realization of the time in which we are living, and of the work to be done in field service, in house-to-house labor. There are many, many who know not the truth. They need to hear the call to come to Jesus. The sorrowing are to be cheered, the weak strengthened, the mourners comforted. The poor are to have the gospel preached to them.

The Master knows and watches over his workers, in whatever part of his vineyard they are working. He calls upon his church to arouse and become acquainted with the situation. He calls upon those in our institutions to awake and set in operation influences that will advance his kingdom. Let them send forth laborers into the field, and then see that the interest of these laborers does not flag for lack of sympathy and of opportunities for development.

My brethren and sisters, remember that one day you will stand before the Lord of all the earth, to give an account of the deeds done in the body. Then your work will appear as it really is. The vineyard is large, and the Lord is calling for laborers. Do not allow anything to keep you from the work of soul-saving. The canvassing work is a most successful way of saving souls. Will you not try it?

Those in the darkness of error are the purchase of the blood of Christ. They are the fruit of his suffering, and they are to be labored for. Let our canvassers know that it is for the advancement of Christ's kingdom that they are laboring. He will teach them as they go forth to their God-appointed work, to warn the world of a soon-coming judgment. Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, the evangelist's work will not, can not, be without fruit. Think of the interest that the Father and the Son have in this work. As the Father loves the Son, so the Son loves those that are his,--those who work as he worked to saved perishing souls. None need feel that they are powerless: for Christ declares, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." He has promised that he will give this power to his workers. His power is to become their power. They are to link their souls with God. Christ desires all to enjoy the wealth of his grace, which is beyond all computation. It is limitless, exhaustless. It is ours by eternal covenant, if we will be workers together with God. It is ours if we will unite with him to bring many sons and daughters to God.

Christ's interests are the first and the highest of all interests. He has a property in this world that he wishes secured, saved for his everlasting kingdom. It is for his Father's glory and for his own glory that his messengers shall go forth in his name; for they and he are one. They are to reveal him to the world. His interests are their interests. If they will be co-laborers with him, they will be made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to an immortal inheritance. Ellen G. White. -

Christ's Object Lessons

How this Book should be Handled in the Future

The use which should be made of the book, "Christ's Object Lessons," in the future, has been made clear to me, and I must write to my brethren in regard to it. Letters have been received from our canvassing agents, in which they say that they think it would be a good plan for "Christ's Object Lessons" to be handled as a regular subscription book, as soon as the Relief of the Schools campaign is finished. They believe that this book would have as ready a sale in the hands of the regular canvassers as any that could be produced.

As my son read me one of these letters, the thought came to me, "Here is an opportunity for me to get out of debt. Is not this the right thing to do?" I told my son that I thought that perhaps it would be best to do as the letter had suggested. Then I sent to heaven the prayer, "Lord, teach me to speak right words." Quickly the answer came. In an instant the light given me at the first regarding "Christ's Object Lessons" flashed into my mind, and the instruction then given was repeated. I seemed to hear the words, "God signified that this book should be given to our schools, to be to them a continual blessing. Would you exchange his plan for one of human devising? This book is to be treated as a sacred offering made to God; and as his plan regarding it is unselfishly carried out, the result will be wholly satisfactory."

I immediately told my son that I would not make any change regarding the handling of "Christ's Object Lessons" unless God gave me plain instruction that this should be done. As I told him this, I felt the blessing of God resting upon me.

The plan for the circulation of "Christ's Object Lessons" is not of human devising, but is God's plan. He signified that this book should be a gift to the schools. Thus far it has done its work, and God has set his approval on the self-sacrificing efforts of his people. Shall we mar his plan?--No, no! Until the Lord shall come, and our present system of school work is ended by our entering the higher school, "Christ's Object Lessons" is to stand as a gift to our educational institutions.

The Result of Unselfish Service

In the work for the relief of our schools, the Lord has bestowed on us a gift of great value, and has marked out for us the pathway of blessing. He called upon me to give our schools the manuscript of the book. "Christ's Object Lessons." He called upon our publishing houses to make liberal gifts of labor in preparing the book for sale. In response to this call, they acted their part nobly. Our people gave generously of their means to raise a material fund, and then went forth willingly to sell the book for the help of the schools.

As a result of this effort far more has been accomplished than at first we dared to expect. Angels of God co-operated with those who went out to circulate the book. Men, women, and children took part in the effort, and labored earnestly and unselfishly. The Lord gave them his approval, and with it his grace and joy and peace. Read in our papers the results of their work. Testimony after testimony has been borne witnessing to the blessing found in selling this book. How good these testimonies are! As we read them, refreshing streams of salvation seem to flow from the very throne of God into our hearts.

I have been shown many praying to God for help as they have gone forth to sell "Christ's Object Lessons." They have asked the Lord to give them success. Then, as they have succeeded, they have felt that they have received evidence that the Lord has answered their prayers. Thus they have obtained a deeper experience in heavenly things; for they have felt that they were following in the footsteps of Christ.

With many, to go out and sell "Christ's Object Lessons" meant to take up a heavy cross, but they have been rewarded by God's approval. The thought, "We are doing something for the Master," has filled their hearts with peace and gladness. Church-members who never before had courage to sell books, took hold of this work. Very timidly they began. But they did not turn back; and as they labored on, courage came, and success attended their efforts. Many gained an experience more valuable than gold or silver.

The hearts of God's people have been made light and joyful in him as they have offered him the sweet incense of unselfish service. Many of our churches have been quickened and refreshed as some of their number have engaged in this work.

Our brethren and sisters were just as surely in the service of the Lord when selling this book as they are when bearing testimony for him in a camp-meeting. They received the refreshing grace of God; for they were carrying out his purposes, and he has bestowed on them his commendation. Their minds have been freed from the malaria of selfishness and complaint and discouragement.

By the effort to sell "Christ's Object Lessons" much has been accomplished to bring the precious light of present truth to those in darkness. Thus many have been saved from sin. For every spring of influence touched, for every train of thought set in motion with a sincere desire to glorify God, the Holy Spirit has worked on hearts, bringing wisdom, courage, and strength. Those who have bought the book bear testimony to the blessing they have received in reading it. Many will shine in the kingdom of God whose conversion was the result of the efforts of our brethren and sisters to sell "Christ's Object Lessons."

The men who have taken a leading part in this enterprise have done a good work. Their labors have brought about most excellent results. They are not to become discouraged, but are to look to God in faith, and go forward, walking humbly before him. Our brethren connected with the school at Berrien Springs should be encouraged to advance as the way may open before them. We are to help them all we can. Christ stands at the helm, and to him is to be ascribed the praise and glory for the work accomplished by "Christ's Object Lessons." This work bears the stamp of unselfishness, and it will produce good fruit. Ellen G. White. -

The Sin of Evil-Speaking

It is not God's plan that reports regarding the work of his servants shall be passed from one to another. My brethren, when some one comes to you with an accusation against a fellow worker, say to him, Have you gone to the one you are accusing, in the way in which Christ told you to go? If you have not done this, I am not at liberty to listen to what you have to say about him.

Hear what Christ has said regarding this matter: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." And he said again, "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."

O, how much time is worse than wasted by evil-speaking! Because of this sin, not half is accomplished that might be accomplished. Men and women become mischief-makers for Satan, and going to this one and that one, place in their minds the leaven of evil, prejudicing them against a brother or a sister, who, they say, has done wrong. The thoughts of those thus influenced are misdirected, their peace is disturbed, and their confidence in their brethren is weakened. Those who do this evil work are departing from Christ, to follow one who is teaching them to love and make a lie. Whatever their position in the service of God, they are dishonoring him. All their qualifications and capabilities, however commendable they may apparently be, will not supply the deficiency resulting from the lack of Christlike love.

Those who think and speak evil of their fellow laborers, opening the mind to false reports, and taking up a reproach against their neighbor, grieve the Spirit of God, and put Christ to open shame. I feel so saddened, so discouraged, by the thought that God's servants are willing to listen to and circulate hearsay. I know that the Holy Spirit will not co-operate with those who, by their criticisms, their evil surmisings, and their hard-heartedness, are helping Satan. God says to them, "Thou hast left thy first love. . . . Repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly." I will not bear long with your perverse spirit, which leads you to cherish envy and evil surmising. "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Do not these words, so plain and decided, call for serious thought and earnest study on the part of every one who claims to believe the Word of God? "Thou hast left thy first love." And the dryness and coldness of heart are revealed by a lack of that Christian courtesy, that kindness and tenderness, which is seen in the life of the true Christian.

On one occasion, on his way from Bethany to Jerusalem, Christ passed a fig orchard. He was hungry, "and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon." The tree presented an appearance of fruitfulness, but upon searching its branches, from the lowest bough to the topmost twig, Jesus found "nothing but leaves." It was a mass of pretentious foliage, nothing more. Today Christ comes to his people, hungering to find in them the fruits of righteousness. But many, many, have nothing but leaves to offer him. They have left their first love, and upon them has fallen spiritual blindness, hardness of heart, stubbornness of mind. They pray to God, and present Bible truth to the people; for they are in the habit of doing so; but they have lost that which would make their service acceptable. How blind they are! how defective their service! Boastingly they say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." But God says to them, "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Will God's people accept this reproof? Let them beware of remaining in their present condition; for time is fast passing, and the work that ought to be done is not done. How unlike Christ we are in word and spirit, and in our attitude toward one another! His gentleness should make us "kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." As a people who have had great light we stand before God under condemnation unless we fulfill the Saviour's purpose for us, holding fast to him, and allowing him to send through our religious experience a warm current of unselfish love. When we do this, our spiritual strength will show that we are living in close connection with the Life-giver. We shall impart grace for the grace that we receive.

A thoroughgoing Christian draws his motives of action from his deep heart-love for his Master. Up through the roots of his affection for Christ come faith, and an unselfish interest in those around him. The selfish desire to be first is quenched. There is no hatred in his thoughts, because there is no hatred in his heart. He has the faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. The refining influence of the Saviour's life refreshes and invigorates his spiritual life. By his loyalty to his brethren he shows that he realizes the value of souls. He can pray with the spirit and with the understanding also. His zeal, his stanch adherence to principle, his devotion to all that is pure, honest, just, and of good report, make him companionable, and helpful to those with whom he associates.

Such men are of value with God. If they continue to put their trust in him, they will grow more and more like him. One day they will see God, who declares, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir."

God's Purpose for His People

Paul writes of Christ: "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."

Paul could not speak to the Jewish converts as plainly as he desired regarding the mystery of godliness. Because of their spiritual weakness, their lack of perception, he could not utter the truth, which, could they have heard aright, with intelligent comprehension, would have been to them a savor of life unto life.

The fault was not with their instructors, but with themselves. They were dull of understanding. Abundant advantages had been given them. They could have increased in understanding regarding Christ, his work, his power to save to the uttermost all who come to him. But they had not pressed onward and upward, improving their opportunity to learn more and still more of the Saviour. Because they had not received in faith the truths imparted to them, their memory was weak. They could not retain in their minds the truths essential to success in character-building.

The apostle calls their attention to their fault in this respect, which had become their spiritual infirmity. Their misconceptions gave them an indistinct view of Christ's power to make his people a praise in the earth.

How exactly their condition represents the condition of many of the people of God to-day, who have had every advantage, every privilege, and who, feeling the burden of God's work, ought to be saying with the whole heart, Here I am, Lord; send me. But in the place of being teachers, as they might be, they themselves can not bear the plain application of the Word of God. They do not discern the value of Bible truth. They are not a strength to the church. Had they thoroughly consecrated themselves to the Lord from their first reception of the truth, surrendering themselves unreservedly to him, and obeying the call, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me," they would have walked in the companionship of Christ, learning his lessons, receiving his divine impress. They would have recognized the claims of Christ, and would not have been half Christians and half worldlings, but whole-hearted Christians, believing and practicing the word, enlightened continually, not dwelling on vague generalities, but proclaiming Christ as the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.

Many who should be far advanced in Christian experience give evidence that they have forgotten the first principles of Christlike service. They are but children in the things of God. Their greatest desire is to carry out their own plans, while plans that the Lord lays before them they declare can not be followed.

In the most definite terms the Lord through Moses set before his chosen people his purpose for them, and the conditions upon which they would be prospered. "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations: and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them."

God calls for men whose hearts are warmed by the love of Christ. He will choose workers from among those who are willing to hear his voice and obey his words. Their capabilities may be limited, but they are loyal; and loyalty is of far more value in God's sight than mere knowledge.

God calls for earnest, high-principled men. He will use such men in his service. But he will separate from his work the lukewarm, worldly minded, self-exalted ones. Those who have buried their talents will be replaced by men who will put into wise circulation the means God has placed in their hands. Learning lessons of Christ, these workers will combine patience with diligence. Christ's work will be done. His servants will erect plants in every place in which they can find an opening. On the missionary ground next to our doors,--in the cities around us,--monuments to the truth will be established. By unselfish effort the work of God will be bound off. Humble, devoted laborers will find ways of reaching those who have not had an opportunity to hear the truth.

God's Word outlines the work that we are to do. In all parts of the world the gospel is to be preached. God calls for volunteers to engage in his work. The canvassing field is in need of recruits. Those who engage in this work in the spirit of the Master will find entrance to the homes of those who need the truth. To these they can tell the simple story of the cross, and God will strengthen and bless them as they lead others to the light. The righteousness of Christ goes before them, and the glory of God is their rearward.

My brother, my sister, it is not enough to fold your hands, and say "I am in the light." Are you walking in the light? Is the genuineness of your profession demonstrated by practical, earnest endeavor? He who works for Christ makes steady advancement. It is the doers of the Word who will be justified before God. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

To walk in the light is to walk uprightly, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The path of obedience is the path to heaven. Following it, we follow on to know the Lord. He who walks uprightly walks surely. The law of God is in his heart, and his steps do not slide. He stands firm in Christ.

There should be constant growth in spirituality, in righteousness, in sanctification. Every faculty of the being is to increase in usefulness. The mind is to be closely united with the mind of the Redeemer, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we may appear with him in glory.

The Christian pilgrim does not yield to the desire to rest. He moves steadily forward, saying, The day is far spent; the night is at hand. This is his motto: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after. . . . I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." -

The Canvassing Work

We are living in a time when a great work is to be done. There is a famine in the land for the pure gospel, and the bread of life is to be given to hungry souls. There is no better opportunity to do this work than that offered to the consecrated canvasser. Thousands of books containing the precious light of present truth should be placed in the homes of the people in our large cities.

Canvassers are needed to take up the work of carrying these silent messengers of truth to the people,--canvassers who feel a burden for souls, and who can speak words in season to those who are seeking for light. Some may say, "I am not a minister; I can not preach to the people." You may not be able to preach, but you can be an evangelist, ministering to the needs of those with whom you come in contact; you can be God's helping hand, working as the disciples worked; you can ask those you meet if they love the Lord Jesus.

The Canvasser an Evangelist

The canvassing work is a work of great responsibility, and it means much not only to those who are engaged in it, but to the people for whom they labor. Let the canvasser remember that his work is evangelistic in its nature, and that God wants those whom he meets to be saved. Let him keep his heart under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Let him keep the Bible near him for reference, and when an opportunity presents itself to speak words of truth, let him pray for grace to speak wisely, that to those to whom he speaks his words may be a savor of life unto life.

The canvasser should make every effort in his power to let the light of truth shine forth in good works. In his discharge of duty he should shed about him the fragrance of Christian courtesy, improving every opportunity to perform acts of helpful service. He should educate himself to speak distinctly and impressively. He should learn daily in the school of the great Teacher. Christ will surely help those who hide in him, depending on him for strength. Mrs. E. G. White. -

Our Responsibility in the Present Crisis

On us is shining the accumulated light of God's dealings with his people. For our admonition a record has been kept of his reproofs of wrong-doing. We have a knowledge not only of that which he condemns, but of the faithful, commendable work of those who have put their trust in him. The light we may gain from these experiences of God's people in past ages, places upon us in the present crisis a great and solemn responsibility.

In the providence of God, a voice has proclaimed his truth in every age. And in this age faithful workers are unitedly to proclaim with no uncertain voice to the world the special message of truth for this time. They are to proclaim this message in accordance with God's plans, not in accordance with human suggestions.

God's people are to be of a ready mind, quick to see and to avail themselves of every opportunity to advance the Lord's cause. They have a message to bear. By pen and voice they are to sound the note of warning. Only a few will listen; only a few will have ears to hear. Satan has artfully devised many ways of keeping men and women under his influence. He leads them to weaken their organs by the gratification of perverted appetite and by indulgence in worldly pleasure. Intoxicating liquor, tobacco, the theater and the race-course,--these and many other evils are benumbing man's sensibilities, and causing multitudes to turn a deaf ear to God's merciful entreaties.

The human family have become careless and presumptuous. In the place of serving God, they are serving idols. They do not profit by the warning, "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [intemperance in eating or in seeking for pleasure], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." God's sentinels are to stand constantly on the watch-tower, faithfully warning the church against the evils that, if allowed to enter, would weaken and injure the flock.

Every one whose name is on the church books should clearly understand what union with the church means. It means that you have pledged yourself to serve God. It means that you have fully surrendered self to him, in order that Christ may reign where self once reigned. It means that you have given up the selfish ideas and plans that you cherished for so long, and have yielded your mind to the mind of Christ. It means that your fixed purpose is to be one with God, one with his people; that you will exercise self-denial and self-sacrifice to advance the interests of his kingdom; that you will strive to overcome everything that hinders growth in grace.

The Lord leaves in darkness no one who has an ear to hear and a heart to understand. Let every one keep the eye single to God's glory. Be not led astray by the snares of the wicked one. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Let the warnings that God has given in his Word be voiced by the watchmen on the walls of Zion, and heeded by every one in the Master's service. Every case will be tried, every soul proved. Let each one ask, "Am I an evil servant? Do I by precept and example lead other souls in false paths?" Remember that your influence is affecting others for good or for evil.

I beseech the members of every church to seek now for the greatest blessing heaven can bestow -- the Holy Spirit. If in faith you seek for a greater measure of God's Spirit, you will be constantly taking it in and breathing it out. Daily you will receive a fresh supply, daily your experience will be enriched by the rich current of God's love. Before you there lie vast fields of truth, vast resources of power. Let your daily prayer be, "Take away, O Lord, what thou dost choose to take, but withhold not from us thy Holy Spirit."

Preparation for Service

Every true child of God prepares himself for service. Jesus said, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. . . . This do, and thou shalt live." These words mean much. Service to God includes all there is of man. The affections must be centered on him alone.

As were God's people anciently, so we should be prepared to advance when the cloud rises and moves forward, and to halt when the cloud stops. We must adjust our movements to the guidance of God's Spirit. In the place of following ways of our own devising, we are to co-operate with divinity. Thus we shall be enabled to keep pace with our Leader.

In order to be a Christian, it is not necessary for a man to have great talents. The human agent may have no voice in legislative councils; he may not be permitted to deliberate in senates or vote in parliaments; yet he has access to God. The King of kings bends low to listen to the prayer coming from one who desires to do the Master's will. An earnest prayer offered from a sincere, contrite heart is of more value in God's sight than is eloquence of speech. God hears every prayer offered with the incense of faith. His weakest child may exert an influence in harmony with the councils of heaven. It is in answer to prayer that God revives his work.

O that the workers at home and abroad could be aroused to stand in their allotted place in the crisis that has come! If all would realize that it is their privilege to be laborers together with God, with what earnestness and devotion they would labor to enlighten the world! They would seize every opportunity to bear the truth into new territory!

God says, "Them that honor me I will honor." Let us honor him by joining the ranks of his workers. The Leader of the host of heaven is waiting for human agencies to enlist in his service. He will lead us forth, an exceeding great army, to the conquest of the world. With such a Leader we may gain victory in every conflict.

We have no breath to waste in controversy. We are to watch, pray, work, believe, and wait. Let us proclaim the truth in its simplicity, uplifting the Man of Calvary higher and still higher.

"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men [not merely enjoining them by the force of command, but communicating divine knowledge], teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." -

Child Training

Fathers and mothers, ask in faith for wisdom to deal with your children in the fear of God. They are a part of your flesh and blood, and have inherited your temperament. When you see them acting as you would act were you not under the control of the Spirit of God, how patiently you should deal with them. Notwithstanding your mistakes and failures, Christ has dealt kindly and patiently with you.

If you desire to learn what course to take with your children, make their peculiar temperaments your constant study. All children can not be managed alike. You may need to manage one child differently from the way in which you manage another. Go to God, telling him your perplexity. He will teach you how to deal with human minds. When you learn lessons from the Source of wisdom, when you manifest an earnest desire to save the souls of those who are of your own flesh and blood, when you show a determination not to let them go but to hold on to them, you will be able to bring them up in the fear of God.

We have much to learn in regard to child training. When teaching the little ones to do things, we must not scold them. Never should we say, "Why did you not do this?" Say, "Children, help mother do this;" or, "Come, children, let us do this." Be their companion in doing these things. When they finish their work, praise them.

Years ago the children in my home were learning how to knit. One of them asked me, "Mother, I should like to know whether I am helping you by trying to do this knitting work?" I knew that I should have to take out every stitch, but I replied, "Yes, my child, you are helping me." Why could I say that they were helping me?--Because they were learning. When they did not make the stitches as they should have made them, I took out every stitch afterward, but never did I condemn them for their failure. Patiently I taught them until they knew how to knit properly.

The mother is the queen of the home. She must not allow her children to treat her as a slave. Many a mother has gone down into the grave with a broken heart, because she made a slave of herself, doing things that she should have taught her children to do. Let every mother teach her children that they are members of the family firm, and must bear their share of the responsibilities of this firm. Every member of the family should bear these responsibilities as faithfully as church-members bear the responsibilities of church relationship.

Let the children know that they are helping father and mother by doing little errands. Give them some work to do for you, and tell them that afterward they can have a time to play.

Dress your children neatly in simple clothing, and allow them to spend much time out of doors. You can furnish them with cart-loads of sand in which to play. By playing in the sunshine and the fresh air, children will gain health and strength of mind and body. They will be benefited both spiritually and physically. The Lord recognizes every such effort.

The spiritual education of the child begins in the home. The mother, as the first teacher, should teach her children how to pray, by having them repeat a simple prayer after her. The Saviour dwells in the homes of those who teach their children to pray for his blessing to rest upon them. The saving power of the grace of God will be given to such fathers and mothers.

After the children have learned to write, encourage them to keep a record of the occurrences of the day, noting the points on which they have overcome through the grace of Christ, and also the points on which they have failed. During the evening hour of prayer have a blessed season of confession, and of praise and rejoicing. I am sorry that we do not have more praise services in our homes, sorry that we are so slow to learn to praise him from whom all blessings flow. -

Importance of Health and Temperance Publications

The temperance question is to receive decided support from God's people. Intemperance is striving for the mastery; self-indulgence is increasing, and the publications treating on health reform are greatly needed. Literature bearing on this point is the helping hand of the gospel, leading souls to search the Bible for a better understanding of the truth. The note of warning against the great evil of intemperance should be sounded; and that this may be done, every Sabbath-keeper should study and practice the instruction contained in our health periodicals and our health books. And they should do more than this: they should make earnest efforts to circulate these publications among their neighbors.

Selling Health Literature

The sale of our health literature will in no way hinder the sale of publications dealing with other phases of the third angel's message. All are to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

Canvassers should call the attention of those they visit to our health publications, telling them of the valuable instruction these periodicals contain regarding the care of the sick and treatment of diseases. Tell them this instruction, studied and practiced, will bring health to the family. Explain how important it is for every family to understand the science of life. Direct their minds to him who formed and who keeps in motion the wonderful machinery of the body. Tell them that it is our part to co-operate with God, caring wisely for all our faculties and organs. The proper care of the body is a great responsibility, and requires an intelligent knowledge of its parts. Tell them that God is dishonored when, for the gratification of appetite and passion, man misuses the machinery of the body, so that it does its work feebly and with difficulty. Tell them that the books you have for sale give much valuable instruction regarding health, and that by practicing this instruction, much suffering, and also much of the money spent in paying doctors' bills, will be saved. Tell them that in these books there is advice which they can not possibly obtain from their physician during the short visits he makes.

Teaching Health Principles by Example

In his association with those whom he meets, the canvasser can do much to show the value of healthful living. Instead of staying at a hotel, he should, if possible, obtain lodging with a private family. As he sits at the table with the family, let him practice the instruction given in the health works he is selling, holding up the banner of strict temperance. As opportunity is offered, let him speak of the value of a healthful diet. He should never be ashamed to say, "No, thank you; I do not eat meat." If tea is offered, let him refuse it, explaining that it is harmful, that though for a time stimulating, the stimulating effect passes off, and a corresponding depression is left. Let him explain the injurious effect of intoxicating drinks, and of tobacco, tea, and coffee, on the digestive organs and the brain.

Ministering to the Sick

As the canvasser goes from place to place, he will find many who are sick. He should have a practical knowledge of the causes of disease, and should understand how to give simple treatments, that he may relieve the suffering ones. More than this, he should pray in faith and simplicity for the sick, pointing them to the great Physician. As he thus walks and works with God, ministering angels are beside him, giving him access to hearts. What a wide field for missionary effort lies before the faithful, consecrated canvasser; what a blessing will be his in the diligent performance of his work.

A Sacred and Important Work

Young men, young women, you are called by the Master to take up his work. His requirements are too sacred to be tampered with. In the name of the Lord I ask you to conquer every unlawful appetite and passion, and to purify your souls by a belief in the truth. Overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. Discharge faithfully your obligations, looking to God for strength.

Church-members, awake to the importance of the circulation of our literature, and devote more time to this work. Place in the homes of the people papers, tracts, and books that will preach the gospel in its several lines. There is no time to be lost. Let many give themselves willingly and unselfishly to the canvassing work, and thus help to sound a warning that is greatly needed. When the church takes up her appointed work, she will go forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Mrs. E. G. White. -

Lay Members to Go Forth

There is a much greater work devolving upon the individual members of the church than they realize. They are not awake to the claims of God. The time has come when there should be devised every means that can aid in preparing a people to stand in the day of God. We must be wide awake, refusing to let precious opportunities pass unimproved. We must do all that we possibly can to win souls to love God and keep his commandments. Jesus requires this of those who know the truth. Is his demand unreasonable? Do we not have the life of Christ as our example? Do we not owe the Saviour a debt of love, of earnest, unselfish labor for the salvation of those for whom he gave his own life?

Many of the members of our large churches are doing comparatively nothing. They might accomplish a good work, if, instead of crowding together, they would scatter into places that have not yet been entered by the truth. Trees that are planted too thickly do not flourish. They are transplanted by the gardener, that they may have room to grow, and not become dwarfed and sickly. The same rule would work well for our large churches. Many of the members are dying spiritually for want of this very work. They are becoming sickly and inefficient. Transplanted, they would have room to grow strong and vigorous.

It is not the purpose of God that his people should colonize, or settle together in large communities. The disciples of Christ are his representatives upon the earth, and God designs that they shall be scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, as lights amid the darkness of the world. They are to be missionaries for God, by their faith and works testifying to the near approach of the coming Saviour.

The lay members of our churches can accomplish a work which as yet they have scarcely begun. None should move into new places merely for the sake of worldly advantage; but where there is an opening to obtain a livelihood, let families that are well-grounded in the truth enter, one or two families in a place, to work as missionaries. They should feel a love for souls, a burden of labor for them, and should study how to bring them into the truth. They can distribute our publications, hold meetings in their homes, become acquainted with their neighbors, and invite them to come to these meetings and Bible readings. Thus they can let their light shine in good works.

Let the workers stand alone in God, weeping, praying, laboring for the salvation of their fellow men. Remember that you are running a race, striving for a crown of immortality. While so many love the praise of men more than the favor of God, let it be yours to labor in humility. Learn to exercise faith in presenting your neighbors before the throne of grace, and pleading with God to touch their hearts. In this way effectual missionary work may be done. Some may be reached who would not listen to a minister or a colporteur. And those who thus labor in new places will learn the best ways and means of approaching the people, and can prepare the way for other laborers.

A precious experience may be gained by one who engages in this work. He has upon his heart the burden of the souls of his neighbors. He must have the help of Jesus. How careful he will be to walk circumspectly, that his prayers may not be hindered, that no cherished sin may separate him from God. While helping others, such a worker is himself obtaining spiritual strength and understanding, and in this humble school he may become qualified to enter a wider field.

Christ declares, "Herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." God has endowed us with faculties, and has entrusted us with talents, in order that we may use them for him. To every man is given his work,--not merely work in his fields of corn and wheat, but earnest, persevering work for the salvation of souls. Every stone in God's temple must be a living stone, a stone that shines, reflecting light to the world. Let the laymen do all that they can; and as they use the talents they already have, God will give them more grace and increased ability. Many of our missionary enterprises are crippled because there are so many who refuse to enter the doors of usefulness that are plainly opened before them. Let all who believe the truth begin to work. Do the work that lies nearest you; do anything, however humble, rather than be, like the men of Meroz, do-nothings.

We shall not be stinted for means if we will only go forward, trusting in God. The Lord is willing to do a great work for all who truly believe in him. If the lay members of the church will arouse to do the work that they can do, going a warfare at their own charges, each seeing how much he can accomplish in winning souls to Jesus, we shall see many leaving the ranks of Satan to stand under the banner of Christ. If our people will act upon the light that is given in these few words of instruction, showing that they sincerely believe the truth which they profess, we shall surely see of the salvation of God. Wonderful revivals will follow. Sinners will be converted, and many souls will be added to the church. When we bring our hearts into unity with Christ, and our lives into harmony with his work, the Spirit that fell on the disciples on the day of Pentecost will fall on us. -

Ye Are the Light of the World

Once a race of slaves amid a nation of idolaters, the Israelites were delivered from bondage, and became a light in the desert. If God's people who lived in the Old Testament dispensation were to shine out brightly upon a world of idolaters, his people who live in this age, having so many more privileges and so much greater light, should shine forth still more brightly, diffusing light everywhere.

Wherever you find a Christian, you find a shining light. In word and act he reveals the Light of life. His perceptions are not crusted with selfishness. Not having followed inclination, he does not stubbornly cling to his convictions. He perceives the truth, and is blessed by its sacred influence; he sees the verity of God's Word, and its infinite superiority to everything selfish; he sees the foolishness of following plans of human devising in the place of God's plans. His ability to see these things is from God, and qualifies him to be God's representative, to bear with authority the word of truth to others. He has been converted; he loves God supremely, and his neighbor as himself.

Shedding Abroad the Light of Truth

A truly converted man is one whose pen and purse and voice and influence are consecrated to Christ,--one whose affections are rich with tenderness and unselfishness,--one who desires to see the light of truth shed abroad, enlightening the whole world.

My brethren and sisters, the precious light of Bible truth, like a lamp that burneth, is to beam forth from you in word and work. Strive to gain a knowledge of God's Word. Stand ready to improve every possible opportunity to do good in behalf of the souls still in the darkness of error. Act your part heartily as unto the Lord in leading the sinful to see the sin-pardoning Saviour, and to lay their burden of sin at the foot of the cross. When you see them happy in the possession of a heart cleansed from sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit, your joy in the Lord will increase, and you will know that you have not lived in vain.

Try it, brethren, try it. Put your whole heart into the Lord's work. As members of Christ's church on earth, consecrate yourselves to him, planning unselfishly to help those that are nigh, and especially those that are afar off. Place yourselves in the channel of light, in order that through you light, in order that through you light may shine to souls in darkness. Of all who do this work Christ says, "Ye are the light of the world. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

A Broadening Work

The light of truth is to shine to the ends of the world. Greater and still greater light is beaming with celestial brightness from our Redeemer's face upon his representatives, to be diffused throughout the darkness of a benighted world. As laborers together with him, we should pray for the sanctification of his Spirit, in order that we may shine more and more unto the perfect day.

God has qualified his people to enlighten the world. He has entrusted men with faculties that adapt them to extend and accomplish a work that will encircle the whole world. Sanitariums, schools, printing offices, and kindred facilities are to be established in all parts of the earth. Our work has not been finished, neither at home nor abroad. In foreign countries many enterprises that require means must yet be begun and carried forward. The establishment of sanitariums for the care of the sick and suffering, is just as necessary in the "regions beyond" as in America. Let all do their best, making their boast in the Lord, and blessing others by their good works.

The Result of Unselfish Service

Christ co-operates with those who engage in medical missionary work. Men and women who unselfishly do what they can to establish sanitariums and treatment rooms in many lands will be richly rewarded. Those who visit these institutions will be benefited physically, mentally, and spiritually. The weary will be refreshed, the sick will be restored to health, and the sin-burdened will be relieved. In far-off countries thanksgiving will be heard from the lips of those whose hearts have been turned from sin to righteousness. By their songs of grateful praise a testimony will be borne that will win other souls to the truth.

A Great Work

The conversion of souls to God is the greatest work, the highest work, in which human beings can take part. In this work, God's forbearance, his unbounded love, his holiness, his power, are revealed. Every true conversion glorifies him, and causes the angels to break forth into singing. Mercy and Truth have met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other.

Upon every truly converted soul-every one who believes in Christ as the world's Redeemer--God has laid the obligation of co-operating with him who gave his life for a perishing world. To every one who is in ease in Zion, he says, Arise, and put your shoulder to the wheel. Bear spiritual burdens. Clear the atmosphere of your soul, in order that the Sun of Righteousness may shine forth through you to the people of other tongues, revealing to them a living, testing truth. Let your light so shine that those who are perishing in their sins may learn of God's goodness, mercy, and love.

The light of the truth for this time is now shining upon the cabinets of kings. The attention of statesmen is being called to the Bible,--the statute-book of the nations,--and they are comparing their national laws with its statutes. As representatives of Christ, we have no time to lose. Our efforts are not to be confined to a few places where the light has become so abundant that it is not appreciated. With unmistakable clearness the light of truth is to be revealed to many people and nations and tongues. The publications containing present truth are to be translated into many languages.

Christ's Witnesses

We are a spectacle to worlds unfallen, to angels, and to men. "Ye are my witnesses," Christ says. We should know individually and be able to tell others that every promise of God is true. It is by bearing a straightforward testimony in word and work, that we are counted as true, faithful witnesses for Christ.

My brethren and sisters, God now calls upon you to consecrate yourselves to him in willing obedience. He calls upon you to proclaim his law with fearlessness, with the intelligence with which those whose hearts are sanctified by the truth ever reveal this truth to others. The third angel's message is now to be proclaimed in every land. It is to be borne to English-speaking people, and to those of every other language. Let believers, as active recipients of God's blessing, diffuse the light of his truth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, in obedience to the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." We are not half awake to the importance of this commission. May God place the burden of the proclamation of the message upon his people now, just now, is my prayer. -

Sowing Beside All Waters

By invitation I attended the meeting held at Healdsburg in connection with the closing of the school year, May 29, 1903. I was glad to learn that teachers and students had united in dispensing with the wearisome and profitless exercises that usually attend the closing of a school, and that the energies of all, to the very close, were devoted to profitable study.

On Friday morning the certificates were quietly handed to those who were entitled to them, and then students and teachers united in an experience meeting, in which many recounted the blessings that they had freely received from God during the year.

On Sabbath morning I spoke to a large audience in the commodious meeting-house of the Healdsburg church. The students and teachers were seated in front, and I was blessed in presenting to them their responsibility as laborers together with God. The Saviour calls upon our teachers and students to render efficient service as fishers of men.

In the evening a large audience assembled in the church to listen to a musical program rendered by Brother Beardslee and his pupils. Good singing is an important part of the worship of God. I am glad that Brother Beardslee is training the students, so that they can be singing evangelists.

I was much pleased with what I saw of the school. During the past year it has made marked progress. Both teachers and students are reaching higher and still higher in the spiritual life. During the past year there have been remarkable conversions. Lost sheep have been found and brought back to the fold.

For some months we have been planning to hold grove meetings near St. Helena, Calistoga, and other places in the Napa Valley. The first one was held on Sunday, June 7, in the Hot Springs Park, at Calistoga. The conference lent us some folding chairs. The members of the Calistoga church are anxious to carry the truth to those who have not heard it, and they made thoughtful preparation for the meeting. We were confident that open-air meetings would be the means of reaching some who would not attend a service held in a church. And thus they have proved.

Although the day was oppressively warm, a goodly number were present at the meeting. The Lord gave me much freedom in speaking. The people seemed to enjoy the meeting very much, and an appointment was given out that meetings would be held in the same place the following Sabbath and Sunday. Our people gathered early Sunday morning, and spent the day together in the grove. A larger number were present on the second Sunday than on the first.

We expect to continue these open-air meetings. I believe that by them much good will be accomplished. The next one is to be held near St. Helena, if a suitable place can be found.

We desire to do all we can to warn those around us of the soon coming of the Saviour. My heart is drawn out to those who know not the truth for this time.

I hope soon to speak in the Soldiers' Home at Yountville, a place about eleven miles from here. In this Home there are more than eight hundred veterans, who are cared for by the State. For several months a company of workers from the Sanitarium church has been going there every other Sabbath to hold a song service. At first only a few of the soldiers attended the service, but now there are from seventy-five to one hundred in attendance.

Sometimes a thirty-minute talk on a Bible subject is given. At a meeting a few weeks ago the soldiers were asked if they would like to have a short Bible study after the song service. About a dozen said that they would; but when the time came to hold the study, more than fifty remained.

Last Sabbath an intelligent-looking man in the Home said to one of the workers, "Before you came here to sing for us, I spent nearly all my time in drinking and carousing with my companions. But since you have been coming, I have found a better way of spending my time. I have given up liquor drinking, and am reading 'The Desire of Ages.'"

A few weeks ago about twenty of the children from our church school here went to the Home to sing for the soldiers. They had been carefully trained by their teacher, and they sang well. The soldiers were greatly pleased, and asked that the children come again.

Reading-matter is freely distributed to the soldiers. Many are interested, and those in charge of the Home recognize the good work that is being done. This work must be carried forward. The Lord looks with loving pity upon the aged men in such institutions. I fully believe that many who are now indifferent will be won to Christ.

Opportunities for Service

God expects those who claim to be his children to bring others to him. I wish that all our people could see the many doors that are opening before them. Beside all waters the seeds of truth are to be sown. To all the world -- to every nation and kindred and tongue and people -- the message is to be proclaimed. If those who have received the light of present truth would have a living faith in Christ, if they would realize that they are to be his workers, wholly consecrated to his service, what a work might be done! When God's people surrender themselves unreservedly to him, they will use every power of mind and body to his glory; and his work will make rapid advancement.

The things that concern our eternal welfare are now to absorb our attention. We can not afford to give heavenly things the second place. Christ says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

A Closing Work

As I hear of the terrible calamities that from week to week are taking place in the world, I ask myself, What do these things mean? Are they permitted to come to arouse those who are transgressing the law of God? The most awful disasters, by fire and flood, are following one another in quick succession. The judgments of God are in the land. They speak in solemn warning, saying, "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."

There are many, many in our churches who know little of the real meaning of the truth for this time. I appeal to them not to disregard the fulfilling of the signs of the times, which say so plainly that the end is near. O how many who have not sought their soul's salvation will soon make the bitter lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved"!

We are living in the closing scenes of this earth's history. Prophecy is rapidly fulfilling. The hours of probation are fast passing. We have no time -- not a moment -- to lose. Let us not be found sleeping on guard. Let no one say in his heart or by his works, "My Lord delayeth his coming." Let the message of Christ's soon return sound forth in earnest words of warning. Let us persuade men and women everywhere to repent, and flee from the wrath to come. Let us arouse them to immediate preparation; for we little know what is before us. Let ministers and lay members go forth into the ripening fields. They will find their harvest wherever they proclaim the forgotten truths of the Bible. They will find those who will accept the truth, and who will devote their lives to winning souls to Christ.

Homeward Bound

The Lord is soon to come, and we must be prepared to meet him in peace. Let us be determined to do all in our power to impart light to those around us. We are not to be sad, but cheerful, and we are to keep the Lord Jesus ever before us. He is coming soon, and we must be ready and waiting for his appearing. O how glorious it will be to see him, and be welcomed as his redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our faith is not to become weak. If we can but see the King in his beauty, we shall be forever and forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud, "Homeward bound." We are nearing the time when Christ will come with power and great glory, to take his ransomed ones to their eternal home. -

The Sign of Discipleship

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

"As I have loved you." The crowning act in the sacrifice of love was yet to come. Soon, in the scenes of the Saviour's betrayal, trial, and crucifixion the disciples were to see the measure of his love. They were to see him hanging on the cross in dying agony, bearing the sins of the world. In this, and in his resurrection and ascension, they were to see a love so broad and deep that all doubt as to the meaning of the new commandment would be swept away. The knowledge of the Saviour's matchless love for them was to bind them heart to heart, preparing the way for the Lord to anoint them with his Spirit. United by this love, they were to go forth to witness with convincing power to the divinity of their Leader. And their Christlike love for one another was to be the sign of their discipleship.

How much of this love have we shown for one another? Might we not better begin without delay to love one another as Christ has loved us? Would we not then be a power for good in the world? "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

Weakening the Influence of Truth

I wish to speak of some things that have been represented to me as taking place in assemblies of God's people. Some have taken offense at things entirely unworthy of notice, and have dishonored God by giving way to the feelings of the unsubdued heart. They have misinterpreted the truth, and weakened its influence. They have strengthened Satan's kingdom; for church-members who speak words that stir up strife are doing Satan's work much more effectively than his own subjects.

O my brethren, why are you so easily irritated? Why do you so readily separate from one another? Do you realize that your hasty words are written in the books of heaven, to receive the same punishment as the words of the profane man? The same spirit that led him to swear led you to speak words that stirred up strife in the assembly of God's people. Remember that by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.

O that those who are proclaiming the most solemn message ever given to the world would realize how greatly their influence is weakened when they are suspicious of their brethren, when they allow angry words to pass their lips! The displeasure of God rests upon every one who speaks harsh, unkind words. Nothing so dishonors the Lord Jesus as a readiness on the part of church-members to take offense when something occurs to displease them. The conversion of unbelievers depends on the distinctness with which Christ is revealed in the lives of believers. When our hearts are filled with love and compassion, when our conduct toward one another is marked by Christlike tenderness and courtesy, then our words will have power to convict souls.

"That They All May Be One"

The Holy Spirit is to rest upon God's children. This is the Lord's will and plan. But this can never be until they seek for unity, forgetting self in the desire to extend his kingdom. The Saviour's prayer for his followers is, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

It is the unity of Christ's followers that convinces the world that God has indeed sent his Son to die for sinners, to make them partakers of his perfection, changing the sinful heart, and forming the character after the divine likeness. Christ declares, "There shall be one fold, and one shepherd." He came to our world to live the life that was to be the pattern for all his children. He came to reveal the love that was to bind them heart to heart. And he made unity the badge of their discipleship.

Our Trust

God's people are to be united in the accomplishment of one great work. They are to make a combined effort of consecration. By a tender, respectful regard for one another, they are to cherish the influence that works for the recovery of sinners. As good soldiers of the cross they are to strive to win sinners to loyalty. Righteous principles gain more and more power over the life as their influence is allowed to soften and subdue the natural, untamed disposition. This is the mystery of godliness.

We are living in the testing time. God is proving his people, to see who are worthy of admittance into his family. He desires his followers to carry out the instruction contained in the seventeenth chapter of John. The practice of this instruction is to begin in the home. God measures church-members by what they are in the home. When Christ's words are obeyed in the home, the influence extends to the church. Grieve not the Spirit of God from your home by an unchristlike course of action. Work the works of Christ in the home. Then your lamp, burning brightly and clearly, will give light to those in darkness. Have you accepted your trust? Does your light so shine before men that they, seeing your good works, glorify your Heavenly Father?

Parents should make the Word of God their study. Their first work should be to interest their children in the holy, uplifting truths of this Word. Then in turn the children will become instruments in the Lord's hands for interesting and instructing others. Thus the truth works with power to win souls to Christ.

Enlarging God's Kingdom

Those who accept the truth are pledged by their baptismal vows to live the truth before the world. As soon as men and women come to a knowledge of the truth, they are to use their powers in shedding abroad the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. God wants his people to be light-bearers. As Christians multiply their talents by use, the church becomes the light of the world.

A living church is a working church. It is the do-nothing position of those who profess to be converted that robs the church of its vitality. Souls are to be saved, and those who claim to know the truth, yet who do not make any effort to win sinners to Christ, will sooner or later be revealed as spiritual dwarfs. God calls for workers who will unite their varied gifts in laboring for him. His people must show missionary courtesy, missionary hospitality, missionary zeal. He has grace for every worker.

God's servants are to make use of every resource for enlarging his kingdom. The apostle Paul, a faithful steward of the grace of God, declares that it is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." And James says, "Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Every member of the church is pledged to unite with his brethren in giving the invitation, "Come; for all things are now ready." Each is to encourage the other in doing a whole-souled work. Earnest invitations will come from a living church. Thirsty souls will be led to the water of life. -

Our Work at the Nation's Capital

"Elmshaven," Sanitarium, Cal.,

July 5, 1903.

My Dear Brethren and Sisters in America: For some time I have been strongly impressed that decided efforts should be put forth to proclaim the testing truths of the third angel's message in the city of Washington, the capital of the American nation. It is a sad thing that our record stands as it does, showing so little accomplished in this city. If there is any place in the world that should have the full rays of present truth, it is Washington, the city that is the very heart of this nation. Those who act a prominent part in framing laws for the nation should understand what is written in the law of God, which lies at the foundation of all right laws.

There has been on the part of our people a great neglect of stewardship. God has looked with displeasure on the neglect that has been shown to this city. He has given us the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the word."

O, how much we lose by failing to do as Christ has instructed us to do! In the first chapter of Acts are recorded special directions that Christ gave to his disciples in regard to proclaiming the gospel. "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

After this the disciples were filled with holy boldness; for had they not the assurance that Jesus would be with them always? They knew they had a Friend at court.

"Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren."

"When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

"And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven . . . Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians."

In the days of the apostles, Jerusalem was a great center of influence, and in this place light from heaven was to shine in its most powerful rays upon the Lord's witnesses who were to bear the gospel message.

Read the whole of the second chapter of Acts, and see if you are not convinced that there has been a decided failure to understand that one of our first duties is to make at the nation's capital a special representation of the truth for this time. Why did we so long pass by Washington, neglecting to establish one signal memorial in this city? Let us determine that we will no longer be unfaithful stewards of this part of the Lord's vineyard.

Our brethren in Washington have been favored in finding properties suitable to use in carrying on various lines of our work. This is a fulfillment of the light given me, that in different sections of the country we should be able to secure, at low prices, properties that could be utilized for our institutional work. In Washington a few months ago a meeting-house, in good condition, and admirably adapted to the needs of our work, was offered for sale at a price much below its first cost, and was purchased by our people there. I am glad that this church is so nearly paid for.

Since medical missionary work, when carried on as God has appointed, is indeed the helping hand of the third angel's message, we should without delay take advantage of the favorable openings for beginning this work in the vicinity of Washington. If there is one place above another where a sanitarium should be established, and where gospel work should be done, it is in this city. We can not estimate how great an influence would have gone forth from Washington in favor of the truth had a sanitarium been established there twenty years ago.

Our printing plant in Battle Creek is to be moved. In searching for a favorable place for this institution, let our brethren investigate the advantages that might be gained by a removal to Washington. Our publishing house should be situated where its influence will accomplish the most in the promulgation of truth. The Lord will guide us in the selection of a place for this institution. We will let him work out his purposes.

Above all other places, the capital of our nation should now have an opportunity to hear the message for this time. Satan is working there against Jehovah with all his might. I present this to you as a matter that is stirring me mightily. One thing is certain, we shall not be clear unless we at once do something in Washington to represent our work. I shall not be able to rest until I see the truth going forth from this place as a lamp that burneth. We are many years behind in giving the message of warning in this city. Again and again the Lord has presented Washington to me as a place that has been strangely neglected. In looking through my diaries, I have found some things that I wrote more than twelve years ago in regard to the work in Washington, and the necessity of establishing there some memorial for God. The following was written March 12, 1891:--

"Nearly the entire day I have been entertaining visitors who desired counsel. Brother Robinson, superintendent of the New York and Washington district, came in company with Brother Wright to consult with me in regard to the advisability of building a church in Washington, D. C., combining a church, a mission home, and a reading-room in one building, to cost probably twenty-five thousand dollars. They proposed to invite our brethren all over the field to give one hundred dollars each toward this enterprise.

"When we were in Washington during the week of prayer, I had made a similar suggestion to Elder Washburn, saying that as the situation appeared to me, important interests should be established in this city. I could see no better way of letting the light shine forth from the very seat of government, the capital of the nation. It seems strange that some memorial of present truth has not been established there before. I advised that a meeting-house be built.

"The brethren of the Washington City church are poor, and while they will do all that they can, they are not able to carry the whole burden. The church must be located in a desirable part of the city. The purchase of a suitable lot and the erection of a plain but large, well-ventilated, and skillfully constructed building--something that will stand as an object lesson of neatness and thoroughness--will require a considerable sum.

"Other visitors came in, and I closed this interview in regard to the work in Washington." -

In my diary of 1889--fourteen years ago--I find precious matter in regard to entering new fields. I will quote a few paragraphs:--

"True missionary workers will not colonize. God's people are to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The investment of large sums of money in one place is not in the order of God. Plants are to be made in many places. Schools and sanitariums are to be established in places where there is now nothing to represent the truth. These interests are not to be established for the purpose of making money, but for the purpose of spreading the truth. . . .

"The principles of present truth are to become more widespread. There are those who are reasoning from a wrong point of view. Because it is more convenient to have the work centered in one place, they are in favor of crowding everything together in one locality. Great evil is the result. Places that should be helped are left destitute.

"What can I say to our people that will lead them to follow the course that will be for their present and future good? Will not those in Battle Creek heed the light given them by God? Will they not deny self, lift the cross, and follow Jesus? Will they not obey the call of their Leader to leave Battle Creek, and build up interests in other places? . . .

"It is not God's plan for our people to crowd into Battle Creek. God says: `Go work to-day in my vineyard. Get away from the places where you are not needed. Plant the standard of truth in towns and cities that have not heard the message. Prepare the way for my coming. Those in the highways and hedges are to hear the call.'

"God will make the wilderness a sacred place, as his people, filled with the missionary spirit, go forth to make centers for his work, to establish sanitariums, where the sick and afflicted can be cared for, and schools, where the youth can be educated in right lines. . . .

"There is a great work to be done. All around us are souls perishing in sin. Are we doing what we can to save them? The commission given to the disciples is given to us, and to us also is promised the power promised to them,--the power that they received on the day of Pentecost, when, like a rushing, mighty wind, the Holy Spirit came down and filled the room in which they were sitting. Under the influence of this power, they went everywhere, preaching the word, and thousands were converted." -

What a work might have been accomplished, if we had done our duty years ago! Can we stand clear in the sight of God, if we now fail of understanding our duty? The Lord calls on us to awake to a realization of the opportunities presented before us to let our light shine in the city of Washington, by establishing there memorials that will hasten forward the proclamation of the third angel's message to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Let us take hold of the arm of infinite power. Let us walk humbly before God, but let us be giants in meeting discouragement and difficulty. We must have increased faith. Let us praise God. He is our strength, our shield, and our defense, our front-guard and our rearward. Ellen G. White. -

Our Duty Toward the Lord's Institution

I have a proposition to make to my brethren and sisters in regard to the stock that we have in the Review and Herald Publishing Company. The money that we invested in this institution was given to the work of the Lord. It was intelligently and wisely consecrated to a sacred work. Were it possible for me now to withdraw the offering that I made in former years to the Lord's instrumentality for the publication of the truth, would I do it?--Never, never, never! Instead, I will make additional investments as soon as the work is reorganized, so that its original purposes may be more perfectly fulfilled.

Let the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. The lawyers will make no trouble unless our own people stir them up to create difficulties. I appeal to our brethren who love the advent message and the institutions established to promulgate this message, to use their influence and means to sustain and help forward every movement being made to place the first and largest publishing house that we have, in such a position that it will be as a city set on a hill.

Let us take our position firmly and loyally on the side of the men who are laboring to follow the light given from the Lord, and to work out the matter as proposed by the General Conference. Let us give no place to the selfish plans or selfish motives that may suggest themselves in connection with this work.

Why should any one try to hinder the moving of our publishing work to one of the world's great centers of influence? Why should men demand the return of their investment in stock if this is done? If God had not first given us the money, we could not have purchased the stock. The money invested in the Review and Herald is God's money, and those who have placed it there should allow it to remain. Should any one plead necessity as a reason for withdrawing his stock, I could plead necessity also--and I might say that my necessity is real. But should I withdraw my gift from the altar, I could not expect the blessing of God to rest upon me. If it were possible to do so, I would not remove one dollar of the money that I invested in the office of publication. I placed the money there when the office needed it, and now, in view of the great loss that the institution has sustained, God forbid that I should, for selfish advantage, do anything that would cripple the work, or that would open the way for lawyers to make their power felt.

When the publishing house is established away from Battle Creek, I shall do all in my power to build it up, and to encourage those connected with it to carry forward the work of the Lord, exalting the principles of right higher and still higher.

The office will not be able to pay high wages to the workers; for to start the work in a new place will mean great expense. Let the workers maintain the simplicity of Christ. Let them practice self-denial, bearing the cross after Jesus. I call upon them to think of the loss that the publishing house has sustained, and to share in its affliction. If they do this, they will gain a precious experience. Let them do what they can to help.

Let no one connect himself with the publishing house to gain advantage for himself. If those who enter the employ of this institution from this time forward do so with a determination to help rather than to be helped, the books of heaven will bear witness to their unselfish action.

Let us do what we can to set the publishing house on its feet again. Let our people everywhere show a liberal spirit. In past years our brethren throughout the field have done a noble work by lending their means to our publishing institutions. Let this good work continue. The time to help in the work is when earnest efforts are being made to put the work on a right basis.

For years the Review Office held my note for several thousand dollars invested in the issue of books. Since the fire I have made special efforts to pay the last of this, and I shall endeavor to place money on deposit in the institution. Brethren, this is a time to show who are the true friends of the publishing work. Let no one endeavor to withdraw his stock from the Review and Herald. It would not be right to do this. The money that we invested in stock was the Lord's gift to us, and our gift to the institution. Shall we not now do a work that bears the approval of God? Let us bring the principles of the gospel into practice. Let your religion speak, saying, The money in the office of publication is a gift that I made to the institution, and I do not feel at liberty, now that disaster has come to the institution, to withdraw my gift. Wrongs have been done in the institution, but it is not my place to mete out punishment. The Lord has taken this matter in his own hands. I must do all that I can to place the institution on vantage ground.

God's love will be bestowed on his people if they will do as Jesus did, if they will deny self and lift the cross. Christ took our infirmities, and we are to bear one another's burdens. We read of Christ, "When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them." These words are the key to his life-work. We are to reveal in our lives the compassion that he revealed. -

An Open Letter

Sanitarium, Cal., July 5, 1903. My Dear Brethren: Our people far and near need to ask themselves how the Lord regards their neglect of important centers in America. There are many places in this country in which the truth has never been proclaimed. Many years ago there should have been a sanitarium in Washington,. D. C. But men have chosen their way in many things, and the places to which the truth should have found entrance, by the establishment of medical missionary work, have been neglected.

The Lord has opened this matter to me decidedly. The publishing work that has been carried on in Battle Creek should for the present be carried on near Washington. If after a time the Lord says, Move away from Washington, we are to move. We are pilgrims and strangers in this earth, seeking a better country, even a heavenly. When the Lord tells us to move, we are to obey, however inconvenient and inconsistent such a command may seem to us to be.

How shall we answer to God, I ask, for failing to proclaim the truth for this time in the capital of our nation? A representation should have been made there of our truth that would favorably have impressed those who have so much to do with framing the nation's laws.

Why have not those who have taken a leading part in medical missionary work been burdened to carry to Washington the message of temperance in eating, drinking, and dressing? There would have been less difficulty in giving the message in this place than in some other places.

There are many places that need gospel medical missionary work. Plants should be made in these places. God designs that our sanitariums shall be a means of reaching high and low, rich and poor. They are to be so conducted that by their work attention will be called to the message that God has sent to the world. Many will not heed the call of mercy; nevertheless it is to be given to all, that whosoever will may come to the water of life and drink.

"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

The truth for this time is to be proclaimed in all parts of the world. If men and women fail to act their part, God will give voices to the stones, and they will proclaim the warning.

May God help us to give the stirring message for this time. We have no time now to amuse ourselves with the enemy's sophistry, or to apologize for his work. My brethren, keep off Satan's ground. Do not tamper with what you ought to denounce firmly and boldly in words the meaning of which can not be mistaken. If you tempt Satan to tempt you, you will most assuredly be deceived by his reasoning. If you tamper with that which you ought to denounce, you will fall victims to your own ignorance and folly.

God's Word portrays the fate of those who receive not his warnings. They receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Retribution for past sins comes upon them. Their feet are so entangled in inconsistencies that they can not discern at what they stumble.

The gospel of Christ Jesus is of heavenly force. The message for this time is a most decided one. I call upon those to whom God has entrusted his work not to link their arms in the arm of Satan. Do not allow him to make a confidant of you. Keep away from his specious devices. We have great and solemn truths to give to the world, and they are to be proclaimed in no hesitating, limping style. The trumpet is to give a certain sound. Some will come to hear the strange message out of curiosity; others, with a longing to receive true knowledge, asking the question, "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

Thus men came to Christ. And mingling with his hearers were angels in the form of men, making their suggestions, criticizing, misapplying, and misinterpreting the Saviour's words. Christ presented the truth in the form of parables. This was the only way in which he could rebuke sin without causing personal offense.

In this time evil angels in the form of men will talk with those who know the truth. They will misinterpret and misconstrue the statements of the messengers of God.

The question is asked, Why is it that hearts are not moved by the proclamation of the gospel of Christ?--It is because Satan is linked up with the religionists of to-day. Good seed is sown in the hearts of the hearers, but the soil was not prepared, and the seed does not spring up to bear fruit. The enemy comes with his suggestions and insinuations, and the words of life that were spoken lose their force.

Many will hear the message, but will refuse to heed; nevertheless the warning is to be given to all in clear, plain tones. Not only is the truth to be presented in public assemblies; house-to-house work is to be done. Let this work go forward in the name of the Lord. Those who engage in it have the heavenly angels as their companions. They will resist the attacks made by the enemy on those who are co-operating with God.

Christ has a message to give to the world through his messengers, which, if received, would change the character of society entirely. The wilderness of thorns and thistles would be changed into a garden of beautiful flowers and fruit-bearing trees.

Christ has laid down the conditions of acceptable service. "He that loveth his life shall lose it," he says; "and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor."

It is Christ's method of serving that is of value in God's sight. The service of those who serve in the world's way is worthless; for it is all for self. The selfishness of human nature takes control. They do not serve as Christ has given them example.

Let us study the life and death of Christ. Let us do all in our power to work out the plan of God. What tongue can tell, what pen unfold, the mighty results of looking to Jesus and living his life! How few of those claiming to be Christians have any real right to that sacred name!

Satan watches eagerly to find Christians off their guard. O that the followers of Christ would remember that eternal vigilance is the price of eternal life! Many have a slumbering faith. Unless they are invigorated, revived, quickened into action, their souls will be lost.

Self must die, and Christ must be enthroned in the heart as all and in all. The thoughts must be stayed on him. Then the life will be an honor to his name. The soul will receive power from on high to resist Satan's specious devisings.

Have Seventh-day Adventists forgotten the warning given in the sixth chapter of Ephesians? We are engaged in a warfare against the hosts of darkness. Unless we follow our Leader closely, Satan will obtain the victory over us.

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ellen G. White. -

Words of Counsel

Healdsburg, Cal., July 6, 1903. My Dear Brethren and Sisters: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

"But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?"

Will not the brethren and sisters of the Battle Creek church, and of the churches in every other place, remember that they are working as for eternity? Will not they obey the injunctions of God's Word, the teachings of which are to be brought into the life-practice as spiritual food?

"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Ellen G. White. -

A Worldwide Message

God has a controversy with those of His people who have means bound up in homes and in land or in speculation. He calls upon them to put this means into circulation in His cause, that it may do its work of preparing the way for the coming of Christ. How heavy the weight of guilt resting on those who fail to do all in their power to extend the kingdom of God in our world!

We are living in the last days of this earth's history, and to all who claim to believe the truth comes the call, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Believers are not to colonize in any place. It is a sin in the sight of God for those who know the truth to settle down as has been done in Battle Creek, and then refuse to see that the time has come to change the base of operations, because there are other parts of the vineyard in need of help.

As the Lord has presented these things before me, I have presented them to those for whom they were given. The stand that has been taken against God's plain warning may make it very hard to move away from Battle Creek. But I give the warning that just as surely as men stand in the way of God's providence, so surely will the rod of His providence fall again in Battle Creek.

Money is tied up in Battle Creek that is greatly needed in the Southern field and in other needy places. Many years have passed since the word of the Lord came to us, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." Why is there such a determined refusal to obey this word? Clearly and distinctly are the directions given. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

The principles of truth were given by Christ, not to bless a few places only, as those who have lost their first love seem to think, but to bless every place. The world is to hear the message, and every year's delay makes the work more intricate and dangerous.

The Lord will put new, vital force into His work as human agencies obey the command to go forth and proclaim the truth. A class will be reached whose senses are not blinded, and they will discern the signs of the times. They will be alarmed at the failure to obey the word of the Lord, and will establish the truth in many places. A work now left undone will be carried forward. He who declared that His truth would shine forever will proclaim this truth through faithful messengers, who will give the trumpet a certain sound. The truth will be criticized, and scorned, and derided; but the closer it is examined and tested, the brighter it will shine.

A Revival of the Old Truths The old truths, given us at the beginning, are to be heralded far and near. The lapse of time has not lessened their value. It is the constant effort of the enemy to remove these truths from their setting, and to put in their place spurious theories. But the Lord will raise up men of keen perception, who with clear vision will discern the intrigues of Satan, and will give these truths their proper place in the plan of God.

Christ came to implant in the minds of men the great truths of which few knew the value. The Jewish nation had discarded truth for tradition. Christ declared to them, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

He spoke as one having authority, and not as the scribes, in a hesitating, uncertain manner. With calmness and power He proclaimed the living principles of truth, making them more forcible by His manner of presenting them. He could read and understand the policy of Satan,--his desire to cover truth with the rubbish of superstition and tradition. He rescued truth, and gave it to the world, clothed with more than its original glory and luster.

At this time there is need of men of sharp spiritual eyesight, who can discern truth from error. The first, second, and third angels' messages are to be proclaimed with no faltering hesitancy, but with power from on high. We know in whom we have believed. We know that as we obey His word to us, He will give to our words power that will convict and convert souls.

To Every Man His Work Each one has been given his work. Let no one be anxious to investigate the work of another. To such ones Christ says, as He said to Peter, "What is that to thee? follow thou Me."

"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He said, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

God's servants are to labor in perfect harmony. Contention brings alienation and strife and discord. I am instructed that our churches have no need to spend their time in strife. When a spirit of contention struggles for the supremacy, call a halt, and make things right, else Christ will come quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of its place. Let an earnest work of repentance be done. Let the Spirit of God search through mind and heart, and cleanse away all that hinders the needed reformation. Until this is done, God can not bestow on us His power and grace. And while we are without His power and grace, men will stumble and fall, and will not know at what they stumble.

The love of Christ is the bond that is to unite believers heart to heart and mind to mind.

What Choice Shall We Make? The blood of Christ has been shed for the whole human family. None need be lost. Those who are lost will perish because they chose to forfeit an eternity of bliss for the satisfaction of having their own way. This was Satan's choice, and to-day his work and his kingdom testify to the character of his choice. The crime and misery that fill our world, the horrible murders that are of daily occurrence, are the fruit of man's submission to Satan's principles.

My brethren, read the book of Revelation from beginning to end, and ask yourselves whether you might not better spend less time in strife and contention, and begin to think of how fast we are approaching the last great crisis. Those who seek to make it appear that there is no special meaning attached to the judgments that the Lord is now sending upon the earth will soon be forced to understand that which now they do not choose to understand.

The time before Christ's coming is short. We know not the exact measure of it, but God knows the hour of Christ's coming. Soon the consequences of transgression will become to wrong-doers a living reality; for God's judgments will fall upon a disobedient world. Before the minds of sinners will be brought vividly the realization that sin is the transgression of the law of God.

The powers from beneath are working with intensity of effort. Soon will come the time when God will discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. Soon will come the time of which John writes: "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Day by day we are deciding whether the future will bring to us eternal life or eternal death. Only by a union with Christ, whose property we are by creation and by redemption, can we win eternal life. He gave His life as a propitiation for man's sin, but His sacrifice avails only for those who accept Him as their Saviour. Only to those who become one with Him can the words be applied, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy."

In the message to the church at Sardis two parties are presented--those who have a name to live, but are dead; and those who are striving to overcome. Study this message, found in the third chapter of Revelation. "These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God." Who are meant by those that are ready to die? and what has made them thus? The explanation is given, "I have not found thy works perfect before God." "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels."

To the church of the present day this message is sent. I call upon our church members to read the whole of the third chapter of Revelation, and to make an application of it. The message to the church of the Laodiceans applies especially to the people of God to-day. It is a message to professing Christians who have become so much like the world that no difference can be seen.

"These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

Christ came to this world as the great medical missionary. When His example is followed, medical missionary work will be carried forward on a much higher plane than it is at the present time. God calls for a reconversion among gospel teachers, and especially among physicians and other medical missionary workers, that Christ may not be misrepresented and put to shame. The cleansing must begin in the heart and mind, and flow forth in the actions. The characters of our medical missionary workers need to be refined and ennobled. This result can be brought about only as these workers are made partakers of the divine image, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust.

My brethren and sisters, study your Bibles. Eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. Receive into your hearts the words of life, that they may refine and purify and ennoble the whole being. Do not stop with half-way measures. It is too late in the day for this. You can not serve God and mammon.

Follow Me, and I Will Make You Fishers of Men

"And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

"Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

Prostrating himself, and clinging to the Saviour's knees, Peter begged Jesus to depart from him. He acknowledged that he was a sinful man. With great force there came to his mind the conviction that he was in the presence of the long-looked-for Messiah; and although he said to Christ, "Depart from me," he did not really desire him to go away; he still clung to the Saviour's knees, as if he could not be parted from him. "And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."

When they had brought their ships to land, Peter and his companions forsook all, and followed Jesus. Thus were these humble fishermen called by the God of heaven to their life-work.

The Secret of Successful Ministry Every one who in living faith follows Jesus, with an eye single to his glory, will see of the salvation of God just as surely as these discouraged fishermen saw their boats filled by the miraculous draught. It was because Christ was in the ship that they were successful in their efforts to catch fish. The indwelling presence of the Saviour is equally necessary in the work of winning souls.

In order to save the fallen race, Christ, the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, laid aside his royal robe and kingly crown, clothed his divinity with humanity, and came to this earth as our Redeemer. Here he lived as a man among men, meeting the temptations that we must meet, and overcoming through strength from above. By his sinless life he demonstrated that through the power of God it is possible for man to withstand Satan's temptations.

We may endeavor to resist temptation in our own strength, doing our best to overcome; but we shall meet with disappointment after disappointment. And thus it is in our efforts to win men and women to the Saviour. Dependence on our own wisdom will result in repeated failure, causing us much anxiety and sorrow. This was the condition of mind in which Christ found the fishermen on the shore of the sea of Galilee, after their night of unrewarded labor.

Long had the fishermen toiled that night; often had they been disappointed, as time and again the net was drawn up empty. But now, at the bidding of the divine One, they launched out into the deep, and once more cast their net into the sea. And what an abundance of fish they gathered! The sight of the miraculous draught swept away their unbelief, and they were ready to respond to Christ's invitation to follow him, and learn to be fishers of men.

The breaking net, the sinking ship, the surprise and gratitude of Peter and his companions, their willingness to follow the Saviour and to do his bidding--all these are object lessons for us in the work of soul saving. However long and faithfully we may toil in our human strength, we can hope for no results for good; but as soon as we welcome Christ into the heart, he works with and through us, for the salvation of souls.

God has promised to co-operate with those who choose to labor in harmony with his purpose. We are to do our utmost to act our part faithfully, in order that he may demonstrate to the world what he can do through us. By baptism, we declared that, being dead to the world, we would henceforth remember that our life is "hid with Christ in God," and that we have taken our position on the exalted platform of truth, there to work in unison with the hand that never fails.

"We are laborers together with God." It is God that gives success to human endeavor. Without his presence with us, our efforts would amount to nothing. We are simply channels through which his blessings flow to our fellow beings. From every one in whose heart Christ is an abiding presence, will go forth a power that will influence others to accept the Saviour as their Redeemer.

The Training of Missionaries Parents, train your children to become workers with you in the church. Educate them to take delight in the thought of being workers together with God. Impress upon their minds the fact that as they grow older, their opportunities for service will enlarge, and their power and ability will proportionately increase. Let them understand that those who give themselves to God will become channels of blessing to others who know him not. Teach them how to have power to prevail with God. If this were done faithfully by every parent, we should see consecrated workers everywhere.

I hope that many of those who are receiving an education in our schools, will go forth as missionaries accepted of God. I have faith to believe that he will work upon the hearts of teachers and students, and that they will be clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness.

Opportunities for Service To us is given the commission, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Are we preparing ourselves to engage in evangelistic house-to-house, work?

When school closes, there will be opportunity for many to go out into the field as evangelistic canvassers. The faithful colporteur finds his way into many homes, where he leaves precious reading-matter containing the truth for this time.

The Distribution of Literature We should treat as a sacred treasure every line of printed matter containing present truth. Even the fragments of a pamphlet or of a periodical should be regarded as of value. Who can estimate the influence that a torn page containing the truths of the third angel's message may have upon the heart of some seeker after truth? Let us remember that somebody would be glad to read all the books and papers we can spare. Every page is a ray of light from heaven, to shine into the highways and the hedges, shedding light upon the pathway of truth.

In the miracle of feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fishes, the food was increased as it passed from Christ to those who accepted it. Thus it will be in the distribution of our publications. God's truth, as it is passed out, will multiply greatly. And as the disciples by Christ's direction gathered up the fragments which remained, that nothing should be lost, so we should treasure every fragment of literature containing the truth for this time.

The Ministry of Song I am glad that a musical element has been brought into the Healdsburg school. In every school, instruction in singing is greatly needed. There should be much more interest in voice culture than is now generally manifested. Students who have learned to sing sweet gospel songs with melody and distinctness, can do much good as singing evangelists. They will find many opportunities to use the talent that God has given them, carrying melody and sunshine into many lonely places darkened by sin and sorrow and affliction, singing to those who seldom have church privileges.

Students, go out into the highways and the hedges. Endeavor to reach the higher as well as the lower classes. Enter the homes of the rich and the poor, and as you have opportunity, ask, "Would you be pleased to have us sing? We should be glad to hold a song service with you." Then as hearts are softened, the way may open for you to offer a few words of prayer for the blessing of God. Not many will refuse.

Such ministry is genuine missionary work. God desires every one of us to be converted, and to learn to engage in missionary effort in earnest. He will bless us in this service for others, and we shall see of his salvation.

Our High Calling Students, educate yourselves to speak in the language of Canaan, the language spoken in the heavenly school by the members of the royal family. Sternly determine to put away all foolish talking and jesting, all selfish amusements. By faith grasp God's promises, and determine that you will be Christians here below, while preparing for translation.

If you strip yourselves of every hindrance to progress in the Christian life, your minds will be worked by the Holy Spirit, and you will become indeed "fishers of men." The salvation of God will go forth from you as a lamp that burneth. If your own hearts are filled with light from above, you have the privilege, wherever you may be, of shedding light upon those who are in darkness. Continuing steadfast in God's service unto the end, you will be granted an abundant entrance through the pearly gates into the heavenly city, where you will be greeted with the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Divine Sonship

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

In this scripture are portrayed Christian privileges that are comprehended by but comparatively few. Every one should become familiar with the blessings that God has offered us in his Word. He has given us many assurances as to what he will do for us. And all that he has promised is made possible by Christ's sacrifice in our behalf.

John the Baptist bore witness of the One through whom we may become sons and daughters of God. "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

Divine sonship is not something that we may gain of ourselves. Only to those who receive Christ as their Saviour is given the power to become sons and daughters of God. The sinner can not, by any power of his own, rid himself of sin. For the accomplishment of this result, he must look to a higher Power. John exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ alone has power to cleanse the heart. He who is seeking for forgiveness and acceptance can say only,--

"Nothing in my hand I bring;

Simply to thy cross I cling."

But the promise of sonship is made to all who "believe on his name." Every one who comes to Jesus in faith will receive pardon. As soon as the penitent one looks to the Saviour for help to turn from sin, the Holy Spirit begins his transforming work upon the heart. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." What an incentive to greater effort this should be to all who are trying to set the hope of the gospel before those who are still in the darkness of error.

Our Hope in the Gospel How thankful we should be for the blessings offered us; for the hope we have in the gospel; for the sacrifice which Christ made in order that we might have these blessings! He, the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, laid aside his royal robe and kingly crown, clothed his divinity with humanity, and came to this earth to stand at the head of humanity. After his crucifixion and resurrection, he ascended to heaven, but he went as our elder brother, to intercede in our behalf. By a life of self-sacrifice and a death of shame, he redeemed us, and he now stands before the Father as our Advocate, the propitiation for the sins of every repentant one who receives him and believes on his name. With his human arm he encircles the fallen race, while with his divine arm he grasps the throne of the Infinite. No matter how weak the sinner may be; no matter how many or how great may have been his transgressions, the Saviour will accept him. Christ loves every member of the human race; for he has bought them all with a price;--and what a price!

Christ would have given his life, even if he had known that only the little company before whom I am standing to-day would be saved at last. Yes; if there had been but one member of our little company that could have been saved, he would have given his life as a ransom for that one. How incomprehensible is his infinite love!

Tempted in all Points Like as we Are Our Saviour passed over the same ground on which Adam fell. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He never yielded to temptation; and yet, in withstanding the assaults of the enemy, he exercised no power that is not granted us. He might have come to this earth accompanied by a vast retinue of angels; but he came unattended, to dwell with the poor and the lowly. Throughout his life he was sorely tried. On every hand he was beset with temptation. He endured every affliction that we are called to endure. "In all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."

Dear friends, did Christ come to this earth in order that you might receive and enjoy the riches of the world?--No, no. He came that you might have life eternal in the kingdom of God. He came that you might live the life that measures with the life of God; that in the courts of heaven, where there is neither sorrow nor death, you might dwell forever with Christ and the angels.

With these thoughts in mind, can we not appreciate a little more fully the words: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

Partakers of the Divine Nature God's purpose for us is that we shall be partakers of the divine nature. Only thus can we overcome the evils that beset us. It is by beholding Christ that we are made partakers of his nature. Keeping him ever in view, we are changed into his likeness. Thus we gain strength to overcome as he overcame. God does not ask us to fight the battle against sin in our own strength. He has given Christ to be our helper in every time of need. The Saviour knows all about our trials and difficulties. Let us lay them at his feet, and trust him to lead us aright.

Let every professed Christian search his heart diligently, and put away from him everything that is unlike Christ. Let him remember that he has been bought with a price, even the blood of the Son of God, and that in thought, word, and deed he is to honor his Redeemer. Remembering this, he will guard against pride and self-indulgence. Constantly he will endeavor so to live that he can meet the Saviour in peace. He will resist every suggestion of the enemy to do that which would grieve the heart of Christ. If he is faithful in this life, he will be ready to welcome the Saviour when he comes in the clouds of heaven. With joy he will say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."

The Promise of Christ's Return "Let not your heart be troubled," Christ said to his disciples just before his crucifixion; "ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Long have we waited for our Saviour's return. But none the less sure is the promise. Soon we shall be in our promised home. There Jesus will lead us beside the living stream flowing from the throne of God, and will explain to us the dark providences through which he led us in order to perfect our characters. There we shall see on every hand the beautiful trees of Paradise, in the midst of them the tree of life. There we shall behold with undimmed vision the beauties of Eden restored. There we shall cast at the feet of our Redeemer the crowns that he has placed on our heads, and, touching our golden harps, we shall offer praise and thanksgiving to him that sitteth on the throne.

Dear friends, I have talked to you this afternoon in regard to some of the simple truths of the gospel. If you will receive these truths into your hearts, I shall feel that my words have not been in vain. May the blessing of God rest upon you and your children. May you all be among those who shall enter through the gates of pearl into the city of our God. May you, as unbroken families, dwell forever in that haven of rest. To this end may God help you now to strive for the crown of life. -

The Work Before Us

The people of God are now to pray, and humble their hearts before him. Then they will see all things clearly. It is a heart humiliation that is needed by the people who have in trust so great and important a truth,--a truth that if received and believed, will cleanse the life from all defilement. God's people need to draw near to him, and love as brethren. If Satan can keep at variance those whose hearts should ever be full of kindness and love, on whose lips there should ever be the law of kindness, how pleased he is!

O that God's people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry! But many of those who should be proclaiming the truth are accusing and condemning their brethren. When the converting power of God comes upon minds, there will be a decided change. Men will have no inclination to criticize and tear down. They will not stand in a position that hinders the light from shining to the world. Their criticism, their accusing, will cease.

The powers of the enemy are mustering for battle. Stern conflicts are before us. Press together, my brethren and sisters, press together. Bind up with Christ. "Say ye not, A confederacy, . . . neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken."

The world is a theater. The actors, its inhabitants, are preparing to act their part in the last great drama. God is lost sight of. With the great masses of mankind there is no unity, except as men confederate to accomplish their selfish purposes. God is looking on. His purposes in regard to his rebellious subjects will be fulfilled. The world has not been given into the hands of men, though God is permitting the elements of confusion and disorder to bear sway for a season. A power from beneath is working to bring about the last great scenes in the drama,--Satan coming as Christ, and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect.

Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

John writes: "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And i saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."

Are we as a people asleep? O if the young men and young women in our institutions who are now unready for the Lord's appearing, unfitted to become members of the Lord's family, could only discern the signs of the times, what a change would be seen in them! The Lord Jesus is calling for self-denying, self-sacrificing workers to follow in his footsteps, to walk and work for him, to lift the cross, and follow where he leads the way.

Many are readily satisfied with offering the Lord trifling acts of service. Their Christianity is feeble. Christ gave himself for sinners. With what anxiety for the salvation of souls we should be filled as we see human beings perishing in sin! These souls have been bought at an infinite price. The death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross is the measure of their value. Day by day they are deciding a question of life and death, deciding whether they will have eternal life or eternal death. And yet men and women professing to serve the Lord are content to occupy their time and attention with matters of little importance. They are content to be at variance with one another. If they were consecrated to the work of the Master, they would not be striving and contending like a family of unruly children. Every hand would be engaged in service. Every one would be standing at his post of duty, working with heart and soul as a missionary of the cross of Christ. The Spirit of the Redeemer would abide in the hearts of the laborers, and works of righteousness would be wrought. The workers would carry with them into their service the prayers and sympathies of an awakened church. They would receive their directions from Christ, and would find no time for contention or strife.

Messages would come from lips touched by a live coal from the divine altar. Earnest, purified words would be spoken. Humble, heart-broken intercessions would ascend to heaven. With one hand the workers would take hold of Christ, while with the other they would grasp sinners and draw them to the Saviour.

Work is what the churches need. They need an unreserved consecration to service. Jesus wept over the obduracy of Jerusalem. Whose hearts break to-day because of the peril of those in darkness? Who among those that have received such great light and such rich gifts mingle their tears with the tears of their Redeemer?

Never can the church reach the position that God desires it to reach until it is bound up in sympathy with its missionary workers. Never can the unity for which Christ prayed exist until spirituality is brought into missionary service, and until the church becomes an agency for the support of missions. The efforts of the missionaries will not accomplish what they should until the church-members in the home field show, not only in word, but in deed, that they realize the obligation resting on them to give these missionaries their hearty support.

God calls for workers. Personal activity is needed. But conversion comes first; seeking for the salvation of others, next.

Spiritual despotism is to lose its hold on souls. Each one is to awake to the necessity of having personal holiness and a personal, living faith. Then will God's work be done. Then will reformations take place. Souls will be rescued from the grasp of selfishness, and in love, patience, and Christian forbearance, will help one another to work for those perishing out of Christ. -

Carrying Forward the Work of the Lord

As we see the strife and confusion that fill the world, we ask, What will be the end of all these things? We are given courage to press on in the work of the Lord by the waving of the banner of victory, on which are inscribed the words, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." The kingdom of Christ is to be enlarged. The workers are to grow in power and efficiency. This they will do if they will believe as the disciples believed. The Lord will act his part. But when human beings refuse to be the Lord's helping hand, they break the link that connects them with heaven.

To us as a people God has given great light, and he calls upon us to let it shine forth to those in darkness. By us the light, the power, of a living truth is to be given to the world. From us there is to shine forth to those in darkness a clear, steady light, kept alive by the power of God. We are charged to use the light given us to create other lights, that our fellow men may rejoice in the truth. Let us not disregard the charge. Suppose that the sun should refuse to shine, what terrible darkness and confusion would result! For us to refuse to let our light shine to those in darkness is to contract guilt, the magnitude of which can not be computed.

Christ's commission to us is, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

We have before us a great work. False teachers will preach false theories. They do not desire the truth. They are afraid to have the truth presented to the people. They do not want the facts to appear as they are given in the Word of God. Let all who believe the third angel's message take up the work that God has committed to them. Let them seek to realize its greatness and importance. Let believers do all in their power to arouse an interest in present truth in the neighborhood in which they live. Let all act an earnest, disinterested part. Some will labor in one way, and some in another; but all should do something. The books containing the reasons of our faith must be translated into all languages. This work must make more rapid progress than it has made.

When we act our part with faithfulness, Christ will work with power upon minds. We are to be God's helping hand. We have no time to devote to self-pleasing. With freshness and power the truth for this time is to be presented to the people of the world. Christian workers are greatly needed.

God's Plan for Proclaiming the Gospel Message "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

These words outline God's plan for the promulgation of the gospel. His instrumentalities, divine and human, are to unite in an effort to save the lost. These souls are to be rescued from the bondage of sin. God calls upon those who have taken his name to obey his orders. All are called to take some part in his work.

"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. I have united divinity and humanity, and my office invests me with all power in heaven and in earth. I have ordained that angels and men shall be employed in my work. Divine and human instrumentalities are to unite. I have given the churches instruction regarding what they are to do. My work is to be carried forward until I shall arise and proclaim with a loud voice, It is finished. I have opened a fountain of living waters for a perishing world. Agencies from the heavenly courts unite in urging the members of the church on earth to give the invitation to come to the water of life. Each one, feeble though he may deem himself, is to repeat my words and perform some part of my work. Let all take up the work entrusted to them. Do your best. Proclaim the gospel invitation. Unite with those who are already at work. I testify that if any one shall alter the words of the prophecy of this book, causing unbelief, and turning aside my words from the practical application which I thus fully and authoritatively give them, I will visit him with signal marks of my displeasure."

The Power of the Truth to Convict and Convert Souls It is through the transforming influence of divine grace on human hearts that the power of the word of truth is revealed. The message, proclaimed in regions where it has not yet been heard, makes an impression on hearts. It seems to have greater power in transforming character than when presented to those who are familiar with its office work. Truth has little power on the hearts of those who walk contrary to it for advantage to themselves--those who follow a course opposed to its principles. Such ones profess to believe the Word of God, but they give no evidence that they are sanctified by it.

The truth is to take possession of the will of those who have never before heard it. They will see the sinfulness of sin, and their repentance will be thorough and sincere. The Lord will work upon hearts that in the past have not been appealed to, hearts that heretofore have not seen the enormity of sin.

Christ is the only successful antagonist that sin has ever encountered. Let the full light of his life stream into the souls of those who are in darkness. Under the direct power of the gospel thousands have been converted in a day.

When a sinner becomes sensible of the fact that only through Christ can he gain eternal life; when he realizes that obedience to God's Word is the condition of entrance into the kingdom of God; when he sees Christ as the propitiation for sin, he comes to the Saviour in humility and contrition, confessing his sins and seeking forgiveness. His soul is impressed with a sense of the majesty and glory of God. The blessedness of an eternal life of peace and joy and purity is felt so deeply that an entire surrender is made.

I am instructed to say that some who outwardly appear the most fully given to sin will, when light flashes into the soul, make most successful workers in places where there are just such sinners as they themselves once were.

I write this because those engaged in canvassing work and in house-to-house labor often meet men and women who are coarse and forbidding in outward appearance, but who, if won to the truth, will be among its most loyal and stanch adherents. The spirit of truth is indeed of value in any church. Those whom the Lord uses may not always have outward polish, but if they have integrity of character, the Lord accounts them precious.

Power from Above As the end draws near, the work of God is to increase in full strength and purity and holiness. The workers are to be filled with love for God and for one another. They are to cherish principles of the strictest integrity. When the true keynote is struck, God will reveal himself as a God of mercy and love. Angels of heaven will draw near to the members of the church on earth to aid them in their necessity. Let us ever remember that we are laborers together with God. In this heavenly union we shall carry forward his work with completeness, with singing and rejoicing. In every soul will be kindled the fire of holy zeal. Company after company will leave the dark standard of the foe to come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

God's workers must gain a far deeper experience. If they will surrender all to him, he will work mightily for them. They will plant the standard of truth upon fortresses till then held by Satan, and with shouts of victory take possession of them. They bear the scars of battle, but there comes to them the comforting message that the Lord will lead them on, conquering and to conquer.

When God's servants with consecrated zeal co-operate with divine instrumentalities, the state of things that exists in this world will be changed, and soon the earth will with joy receive her King. Then "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

The Lord estimates as of supreme importance the holiness of his people; and he permits reverses to come upon individuals, upon families, and upon churches, that his people may see their danger, and humble their hearts before him in repentance. He chastens his children in the hope of saving their souls. Those who return to him, he receives with tenderness and love. He speaks pardon to them, and clothes them with the garments of Christ's righteousness.

In this, the great day of atonement, it is our duty to confess our sins, and acknowledge God's mercy and love in pardoning our transgressions. Let us thank him for the warnings he has given to save us from our perverse ways. Let us bear witness to his goodness by revealing a change in our lives. If those to whom the Lord has sent reproof, warning them that they are not walking in his way, will repent, and with humility and contrition make confession, the Lord will surely receive them once more into favor. If they will honor God by obeying his commandments, they will be exalted by him. He will give them strength and victory.

The defections among God's people are keenly felt by him who died to ransom them from Satan's power. The church is burdened and saddened. A cloud hangs over her. Let every soul seek God, inquiring, Lord, is it I who have brought this discouragement upon thy people? Is it because of my perversity that Zion is burdened? Have I given occasion for our enemies to triumph? If so, Lord, have mercy upon thy sinful child, and save me for thy mercy's sake.

Let there be a close examination of self. Do not seek to hide yourselves under your citizen's dress, saying that you are doing as others do, and therefore you can not be far out of the way. Yes; you may do as others have done. But is the experience of those who have left the Lord something that you wish to gain? And if, with their experience before you, you walk contrary to the way of the Lord, and are punished, whom have you to blame but yourselves?

O that deep realization of the importance of these things may come to the people of God! O that all departure from the narrow path of obedience and holiness may be seen as it is! O that men and women may seek the Lord as they have never done before!

There are those professing to be children of God whose course of action the Lord does not justify. Faithful work is to be done in giving reproof, as well as in giving encouragement. The cross is not to be shunned. No unchristianlike course of action is to be justified.

Will the people of God now humble their hearts before him, confessing and forsaking their sins, that they may receive the forgiveness and favor of God, and be brought into complete harmony with him? It is not because of a lack of evidence that human beings perish, but because of their unwillingness to use the means whereby God designs they shall learn his will.

A season of great trial is before us. It becomes us now to use all our capabilities in advancing the work of God. The powers that the Lord has given us are to be used to build up, not to tear down.

Those who are ignorantly deceived are not to remain in this condition. The Lord says to his messengers, Go to them, and declare unto them what I have said, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. "O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand."

Let us never relax our efforts to save those ready to perish, for whose ransom the Prince of heaven offered his precious life. When one means fails, try another way. So long as life is spared, let us work for God. The time is right upon us when persecution will come to those who proclaim the truth. In all ages, God's appointed messengers have exposed themselves to reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. But whatever trial or reproach may come upon us, we may know that Christ will be with us, to strengthen and bless us, filling our hearts with peace and joy.

Soon there is to be trouble all over the world. It becomes every one to seek to know God. We have no time to delay. With earnestness and fervor the message must be given: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, . . . buy wine and milk without money and without price." "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."

God's love for his church is infinite. His care over his heritage is unceasing. He suffers no affliction to come upon the church but such as is essential for her purification, her present and eternal good. He will purify the church even as he purified the temple at the beginning and the close of his ministry on earth. All that he brings upon the church in trial comes that his people may gain deeper piety and more strength to carry the triumphs of the cross to all parts of the world. He has a work for all to do. There must be constant enlargement and progress. The work must extend from city to city, from country to country, and from nation to nation, moving constantly onward and upward, established, strengthened, and settled.

"By their fruits ye shall know them." The inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit is priceless. In the righteousness of the members shall the church be established. God's people are to show a faith steadfast and immovable. The Bible is their standard. In all its power the truth is to be proclaimed. Those who faithfully do this work, keeping the commandments of God in deed and in truth, will be acknowledged as laborers together with God.

"The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." From the beginning to the end of the history of the church, Christ will be to his people all that these words express, if they will heed the invitation to come to him. He is to his people life and strength, efficiency and power, wisdom and holiness. When we realize this as we should, we shall be strong in his strength. "The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation. . . . The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and seeketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." -

An Open Letter

Elmshaven, Sanitarium, Cal., Sept. 8, 1903. To My Brethren in Positions of Responsibility in the Cause of God: What is our work?--The same as that given to John the Baptist, of whom we read, "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

All who are truly engaged in the work of the Lord for these last days will have a decided message to bear. Read the first few verses of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah:--

"The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And the voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever."

This chapter is filled with instruction appropriate for us at this time. The word of the Lord to us is, "Repent ye; prepare the way for a revival of my work."

The removal to Washington of work hitherto carried on in Battle Creek is a step in the right direction. We are to continue to press into the regions beyond, where the people are in spiritual darkness. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Every obstacle to the redemption of God's people is to be removed by the opening of his Word, and the presentation of a plain "Thus saith the Lord." The true light is to shine forth; for darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. The truth of the living God is to appear in contrast with error. Proclaim the glad tidings: We have a Saviour who has given his life that those who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Obstacles to the advancement of the work of God will appear; but fear not. To the omnipotence of the King of kings, our covenant-keeping God unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. Nothing can stand in his way. His power is absolute, and it is the pledge of the sure fulfilment of his promises to his people. He can remove all obstructions to the advancement of his work. He has means for the removal of every difficulty, that those who serve him and respect the means he employs, shall be delivered. His goodness and love are infinite, and his covenant is unalterable.

The plans of the enemies of his work may seem to be firm and well established, but he can overthrow the strongest of these plans, and in his own time and way he will do this, when he sees that our faith has been sufficiently tested, and that we are drawing near to him and making him our counselor.

In the darkest days, when appearances seem so forbidding, fear not. Have faith in God. He is working out his will, doing all things well in behalf of his people. The strength of those who love and serve him will be renewed day by day. His understanding will be placed at their service, that they may not err in the carrying out of his purposes.

There is to be no despondency in God's service. Our faith is to endure the pressure brought to bear upon it. God is able and willing to bestow upon his servants all the strength they need. He will more than fulfil the highest expectations of those who put their trust in him. He will give them the wisdom which their varied necessities demand.

Said the tried apostle Paul: "He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

O my brethren, hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end. The light of God's truth is not to be dimmed. It is to shine amid the darkness of error that enshrouds our world. The Word of God is to be opened to those in the high places of the earth, as well as to the more lowly.

The church of Christ is God's agency for the proclamation of truth; she is empowered by him to do a special work; and if she is loyal to God, obedient to all his commandments, there will dwell within her the excellence of divine power. If she will honor the Lord God of Israel, there is no power that can stand against her. If she will be true to her allegiance, the forces of the enemy will be no more able to overpower her than is the chaff to resist the whirlwind.

There is before the church the dawn of a bright, glorious day, if she will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all alliance with the world.

The members of the church need now to confess their backslidings, and press together. My brethren, allow nothing to come in that will separate you from one another or from God. Talk not of differences of opinion, but unite in the love of the truth as it is in Jesus. Come before God, and plead the shed blood of the Saviour as a reason why you should receive help in the warfare against evil. You will not plead in vain. As you draw near to God, with heartfelt contrition, and in full assurance of faith, the enemy who seeks to destroy you will be overcome.

Turn to the Lord, ye prisoners of hope. Seek strength from God, the living God. Show an unwavering, humble faith in his power and his willingness to save. From Christ is flowing the living stream of salvation. He is the fountain of life and the source of all power. When in faith we take hold of his strength, he will change, wonderfully change, the most hopeless, discouraging outlook. He will do this for the glory of his own name.

God calls upon his faithful ones, who believe in him, to talk courage to those who are unbelieving and hopeless. May the Lord help us to help one another, and to prove him by living faith. -

"Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery."

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands."

"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker."

"O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods."

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." Mrs. E. G. White. -

Go Forward

There is a lesson of the greatest importance for us in the experience of the children of Israel as they left Egypt.

More than a million people had been led, out of the right course many of them thought, into a valley hemmed in by mountains. Before them lay the Red Sea, and behind them, following fast after in pursuit, was Pharaoh's army.

As the people were encamped beside the Red Sea, they saw in the distance the flashing armor and moving chariots of Pharaoh's host. Terror filled their hearts. Some cried to the Lord, but by far the greater part hastened to Moses with their complaints. "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."

Moses was greatly troubled that his people should manifest so little faith in God, notwithstanding they had repeatedly witnessed the manifestation of his power in their behalf. How could they charge upon him the dangers and difficulties of their situation, when he had followed the express command of God? True, there was no possibility of deliverance unless God himself should interpose for their release; but having been brought into this position in obedience to the divine direction, Moses felt no fear of the consequences. His calm and assuring reply to the people was, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

It was not an easy thing to hold the hosts of Israel in waiting before the Lord. Lacking discipline and self-control, they became violent and unreasonable. They expected speedily to fall into the hands of their oppressors, and their wailings and lamentations were loud and deep. The wonderful pillar of cloud had been followed as the signal of God to go forward; but now they questioned if it might not foreshadow some great calamity; for had it not led them on the wrong side of the mountain, into an impassable way? Thus the angel of the Lord appeared to their deluded minds as the harbinger of disaster.

But now, as the Egyptian host approached them, expecting to make them an easy prey, the cloudy column rose majestically, passed over the Israelites, and descended between them and the armies of Pharaoh. A wall of darkness interposed between the pursued and their pursuers. The Egyptians could no longer discern the camp of the Hebrews, and were forced to halt. But as the darkness of night deepened, the wall of cloud became a great light to the Hebrews, flooding the entire encampment with the radiance of day.

Hope returned to the hearts of Israel. And Moses lifted up his voice unto the Lord. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the waters."

Obedience to the Command

As Moses stretched out his rod, the waters parted, and Israel went down into the midst of the sea upon dry ground, while the waters stood like a wall on each side. "Go forward" was the word given by Moses, and it was echoed by the captains of the different divisions. In obedience, the host of Israel stepped into the path so strangely and so wonderfully prepared for them. The light from the pillar of fire shone upon the foam-capped billows, and lighted up the road that was cut like a mighty furrow through the waters of the sea.

As the cloud moved slowly on, the Egyptian sentinels discovered that the Israelites had moved their encampment, and at once the mighty army was set in readiness for motion. They heard the sound of the marching of the Hebrews, but they could see nothing; for the cloud that gave light to Israel was to the Egyptians a wall of darkness. Guided by the sound, they followed on, but they moved slowly; for their chariots drove heavily. Yet still they moved on, expecting soon to break through the cloud, and overtake the fugitives.

At last the shadows of night passed away, the morning dawned, and the pursuing army was almost within reach of the fleeing Hebrews.

A Manifestation of God's Power

"And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians." Before their astonished eyes the mysterious cloud changed to a pillar of fire reaching from earth to heaven. The thunders pealed, and the lightnings flashed. "The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook."

The Egyptians were seized with confusion and dismay. Amid the wrath of the elements, in which they heard the voice of an angry God, they endeavored to retrace their steps, and to flee to the shore they had quitted. But Moses stretched out his rod, and the piled-up waters, hissing, roaring, eager for their prey, rushed together, and swallowed the Egyptians in their black depths.

As morning broke, it revealed to the multitudes of Israel all that remained of their mighty foes,--the mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore. From the most terrible peril one night had brought complete deliverance. That vast, helpless throng--bondmen unused to battle, women, children, and cattle, with the sea before them, and the mighty armies of Egypt pressing behind--had seen their path opened through the waters, and their enemies overwhelmed in the moment of expected triumph. Jehovah alone had brought them deliverance, and to him their hearts were turned in gratitude and faith. Their emotion found utterance in songs of praise. The Spirit of God rested upon Moses, and he led the people in a triumphant anthem of thanksgiving: --

"I will sing unto Jehovah; for he hath triumphed gloriously;

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation:

He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation;

My father's God, and I will exalt him. . . .

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like thee, glorious in holiness,

Fearful in praises, doing wonders? . .

Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed;

Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation."

God in his providence brought the Hebrews into the mountain fastnesses before the sea, that he might manifest his power in their deliverance, and signally humble the pride of their oppressors. He might have saved them in any other way, but he chose this method in order to test their faith and strengthen their trust in him. The people were weary and terrified, yet if they had held back when Moses bade them advance, God would never have opened the path for them. It was "by faith" that "they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land." In marching down to the very water, they showed that they believed the word of God as spoken by Moses. They did all that was in their power to do, and then the Mighty One of Israel divided the sea to make a path for their feet.

God's Word to Us

"Go forward" is the word of the Lord to us. You may not see the end from the beginning; nevertheless, pray, believe, and move forward, not in self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, yet filled with hope and courage, assured that the Lord is your helper and protector. Angels of heaven are guarding his faithful ones. If his people will keep the way of the Lord, they will receive all needed help. Let God be praised and magnified. Let men walk in humility before him.

Until the end of time; the church will have to strive with difficulties, that God's work may stand out pure and clean, untainted by fraud or intrigue. Let his people believe in him, and walk in his counsel. They may be permitted to struggle with difficulty, but in answer to humble prayer, the Lord will reveal himself as a God who can deliver in every emergency. The great work to be carried forward in these last days seems to move slowly, but the Lord is preparing the way before those who are seeking wisdom from above, those who are willing to walk in his way.

An Unchangeable Promise

God's promise to his church will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations. There is no limit to his power. Our covenant-keeping Saviour unites with the omnipotence of the King of kings the tender care of a faithful shepherd. He who has chosen Christ has joined himself to a power that no array of human wisdom or strength can overthrow. "Fear thou not; for I am with thee," he declares; "be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

The Work of Our Training Schools

The work of our colleges and training schools should be strengthened year by year.

No Time for Delay

Time is short. Workers for Christ are needed everywhere. There should be one hundred earnest, faithful laborers in home and foreign mission fields where now there is one. The highways and the byways are yet unworked. Urgent inducements should be held out to those who ought now to be engaged in missionary work for the Master.

The signs which show that Christ's coming is near are fast fulfilling. The Lord calls upon our youth to labor as canvassers and evangelists, to do house-to-house work in places that have not yet heard the truth. He speaks to our young men, saying, "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Those who will go forth to the work under God's direction will be wonderfully blessed. Those who in this life do their best will obtain a fitness for the future, immortal life.

The Lord calls for volunteers who will take their stand firmly on his side, and will pledge themselves to unite with Jesus of Nazareth in doing the very work that needs to be done now, just now.

There are among us many young men and women who, if inducements are held out, would naturally be inclined to take several years' course of study at Battle Creek. But will it pay? The talents of God's people are to be employed in giving the last message of mercy to the world. The Lord calls upon those connected with our sanitariums, publishing houses, and other institutions to teach the youth to do evangelistic work. Our time and money must not be so largely employed in establishing sanitariums, food factories, food stores, and restaurants, that other lines of work shall be neglected. Young men and young women who should be engaged in the ministry, in Bible work, and in the canvassing work, should not be bound down to mechanical employment.

The youth are to be encouraged to attend our schools, which should become more and more like the schools of the prophets. Our schools have been established by the Lord; and if they are conducted in harmony with his purpose, the youth sent to them will quickly be prepared to engage in various branches of missionary work. Some will be trained to enter the field as missionary nurses, some as canvassers, some as evangelists, some as teachers, and some as gospel ministers.

The Lord has plainly instructed me that our young people should not be encouraged to devote so much of their time and strength to medical missionary work as it has been carried forward of late. The instruction they receive regarding Bible doctrines is not such as to fit them to perform properly the work that God has entrusted to his people.

Satan is earnestly striving to lead souls away from right principles. Multitudes who profess to belong to God's true church are falling under the enemy's deceptions. They are being led to swerve from their allegiance to the blessed and only Potentate.

A Present Duty

All our denominational colleges and training schools should make provision to give their students the education essential for evangelists and for Christian business men. The youth and those more advanced in years who feel it their duty to fit themselves for work requiring the passing of certain legal tests should be able to secure at our union conference training schools all that is essential, without having to go to Battle Creek for their preparatory education.

Prayer will accomplish wonders for those who give themselves to prayer, watching thereunto. God desires us all to be in a waiting, hopeful position. What he has promised, he will do; and if there are legal requirements making it necessary that medical students shall take a certain preparatory course of study, let our colleges teach the required additional studies in a manner consistent with Christian education. The Lord has signified his displeasure that so many of our people are drifting into Battle Creek; and since he does not want so many to go there, we should understand that he wants our schools in other places to have efficient teachers, and to do well the work that must be done. They should arrange to carry their students to the point of literary and scientific training that is necessary. Many of these requirements have been made because so much of the preparatory work done in ordinary schools is superficial. Let all our work be thorough, faithful, and true.

In our training schools, the Bible is to be made the basis of all education. And in the required studies, it is not necessary for our teachers to bring in the objectionable books that the Lord has instructed us not to use in our schools. From the light that the Lord has given me, I know that our training schools in various parts of the field should be placed in the most favorable position possible for qualifying our youth to meet the tests specified by State laws regarding medical students. To this end the very best teaching talent should be secured, that our schools may be brought up to the required standard.

But let not the young men and young women in our churches be advised to go to Battle Creek in order to obtain a preparatory education. There is a congested state of things at Battle Creek that makes it an unfavorable place for the proper education of Christian workers. Because the warnings in regard to the work in that congested center have not been heeded, the Lord permitted two of our institutions to be consumed by fire. Even after this revealing of his signal displeasure, his warnings were not heeded. The Sanitarium is still there. If it had been divided into several plants, and its work and influence given to several different places, how much more God would have been glorified! But now that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt, we must do our very best to help those who are there struggling with many difficulties.

Let me repeat: It is not necessary for so many of our youth to study medicine. But for those who should take medical studies our union conference training schools should make ample provision in facilities for preparatory education. Thus the youth of each union conference can be trained nearer home, and be spared the special temptations that attend the work in Battle Creek. -

Teach the Word

I have some things to say to our teachers in reference to the new book, "The Living Temple." Be careful how you sustain the sentiments of this book regarding the personality of God. As the Lord represents matters to me, these sentiments do not bear the indorsement of God. They are a snare that the enemy has prepared for these last days. I thought that this would surely be discerned, and that it would not be necessary for me to say anything about it. But since the claim has been made that the teachings of this book can be sustained by statements from my writings, I am compelled to speak in denial of this claim. There may be in this book expressions and sentiments that are in harmony with my writings. And there may be in my writings many statements which, when taken from their connection, and interpreted according to the mind of the writer of "The Living Temple," would seem to be in harmony with the teachings of this book. This may give apparent support to the assertion that the sentiments in "The Living Temple" are in harmony with my writings. But God forbid that this opinion should prevail.

We need not the mysticism that is in this book. Those who entertain these sophistries will soon find themselves in a position where the enemy can talk with them, and lead them away from God. It is represented to me that the writer of this book is on a false track. He has lost sight of the distinguishing truths for this time. He knows not whither his steps are tending. The track of truth lies close beside the track of error, and both tracks may seem to be one to minds which are not worked by the Holy Spirit, and which, therefore, are not quick to discern the difference between truth and error.

In regard to the faith to be cherished and preserved in these last days, very little light is given in "The Living Temple," and this light is so uncertain that it would not help God's people at this stage of their work.

In the visions of the night this matter was clearly presented to me, before a large number. One of authority was speaking, and he said, "If the suppositions and statements found in this book were essential, if these statements were pure provender, thoroughly winnowed from the chaff, there would be some decided mention of them in the revelation given by Christ to John to give to the churches. To John the Lord Jesus opened the subjects that he saw would be needed by his people in the last days. The instruction that he gave is found in the book of Revelation. Those who would be co-workers with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will show a deep interest in the truths found in the book of Revelation. With pen and voice they will strive to make plain the wonderful things that Christ came from heaven to reveal."

The first chapter of the book of Revelation was then read, with great solemnity.

"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."

Our Instructor presented the solemn messages that have been given in their order in Revelation, and that are to occupy the first place in the minds of God's people.

All through the book, "The Living Temple," passages of Scripture are used, but in many instances these passages are used in such a way that the right interpretation is not given to them. The message for this time is not, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we." Whom does the Lord receive as vessels unto honor?--Those who co-operate with Christ; those who believe the truth, who live the truth, who proclaim the truth in all its bearings.

There are those whose minds will be taken up with smooth words and fair speeches that they can not understand or interpret. Precious time is rapidly passing, and many will be robbed of the time that should be given to the proclamation of the messages that God has sent to a fallen world. Satan is pleased to see the diversion of minds that should be engaged in the study of the truths that have to do with eternal realities.

The testimony of Christ, a testimony of the most solemn character, is to be borne to the world. All through the book of Revelation there are the most precious, elevating promises, and there are also warnings of most fearfully solemn import. Will not those who profess to have a knowledge of the truth read the testimony given to John by Christ? Here is no guesswork, no scientific deception. Here are the truths that concern our present and future welfare. What is the chaff to the wheat?

Our Instructor passed on to the third chapter of Revelation, and read the following:--

"Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."

These words were spoken with such strength and force that those present seemed to be afraid, and hid their faces in their hands, as if they were arraigned before the Judge of all the earth. Some seemed about to faint.

Then the subject changed. The Speaker read:--

"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

In these words there is no soothsaying.

The Speaker held up "The Living Temple," saying, "In this book there are statements that the writer himself does not comprehend. Many things are stated in a vague, undefined way. Statements are made in such a way that nothing is sure. And this is not the only production of the kind that will be urged upon the people. Fanciful views will be presented by many minds. What we need to know at this time is, 'What is the truth that will enable us to win the salvation of our souls?'"

The sophistries regarding God and nature that are flooding the world with skepticism are the inspiration of the fallen foe, who is himself a Bible student, who knows the truths that it is essential for the people to receive, and whose study it is to divert minds from the great truths relating to what is soon coming upon the world. Let our teachers beware lest they echo the soothsaying of the enemy of God and man.

Pointing to some present, our Instructor said, "You are making a mistake. The word, the word revealed by God,--this is to be the foundation of your faith. Study the commandments of God, and the testimony that Jesus has borne to the truth. He is the faithful and true Witness."

Then was repeated the message to the Laodicean church. The whole of the third chapter of Revelation, from first to last, was read.

"Unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

The Lord is soon coming. The watchmen on the walls of Zion are called upon to awake to their God-given responsibility. Many of them are in the stupor of insensibility. God calls for watchmen who in the power of the Spirit will give to the world a warning message,--watchmen who will proclaim the time of night. He calls for watchmen who will arouse men and women from their lethargy, lest they sleep the sleep of death.

In the Master's Service

Let men who are truly converted offer themselves to the service of the Lord; for verily, he has need of them. Emptied of selfishness, they will be vessels unto honor. Partakers of the divine nature, they will be light-bearers in a world of darkness. Their influence will be a savor of life unto life.

God has appointed us to be laborers together with him, and we are to work zealously for the Redeemer's glory by bringing sheaves to the Master. Every soul saved will swell the triumphant anthem of praise that the redeemed will sing. Christ came to the world to "bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." The world is full of men and women who carry a heavy burden of sorrow and suffering and sin. God sends his children to reveal to them him who will take away the burden, and give them rest. It is the mission of Christ's servants to help, to bless, to heal.

My brethren and sisters, do we realize the importance of this subject? Why are we so listless and indifferent? why satisfied to remain so poorly fitted to work for the uplifting of humanity? The heavenly universe looks with amazement upon our Christless work. Neglect is seen in our borders. Slipshod work is tolerated and passed by. How long shall this continue? Shall we not arouse, and with determined effort redeem our neglect? Much is expected of us.

What are our young men doing? God calls for you, young men. He calls for armies of young men who are large-hearted and large-minded, and who have a deep love for Christ, and for those for whom he died. If you will place yourselves under the influence of the truth if you will receive the truth into the heart, you will have confidence and power to present it to others. Christ will be made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. You will be laborers together with God, following Christ's guidance. Such laborers are as sharp sickles in the harvest field. They do not use their God-given powers in arguing and debating. Pointing to Calvary, they cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Like Moses, they endure the seeing of him who is invisible. Through their efforts, souls are won to Christ; for God is with them.

Young men, Jesus is saying to you, "Follow me." Bear burdens in the Master's service. Our older ministering brethren must drop many of their burdens, or they will be crushed beneath them. The aged standard-bearers may act as counselors, but their younger, stronger brethren should bear the heavy burdens. John says, "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, . . . and ye have overcome the wicked one." You whose eyes are not dimmed, who are not worn by long and constant taxation, should plan and execute, treating the aged workers with tenderness, and looking up to them as counselors.

Looking to Christ

I call upon the young men who are entering the ministry to search the Scriptures for themselves. Know for yourselves what is truth. Do not accept any man's theories as authority. This has been done by ministers to the injury of their experience, and it has left them ignorant and strengthless, when they should be wise in the Scriptures and strong in the strength of God. Take your Bibles, and weep and pray and fast before the Lord.

Do not fix your attention on some favorite minister, speaking his words and imitating his gestures, in short, becoming his shadow. Allow no man to put his mold upon you. Let the hand of God mold and fashion you after the divine similitude.

Do not seek wisdom from men. Those to whom you go may be bewildered by the temptations of Satan, and may plant in your minds the seeds of doubt. Go to Jesus, who "giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." He is unchangeable, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; and he can not err. Has not his invitation reached your ears, and touched your heart? He says, "Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Go to the Lord with the simplicity and confidence of a little child. Tell him your needs and your troubles, withholding nothing. Ask him to teach you how to use your entrusted talents for him

Long Sermons

I beg of you not to think that the preaching of long sermons is an unmistakable evidence of ministerial ability. Let your discourses be short. Long sermons will wear out both you and those who hear. Often if sermons were only half as long, it would be well. And remember that to be a true minister for God means much more than merely to preach. A minister is one who ministers. Put forth personal effort for the people. Visit them in their homes, pray with them, search the Scriptures with them, and you will bring them the blessing of heaven.

Carefulness in Speech

As you go forth to labor for Christ, keep strict watch over yourselves. Be careful of your words. Do not waste precious moments in foolish conversation. Live so near to Christ that you will always be ready to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Put away all pride, all selfishness, all lightness and trifling. Jesting and joking are an offense to God, and a denial of your faith. They unfit the mind for solid thought and earnest labor, making men superficial and inefficient. Be circumspect, and at the same time cheerful and happy, showing forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

How to Gain Success

In order to be successful in your work, you must feel the need of learning every day in the school of Christ. Learn of the great Teacher, and then go forth in the strength of him who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Put your whole soul into your efforts, and never leave a work half done. Bind off your work thoroughly. Leave no dropped stitches for some one else to pick up.

Do not disappoint Christ. Resolve that you will succeed. Ask for divine grace and efficiency. You will not be left to labor alone. Christ will be with you, and you will receive precious souls for your hire.

Christ died that we might enter into possession of the eternal riches. With hearts filled with gratitude, let us improve the opportunities for service placed within our reach, that we may be prepared for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love him. Heaven is a holy place; into it there can enter nothing that defiles. But those who have washed their robes of character, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, will receive an abundant entrance into the heavenly courts.

At the last great day, Christ will say to those who have been true and faithful, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." They will understand the meaning of his words; for they will have done the work that Christ gave them to do. They have cooperated with him in the saving of those for whom he died, and they are prepared to share in his joy. -

The Twelve Spies

Eleven days after leaving Mount Horeb, the Hebrew host encamped at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, which was not far from the borders of the promised land. Here it was proposed by the people that spies be sent up to survey the country. The matter was presented before the Lord by Moses, and permission was granted, with the direction that one of the rulers of each tribe should be selected for this purpose. The men were chosen as had been directed, and Moses bade them go and see the country, what it was, its situation and natural advantages; and the people that dwelt therein, whether they were strong or weak, few or many; also to observe the nature of the soil and its productiveness, and to bring of the fruit of the land.

They went, and surveyed the whole land, entering at the southern border, and proceeding to the northern extremity. They returned after an absence of forty days. The people of Israel were cherishing high hopes, and were waiting in eager expectancy. The news of the spies' return was carried from tribe to tribe, and was hailed with rejoicing. The people rushed out to meet the messengers, who had safely escaped the dangers of their perilous undertaking. The spies brought specimens of the fruit, showing the fertility of the soil. It was in the time of ripe grapes, and they brought a cluster of grapes so large that it was carried between two men. They also brought of the figs and pomegranates which grew there in abundance.

The people rejoiced that they were to come into possession of so goodly a land, and they listened intently as the report was brought to Moses, that not a word should escape them. "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us," the spies began, "and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." The people were enthusiastic; they would eagerly obey the voice of the Lord, and go up at once to possess the land. But after describing the beauty and fertility of the land, all but two of the spies enlarged upon the difficulties and dangers that lay before the Israelites should they undertake the conquest of Canaan. They enumerated the powerful nations located in various parts of the country, and said that the cities were walled and very great, and the people who dwelt therein were strong, and it would be impossible to conquer them. They also stated that they had seen giants, the sons of Anak, there, and it was useless to think of possessing the land.

Now the scene changed. Hope and courage gave place to cowardly despair, as the spies uttered the sentiments of their unbelieving hearts, which were filled with discouragement prompted by Satan; their unbelief cast a gloomy shadow over the congregation, and the mighty power of God, so often manifested in behalf of the chosen nation, was forgotten. The people did not wait to reflect; they did not reason that He who had brought them thus far would certainly give them the land; they did not call to mind how wonderfully God had delivered them from their oppressors, cutting a path through the sea, and destroying the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh. They left God out of the question, and acted as though they must depend solely on the power of arms.

In their unbelief they limited the power of God, and distrusted the hand that had hitherto safely guided them. And they repeated their former error of murmuring against Moses and Aaron. "This, then, is the end of all our high hopes," they said. "This is the land we have traveled all the way from Egypt to possess." They accused their leaders of deceiving the people and bringing trouble upon Israel.

The people were desperate in their disappointment and despair. A wail of agony arose, and mingled with the confused murmurs of voices. Caleb comprehended the situation, and bold to stand in defense of the Word of God, he did all in his power to counteract the evil influence of his unfaithful associates. For an instant the people were stilled to listen to his words of hope and courage respecting the goodly land. He did not contradict what had already been said; the walls were high, and the Canaanites strong. But God had promised the land to Israel. "Let us go up at once, and possess it," urged Caleb; "for we are well able to overcome it."

But the ten, interrupting him, pictured the obstacles in darker colors than at first. "We be not able to go up against the people," they declared; "for they are stronger than we. . . . All the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

These men, having entered upon a wrong course, stubbornly set themselves against Caleb and Joshua, against Moses, and against God. Every advance step rendered them the more determined. They were resolved to discourage all effort to gain possession of Canaan. They distorted the truth in order to sustain their baleful influence. "It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof," they said. This was not only an evil report, but it was also a lying one. It was inconsistent with itself. The spies had declared the country to be fruitful and prosperous, and the people of giant stature, all of which would be impossible if the climate were so unhealthful that the land could be said to "eat up the inhabitants." But when men yield their hearts to unbelief, they place themselves under the control of Satan, and none can tell to what lengths he will lead them.

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night." Revolt and open mutiny quickly followed; for Satan had full sway, and the people seemed bereft of reason. They cursed Moses and Aaron, forgetting that God hearkened to their wicked speeches, and that, enshrouded in the cloudy pillar, the Angel of his presence was witnessing their terrible outburst of wrath. In bitterness they cried out, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!" Then their feelings rose against God: "Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Thus they accused not only Moses, but God himself, of deception, in promising them a land which they were not able to possess. And they went so far as to appoint a captain to lead them back to the land of their suffering and bondage, from which they had been delivered by the strong arm of Omnipotence.

In humiliation and distress, "Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel," not knowing what to do to turn them from their rash and passionate purpose. Caleb and Joshua attempted to quiet the tumult. With their garments rent in token of grief and indignation, they rushed in among the people, and their ringing voices were heard above the tempest of lamentation and rebellious grief: "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey; only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not."

The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord would no longer bear with them. His protection being removed, they would be an easy prey. By the covenant of God, the land was insured to Israel. But the false report of the unfaithful spies was accepted, and through it the whole congregation were deluded. The traitors had done their work. If only the two men had brought the evil report, and all the ten had encouraged them to possess the land in the name of the Lord, they would still have taken the advice of the two in preference to the ten, because of their wicked unbelief. But there were only two advocating the right, while ten were on the side of rebellion.

The unfaithful spies were loud in denunciation of Caleb and Joshua, and the cry was raised to stone them. The insane mob seized missiles with which to slay these faithful men. They rushed forward with yells of madness, when suddenly the stones dropped from their hands, a hush fell upon them, and they shook with fear. God had interposed to check their murderous design. The glory of his presence, like a flaming light, illuminated the tabernacle. All the people beheld the signal of the Lord. A mightier one than they had revealed himself, and none dared continue their resistance. The spies who brought the evil report, crouched, terror-stricken, and with bated breath sought their tents.

Moses now arose, and entered the tabernacle. The Lord declared to him, "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation." But again Moses pleaded for his people. He could not consent to have them destroyed, and himself made a mightier nation. Appealing to the mercy of God, he said: "I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy. . . . Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

The Lord promised to spare Israel from immediate destruction; but because of their unbelief and cowardice he could not manifest his power to subdue their enemies. Therefore in his mercy he bade them, as the only safe course, to turn back toward the Red Sea.-- "Patriarchs and Prophets," pages 387-391 . -

The Workers Needed Now

God chooses as his workmen men of different gifts and varied abilities. It is his purpose that these workers shall unite with one another in their labor. All selfishness is to be cast out of their hearts. If it is allowed to developed, it will spring up in a root of bitterness, whereby many shall be defiled.

When a crisis comes, there is need of men of deep experience in the things of God, men who can carry the work forward with tact and forethought and skill. Those who allow themselves to be leavened by influences that endanger their spirituality are unfitting themselves to be used by God as men of opportunity. God calls for men who are prepared to meet emergencies, men who in a crisis will not be found standing on the wrong side, warring against God, full of wrath and bitterness. Great weakness is brought to his cause by men who, at the very time when they should be quick to discern the specious devising of Satan, are helping him to carry on his work by giving up to the power of his delusions, closing their eyes to light and truth.

We are not to conceal the truth for this time. It is to stand forth in its power and purity. The trumpet is to give a certain sound; for there are those who, though they have long known the truth, need to be awakened. They have closed their eyes to the result of walking contrary to the light that God has given.

We are living in the last days of this earth's history, and God calls upon those who have an understanding of the truth for this time to pray, to believe, to stand fast in the faith, proclaiming the message of mercy to be given to the world. My brethren, I pray most earnestly "that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."

There are those who to-day are standing in perilous places, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. From this time on, Satan will bring in deceptive influences of every kind. True, stanch, whole-hearted believers are needed; men who are not fashioned after a worldly mold, but who see and realize that it is at this time that Satan's power will be exercised through believers who have not kept the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.

Workers are needed who understand that the warnings given in the Word of God are appropriate for this time. Shall we not pray and watch unto prayer, and see that we need to be re-converted? God's purpose for us is that we shall be constantly "increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."

At this time we need men who are as true as steel to principle. We need the help of every one who has had an experience in the giving of the first and second angels' messages.

There are those who have so linked themselves with the world that they have lost the knowledge of God, and are departing from the faith. How glad we should be to say to all such ones," And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard."

Paul wrote these words to the Colossians, and he continues:--

"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."

There is now need of unity; and there will be unity. Those who have greatly hindered the cause of God, and have caused heavy burdens to rest upon their fellow laborers, because they have lost their bearings, will either humble their proud hearts, and be converted, or they will be moved out of the way! The warning comes:--

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

Amid the temptations that abound in these last days, some will depart from the faith. Those who have been trying to quench their thirst at broken cisterns, which can hold no water, will have a misleading message to proclaim. They will speak smooth things. It is now, just now, that genuine gospel medical missionary work is to be done by men who acknowledge Christ as their Master; who realize, as did Elijah and Jeremiah, that they hold their commission from God, and that they are accountable to God for the use made of the talents entrusted to them. God's workers are to acknowledge no earthly master. One higher than men, even he who is the way, the truth, and the life, is their Master.

Men are needed who can speak intelligently of the sacredness and the importance of the truth; men who can point their fellow men to the needs of the present hour; men who have an inspiring message to bear against perverted principle; who watch for souls as they that must give an account, pointing souls to God's standard of righteousness.

Many who have known the truth, but who have not cherished its principles in their hearts, will become leavened with evil. This evil they do not discern. In word and act they say, "Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." We are now to call things by their right names. No longer are we to look upon unrighteousness as righteousness. Let every one now be prepared to lift up the standard of truth. We are to have no fellowship with the worldly practises that have perverted the faith of some who have enjoyed great privileges, and who should now be standing on vantage-ground.

We are to respond to God's call to take a decided stand for truth and righteousness. No longer are we to bind up with worldly elements. The leaders in God's work are not to be men who do not know God, who have no experimental knowledge of God. They are to be men who love and fear God and Christ; otherwise, they must be relieved of their responsibilities. -

The Twelve Spies (Concluded)

In their rebellion the people had exclaimed, "Would God we had died in this wilderness!" Now this prayer was to be granted. The Lord declared: "As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward. . . . But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." And of Caleb he said, "My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it." As the spies had spent forty days in their journey, so the hosts of Israel were to wander in the wilderness forty years.

When Moses made known to the people the divine decision, their rage was changed to mourning. They knew that their punishment was just. The ten unfaithful spies, divinely smitten by the plague, perished before the eyes of all Israel; and in their fate the people read their own doom.

Now they seemed sincerely to repent of their sinful conduct; but they sorrowed because of the result of their evil course, rather than from a sense of their ingratitude and disobedience. When they found that the Lord did not relent in his decree, their self-will again arose, and they declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In commanding them to retire from the land of their enemies, God tested their apparent submission, and proved that it was not real. They knew that they had deeply sinned in allowing their rash feelings to control them, and in seeking to slay the spies who had urged them to obey God; but they were only terrified to find that they had made a fearful mistake, the consequences of which would prove disastrous to themselves. Their hearts were unchanged, and they only needed an excuse to occasion a similar outbreak. This presented itself when Moses, by the authority of God, commanded them to go back into the wilderness.

The decree that Israel was not to enter Canaan for forty years was a bitter disappointment to Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua; yet without a murmur they accepted the divine decision. But those who had been complaining of God's dealings with them, and declaring that they would return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the blessings which they had despised were taken from them. They had complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep. Had they mourned for their sin when it was faithfully laid before them, this sentence would not have been pronounced; but they mourned for the judgment; their sorrow was not repentance, and could not secure a reversing of their sentence.

The night was spent in lamentation; but with the morning came a hope. They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden them go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when he directed them to retreat, they were equally rebellious. They determined to seize upon the land and possess it; it might be that God would accept their work and change his purpose toward them.

God had made it their privilege and their duty to enter the land at the time of his appointment; but through their willful neglect that permission had been withdrawn. Satan had gained his object in preventing them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory by leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted the power of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of Canaan: yet now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish the work independent of divine aid. "We have sinned against the Lord," they cried; "we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us." So terribly blinded had they become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to "go up and fight." It was not his purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to his commands.

Though their hearts were unchanged, the people had been brought to confess the sinfulness and folly of their rebellion at the report of the spies. They now saw the value of the blessing which they had so rashly cast away. They confessed that it was their own unbelief which had shut them out from Canaan. "We have sinned," they said, acknowledging that the fault was in themselves, and not in God, whom they had so wickedly charged with failing to fulfill his promises to them. Though their confession did not spring from true repentance, it served to vindicate the justice of God in his dealings with them.

The Lord still works in a similar manner to glorify his name by bringing men to acknowledge his justice. When those who profess to love him complain of his providence, despise his promises, and, yielding to temptation, unite with evil angels to defeat the purposes of God, the Lord often so overrules circumstances as to bring these persons where, though they may have no real repentance, they will be convinced of their sin, and will be constrained to acknowledge the wickedness of their course, and the justice and goodness of God in his dealings with them. It is thus that God sets counter-agencies at work to make manifest the works of darkness. And though the spirit which prompted to the evil course is not radically changed, confessions are made that vindicate the honor of God, and justify his faithful reprovers, who have been opposed and misrepresented. Thus it will be when the wrath of God shall be finally poured out. When "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all," he will also "convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds." Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of his condemnation.

Regardless of the divine sentence, the Israelites prepared to undertake the conquest of Canaan. Equipped with armor and weapons of war, they were, in their own estimation, fully prepared for conflict; but they were sadly deficient in the sight of God and his sorrowful servants. When, nearly forty years later, the Lord directed Israel to go up and take Jericho, he promised to go with them. The ark containing his law was borne before their armies. His appointed leaders were to direct their movements, under the divine supervision. With such guidance, no harm could come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark, and without Moses, they went out to meet the armies of the enemy.

The trumpet sounded an alarm, and Moses hastened after them with the warning, "Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword."

The Canaanites had heard of the mysterious power that seemed to be guarding this people, and of the wonders wrought in their behalf; and they now summoned a strong force to repel the invaders. The attacking army had no leader. No prayer was offered that God would give them the victory. They set forth with the desperate purpose to reverse their fate or to die in battle. Though untrained in war, they were a vast multitude of armed men, and they hoped by a sudden and fierce assault to bear down all opposition. They presumptuously challenged the foe that had not dared to attack them.

The Canaanites had stationed themselves upon a rocky tableland reached only by difficult passes and a steep and dangerous ascent. The immense numbers of the Hebrews could only render their defeat more terrible. They slowly threaded the mountain paths, exposed to the deadly missiles of their enemies above. Massive rocks came thundering down, marking their path with the blood of the slain. Those who reached the summit, exhausted with their ascent, were fiercely repulsed, and driven back with great loss. The field of carnage was strewn with the bodies of the dead. The army of Israel was utterly defeated. Destruction and death was the result of that rebellious experiment.

Forced to submission at last, the survivors "returned, and wept before the Lord;" but "the Lord would not hearken to their voice." By their signal victory, the enemies of Israel, who had before awaited with trembling the approach of that mighty host, were inspired with confidence to resist them. All the reports they had heard concerning the marvelous things that God had wrought for his people, they now regarded as false, and they felt that there was no cause for fear. That first defeat of Israel, by inspiring the Canaanites with courage and resolution, had greatly increased the difficulties of the conquest. Nothing remained for Israel but to fall back from the face of their victorious foes, into the wilderness, knowing that here must be the grave of a whole generation.--" Patriarchs and Prophets," pages 391-394 .

A Personal Appeal to Every Believer

There are times when a distinct view is presented before me of the condition of the remnant church,--a condition of appalling indifference to the needs of a world perishing for lack of knowledge of the truth for this time. Then I have hours, and sometimes days, of intense anguish. Many to whom have been committed the saving truths of the third angel's message fail of realizing that the salvation of souls is dependent upon the consecration and activity of God's church. As grateful recipients of Heaven's blessings, believers are to diffuse the light of truth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. But many are using these blessings in the service of self. Their influence is no better than the influence of worldlings. O how my heart aches because Christ is put to shame by their unchristlike behavior! But after the agony is past, I feel like working harder than ever to arouse them to put forth unselfish effort for the saving of their fellow men.

God has made his people stewards of his grace and truth, and how does he regard their neglect to impart these blessings to their fellow men? Let us suppose that a distant colony belonging to Great Britain is in great distress because of famine and threatened war. Multitudes are dying of starvation, and a powerful enemy is gathering on the frontier, threatening to hasten the work of death. The government at home opens its stores; public charity pours forth; relief flows through many channels. A fleet is freighted with the precious means of life, and is sent to the scene of suffering, accompanied by the prayers of those whose hearts are stirred to help. And for a time the fleet sails directly for its destination. But having lost sight of land, the ardor of those entrusted with the work of carrying food to the starving sufferers, abates. Though engaged in a work that makes them co-laborers with the angels, they lose the good impressions with which they started forth. Through evil counselors temptation enters.

A group of islands lies in their course, and though far short of their destination, they decide to call. The temptation that has already entered grows stronger. The selfish spirit of gain takes possession of their minds. Mercantile advantages present themselves. Those in charge of the fleet are prevailed on to remain on the islands. Their original purpose of mercy fades from their sight. They forget the starving people to whom they were sent. The stores entrusted to them are used for their own benefit. The means of benevolence is diverted into channels of selfishness. They barter the means of life for selfish gain, and leave their fellow beings to die. The cries of the perishing ascend to heaven, and the Lord writes in his record the tale of robbery.

Think of the horror of human beings dying because those placed in charge of the means of relief proved unfaithful to their trust! It is difficult for us to realize that man could be guilty of so terrible a sin. Yet I am instructed to say to you, my brother, my sister, that Christians are daily repeating this sin.

In Eden, man fell from his high estate, and through transgression became subject to death. It was seen in heaven that human beings were perishing, and the compassion of God was stirred. At infinite cost he devised a means of relief. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There was no hope for the transgressor except through Christ. God saw that "there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him."

The Lord chose a people, and made them the depositaries of his truth. It was his purpose that by the revelation of his character through Israel men should be drawn unto him. To all the world the gospel invitation was to be given. Through the teaching of the sacrificial service, Christ was to be uplifted before the nations, and all who would look unto him should live.

But Israel did not fulfil God's purpose. They forgot God, and lost sight of their high privilege as his representatives. The blessings they had received brought no blessing to the world. All their advantages were appropriated for their own glorification. They robbed God of the service he required of them, and they robbed their fellow men of religious guidance and a holy example.

God finally sent his Son to reveal to men the character of the Unseen. Christ came and lived on this earth a life of obedience to God's law. He gave his precious life to save the world, and made his servants his stewards in trust. With the gift of Christ all the treasures of heaven were given to man. The church was freighted with the food of heaven for starving souls. This was the treasure that the people of God were commissioned to carry to the world. They were faithfully to perform their duty, continuing their work until the message of mercy had encircled the world.

Christ ascended to heaven, and sent his Holy Spirit to give power to the work of his disciples. Thousands were converted in a day. In a single generation the gospel was carried to every nation under heaven. But little by little a change came. The church lost her first love. She became selfish and ease-loving. The spirit of worldliness was cherished. The enemy cast his spell upon those to whom God had given light for a world in darkness,--light which should have shone forth in good works. The world was robbed of the blessings that God desired men to receive.

Is not the same thing repeated in this generation? Many in our day are keeping back that which the Lord has entrusted to them for the salvation of a world unwarned, unsaved. In the Word of God an angel is represented as flying in the midst of heaven, "having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water."

The message of Revelation 14 is the message that we are to bear to the world. It is the bread of life for these last days. Millions of human beings are perishing in ignorance and iniquity. But many of those to whom God has committed the stores of life look upon these souls with indifference. Many forget that to them has been entrusted the bread of life for those starving for salvation.

O for consecrated Christians, for Christlike consistency, for the faith that works by love and purifies the soul! May God help us to repent, and change our sluggish movements into consecrated activity. May he help us to show by our words and works that we make the burden of perishing souls our own.

Let us be thankful every moment for God's forbearance with our tardy, unbelieving movements. Instead of flattering ourselves with the thought of what we have done, after doing just a little, we are to labor still more earnestly. We are not to cease our efforts or relax our vigilance. Never is our zeal to grow less. Our spiritual life must be daily revived by the stream that makes glad the city of our God. We must be always on the watch for opportunities to use for God the talents that he has given us.

I appeal to our church-members to use for God the powers that he has given them. Wherever there is true conversion, there is a reformation, a consecration to God. Every one who with genuine faith believes in Christ enters into his service. Our faith must now be a faith that is constantly increasing. God's people are no longer to sit at their ease, waiting for an opening, when it is their duty to make an opening and then, go to work.

Let every believer ask himself, "What can I do to proclaim the third angel's message?" Christ came to this world to give this message to his servant to give to the churches. It is to be proclaimed to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. How are we to give it? The distribution of our literature is one means by which the message is to be proclaimed. Let every believer scatter broadcast tracts and leaflets and books containing the message for this time. We need colporteurs, who will go forth to circulate our publications everywhere.

Those who labor for souls need to remember that they are pledged to co-operate with Christ, to obey his directions, to follow his guidance. Every hour they are to ask for and receive power from on high. They are to cherish a constant sense of the Saviour's love, of his efficiency, his watchfulness, his tenderness. They are to look to him as the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. Then they will have the sympathy and support of the heavenly angels. Christ will be their joy and crown of rejoicing. Their hearts will be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and they will go forth clothed with holy zeal. Their efforts will be accompanied with a power proportionate to the importance of the message they proclaim. -

The Rebellion of Korah

The Judgments visited upon the Israelites served for a time to restrain their murmuring and insubordination, but the spirit of rebellion was still in the heart, and eventually brought forth the bitterest fruits. The former rebellions had been mere popular tumults, arising from the sudden impulse of the excited multitude; but now a deep-laid conspiracy was formed, the result of a determined purpose to overthrow the authority of the leaders appointed by God himself.

Korah, the leading spirit in this movement, was a Levite, of the family of Kohath, and a cousin of Moses; he was a man of ability and influence. Though appointed to the service of the tabernacle, he had become dissatisfied with his position, and aspired to the dignity of the priesthood. The bestowal upon Aaron and his house of the priestly office, which had formerly devolved upon the first-born son of every family, had given rise to jealousy and dissatisfaction, and for some time Korah had been secretly opposing the authority of Moses and Aaron, though he had not ventured upon any open act of rebellion. He finally conceived the bold design of overthrowing both the civil and the religious authority. He did not fail to find sympathizers. Close to the tents of Korah and the Kohathites, on the south side of the tabernacle, was the encampment of the tribe of Reuben, the tents of Dathan and Abiram, two princes of this tribe, being near that of Korah. These princes readily joined in his ambitious schemes. Being descendants from the eldest son of Jacob, they claimed that the civil authority belonged to them, and they determined to divide with Korah the honors of the priesthood.

The state of feeling among the people favored the designs of Korah. In the bitterness of their disappointment, their former doubts, jealousy, and hatred had returned, and again their complaints were directed against their patient leader. The Israelites were continually losing sight of the fact that they were under divine guidance. They forgot that the Angel of the covenant was their invisible leader, that, veiled by the cloudy pillar, the presence of Christ went before them, and that from him Moses received all his directions.

They were unwilling to submit to the terrible sentence that they must all die in the wilderness, and hence they were ready to seize upon every pretext for believing that it was not God but Moses who was leading them, and who had pronounced their doom. The best efforts of the meekest man upon the earth could not quell the insubordination of this people; and although the marks of God's displeasure at their former perverseness were still before them in their broken ranks and missing numbers, they did not take the lesson to heart. Again they were overcome by temptation.

The humble shepherd's life of Moses had been far more peaceful and happy that his present position as leader of that vast assembly of turbulent spirits. Yet Moses dared not choose. In place of a shepherd's crook a rod of power had been given him, which he could not lay down until God should release him.

He who reads the secrets of all hearts had marked the purposes of Korah and his companions, and had given his people such warning and instruction as might have enabled them to escape the deception of these designing men. They had seen the judgment of God fall upon Miriam because of her jealousy and complaints against Moses. The Lord had declared that Moses was greater than a prophet. "With him will I speak mouth to mouth." "Wherefore, then," he added, "were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" These instructions were not intended for Aaron and Miriam alone, but for all Israel.

Korah and his fellow conspirators were men who had been favored with special manifestations of God's power and greatness. They were of the number who went up with Moses into the mount and beheld the divine glory. But since that time a change had come. A temptation, slight at first, had been harbored, and had strengthened as it was encouraged, until their minds were controlled by Satan, and they ventured upon their work of disaffection. Professing great interest in the prosperity of the people, they first whispered their discontent to one another, and then to leading men of Israel. Their insinuations were so readily received that they ventured still further, and at last they really believed themselves to be actuated by zeal for God.

They were successful in alienating two hundred and fifty princes, men of renown in the congregation. With these strong and influential supporters they felt confident of making a radical change in the government, and greatly improving upon the administration of Moses and Aaron.

Jealousy had given rise to envy,and envy to rebellion. They had discussed the question of the right of Moses to so great authority and honor, until they had come to regard him as occupying a very enviable position, which any of them could fill as well as he. And they deceived themselves and one another into thinking that Moses and Aaron had themselves assumed the positions they held. The discontented ones said that these leaders had exalted themselves above the congregation of the Lord, in taking upon them the priesthood and government, but their house was not entitled to distinction above others in Israel; they were no more holy than the people, and it should be enough for them to be on a level with their brethren, who were equally favored with God's special presence and protection.

The next work of the conspirators was with the people. To those who are in the wrong, and deserving of reproof, there is nothing more pleasing than to receive sympathy and praise. And thus Korah and his associates gained the attention and enlisted the support of the congregation. The charge that the murmurings of the people had brought upon them the wrath of God, was declared to be a mistake. They said that the congregation were not at fault, since they desired nothing more than their rights; but that Moses was an overbearing ruler; that he had reproved the people as sinners, when they were a holy people, and the Lord was among them.

Korah reviewed the history of their travels through the wilderness, where they have been brought into strait places, and many had perished because of their murmuring and disobedience. His hearers thought they saw clearly that their troubles might have been prevented if Moses had pursued a different course. They decided that all their disasters were chargeable to him, and that their exclusion from Canaan was in consequence of the mismanagement of Moses and Aaron; that if Korah would be their leader, and would encourage them by dwelling upon their good deeds instead of reproving their sins, they would have a very peaceful, prosperous journey; instead of wandering to and fro in the wilderness, they would proceed directly to the promised land.

In this work of disaffection there was greater union and harmony among the discordant elements of the congregation than had ever before existed. Korah's success with the people increased his confidence, and confirmed him in his belief that the usurpation of authority by Moses, if unchecked, would be fatal to the liberties of Israel; he also claimed that God had opened the matter to him, and had authorized him to make a change in the government before it should be too late. But many were not ready to accept Korah's accusations against Moses. The memory of his patient, self-sacrificing labors came up before them, and conscience was disturbed. It was therefore necessary to assign some selfish motive for his deep interest for Israel; and the old charge was reiterated, that he had led them out to perish in the wilderness, that he might seize upon their possessions.

For a time this work was carried on secretly. As soon, however, as the movement had gained sufficient strength to warrant an open rupture, Korah appeared at the head of the faction, and publicly accused Moses and Aaron of usurping authority which Korah and his associates were equally entitled to share. It was charged, further, that the people had been deprived of their liberty and independence. "Ye take too much upon you," said the conspirators, "seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?"

Moses had not suspected this deep-laid plot, and when its terrible significance burst upon him, he fell upon his face in silent appeal to God. He arose sorrowful indeed, but calm and strong. Divine guidance had been granted him. "Even to-morrow," he said, "the Lord will show who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him." The test was to be deferred until the morrow, that all might have time for reflection. Then those who aspired to the priesthood were to come each with a censer, and offer incense at the tabernacle in the presence of the congregation. The law was very explicit that only those who had been ordained to the sacred office should minister in the sanctuary. And even the priests, Nadab and Abihu, had been destroyed for venturing to offer "strange fire," in disregard of a divine command. Yet Moses challenged his accusers, if they dared enter upon so perilous an appeal, to refer the matter to God.

Singling out Korah and his fellow Levites, Moses said, "Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? for which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord. And what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?"

Dathan and Abiram had not taken so bold a stand as had Korah; and Moses, hoping that they might have been drawn into the conspiracy without having become wholly corrupted, summoned them to appear before him, that he might hear their charges against him. But they would not come, and they insolently refused to acknowledge his authority. Their reply, uttered in the hearing of the congregation, was, "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards; wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up."

Thus they applied to the scene of their bondage the very language in which the Lord had described the promised inheritance. They accused Moses of pretending to act under divine guidance, as a means of establishing his authority; and they declared that they would no longer submit to be led about like blind men, now toward Canaan, and now toward the wilderness, as best suited his ambitious designs. Thus he who had been as a tender father, a patient shepherd, was represented in the blackest character of a tyrant and usurper. The exclusion from Canaan, in punishment of their own sins, was charged upon him.

It was evident that the sympathies of the people were with the disaffected party; but Moses made no effort at self-vindication. He solemnly appealed to God, in the presence of the congregation, as a witness to the purity of his motives and the uprightness of his conduct, and implored him to be his judge.

On the morrow, the two hundred and fifty princes, with Korah at their head, presented themselves, with their censers. They were brought into the court of the tabernacle, while the people gathered without, to await the result. It was not Moses who assembled the congregation to behold the defeat of Korah and his company, but the rebels, in their blind presumption, had called them together to witness their victory. A large part of the congregation openly sided with Korah, whose hopes were high of carrying his point against Aaron.

As they were thus assembled before God, "the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation." The divine warning was communicated to Moses and Aaron, "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." But they fell upon their faces, with the prayer, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?"

Korah had withdrawn from the assembly, to join Dathan and Abiram, when Moses, accompanied by the seventy elders, went down with a last warning to the men who had refused to come to him. The multitudes followed, and before delivering his message, Moses, by divine direction, bade the people, "Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins." The warning was obeyed, for an apprehension of impending judgment rested upon all. The chief rebels saw themselves abandoned by those whom they had deceived, but their hardihood was unshaken. They stood with their families in the door of their tents, as if in defiance of the divine warning.

In the name of the God of Israel, Moses now declared, in the hearing of the congregation: "Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertaineth unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord."

The eyes of all Israel were fixed upon Moses, as they stood, in terror and expectation, awaiting the event. As he ceased speaking, the solid earth parted, and the rebels went down alive into the pit, with all that pertained to them, and "they perished from among the congregation." The people fled, self-condemned as partakers in the sin.

But the judgments were not ended. Fire flashing from the cloud consumed the two hundred and fifty princes who had offered incense. These men, not being the first in rebellion, were not destroyed with the chief conspirators. They were permitted to see their end, and to have an opportunity for repentance; but their sympathies were with the rebels, and they shared their fate.

When Moses was entreating Israel to flee from the coming destruction, the divine judgment might even then have been stayed, if Korah and his company had repented and sought forgiveness. But their stubborn persistence sealed their doom. The entire congregation were sharers in their guilt, for all had, to a greater or less degree, sympathized with them. Yet God in his great mercy made a distinction between the leaders in rebellion and those whom they had led. The people who had permitted themselves to be deceived were still granted space for repentance. Overwhelming evidence had been given that they were wrong, and that Moses was right. The signal manifestation of God's power had removed all uncertainty.

Jesus, the Angel who went before the Hebrews, sought to save them from destruction. Forgiveness was lingering for them. The judgment of God had come very near, and appealed to them to repent. A special, irresistible interference from heaven had arrested their rebellion. Now, if they would respond to the interposition of God's providence, they might be saved. But while they fled from the judgments, through fear of destruction, their rebellion was not cured. They returned to their tents that night terrified, but not repentant.

They had been flattered by Korah and his company until they really believed themselves to be a very good people, and that they had been wronged and abused by Moses. Should they admit that Korah and his company were wrong, and Moses right, then they would be compelled to receive as the word of God the sentence that they must die in the wilderness. They were not willing to submit to this, and they tried to believe that Moses had deceived them. They had fondly cherished the hope that a new order of things was about to be established, in which praise would be substituted for reproof, and ease for anxiety and conflict. The men who had perished had spoken flattering words, and had professed great interest and love for them, and the people concluded that Korah and his companions must have been good men, and that Moses had by some means been the cause of their destruction.

It is hardly possible for men to offer greater insult to God than to despise and reject the instrumentalities he would use for their salvation. The Israelites had not only done this, but had purposed to put both Moses and Aaron to death. Yet they did not realize the necessity of seeking pardon of God for their grievous sin. The night of probation was not passed in repentance and confession, but in devising some way to resist the evidences which showed them to be the greatest of sinners. They still cherished hatred of the men of God's appointment, and braced themselves to resist their authority. Satan was at hand to pervert their judgment, and lead them blindfold to destruction.

All Israel had fled in alarm at the cry of the doomed sinners who went down into the pit, for they said, "Lest the earth swallow us up also." "But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord." And they were about to proceed to violence against their faithful, self-sacrificing leaders.

A manifestation of the divine glory was seen in the cloud above the tabernacle, and a voice from the cloud spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment."

The guilt of sin did not rest upon Moses, and hence he did not fear, and did not hasten away and leave the congregation to perish. Moses lingered, in this fearful crisis manifesting the true shepherd's interest for the flock of his care, He pleaded that the wrath of God might not utterly destroy the people of his choice. By his intercession he stayed the arm of vengeance, that a full end might not be made of disobedient, rebellious Israel.

But the minister of wrath had gone forth; the plague was doing its work of death. By his brother's direction, Aaron took a censer, and hastened into the midst of the congregation to "make an atonement for them." "And he stood between the dead and the living." As the smoke of the incense ascended, the prayers of Moses in the tabernacle went up to God; and the plague was stayed; but not until fourteen thousand of Israel lay dead, an evidence of the guilt of murmuring and rebellion.

But further evidence was given that the priesthood had been established in the family of Aaron. By divine direction each tribe prepared a rod, and wrote upon it the name of the tribe. The name of Aaron was upon that of Levi. The rods were laid up in the tabernacle, "before the testimony." The blossoming of any rod was to be a token that the Lord had chosen that tribe for the priesthood. On the morrow, "behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds." It was shown to the people, and afterward laid up in the tabernacle as a witness to succeeding generations. This miracle effectually settled the question of the priesthood.

It was now fully established that Moses and Aaron had spoken by divine authority; and the people were compelled to believe the unwelcome truth that they were to die in the wilderness. "Behold," they exclaimed, "we die, we perish, we all perish." They confessed that they had sinned in rebelling against their leaders, and that Korah and his company had suffered from the just judgment of God.

In the rebellion of Korah is seen the working out, upon a narrower stage, of the same spirit that led to the rebellion of Satan in heaven. It was pride and ambition that prompted Lucifer to complain of the government of God, and to seek the overthrow of the order which had been established in heaven. Since his fall it has been his object to infuse the same spirit of envy and discontent, the same ambition for position and honor, into the minds of men. He thus worked upon the minds of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, to arouse the desire for self-exaltation, and excite envy, distrust, and rebellion. Satan caused them to reject God as their leader, by rejecting the men of God's appointment. Yet while in their murmuring against Moses and Aaron they blasphemed God, they were so deluded as to think themselves righteous, and to regard those who had faithfully reproved their sins as actuated by Satan.

Do not the same evils still exist that lay at the foundation of Korah's ruin? Pride and ambition are wide-spread; and when these are cherished, they open the door to envy, and a striving for supremacy; the soul is alienated from God, and unconsciously drawn into the ranks of Satan. Like Korah and his companions, many, even of the professed followers of Christ, are thinking, planning, and working so eagerly for self-exaltation, that in order to gain the sympathy and support of the people, they are ready to pervert the truth, falsifying and misrepresenting the Lord's servants, and even charging them with the base and selfish motives that inspire their own hearts. By persistently reiterating falsehood, and that against all evidence, they at last come to believe it to be truth. While endeavoring to destroy the confidence of the people in the men of God's appointment, they really believe that they are engaged in a good work, verily doing God service.

The Hebrews were not willing to submit to the directions and restrictions of the Lord. They were restless under restraint, and unwilling to receive reproof. This was the secret of their murmuring against Moses. Had they been left free to do as they pleased, there would have been fewer complaints against their leader. All through the history of the church, God's servants have had the same spirit to meet.

It is by sinful indulgence that men give Satan access to their minds, and they go from one stage of wickedness to another. The rejection of light darkens the mind and hardens the heart, so that it is easier for them to take the next step in sin, and to reject still clearer light, until at last their habits of wrongdoing become fixed. Sin ceases to appear sinful to them. He who faithfully preaches God's word, thereby condemning their sins, too often incurs their hatred. Unwilling to endure the pain and sacrifice necessary to reform, they turn upon the Lord's servant, and denounce his reproofs as uncalled for and severe. Like Korah, they declare that the people are not at fault; it is the reprover that causes all the trouble. And soothing their consciences with this deception, the jealous and disaffected combine to sow discord in the church, and weaken the hands of those who would build it up.

Every advance made by those whom God has called to lead in his work, has excited suspicion; every act has been misrepresented by the jealous and fault-finding. Thus it was in the time of Luther, of the Wesleys and other reformers. Thus it is to-day.

Korah would not have taken the course he did had he known that all the directions and reproofs communicated to Israel were from God. But he might have known this. God had given overwhelming evidence that he was leading Israel. But Korah and his companions rejected light until they became so blinded that the most striking manifestations of his power were not sufficient to convince them; they attributed them all to human or satanic agency. The same thing was done by the people, who the day after the destruction of Korah and his company came to Moses and Aaron, saying, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord." Notwithstanding they had had the most convincing evidence of God's displeasure at their course, in the destruction of the men who had deceived them, they dared to attribute his judgments to Satan, declaring that through the power of the evil one, Moses and Aaron had caused the death of good and holy men. It was this act that sealed their doom. They had committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, a sin by which man's heart is effectually hardened against the influence of divine grace. "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man," said Christ, "it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him." These words were spoken by our Saviour when the gracious works which he had performed through the power of God were attributed by the Jews to Beelzebub. It is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that God communicated with man; and those who deliberately reject this agency as satanic, have cut off the channel of communication between the soul and Heaven.

God works by the manifestation of his Spirit to reprove and convict the sinner; and if the Spirit's work is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul. The last resource of divine mercy has been employed. The transgressor has cut himself off from God; and sin has no remedy to cure itself. There is no reserved power by which God can work to convict and convert the sinner. "Let him alone," is the divine command. Then "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries."-- "Patriarchs and Prophets," pages 395-405 . -

The Workers Needed Now--No. 2

God never leaves the world without men who can discern between good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness. God has men whom he has appointed to stand in the forefront of the battle in times of emergency. In a crisis, he will raise up men as he did in ancient times. Young men will be bidden to link up with the aged standard-bearers, that they may be strengthened and taught by the experience of these faithful ones, who have passed through so many conflicts, and to whom, through the testimonies of his Spirit, God has so often spoken, pointing out the right way and condemning the wrong way. When perils arise, which try the faith of God's people, these pioneer workers are to recount the experiences of the past, when just such crises came, when the truth was questioned, when strange sentiments, proceeding not from God, were brought in.

The experience of those aged workers is needed now; for Satan is watching every opportunity to make of no account the old waymarks,--the monuments that have been raised up along the way. We need the experience of the men who through evil report as well as through good report have been steadfast to the truth; men who have not built their house upon the sand, but upon the solid rock.

In the gospel medical missionary work there are noble men who bear aloft the banner upon which is inscribed, "The Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Consideration should be given to these faithful missionaries. They are not to be left to the caprice of men who are neither cold nor hot, and who because of their lukewarm condition are an offense to God.

The Lord has self-denying men in the ministry who have been abundant in labor and in self-sacrifice. Let justice be done to those who have borne the burden in the heart of the day. They have grown old in the service of God. They are his men of opportunity, men who will deal justly, love mercy, and who will help where help is needed.

These men are to be appreciated. They led out in the first of the conflict, when the truth was yet to be established. They carried burdens when there were few to share the burdens. Under all circumstances they were faithful to principle. For the sake of the truth they practised constant self-denial, and their brethren should deal with them considerately, kindly, generously. The truth for which they have sacrificed everything will bear away the victory. They have labored earnestly for the advancement of the kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; and they are now to be encouraged and sustained.

Plans for Medical Missionary Work

Young men who have a practical knowledge of how to treat the sick, are now to be sent out to do gospel medical missionary work, in connection with more experienced gospel workers. If these young men will give themselves to the study of the Word, they will become successful evangelists. The ministers with whom these young men labor are to give them the same opportunity to learn that Elijah gave Elisha. They are to show them how to teach the truth to others. Where it is possible, these young men should visit the hospitals, and in some cases they may connect with them for a while, laboring disinterestedly.

The purest example of unselfishness is now to be shown by our medical missionary workers. With the knowledge and experience gained by practical work, they are to go out to give treatment to the sick. As they go from house to house, they will find access to many hearts. Many will be reached who otherwise would never have heard the gospel message.

Much good can be done by those who do not hold diplomas as fully accredited physicians. Some are to be prepared to work as competent physicians. Many, working under the direction of such ones, can do acceptable work without spending so long a time in study as it has been thought necessary to spend in the past.

Many will go out to labor for the Master who have not been able to take a regular course of study in school. God will help these workers. They will obtain knowledge from the higher school, and will be fitted to take their position in the rank and file of workers as nurses. The great Medical Missionary sees every effort that is made to find access to souls by presenting the principles of health reform.

Decided changes are taking place in our world. The Lord has declared that he will turn and overturn. Humble men, who hitherto have been in obscurity, must now be given opportunity to become workers.

To those who go out to do medical missionary work, I would say, Serve the Lord Jesus Christ with sanctified understanding, in connection with the ministers of the gospel and the Great Teacher. He who has given you your commission will give you skill and understanding as you consecrate yourselves to his service, engaging diligently in labor and study, doing your best to bring relief to the sick and suffering.

To those who are tired of a life of sinfulness, but who know not where to turn to obtain relief, present the compassionate Saviour, full of love and tenderness, longing to receive those who come to him with broken hearts and contrite spirits. Take them by the hand, lift them up, speak to them words of hope and courage. Help them to grasp the hand of him who has said, "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me."

"Behold," Christ declares, "I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." God calls upon us to voice the words, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." God will do much more for his people if they will have faith in him. Infidelity is stalking abroad through the land. Satan has laid his plans to undermine our faith in the history of the cause and work of God. I am deeply in earnest as I write this. Satan is working with men in prominent positions to sweep away the foundations of our faith. Shall we allow this to be done, brethren?

My soul is stirred within me. I shall trust in God with heart and soul. I shall proclaim the messages that he has given us to proclaim. -

A View of the Conflict

In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world's insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord's army joined the foe; and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standards of Emmanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried with a loud voice, "Come into line. Let those who royal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ, now take their position. 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.' Let all who will, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way, "as when a standard-bearer fainteth." But their apparent retreat was but an effort to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ's soldiers planted his banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. The Captain of our salvation was ordering the battle, and sending support to his soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them terrible things in righteousness as he led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.

At last the victory was gained. The army following the banner with the inscription, "The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," were gloriously triumphant. The soldiers of Christ were close beside the gates of the city of God, and with joy the city received her King. The kingdom of peace and joy and everlasting righteousness was established. God's will was done on earth, as it is done in heaven.

Now the church is militant. Now we are confronted with a world in midnight darkness, almost wholly given over to idolatry. But the day is coming when the battle will have been fought, the victory won. The will of God is to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Then the nations will own no other law than the law of heaven. All will be a happy, united family, clothed with the garments of praise and thanksgiving,--the robe of Christ's righteousness. All nature, in its surpassing loveliness, will offer to God a constant tribute of praise and adoration. The world will be bathed in the light of heaven. The years will move on in gladness. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold greater than it is now. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, "There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death."

This is the scene that is presented to me. But the church must still fight against seen and unseen foes. Satanic agencies in human form are on the ground. Men have confederated to oppose the Lord of hosts. These confederacies will continue until Christ shall leave his place of intercession before the mercy seat, and shall put on the garments of vengeance. Satanic agencies are in every city, busily organizing into parties those opposed to the law of God. Professed saints and avowed unbelievers take their stand with these parties. This is no time for the people of God to be the weaklings. We can not afford to be off our guard for one moment.

"Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

"This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."

Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: . . . stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake."

There are revealed in these last days visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these should be dear to his church. What sustained the Son of God in his betrayal and trial? He saw of the travail of his soul, and was satisfied. He caught a view of the expanse of eternity, and saw the happiness of those who through his humiliation should receive pardon and everlasting life. He was wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their iniquities. The chastisement of their peace was upon him, and with his stripes they were healed. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

We must have a vision of the future on the blessedness of heaven. Stand on the threshold of eternity, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life have co-operated with Christ, regarding it as a privilege and an honor to suffer for his sake. As they unite with the angels, they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. . . . Honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."

There the redeemed ones greet those who directed them to the uplifted Saviour. They unite in praising him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. All tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the redeemed stand around the throne of God. All take up the joyful strain, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror."

"I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number,of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."

"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them White in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Will you catch the inspiration of the vision? Will you let your mind dwell upon the picture? Will you not be truly converted, and then go forth to labor in a spirit entirely different from the spirit in which you have labored in the past, displacing the enemy, breaking down every barrier to the advancement of the gospel, filling hearts with the light and peace and joy of the Lord? Shall not this miserable spirit of fault-finding and murmuring be buried, never to have a resurrection? Shall not the incense of praise and thanksgiving ascend from hearts purified and sanctified and glorified by the presence of Christ? Shall we not in faith lay hold of sinners, and bring them to the cross?

Who will this day consecrate themselves to the service of the Lord? Who will now pledge themselves not to affiliate with the world, but to come out from the world, and be separate, refusing to pollute the soul with the worldly schemes and worldly practises under the enemy's influence?

We are in this world to lift the cross of Calvary. As we lift this cross, we shall find that it lifts us. Let every Christian stand in his lot and place, catching the inspiration of the work that Christ did for souls while in this world. We need the ardor of the Christian hero, who can endure the seeing of him that is invisible. Our faith is to have a resurrection. The soldiers of the cross are to exert a positive influence for good. Christ says, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Indifference in the Christian life is a manifest denial of Christ.

Should we not see in the world today medical missionaries who in all the features of their work are worthy of the name they bear, who aspire to the doing of deeds worthy of valiant soldiers of Christ? We are living near the close of the great conflict, when many souls are to be rescued from the slavery of sin. We are living in a time when to Christ's followers the promise specially belongs, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, he who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, bids us let our light shine brightly before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. In such rich measure has light been given to God's people that Christ is justified in telling them that they are to be the light of the world.

To our physicians and ministers I send the message, Lay hold of the Lord's work as if you believed the truth for this time. Medical missionary workers and workers in the gospel ministry are to be bound together by indissoluble ties. Their work is to be done with freshness and power. Throughout our churches there is to be a reconversion, and a reconsecration to service. Shall we not, in our work in the future, and in the gatherings that we hold, be of one accord? Shall we not wrestle with God in prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit to come into every heart? The presence of Christ, manifest among us, would cure the leprosy of unbelief that has made our service so weak and inefficient. We need the breath of the divine life breathed into us. We are to be channels through which the Lord can send light and grace to the world. Backsliders are to be reclaimed. We are to put away our sins, by confession and repentance, humbling our proud hearts before God. Floods of spiritual power are now to poured forth upon those prepared to receive it.

Let us now consecrate ourselves to the proclamation of the message, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Divine and human instrumentalities are to unite for the accomplishment of one great object. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." -

The Battle Creek College Debt

When human agencies, as stewards of God, will unitedly take of the Lord's own substance, and use it to lift the burdens resting on his institutions, the Lord will co-operate with them.

The Missionary Acre plan of raising means for the payment of the Battle Creek College debt, is a wise and good one. Let us be thankful for this plan, and make it a success. Let all who can, heartily enter into it, thus lifting their part of the burden. Let the labor rest upon many, instead of upon a few. By cultivating land and devoting the profits to the Missionary Acre Fund, we may not only help a worthy cause, but receive a blessing ourselves because of our prayerful, hopeful effort.

Brethren Magan and Sutherland and their associates have wrestled with many difficulties in connection with the educational work at Battle Creek and Berrien Springs. But few have understood how heavy have been the financial burdens, and how great have been the perplexities connected with the removal of the school from Battle Creek to Berrien Springs. Much was involved in the transfer, and in the constant effort to build up an educational institution in accordance with the exalted principles underlying Christian education.

In harmony with the instruction given by the Lord, our brethren devoted themselves energetically to the task of rebuilding the work in a new place, and of introducing only those books and methods that would help the students to form symmetrical characters, and to become useful workers in the cause. They desired that their school should be approved of by God for the excellence of its work, and for the exalted standard that it maintained. Many of their efforts are largely experimental. They sought to make their work an answer to the question, How shall our training schools for Christian workers be established in the country, and in all features of essential education made acceptable and worthy of approval?

In this pioneer effort our brethren advanced, not inch by inch, but in sweeping strides, in the right direction. Some advised delay in the work; some criticised and condemned; many gave a hearty support, and God blessed the efforts of the untied band of workers.

One of the most perplexing and discouraging matters connected with the effort to establish the work at Berrien Springs, was the question of finances. A heavy debt rested on the old Battle Creek College property. Those in charge of the institution at the time the school work was removed to Berrien Springs, were not responsible for incurring this debt. The buildings and grounds were worth considerable more than the debts, and if the property could have been sold for its full value, there would have remained, after the payment of all debts, a good sum to be used in providing the necessary facilities at Berrien Springs.

Those who had conducted the affairs of the College in past years, and who were to some extent responsible for the debts on the institution, should at this time have come forward, and said, We are largely responsible for these debts; and we will take upon ourselves a part of the burden of raising means with which to pay them. We will use our influence to encourage others to take hold of this matter. We will not leave this burden resting altogether upon those who are struggling amid difficulties to establish the school in a place where the surroundings will be more favorable for training our young people.

By an effort to share the burden of these heavy obligations, those who were largely responsible in creating them will be acting in harmony with the first four as well as the last six commandments.

When the book, "Christ's Object Lessons," was given for the relief of the schools, those who were connected with Battle Creek College worked very earnestly to carry out the plan for reducing the indebtedness on our educational institutions. They hoped that they might be able so to lessen the debt on their own school that they could feel free to leave Battle Creek, and to reopen the College in some place where they could more fully follow out the Lord's instruction in regard to Christian education.

About the time of the General Conference in 1901, the way opened for the sale of the Battle Creek College property; and the understanding was that the buildings and grounds would be used for the American Medical Missionary College, and that our people everywhere should be asked to contribute for the clearing of the debt. In the councils of our brethren, it was arranged that this be raised from the proceeds of the Missionary Acre Fund. It was thought that our people throughout America who had land, could set apart a small portion of it for the Lord, and send the proceeds to the general treasury, to be applied in the payment of the College debts, and the clearing of the property for the use of the American Medical Missionary College. It was suggested that those who had no land to use, might give of their earnings, and that in various other ways persons disposed to help could contribute of their substance. Our brethren felt sure that if our people everywhere would give liberally of the fruit of their toil, a large sum could soon be raised, and the debt quickly canceled.

Recently some have questioned the propriety of sending in means for the Missionary Acre Fund, and consequently scarcely anything is now being received for the payment of the College debt. This is not as it should be. Let all our brethren and sisters understand that the purchase of the Battle Creek College property, for the use of the Medical Missionary College, was approved of by the conference, and that the Missionary Acre Fund plan of raising means for this purchase, is a good enterprise.

The Lord will bless those who will now do their utmost to wipe out this long-standing debt, which has been such a burden. We call upon the members of our churches to do something, and do it now. Do not allow the burden of this debt to rest upon those in charge of the Berrien Springs school; for it does not belong to them. It was not incurred by them.

These brethren need our sympathy and assistance, that the school may be placed where it should be. They should not be left where each one must do the work of three, and where even then they are unable to see the work advancing as they desire it to advance.

My brethren and sisters, will you not enter heartily into the carrying out of the plan that has been laid to raise means for the payment of the College debt? The Lord will greatly bless you as you do this. When this debt is paid, those in charge of the Berrien Springs school will be free to carry forward their work as the Lord designs it to be carried forward. Buildings are needed there that ought to have been erected a year ago. These buildings should go up at once, in order that the students may be made comfortable for the winter. Those at this school have been and are working at great disadvantage, because of a lack of facilities.

I have been instructed that it is not just for those in charge of the Berrien Springs school to be left to stagger under the load that they have been carrying. They have devoted themselves unsparingly to the double task of raising funds for the new school, and also of clearing the old College property from debt. How pleasing to God it would be for all our people--led and encouraged by the General Conference Committee--to share in lifting this obligation of the old Battle Creek College.

The creditors of Battle Creek College must all be paid. The officers of the General Conference should lend a hand in this work. It was by the sanction of the General Conference that many of these debts were incurred, in the erection of large additions to the College,--additions that we could have done without.

My brethren and sisters, let us all take part in sharing the burden of this College debt. The Review and Herald needs the portion that is due to it. I entreat you not to find fault. Many sacrifices have been made by those who have striven to lessen this debt. I ask you to show a decided and practical interest in this matter. If all enter heartily into the plan of raising money to cancel this debt by means of the Missionary Acre Fund, it will soon be swept away, and relief will be brought to many who are carrying heavy burdens.

Workers for Christ are never to think, much less to speak, of failure in their work. The Lord Jesus is our efficiency in all things; his Spirit is to be our inspiration; and as we place ourselves in his hands, to be channels of blessing, our means of doing good will never be exhausted.

Who will unite with us in pressing this matter through manfully? Men, women, and children can act a part. Let all labor disinterestedly to earn means with which to help lessen the Battle Creek College debt. Every faithful effort will be an object lesson, and many others will be led to engage in a similar work. Let our brethren and sisters unitedly take up the Missionary Acre plan anew, and work earnestly to make it a great blessing. -

Lessons from the Past (Centralization)

As Noah's descendants increased in number, apostasy soon manifested itself. Those who desired to forget their Creator, and to cast off the restraint of his law, decided to separate from the worshipers of Jehovah. Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates. Here they decided to build a city, and in it a tower which should be the wonder of the world. This tower was to be so high that no flood could sweep it away. Thus they hoped to secure their own safety, and make themselves independent of God.

God had directed men to disperse throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it; but these tower-builders determined to keep their community united in one body, and to found a monarchy which should eventually embrace the whole earth.

Among the men of Babel, there were living some who feared God, although they had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly, and drawn into their schemes. These men would not join this confederacy to thwart the purposes of God. They refused to be deceived by the wonderful representations and the grand outlook. For the sake of these loyal ones, the Lord delayed his judgments, and gave the ungodly time to reveal their true character. But the great majority were fully united in their heaven-daring undertaking. They heeded not the counsel of the Lord, but strove to carry out their own purposes.

This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness, and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized. The mixture of religious ideas with erroneous theories would have resulted in closing the door to peace, happiness, and security. These suppositions, erroneous theories, carried out and perfected, would have directed minds from allegiance to the divine statutes, and the law of Jehovah would have been ignored and forgotten. Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have resisted any interference with their plans or their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts in order that they might carry out their purposes.

But God never leaves the world without witnesses for him. At the time of the first great apostasy after the flood, there were men who humbled themselves before God, and cried unto him. "O God," they pleaded, "interpose between thy cause and the plans and methods of men."

"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower [the great idol-building], which the children of men builded." Angels were sent to bring to naught the purposes of the builders.

The tower had reached a lofty height, and it was impossible for the workmen at the top to communicate directly with those at the base; therefore men were stationed at different points, each to receive and report to the one next below him the orders for needed material, or other directions regarding the work. As messages were thus passing from one to another, the language was confounded, so that material was called for which was not needed, and the directions received were often the reverse of those that had been given. Confusion and dismay followed. All work came to a standstill. There could be no further harmony or co-operation. The builders were wholly unable to account for the strange misunderstandings among them, and in their rage and disappointment they reproached one another. Their confederacy ended in strife and bloodshed. Lightnings from heaven broke off the upper portion of the tower, and cast it to the ground. Men were made to feel that there is a God who ruleth in the heavens, and that he is able to confuse and to multiply confusions in order to teach men that they are only men.

God bears long with the perversity of men, giving them ample opportunity for repentance; but he marks all their devices to resist the authority of his just and holy law.

Up to this time men had spoken the same language; now those that could understand one another's speech united in companies; some went one way, and some another. "The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." In our day the Lord desires that his people shall be dispersed throughout the earth. They are not to colonize. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." When the disciples followed their inclination to remain in large numbers in Jerusalem, persecution was permitted to come upon them, and they were scattered to all parts of the inhabited world.

For years messages of warning and entreaty have been coming to our people, urging them to go forth into the Master's great harvest fields, and labor unselfishly or souls.

From Testimonies written in 1895 and in 1899 I copy the following paragraphs: --

"True missionary workers will not colonize. God's people are to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The investments of large sums of money in the building up of the work in one place is not in the order of God. Plants are to be made in many places. Schools and sanitariums are to be established in places where there is now nothing to represent the truth. These interests are not to be established for the purpose of making money, but for the purpose of spreading the truth. Land should be secured at a distance from the cities, where schools can be built up in which the youth can be given and education in agricultural and mechanical lines.

"It is not God's plan for our people to crowd into Battle Creek. God says: 'Go work to-day in my vineyard. Get away from the places where you are not needed. Plant the standard of truth in towns and cities that have not heard the message. Prepare the way for my coming. Those in the highways and hedges are to hear the call.'

"God will make the wilderness a sacred place as his people, filled with the missionary spirit, go forth to make centers for his work, to establish sanitariums, where the sick and afflicted can be cared for, and schools, where the youth can be educated in right lines."

"It has been urged that there were great advantages in having so many institutions in close connection; that they would be a strength to one another, and could afford help to those seeking education and employment. This is according to human reasoning; it will be admitted that, from a human point of view, many advantages are gained by crowding so many responsibilities in Battle Creek; but the vision needs to be extended."

Notwithstanding frequent counsels to the contrary, men continued to plan for centralization of power, for the binding of many interests under one control. This work was first started in the Review and Herald Office. Things were swayed first in one way, and then in another. It was the enemy of our work who prompted the call for the consolidation of the publishing work under one controlling power in Battle Creek.

Then the idea gained favor that the medical missionary work would be greatly advanced if all our medical institutions and other medical missionary interests were bound up under the control of the medical missionary association at Battle Creek.

I was told that I must lift my voice in warning against this. We were not to be under the control of men who could not control themselves, and who were not willing to be amenable to God. We were not to be guided by men who want their word to be the controlling power. The development of the desire to control has been very marked, and God sent warning after warning, forbidding confederacies and consolidation. He warned us against binding ourselves to fulfil certain agreements that would be presented by men laboring to control the movements of their brethren.

An Educational Center

The Lord is not pleased with some of the arrangements that have been made in Battle Creek. He has declared that other places are being robbed of the light and advantages that have been centered and multiplied in Battle Creek. It is not pleasing to God that our youth from all parts of the country should be called to Battle Creek to work in the Sanitarium, and to receive their education. When we permit this, we are often guilty of robbing needy fields of their most precious treasure.

Through the light given in the Testimonies, the Lord has indicated that he does not desire students to leave their home schools and sanitariums to be educated in Battle Creek. He instructed us to remove the College from this place. This was done, but the institutions that remained failed of doing what they should have done to share with other places the advantages still centered in Battle Creek. The Lord signified his displeasure by permitting the principal buildings of these institutions to be destroyed by fire.

Notwithstanding the plain evidences of the Lord's providence in these destructive fires, men have not hesitated to stand before their brethren in council meetings, and make light of the statement that these buildings were burned because men had been swaying things in directions which the Lord could not approve.

Principles have been perverted. Men have been departing from right principles, for the promulgation of which these institutions were established. They have failed of doing the very work that God ordained should be done to prepare a people to "build up the old waste places" and to stand in the breach, as represented in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. In this scripture the work we are to do is clearly defined as being medical missionary work. This work is to be done in all places. God has a vineyard; and he desires that this vineyard shall be worked unselfishly. No parts are to be neglected. The most neglected portion needs the most wide-awake missionaries to do the work portrayed in the following scripture: --

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, . . . and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."

For his own name's sake God will not permit the froward and the independent to carry out their unsanctified plans. He will visit them for their perversity of action. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." But I am instructed to say that in his judgments the Lord will remember mercy. He declares: --

"I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him."

"The spirit of my people should fail before me," saith the Lord, "if I were to deal with them in accordance with their perversity. They could not endure my displeasure and my wrath. I have seen the perverse ways of every sinner. He who repents and does the works of righteousness, I will convert and heal, and restore unto him my favor."

Concerning those who have been deceived and led astray by unconsecrated men, the Lord says: "Their course of action has not been in accordance with my will; yet for the righteousness of my own cause, for the truth's sake, for the sake of those who have preserved their fear and love of God, I, who create the fruit of the lips, will put my message into the lips of those who will not be perverted. Although some may be deceived and blinded in their ideas of men and the purposes of men, I will heal every one who honors my name. All the penitent of Israel shall see of my salvation. I, the Lord, do rule, and I will fill with praise and thanksgiving the hearts of all who are nigh and far off, even all the penitent of Israel who have kept my ways."

"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

Lessons from the Past No. 2 (How Shall Our Youth Be Trained?)

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, received his early training from his parents. The greater portion of his life was spent in the wilderness, that he might not be influenced by beholding the lax piety of the priests and rabbis, or by learning their maxims and traditions, through which right principles were perverted and belittled. The religious teachers of the day had become so blind spiritually that they could scarcely recognize the virtues of heavenly origin. So long had they cherished feelings of pride, envy, and jealousy, that they interpreted the Old Testament Scriptures in such a manner as to destroy their true meaning.

It was John's choice to forego the enjoyments and luxuries of city life for the stern discipline of the wilderness. Here his surroundings were favorable to habits of simplicity and self-denial. Uninterrupted by the clamor of the world, he could here study the lessons of nature, of revelation, and of providence. The words of the angel to Zacharias had been often repeated to John by his God-fearing parents. From his childhood his mission had been kept before him, and he accepted the holy trust. To him the solitude of the desert was a welcome escape from society in which suspicion, unbelief, and impurity had become well-nigh all-pervading. He distrusted his own power to withstand temptation, and shrank from constant contact with sin, lest he should lose the sense of its exceeding sinfulness.

But the life of John was not spent in idleness, in ascetic gloom, or in selfish isolation. From time to time he went forth to mingle with men; and he was ever an interested observer of what was passing in the world. From his quiet retreat he watched the unfolding of events. With vision illuminated by the divine Spirit, he studied the characters of men, that he might understand how to reach their hearts with the message of heaven.

Christ lived the life of a genuine medical missionary. He desires us to study his life diligently, that we may learn to labor as he labored.

His mother was his first teacher. From her lips, and from the scrolls of the prophets, he learned of heavenly things. He lived in a peasant's home, and faithfully and cheerfully he acted his part in bearing the burdens of the household. He had been the Commander of heaven, and angels had delighted to fulfil his word; now he was a willing servant, a loving, obedient son. He learned a trade, and with his own hands worked in a carpenter's shop with Joseph. In the simple garb of a common laborer he walked the streets of the little town, going to and returning from his humble work.

With the people of that age, the value of things was determined by outward show. As religion had declined in power, it had increased in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation. To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast. His life demonstrated the worthlessness of those things that men regarded as life's greatest essentials. The schools of his time, with their magnifying of things small and their belittling of things great, he did not seek. His education was gained directly from heaven-appointed sources; from useful work, from the study of the Scriptures and of nature, and from the experiences of life,--God's lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart.

"The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him."

Thus prepared, he went forth to his mission, in every moment of his contact with men exerting upon them an influence to bless, a power to transform, such as the world had never witnessed. -

Satan works in every possible way to ensnare souls. As I consider the state of things in Battle Creek, I tremble for our youth who go there. The light given me by the Lord--that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive their education--has in no particular been changed. The fact that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt does not change the light. That which in the past has made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for our youth, makes it unsuitable to-day, as far as influence is concerned.

When the call came to move out of Battle Creek, the plea was, "We are here, and all settled. It would be an impossibility to move without enormous expense."

The Lord permitted fire to consume the principal buildings of the Review and Herald and the Sanitarium, and thus removed the greatest objection raised to moving out of Battle Creek. It was his design, not that one large sanitarium should be rebuilt, but that plants should be made in several places. These smaller sanitariums should have been established where they could have the benefit and advantage of land for agricultural purposes. It is God's plan that agriculture shall be carried on in connection with our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this kind of work. It is well, and more than well,--it is essential,--that efforts be made to carry out the Lord's plan in this respect.

But a larger sanitarium building, different in design, yet capable of accommodating as many patients, was erected on the same site as the old building. Since the opening of this institution a very large number of people have come to it. Some of these are patients, but some are not really sick, but, like tourists, are seeking for rest and pleasure. The large number at the Sanitarium is no evidence that it is the will of God that such a condition of things should be. Our sanitariums were not designed to be boarding places for the rich people of the world.

The care of the large number of guests at the Sanitarium requires a large number of helpers, and those in charge of our churches have been asked to send in the names of the most promising young men and young women in the church, that these youth may be communicated with by the managers of the Sanitarium, and the most efficient invited to come to the Sanitarium to take the nurses' course.

But shall we encourage our most promising young men and young women to go to Battle Creek, to obtain their training for service where attendance at entertainments, indulgence in worldly dress, and many other evils will tempt them to go astray? The Lord has revealed to me some of the dangers that our youth will meet by evil associations. Many of the wealthy, worldly men and women who patronize the Sanitarium will be a source of temptation to the helpers in this institution. Some of these helpers will become the favorites of wealthy worldlings, and will be offered alluring inducements to enter their employ. Through the silent influence of the worldly display of some of the patrons who for a time have stayed at the Sanitarium, the enemy has already been able to sow tares in the hearts of many of our young men and young omen. This is the way that Satan is working.

To fathers and mothers I would say, Be careful what moves you make. Place not your children under the seductive influences and the subtle temptations that they would have to meet were they to go to Battle Creek. It is not God's design that our youth shall be called to this place, to associate with worldly people of all grades, high and low.

Because the Sanitarium is where it should not be, shall the word of the Lord regarding the education of our youth be of no account? Shall we allow the most intelligent of our youth in the churches throughout our conferences to be called to Battle Creek, to become servants to worldlings, some of them to be robbed of their simplicity by being brought in contact with men and women who have not the fear of God in their hearts? Shall those in charge of our conferences allow our youth who in the schools for Bible workers could be fitted for the Lord's service, to be drawn to a place from which for years the Lord has been calling upon his people to move?

We desire that our youth shall be so trained that they shall exert a saving influence in our churches, by working for greater unity and deeper piety. Human minds may not see the necessity for the call to families to leave Battle Creek, and settle in places where they can do medical missionary evangelistic work. But the Lord has spoken. Shall we question his word?

The Family Firm

The truth, in all its important bearings, needs to have a much deeper hold upon all who have to do with the training of our youth. Parents are to work skilfully for their own children, helping them while they are still in the home to gain a fitness to work as missionaries for Christ when they leave the home. The children are to be taught to be faithful in labor. They are to learn to relieve the weary mother, sharing her burdens. The older children may greatly assist her by helping to care for the little ones; and the younger ones may learn to perform many of the simple duties of the home.

Young men and young women should regard a training in home duties as a most important part of their education. The family firm is a sacred, social society, in which each member is to act a part, each helping the other. The work of the household is to move smoothly, like the different parts of well-regulated machinery. The mother should be relieved of the burdens that the sons and daughters can take upon themselves.

How important that fathers and mothers should give their children, from their very babyhood, the right instruction. They are to teach them to obey the command, "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." And the children, as they grow in years, are to appreciate the care that their parents have given them. They are to find their greatest pleasure in helping father and mother.

Fathers and mothers should do all in their power to carry forward the work of the home in the right way. The law of God, with its holy principles and solemn injunctions, is ever to bear rule. The principles of the Bible are to be taught and practised. The parents are to teach their children lessons from this Holy Book, making these lessons so simple that they will readily be understood.

The more closely the members of the family are united in their work in the home, the more uplifting and helpful will be the influence that father and mother and sons and daughters will exert outside the home.

It is a serious matter to send children away from home, thus depriving them of the care of their parents. It is of the greatest importance that church schools shall be established, to which the children may be sent, and still be under the watchcare of their mothers, and have opportunity to practise the lessons of helpfulness that it is God's design they shall learn in the home.

In our larger schools provision should also be made for the education of younger children. This work is to be managed wisely, in connection with the training of more advanced students. The older students should be encouraged to take part in teaching these lower classes.

Much more can be done to save and educate the children of those who at present can not get away from the cities. This is a matter worthy of our best efforts. Church schools are to be established for the children in the cities, and in connection with these schools provision is to be made for the teaching of higher studies, where these are called for. These schools can be managed in such a way, part joining to part, that they will be a complete whole.

Let us study the way of the Lord diligently, that we may discern his methods and plans. His wisdom is far reaching.

Carrying Forward the Lord's Work

The last years of probation are passing into eternity. The great day of the Lord is right upon us. Every energy we possess should now be used to arouse those dead in trespasses and sins.

Let the words of the Lord spoken by the prophet Malachi, be brought home to every soul:--

"Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 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 now 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; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."

It is time that we gave heed to the teaching of the Word of God. All his injunctions are given to do us good. He calls upon those who stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel to give evidence that they realize their dependence on God and their accountability to him, by returning to him a certain portion of that which he entrusts to them. This money is to be used in advancing the work that must be done to fulfill the commission given by Christ to his disciples.

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

God's people are called to a work that requires money and consecration. The obligations resting upon us hold us responsible to work for God to the utmost of our ability. He calls for undivided service, for the entire devotion of heart, soul, mind, and strength.

There are only two places in the universe where we can place our treasures,--in God's storehouse or in Satan's; and all that is not devoted to God's service is counted on Satan's side, and goes to strengthen his cause. The Lord designs that the means entrusted to us shall be used in building up his kingdom. His goods are entrusted to his stewards that they may be carefully traded upon, and bring back a revenue to him in the saving of souls. These souls in their turn will become stewards of trust, co-operating with Christ to further the interests of God's cause.

Wherever there is life in a church, there is increase and growth. There is also a constant interchange, taking and giving out, receiving and returning to the Lord his own. To every true believer God imparts light and blessing, and this the believer imparts to others in the work that he does for the Lord. As he gives of that which he receives, his capacity for receiving is increased. Room is made for fresh supplies of grace and truth. Clearer light, increased knowledge, are his. On this giving and receiving depend the life and growth of the church. He who receives, but never gives, soon ceases to receive. If the truth does not flow from him to others, he loses his capacity to receive. We must impart the goods of heaven, if we would receive fresh blessing.

The Lord does not propose to come to this world, and lay down gold and silver for the advancement of his work. He supplies men with resources, that by their gifts and offerings they may keep his work advancing. The one purpose above all others for which God's gifts should be used is the sustaining of workers in the harvest field. And if men will become channels through which heaven's blessing can flow to others, the Lord will keep the channel supplied. It is not returning to the Lord his own that makes men poor; withholding tends to poverty.

The Saviour said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." For the joy of seeing souls rescued from the hands of the destroyer, Christ endured the cross. He became the living sacrifice for a fallen world. Through his sacrifice was given to the world the mighty influence of the Holy Spirit. It is through sacrifice that the work which Christ came to do must be carried forward. Self-sacrifice is required of every child of God.

God calls upon his people to awake to their responsibilities. A flood of light is shining from his Word, and there must be a meeting of neglected obligations. When these are met, by giving to the Lord his own in tithes and offerings, the way will be opened for the world to hear the message that the Lord designs it to hear. If our people had the love of God in the heart, if every church-member were imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, there would be no lack of funds for home and foreign missions; our resources would be multiplied; a thousand doors of usefulness would be opened; and we should be invited to enter. Had the purpose of God been carried out in giving the message of mercy to the world, Christ would have come, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God.

If ever there was a time when sacrifices should be made, it is now. My brethren and sisters, practise economy in your homes. Put away the idols that you have placed before God. Give up your selfish pleasures. Do not, I beg of you, spend means in embellishing your houses; for your money belongs to God, and to him you must give an account for its use. Do not use the Lord's money to gratify the fancies of your children. Teach them that God has a claim on all they possess, and that nothing can ever cancel this claim.

Money is a needed treasure. Do not lavish it upon those who need it not. Some one needs your willing gifts. There are those in the world who are hungry, starving. You may say, I can not feed them all. But by practising Christ's lessons of economy, you can feed one. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." These words were spoken by him whose power wrought a miracle to supply the needs of a hungry multitude.

If you have extravagant habits, cut them away from your life at once. Unless you do this, you will be bankrupt for eternity. Habits of economy, industry, and sobriety, are a better portion for your children than a rich dowry.

We are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. Let us not spend our means in gratifying desires that God would have us repress. Let us fitly represent our faith by restricting our wants. Let our church-members arise as one man, and work earnestly, as those who are walking in the full light of truth for these last days.

If in the providence of God you have been given riches, do not settle down with the thought that there is no need for you to exert yourself, that you have enough to draw upon, and that you can eat, drink, and be merry. Invest your means in the Lord's cause. If you are doing less than you can do to help the souls perishing around you, be sure that you are incurring guilt by your indolence.

It is God who gives men power to get wealth, and he has ordained that this ability shall be regarded, not as a means of gratifying self, but as a means of returning to God his own. With this as an object, it is no sin to use our capabilities in acquiring means. Money is to be earned by labor. Every youth should be educated in habits of industry. The Bible condemns no man for being rich, if he has acquired his riches honestly. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. Wealth will prove a great blessing to its possessor, if he realizes that it is not his own, but the Lord's, to be received with thankfulness, and with thankfulness returned to the Giver.

But of what value is untold wealth, if it is hoarded in expensive mansions, or in bank-stock? What do these weigh in the scale in comparison with the salvation of the souls for whom Christ, the Son of the infinite God, has died?

The Lord bids us, "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, That if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not."

Written for Our Admonition--No. 1

The book of Deuteronomy should be carefully studied by those living on the earth to-day. It contains a record of the instruction given to Moses to give to the children of Israel. In it the law is repeated. At the time when the instruction which it contains was given, the people of Israel were encamped beside the Jordan. All but two of the adults who had left Egypt had died in the wilderness. Now the generation that had arisen during the forty years of journeying were about to pass over the Jordan to receive their inheritance in the promised land. But they must first hear from the lips of Moses the instruction given him by the Lord for them. The words of the law must be repeated to them, and they must hear again the conditions upon which they were to enter into and take possession of the promised land.

The law of God was often to be repeated to Israel. That its precepts might not be forgotten, it was to be kept before the people, and was ever to be exalted and honored. Parents were to read the law to their children, teaching it to them line upon line, precept upon precept. And on public occasions the law was to be read in the hearing of all the people.

Upon obedience to this law depended the prosperity of Israel. If they were obedient, it would bring them life; if disobedient, death.

"These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea. . . . The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go into the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the seaside, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the River Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

"And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. . . . How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do."

Moses had given the people to understand that he did not desire to monopolize the honor of government. Of all the men of Israel, he was the best qualified to be the leader of the people. But he realized that he must have counselors with whom to share the responsibilities of the work. I can not bear these burdens alone, he declared. Wise, God-fearing men were to be chosen to work with him, and they were to remain in their position of trust as long as they gave evidence that they were loyal and faithful. These men were to show favor to no one, and they were not to do one wrong action in order to gain favor. They were never to accept bribes nor to allow themselves to be overawed by evil men. In all their decisions equity was to govern. They were to be "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness."

The men thus chosen were appointed rulers over the people,--rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Speaking of their appointment, Moses declared: "I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do."

And the people had agreed to the plans outlined by Moses, and had promised to follow the Lord's directions. Why then had they worked contrary to the Lord's agreement, arousing mutiny and discontent? Why had they murmured and complained, as if they were hardly dealt with? They had complained of Moses, as if he were treating them harshly, when he was seeking in every way to make their journeyings in the wilderness a preparation and training for the promised land. Obedience to God's commands, co-operation with him in carrying out his plans, was essential for their present and future good, yea, for their eternal welfare. But they had been rebellious and disobedient.

Speaking of their conduct in the wilderness, Moses said: "And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

"And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God: and ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there."

It was upon the very borders of the promised land that the people had broken into rebellion. The spies had returned from Canaan with their hearts filled with unbelief, and their wicked murmurings had set the hearts of all the people in rebellion. Dissatisfaction is quickly awakened in hearts that are unsanctified.

"Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bare his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither."

The time to which Moses refers when the Lord was angry with him was when the stream that for so many years had supplied the people with water ceased to flow. It was the Lord's purpose to test his people. He would prove whether they would trust his providence or imitate the unbelief of their fathers. Before God permitted them to enter Canaan, they must show that they believed his promise.

But no sooner was the cry for water heard in the encampment, than the people forgot the One who for so many years had supplied their wants, and instead of turning to God for help, they murmured against him, in their desperation exclaiming, "Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord."

Their cries were directed against Moses and Aaron: "Why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink."

The leaders went to the door of the tabernacle, and fell upon their faces. Again the glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses was directed, "Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock."

The two brothers went on before the multitude, Moses with the rod of God in his hand. They were now aged men. Long had they borne with the rebellion and obstinacy of Israel; but now, at last, even the patience of Moses gave way. "Hear now, ye rebels," he cried, "must we fetch you water out of this rock?" and instead of speaking to the rock, as God had commanded him, he smote it twice with the rod.

Moses had spoken from irritated feeling; his words were an expression of human passion rather than of holy indignation because God had been dishonored. "Hear now, ye rebels," he said. This accusation was true, but even truth is not to be spoken in passion or impatience. Moses, in taking it upon himself to accuse the people, grieved the Spirit of God, and wrought the people only harm.

Bitter and deeply humiliating was the judgment immediately pronounced. "The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." With rebellious Israel, they must die before crossing the Jordan. Had Moses and Aaron been cherishing self-esteem, or indulging a passionate spirit, their guilt would have been far greater. But they were not chargeable with wilful or deliberate sin; they had been overcome by a sudden temptation, and their contrition was immediate and heartfelt. The Lord accepted their repentance, though because of the harm their sin did among the people, he could not remit the punishment. God forgave Moses, but he could not grant him that which he so greatly longed for,--a home in the promised land. -

Written for Our Admonition, No. 2

"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

The people of God, and especially the men who occupy positions of trust, need to study the history of Moses' failure to enter Canaan. Let them stop and think what it means to become angry, to show a spirit unworthy of a leader of God's people. There are those in God's service who have given way to anger, and who have not felt the repentance that Moses felt. These men have braced themselves to follow an unchristian course, and have gone on from one wrong to another.

And there are murmurers in the church, who easily lose their self-control. If everything does not move to please them, they become irritated, and provoke one another to evil. They have not the light and love of God in their souls; if their way is crossed, they give loose rein to an unsanctified, irritable spirit.

I have been instructed to present this before our people, and to urge them to make diligent work for repentance.

The instruction given to the children of Israel is for us also. Happy will be the church when its members study the directions given to the Israelites during their journeyings in the wilderness. In this instruction are specified the virtues that the church in the wilderness must have in order to be approved of God. The church of to-day has far greater light than had the church in the wilderness. She should stand on vantage ground, cherishing the pure, holy principles that God declares men must cherish in their dealing with their fellow men, if they would grow in grace and wisdom, and be honored as obedient subjects. Only by following these principles can we adorn the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The importance of the law of God, and Christ's relation to it, are to be presented before those who have placed themselves under Satan's banner, full of self-importance and self-sufficiency. In a wicked world God's servants are to obey the principles of his government, by their righteousness testifying that fallen man can be loyal to God.

Christ is our Leader. Clothing his divinity with humanity, he humbled himself, that he might stand in person at the head of the human race. He laid aside his kingly crown, and yielded up his high position as commander of the angels, who loved to do his bidding. For our sake he became poor, that through his humiliation and poverty, human beings might be made rich, heirs to an eternal weight of glory. The Saviour came to the world in lowliness, and lived as a man among men. On all points except sin, divinity was to touch humanity. Living on this earth as a man among men, Christ answered in the affirmative the question, "Can man keep the law of God?" He was tempted in all points as man is tempted, "yet without sin." He was tempted that he might know how to succor those that should afterward be tempted. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." He gave himself to the world as a spiritual teacher, a genuine medical missionary.

O that our workers realized what privileges are theirs! They would know by experience what it means to hear and obey the invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Christ came to our world to teach men what is meant by genuine religion, --the religion that will make men and women lights in the world. To all he offers power to form a true, noble character. The converted man rejoices that he has a Saviour who is so mighty. He is a partaker of the divine nature. His repentance is not a farce, but a reality, and the fruits of it appear in Christlike words and deeds. Every day, every hour, he reveals faith in the Sin-bearer. Love, hope, long-suffering, patience, kindness, are revealed in his life. In self-denial he lifts the cross and follows Jesus. He is a representative of the Saviour.

"Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart to unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

Mark the words "deceitfulness of sin." Often Satan presents his temptations under the guise of goodness. Beware that you yield not to them. One violation of straight-forward truthfulness prepares the way for the second violation, and wrongs are repeated until the heart of unbelief becomes hardened, and the conscience loses its sensitiveness.

Let us humble our hearts before God, and ask him to forgive us for speaking words of unbelief, words that cast a reflection on him who is too wise to err, and too good to do us harm.

"We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; while it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. . . . Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." -

Our First-Page Message [a comment on the book of Jude]

THE EPISTLE OF JUDE CONTAINS WARNING AND INSTRUCTION APPLICABLE TO OUR OWN TIME AND WORK. IT SHOULD BE READ AS IF ADDRESSED TO SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS. THIS IS THE CONCLUSION WHICH CAN PROPERLY BE DRAWN FROM THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS TAKEN FROM A COMMUNICATION FROM SISTER WHITE, DATED AUG. 27, 1903:--

At this time, Jude's testimony is of great force to all who desire to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Jude bears this message to guard believers against the seductive influences of false teachers, men who have a form of godliness, but who are not safe leaders. In these last days, false teachers will arise and become actively zealous. All kinds of theories will be presented to divert the minds of men and women from the very truth that defines the position we can occupy with safety in this time when Satan is working with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous, but to fail of placing themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

False theories will be mingled with every phase of experience, and advocated with satanic earnestness in order to captivate the mind of every soul who is not rooted and grounded in a full knowledge of the sacred principles of the Word. In the very midst of us will arise false teachers, giving heed to seducing spirits whose doctrines are of satanic origin. These teachers will draw away disciples after themselves. Creeping in unawares, they will use flattering words, and make skilful misrepresentations with seductive tact.

The Lord is guarding his people against a repetition of the errors and mistakes of the past. There have always abounded false teachers who, advocating erroneous doctrines and unholy practises, and working upon false principles in a most specious, covered, deceptive manner, have endeavored to deceive, if possible, the very elect. They bind themselves up in their own fallacies. If they do not succeed, because their way becomes hedged by warnings from God, they will change somewhat the features of their work, and the representations they have made, and bring out their plans again under a false showing. They refuse to confess, repent, and believe. Confessions may be made, but no real reformation takes place, and erroneous theories bring ruin upon unsuspecting souls because these souls believe and rely upon the men advocating these theories. E.G.W. -

A Call to Greater Consecration

Men and women are God's agencies for the salvation of souls. Of his true followers the Lord says, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." They are my witnesses, my chosen representatives, in an apostate world. Filled with a desire to win sinners to Christ, they have the sympathy and co-operation of the heavenly universe.

The church on earth is to become the court of holy love. Those who by the Lord's appointment occupy in it positions of trust are to bring into it the pity and self-sacrifice of the great Head of the church. Christian fellowship is one means by which character is formed. Thus selfishness is purged from the life, and men and women are drawn to Christ, the great center. Thus is answered his prayer that his followers may be one, as he is one with the Father.

Can you marvel, my brethren and sisters, that I am bowed down with inexpressible agony, as again and again I am made to realize that few among our people understand their weakness? The characters of many of those who have received such wonderful truth are a jumble of opposites. Christ has promised to make them harmonious on every point, not pleasant and agreeable and kind today, and to-morrow harsh and disagreeable and unkind, falsifying their profession of faith. But they refuse to place themselves where he can help them. They are breaking the commandments of God; for they have left their first love. Some have joined the enemy, to become accusers of the brethren. How could they do this wicked thing? In thought, word, and deed they are transgressors. They have spoken words that God condemns as unjust and cruel.

Pray that your lips may be touched with a live coal from the divine altar, that you may speak only pure, Christlike words, and that you may see that it is a sin to speak harshly and unadvisedly. There are many now teaching others who need themselves to learn what it means to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. They need to feel the power of saving grace. Self and Satan are spoiling many souls, making them so unchristlike in spirit, in word, and in action, and so harmful in influence, that God will separate them from his work.

There are in human nature elements of destruction, which, under certain conditions, break forth to consume. The moral powers are prostrated. The excited passions tyrannize over the higher, nobler faculties; and Christlikeness is not revealed. The Infinite One -- he who alone was able to bring order and beauty out of the chaos and confusion of nature's darkness -- is able to subdue the rebellious heart of man, and bring his life into conformity to the divine will. His Spirit can quell man's rebellious temper. But unless men possess the love of Christ, the qualifications that otherwise would be of value in God's work will be controlled by the selfishness of the human heart. In order to be true Christians we must surrender ourselves unreservedly to Christ.

Day by day we are building characters, and we are building for eternity. God desires us in our lives to give the people of the world an example of what they should be, and of what they can be through obedience to the gospel of Christ. Let us place ourselves in God's hands, to be dealt with as he sees best. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." If we build in cooperation with him, the structure that we rear will day by day grow more beautiful and more symmetrical under the hand of the Master-builder, and through all eternity it will endure.

Sanctification is a progressive work. It is a continuous work, leading human beings higher, and still higher. It does not leave love behind, but brings it into the life as the very essence of Christianity.

Christ says to us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." He is our example. During his life on earth, he was ever kind and gentle. His influence was ever fragrant; for in him dwelt perfect love. He was never sour and unapproachable, and he never compromised with wrong to obtain favor. If we have his righteousness, we shall be like him in gentleness, in forbearance, in unselfish love. Shall we not, by dwelling in the sunshine of his presence, become mellowed by his grace?

Let us honor our profession of faith. Let us adorn our lives with beautiful traits of character. Harshness of speech and action is not of Christ, but of Satan. Shall we, by clinging to our imperfections and deformities, make Christ ashamed of us? His grace is promised to us. If we will receive it, it will beautify our lives. Then in the place of disparaging our fellow workers, we shall help them to climb the ladder of progress. Deformity will be exchanged for goodness, perfection. Our lives will be adorned with the graces that made Christ's life so beautiful.

God calls for our co-operation. His requirements are just and reasonable. Shall we not strive to be Christians in life as well as in profession? Shall we not ennoble our lives with the dignity of a steadfast purpose? When we take the name of Christ, we pledge ourselves to represent him. In order for us to be true to our pledge, Christ must be formed within, the hope of glory. The daily life must become more and more like the Christ-life. We must be Christians in deed and in truth. Christ will have nothing to do with pretense. He will welcome to the heavenly courts those only whose Christianity is genuine. The lives of professed Christians who do not live the life of Christ are a mockery to religion.

A true, lovable Christian is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Bible truth. Such a man is Christ's representative. His life is the most convincing evidence that can be borne to the power of divine grace. When God's people bring the righteousness of Christ into the daily life, sinners will be converted, and victories over the enemy will be gained.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." -

Beware of Fanciful Doctrines

I have been instructed to say that it is not new and fanciful doctrines which the people of God need. They do not need suppositions, which can not be sustained by the Word of God. They need the testimony of men who know the truth, men who understand and obey the charge given to Timothy: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." 2 Tim. 4:2-5.

In some instances men have been turned away from the truth to listen to fables. Efforts were made to set right those thus deceived, but some had drunk so deeply from the polluted fountain, and had become so impregnated with false impressions, that it was impossible to undeceive them. They had come to believe that it was more profitable to eat of the food offered in the strange doctrines presented, than to eat of the food contained in the Word of God.

Brethren, look well to the character of your religion. Do not forget that Christ is to be your pattern in all things. You may be sure that his religion is not a sensational religion. A religion of this kind I learned to dread in my very earliest experience in the cause of present truth. I was at that time, before I was seventeen years old, bidden to warn those who were cherishing fanciful ideas, and who declared that their strange movements were inspired of God.

In New Hampshire there were those who were active in disseminating false ideas in regard to God. Light was given me that these men were making the truth of no effect by their ideas, some of which led to free-lovism. I was shown that these men were seducing souls by presenting speculative theories regarding God.

I went to the place where they were working, and opened before them what they were doing. The Lord gave me strength to lay plainly before them the danger of their course. Among other views, they held that those once sanctified could not sin, and this they were presenting as gospel food. Their false theories, with their burden of deceptive influence, were working great harm to themselves and to others. They were gaining a spiritualistic power over those who could not see the evil of these beautifully clothed theories. Great evils had already resulted. The doctrine that all were holy had led to the belief that the affections of the sanctified were never in danger of leading astray. The result of this belief was the fulfilment of the evil desires of hearts which, though professedly sanctified, were far from purity of thought and practise.

This is only one of the instances in which I was called upon to rebuke those who were presenting the doctrine of an impersonal god diffused through nature, and the doctrine of holy flesh.

In the future, truth will be counterfeited by the precepts of men. Deceptive theories will be presented as safe doctrines. False science is one of the agencies that Satan used in the heavenly courts, and it is used by him to-day. The false assertions that he made to the angels, his subtle scientific theories, led many of them from loyalty. And, having lost their place in heaven, they prepared temptations for our first parents. Adam and Eve yielded to the enemy, and by their disobedience, humanity was estranged from God, and the earth was separated from heaven.

Christ pledged himself to bridge the gulf that sin had made. Thus he became the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He shows us the path that leads to heaven, and promises to impart his efficiency to every one who believes on him. He came to our world to reveal, not a mixture of truth and error, but the pure truth of God. All error is misleading, even though clothed with garments of heavenly beauty.

The character and power of God are revealed by the work of his hands. In the natural world are to be seen evidences of the love and goodness of God. These tokens are given to call attention from nature to nature's God, that his "eternal power and Godhead" may be understood.

Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the Word of God. The light of his truth shows that these theories are soul-destroying agencies. Darkness is their element, sensuality their sphere. They gratify the natural heart, and give leeway to inclination. Separation from God is the result of accepting them.

Christ calls upon his people to believe and practise his Word. Those who receive and assimilate this Word, making it a part of every action, of every attribute of character, will grow strong in the strength of God. It will be seen that their faith is of heavenly origin. Before angels and before men, they will stand as those who have strong, consistent Christian characters. They will not wander into strange paths. Their minds will not turn to a religion of sentimentalism and excitement.

I beseech those who are laboring for God not to accept the spurious for the genuine. We have a whole Bible full of the most precious truth. We have no need for supposition or false excitement. In the golden censer of truth, as presented in Christ's teachings, we have that which will convict and convert souls. Present in the simplicity of Christ the truths that he came to this world to proclaim, and the power of your message will make itself felt. Do not present theories or tests that have no foundation in the Bible. We have grand solemn tests to present. "It is written" is the test that must be brought home to every one.

Walk firmly, decidedly, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. God has not laid upon any one the burden of encouraging an appetite for strange, odd doctrines and theories. My brethren, keep these things out of your teaching. Do not allow them to enter into your experience. Do not let your life-work be marred by them.

The minds of the Jewish teachers were filled with maxims and suppositions. They interpreted the Word to mean that which God never designed it to mean, enforcing their oddities on the common people.

A warning against such teaching is found in Paul's letter to the Colossians. The apostle declares that the hearts of the believers were to be "knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say," he continues, "least any man should beguile you with enticing words. . . . As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." Col. 2:2-10.

I am instructed to say to our people, Let us follow Christ. We may safely discard all ideas that are not included in his teaching. I appeal to our ministers to be sure that their feet are placed on the platform of eternal truth. Beware how you follow impulse, calling it the Holy Spirit. Some are in danger in this respect. I call upon them to be sound in the faith, able to give every one who asks a reason of the hope that is in them.

Into the hearts of many who have been long in the truth there has entered a hard, judicial spirit. They are sharp, critical, fault-finding. They have climbed into the judgment seat to pronounce sentence on those who do not meet their ideas. God calls upon them to come down, and bow before him in repentance, confessing their sins. He says to them, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Rev. 2:4, 5. They are striving for the first place, and by their words and acts they make many hearts sore.

Against this spirit, and against the false religion of sentimentalism, which is equally dangerous, I bear my warning Take heed, brethren and sisters. Who is your leader--Christ, or the angel who fell from heaven? Are you sound in the faith? My prayer for you all is that God would grant you "according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:16-19. -

Practical Christianity

I have been impressed with the subject of the influence of the church--what this influence should be. By earnest prayer the members are to obtain power that will make their influence a savor of life unto life. What is needed to-day is practical Christianity, not merely for a day or a year, but for a lifetime. The man who professes to be a Christian, and yet reveals in his life no practical godliness, is denying Christ. Opposite his name in the books of heaven are written the words, Unfaithful steward.

How is the world to be enlightened, save by the lives of Christ's followers? You profess to believe in Christ, to be a follower of his. Do you do his works? Can the world see plainly that you have been with Jesus, and learned of him? How are unbelievers to know that you belong to Christ if you show no zeal in his service, but instead cherish worldly ambition and follow worldly plans? Christ declares, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."

God can not prepare for the day of trial before us those who are careless and indifferent. With those who are neither cold nor hot he has nothing to do. "I would thou wert cold or hot," he says. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." The half-hearted Christian exerts an influence more harmful than the influence of the avowed infidel.

There are many whose lives are but a pretense of godliness. They are a law unto themselves, and they always will be, unless the grace of Christ subdues their hearts. They lift up their souls unto vanity, and God has no use for them in his service.

The Will of God Concerning You

Our sanctification is God's object in all his dealing with us. He has chosen us from eternity that we might be holy. Christ gave himself for our redemption, that through faith in his power to save from sin, we might be made complete in him. In giving us his Word, he has given us bread from heaven. He declares that if we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we shall receive eternal life.

As Christians we have pledged ourselves to fulfil the responsibilities resting on us, and to show to the world that we have a close connection with God. Thus, through the good words and works of his disciples, Christ is to be represented and honored.

God expects of us perfect obedience to his law. This law is the echo of his voice, saying to us, Holier, yea, holier still. Desire after the fulness of the grace of Christ, yea, long -- hunger and thirst -- after righteousness. The promise is, "Ye shall be filled." Let your heart be filled with a longing for this righteousness, the work of which God's Word declares to be peace, and its effect quietness and assurance forever.

God has plainly stated that he expects us to be perfect, and because he expects this, he has made provision for us to be partakers of the divine nature. Only thus can we gain success in striving for eternal life. The power is given by Christ. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

God's people are to reflect to the world the bright rays of his glory. But in order for them to do this, they must stand where these rays can fall on them. They must co-operate with God. The heart must be cleansed of all that leads to wrong. The Word of God must be read and studied with an earnest desire to gain from it spiritual power. The bread of heaven must be eaten and assimilated, becoming part of the life. Thus we gain eternal life. Thus is answered the prayer of Christ, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it your will that your desires and inclinations shall be brought into harmony with the divine mind?

Godliness in the Every-Day Life

Christ declares, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

The talent of speech was given to be used for the benefit of all. Pleasant, cheery words cost no more than unpleasant, moody words. Sharp words wound and bruise the soul. In this life every one has difficulties with which to wrestle. Every one meets with grievances and disappointments. Shall we not bring sunshine instead of gloom into the lives of those with whom we come in contact? Shall we not speak words that will help and bless? Such words will be just as verily a blessing to us as to those to whom they are spoken.

Parents, allow no faultfinding in your home. Teach your children to speak pleasant words, words that will bring sunshine and joy. Angels are not attracted to a home where discord reigns. Bring practical godliness into the home. Prepare yourselves and your children for entrance into the city of God. Angels will be your helpers. Satan will tempt you, but do not yield. Do not speak one word of which the enemy can take advantage.

Let the determination of each member of the family be, I will be a Christian: for in the school here below I must form a character that will give me entrance into the higher grade, even the school above. I must do unto others as I desire them to do to me.

Make the home life as nearly as possible like heaven. Let the members of the family forget not, as they gather round the family altar, to pray for the men in positions of responsibility in God's work. The physicians in our sanitariums, the ministers of the gospel, those in charge of our publishing houses and schools, need your prayers. They are tempted and tried. As you plead with God to bless them, your own hearts will be subdued and softened by his grace.

From Grace to Grace

We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement, and put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. The work of God is to be steadily carried forward. We are to bring ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, into subjection to Christ. Unless we do this, the health of both body and soul will be endangered.

God desires his workers to gain daily a better understanding of how to reason logically from cause to effect, arriving at wise, safe conclusions. He desires them to add to the strength of the memory. We can not afford to make mistakes. As little children we are to sit at the feet of Christ, learning of him how to work successfully. We are to ask God for sound judgment, and for light to impart to others. There is need of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. We should not allow a day to pass without gaining an increase of knowledge in temporal and spiritual things. We are to plant no stakes that we are not willing to take up and plant further on, nearer the heights we hope to ascend. The highest education is to be found in training the mind to advance day by day. The close of each day should find us a day's march nearer the overcomer's reward. Day by day our understanding is to ripen. Day by day we are to work out conclusions that will bring a rich reward in this life and in the life to come. Looking daily to Jesus, instead of to what we ourselves have done, we shall make decided advancement in temporal as well as spiritual knowledge.

The end of all things is at hand. What we have done must not be allowed to place the period to our work. The Captain of our salvation says, "Advance. The right cometh, in which no man can work." Constantly we are to increase in usefulness. Our lives are always to be under the power of Christ. Our lamps are to be kept burning brightly.

Prayer is a heaven-ordained means of success. Appeals, petitions, entreaties, between man and man, move men, and act a part in controlling the affairs of nations. But prayer moves heaven. That power alone that comes in answer to prayer will make men wise in the wisdom of heaven, and enable them to work in the unity of the Spirit, joined together by the bonds of peace. Prayer, faith, confidence in God, bring a divine power that sets human calculations at their real worth,--nothingness.

In all ages God has given human beings divine revelations, that thus he may fulfil his purpose of unfolding gradually to the mind the doctrines of grace. His manner of imparting the truth is illustrated by the words, "His going forth is prepared as the morning." He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday. -

Evidences of Discipleship

He who is converted to the truth, through faith made a partaker of the divine nature, is set apart to do the work of him who gave his life for the life of the world. The converted man is not a sluggard, but an earnest, faithful worker. He is one of Christ's chosen instrumentalities for the saving of others. He is filled with the same spirit of service that inspired the Saviour. He is a laborer together with God. He has the same earnestness, the same fervor, that led Christ to work so untiringly for the perishing. He is made a partaker of Christ's sufferings and of his great love, and he becomes a part of his working force for the saving of sinners.

Those in whose hearts the love of Christ abides will use every power they have in doing the work that Christ did. Every one who has received the message of Christ's love has a work to do. Upon every Christian rests the responsibility of reflecting the light of heaven to those in darkness. Each follower of the Saviour is to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation through grace. No one is to fail of living the truth that he has received.

The words of the Christian are to be carefully chosen. His deportment is to be above reproach. It is the revealing of the goodness of Christ's character that has so decided an influence on all with whom he is brought in contact.

The Lord is our Captain, our Leader. We are to bear his banner, and wear the armor that he provides. We are to strive to win his enemies to be his friends. Not till he lays his armor at the feet of the Redeemer is the Christian to relax his watchful, prayerful efforts.

"We are laborers together with God." Ever remember that all your capabilities, all your possessions, are the Lord's, to be used and improved in his service. Remember that all the means you have is given you by God. Use it to glorify his name. Use it wisely and economically, because it is a sacred trust. I ask those who have been entrusted with the Lord's money to labor unselfishly for the Master. Do not tie up your money in estates and banks, when there is such need that it be put into circulation to advance the Lord's work. Remember that your money is yours only in trust. Give the light to others by giving of your means to send workers into new fields. Thus you will hasten the coming of Christ. He who is truly converted will feel it a privilege to give of his means to send the truth into the dark places of the earth.

God asks, Why are not memorials for me established in the cities? What answer can we return? The neglected work in our cities testifies to the lack of Christlike energy among believers. Let all awake to the need of establishing Christian missions in the cities. Let God's workers enter the doors that he has opened for them. Believers need to arouse and do much more than they are now doing in lines of Christian effort.

Christ's commission is, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Let God's people show that they believe these words. Fulfilling the Saviour's commission, they are to be a working power through all time.

Have we light? Let it shine forth to those in darkness. Tell the Saviour that you are doing his bidding, and then believe that he will fulfil the word, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end."

Of the disciples we read, "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

Our work is plainly outlined by the work of Christ and the work of his disciples after his resurrection and ascension. We are not at liberty to sit with folded hands, waiting for some one to lead us to fields of labor and set us at work. Those who have a knowledge of the truth are to go forth in the name of the Lord, believing every word that Christ has spoken, and looking to him for grace and strength.

As, like the disciples, you go from place to place, telling the story of the Saviour's love, you will make friends, and will see the fruit of your labor. All true, humble, loving, faithful workers will be sustained and strengthened by power from on high. They will win their way to the hearts of the people as they follow Christ's example. The sick will be ministered to, the afflicted prayed for. There will be heard the voice of singing and the voice of prayer. The Scriptures will be opened to testify of truth. And with signs following, the Lord will confirm the word spoken.

This class of work has gone out of fashion. Let it be once more brought into practise. The fields are white all ready to harvest. The Lord desires many more to go out into the harvest field. He will be with those who study his Word and obey his commands. He will impart to them his grace. Go forth in the name of Christ, remembering that he is your companion, that every prayer, every word, every song, is heard by him. The message of the soon coming of the Lord with power and great glory will bring conviction to many hearts.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." -

The Need of Earnest Effort

We are far behind in our missionary work, both at home and in foreign countries. We have in our keeping the most sacred truth ever committed to mortals, and our work should correspond to our profession of faith. The world is becoming more and more lawless. Soon great trouble will arise among the nations,--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes.

What are we as a people doing at this important time? Are we purifying our souls by obedience to Christ's words? Are we humbling our hearts before God, and confessing our sins? Are we seeking with earnestness and sincerity for help from him who is the source of strength? Are we claiming the promises, believing that Jesus pardons our transgressions? Are we educating ourselves to overcome all temptation to murmur and complain?

My brethren and sisters, as never before we need to press together, unitedly following him who has prepared his throne in the heavens, and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken his people, and our strength lies in not forsaking him.

Christ died to redeem us. By the infinite price with which he ransomed us he has shown his love for us. He is not willing that any should perish. He desires all to believe on him, that they may have eternal life.

With pity and compassion, with tender yearning, the Lord is looking upon his tried, tempted people. For a time the oppressors will be permitted to triumph over those who obey God's commandments. All are given the same opportunity that was granted to the first great rebel, the opportunity to show what spirit is prompting them to action. It is God's purpose that every one shall be tested, to see whether he will be loyal or disloyal to the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven. To the last God gives Satan opportunity to reveal his character. Thus the final triumph of his people will be made more marked, more glorious, more complete. The words of the prophet will be fulfilled: "The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." "The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble; he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people."

Now and onward till the close of time the people of God should be more earnest, more wide-awake, not trusting in their own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their Leader. They should set aside days for fasting and prayer. Entire abstinence from food may not be required, but they should eat sparingly of the most simple food. No one should lift up his soul unto vanity, walking in pride and self-indulgence. We are living in a time that demands genuine humiliation and most earnest prayer. We are nearing the most important crisis that has ever come upon the world. If we are not wide-awake and watching, it will find us unprepared.

There is in our churches a decided lack of love for Christ and for one another. Christlike simplicity is looked upon as weakness. There is a lack of clear spiritual discernment. Wrongs remain unconfessed. The transgression condemned in the law of God is on the increase in our borders. Sin is cherished, and the result is hardness of heart. When those who are handling sacred things do not walk in the light, the light becomes darkness to them, and how great is that darkness! Men are making strange mistakes in reading character. Those who do not possess moral worth are exalted, while those who are endeavoring to seek the Lord and walk in his steps are not appreciated. This danger will become more and more apparent. We must awake to the perils that are thickening around us. All pharisaism, all self-righteousness, must be separated from the soul. Then we shall realize that we need Christ's righteousness, and we shall accept it by faith.

There is among us a manifest lack of searching the Scriptures. We must know the reasons of our faith. The importance and solemnity of the scenes opening before us demand this. And on no account must the spirit of complaint be encouraged. Do you cherish malice, bitterness, and wrath if plans are introduced that do not harmonize with your ideas? Is not this indulging a spirit of war, rather than a spirit of meekness and humility? If ever we needed to manifest kindness and true courtesy, it is now. We may have to plead most earnestly before legislative councils for the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. Thus in his providence God has designed that the claims of his law shall be brought before men in positions of highest authority. But as we stand before these men, we are to show no bitterness of feeling.

Constantly we are to pray for divine aid. It is God alone who can hold the four winds until his servants shall be sealed in their foreheads.

The Lord will do a great work in the earth. Satan makes a determined effort to divide and scatter God's people. He brings up side issues to divert minds from the important subjects that should engage our attention. Individually we are to feel the importance of uniting in the bonds of Christian fellowship. With one heart and one mind we are to prepare for the conflict, by faith laying our petitions before the mercy-seat. The throne of God is arched by the bow of promise, and the prayers offered in faith and simplicity are heard. It is God's glory to answer the supplications of his people.

I have been especially instructed in regard to the danger of drawing apart. Let us leave to Satan the cruel work of accusing and faultfinding. Let us bow before God in repentance because of our want of love for one another and for him who died for us. The gold of love and faith is wanting in our ranks. Christ declares, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Many are holding on to the truth with only the tips of their fingers. They have had great light and many privileges. Like Capernaum, they have in this respect been exalted to heaven. But unless they put away their pride and self-confidence, in the time of trial that is approaching they will become apostates. Unless they have an entire transformation of character, they will never enter heaven. -

You strike too low, my brethren. Set your mark higher. Let your work be in harmony with the work of Christ. It is the privilege of all to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it your will also? My brethren, with intensity of desire long after God; yea, pant after him, as the hart panteth after the water brooks. Press toward the mark of the prize of your high calling in Christ.

Why do not those who name the name of Christ reveal the earnestness and the self-denial that he revealed? Why do they not arouse from their indifferent, self-satisfied condition? God's people must have a fixed purpose to honor him. They will never be holy until they put all their energies into his work. -

Lights in the World

Christ declared himself to be the light of the world. To his disciples he gave a part in the work of shedding light on a sin-darkened world. "Ye are the light of the world," he declared. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

The church has been made the depositary of the truth of the gospel, the agency through which God's light is to shine forth to the world, in clear, distinct rays. How is this light to shine? Let God's Word tell us:--

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."

"Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light."

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."

God has made every provision for our justification and sanctification. He has given Christ to us, that through him we may be made complete. Christ gave his life for sinners. By his death he opened a fountain in which all may wash their robes of character, and make them white. He died on the cross, but he rose from the tomb, proclaiming, "I am the resurrection, and the life." He made his followers joint heirs with him in his glory. In his name they were to go forth to carry out his purpose of bringing many souls to a knowledge of the truth.

Heaven's resources are limitless, and they are all at our command. Why, then, I ask, is the progress of the Lord's work in our world so slow? Why are not the Lord's followers increasing in knowledge and purity, holiness and power?

Are there not presented before Christ's followers the highest virtues to be cultivated, the greatest honors to be gained? God calls upon them to enter a race in which every one may win. He calls upon them to enlist in a warfare in which every one may be a conqueror. A robe of righteousness and a crown of everlasting life,--this is the reward held out before the overcomer.

The inhabitants of the heavenly universe expect the followers of Christ to shine as lights in the world. They are to show forth the power of the grace that Christ died to give to men. God expects those who profess to be Christians to reveal in their lives the highest development of Christianity. They are the recognized representatives of Christ. Their work is to show that Christianity is a reality. They are to be men of faith, men of constant growth, men of courage, whole-souled men, who without questioning trust in God and his promises.

God calls for men of undaunted courage, men full of hope and faith and trust, who rejoice in the thought of the final triumph, refusing to be hindered by obstacles. He who steadfastly adheres to the principles of truth has the assurance that his weakest points of character may become his strongest points. Heavenly angels are close by him who strives to bring his life into harmony with God and his holy law. God is with him as he declares, "I must overcome the temptations that surround me, else they will drive Christ from my heart." He combats all temptation and braves all opposition. By the strength obtained from on high, he holds in control the passions and tendencies which, uncontrolled, would lead him to defeat.

The presence of the man who loves and fears God is as a sweet fragrance in his family. His example speaks eloquently in favor of the truth. All with whom he comes in contact are constrained to say, "He has been with Jesus, and has learned of him."

When the Christian takes his baptismal vow, divine help is pledged to him. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit stand ready to work in his behalf. God places at his command the resources of heaven, that he may be an overcomer. His own power is small; but God is omnipotent, and God is his helper. Daily he is to make known his wants at the throne of grace. By faith and trust, by availing himself of the resources provided, he can be more than a conqueror.

Why, then, should not those who are fighting against the powers of darkness move forward with faith and courage? God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are on their side.

The Lord expects those who believe in Christ to co-operate with divine instrumentalities, and thus reveal a strength that the worldling can not reveal. God is dishonored, and his cause is reproached, when the Christian shows less zeal, less self-denial, in his strife for the mastery over evil, than do those who are striving for the mastery over the things of the world.

We know not how soon our probation may close. How dare those who know the truth live in unpreparedness, not ready to meet their Lord? How dare they remain sinful and defiled? Why are they not afraid? Why do they not realize their peril? The weakness of the church is due to its unbelieving, unconverted, unsanctified members. The Lord would work mightily for his people if they would put off the works of darkness, and be clothed with his righteousness. He calls upon every one who names the name of Christ to depart from all iniquity, to be "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."

God calls upon those who profess to believe the truth to show by unquestioning obedience that they are faithful soldiers of the cross. Let not those who stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel do anything that will dishonor the cause for which they are fighting. Christ expects his soldiers to be brave and loyal and true.

The work that Christ did on this earth his followers are to do. With the power and efficacy brought by the Holy Spirit they are to carry forward his plan for the restoration of the divine image in humanity. The Lord will do great things for them when they work under the Holy Spirit's guidance. But they must place their entire dependence on God.

For the last twenty years a subtle, unconsecrated influence has been leading men to look to men, to bind up with men, to neglect their heavenly Companion. Many have turned away from Christ. They have failed to appreciate the One who declares, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Let us do all in our power to redeem the past. Making God our trust, let us go out into the waste places of the earth to work for the salvation of perishing souls. We shall meet with close and trying times. Temptation and trial will come. But the Lord is an all-powerful helper. He desires those who work for him to move forward with singing, because he co-operates with every unselfish effort.

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. . . . For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." -

Brotherly Love

Just prior to the crucifixion, Christ, in his last lessons to the disciples, dwelt upon the love that they should cherish for one another. "By this," he said, "shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples went forth to proclaim a risen Saviour, their one desire the salvation of souls. They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's sake. In their daily association with one another they revealed the love that Christ had commanded them to reveal. By unselfish words and deeds they strove to kindle this love in other hearts.

The believers were ever to cherish the love that filled the hearts of the apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit. They were to go forward in willing obedience to the new commandment, "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another." So closely were they to be united to Christ, that they would be enabled to fulfil his requirements. The power of a Saviour who could justify them by his righteousness was to be magnified.

A Spiritual Loss

But the early Christians began to look for defects in one another. Dwelling upon mistakes, encouraging suspicion and doubt, giving way to unkind criticism, they lost sight of the Saviour, and of the great love he had revealed for sinners. They became more strict in regard to outward ceremonies, more particular about the theory of the faith, more severe in their criticisms. In their zeal to condemn others, they themselves erred. They forgot the lessons of brotherly love that Christ had taught. And, saddest of all, they were unconscious of their loss. They did not realize that happiness and joy were going out of their lives, and that soon they would walk in darkness, having shut the love of God out of their hearts.

A Message of Reproof

Because the early church lost their first love, there came to them a message of reproof. "I have somewhat against thee," the Lord declared, "because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

Those mentioned in this scripture as losing their first love were not ranked with open sinners. They had the truth; they were established in the doctrine; they were firm to condemn and resist evil. Yet God declared, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee." They were losing their realization of the greatness of the love that God has shown for fallen humanity by making an infinite sacrifice to redeem them.

The apostle John realized that brotherly love was waning in the church, and he dwelt particularly upon this point. Up to the day of his death he urged upon believers the constant exercise of love for one another. His letters to the churches are interwoven with this thought. In one of his epistles we read: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. . . . God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. . . . Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

In the church of God to-day brotherly love is greatly lacking. Many of those who profess to love the Saviour neglect to love those who are united with them in Christian fellowship. We are of the same faith, members of one family, all children of the same Heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. How close and tender should be the tie that binds us together! How careful we should be to have our words and actions in harmony with the sacred truths that God has committed to us The people of the world are looking to us, to see if our faith is exerting a sanctifying influence on our hearts, making us Christlike. They are ready to discover every defect in our lives, every inconsistency in our actions. Let us give them no occasion to reproach our faith.

Our Greatest Danger

It is not the opposition of the world that will endanger us the most; the evil cherished in the hearts of professed Christians works out most grievous disaster, and retards most the progress of God's cause. There is no surer way of weakening ourselves in spiritual things than by being envious, suspicious of one another, full of faultfinding and evil surmising. "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

How We May Reveal Christ

When you are associated with one another, be guarded in your words. Let your conversation be of such a nature that you will have no need to repent of it. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." If the love of the truth is in your hearts, you will talk of the truth,--of the blessed hope that you have in Jesus. If your hearts are filled with brotherly love, you will seek to establish and build up your brother in the most holy faith.

If a word is dropped that is detrimental to the character of a friend or brother, never encourage this evil-speaking; for it is the work of the enemy. Remind the speaker that God's Word forbids this kind of conversation. We are to empty the heart of everything that defiles the soul-temple, that Christ may dwell within. The Redeemer has told us how we may reveal him to the world. If we cherish his Spirit, if we manifest his love toward others, if we guard one another's interests, if we are kind, patient, forbearing, the fruits we bear will give evidence to the world that we are God's children. It is unity in the church that enables Christians to exert a strong influence upon unbelievers.

To build up one another in the most holy faith is a blessed work; to tear down is a work full of bitterness and sorrow Christ identifies himself with his suffering children; for he says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." If all would carry out the instruction given by Christ, love and unity would prevail in the church.

Every heart has its own sorrows and disappointments, and we should seek to lighten one another's burdens by manifesting the love of Jesus to those around us. If our conversation were upon heaven and heavenly things, evil-speaking would soon cease to have any attraction for us. We would not then be placing our feet upon dangerous ground; nor would we enter into temptation, falling under the power of the evil one.

Instead of finding fault with others, let us be critical with ourselves. Every one should inquire, Is my heart right before God? Am I glorifying my Heavenly Father? If you have cherished a wrong spirit, banish it from the soul. Eradicate from your heart everything that is of a defiling nature. Pluck up every root of bitterness, lest others be contaminated by the baleful influence. Do not allow one poisonous plant to remain in the soil of your heart. Root it out this very hour and cultivate in its stead the plant of love. Let Jesus be enshrined in the soul-temple.

My brethren and sisters, prayerfully consider the exhortation given to those who have left their first love. "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." God is now calling for heartfelt repentance, and for a return to the love that we once manifested toward one another. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." -

Danger in Speculative Knowledge

The experience of the past will be repeated. In the future, Satan's superstitions will assume new forms. Errors will be presented in a pleasing and flattering manner. False theories, clothed with garments of light, will be presented to God's people. Thus Satan will try to deceive if possible, the very elect. Most seducing influences will be exerted; minds will be hypnotized.

Corruptions of every type, similar to those existing among the antediluvians, will be brought in to take minds captive. The exaltation of nature as God, the unrestrained license of the human will, the counsel of the ungodly,--these Satan uses as agencies to bring about certain ends. He will employ the power of mind on mind to carry out his designs. The most sorrowful thought of all is that under his deceptive influence men will have a form of godliness, without having a real connection with God. Like Adam and Eve, who ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, many are even now feeding upon the deceptive morsels of error.

Satanic agencies are clothing false theories in an attractive garb, even as Satan in the garden of Eden concealed his identity from our first parents by speaking through the serpent. These agencies are instilling into human minds that which in reality is deadly error. The hypnotic influence of Satan will rest upon those who turn from the plain Word of God to pleasing fables.

It is those who have had the most light that Satan most assiduously seeks to ensnare. He knows that if he can deceive them, they will, under his control, clothe sin with garments of righteousness, and lead many astray.

I say to all, Be on your guard; for as an angel of light Satan is walking in every assembly of Christian workers, and in every church, trying to win the members to his side. I am bidden to give the people of God the warning, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked."

Beware of a Sensational Religion

At this time we need in the cause of God spiritual-minded men,--men who are firm in principle, and who have a clear understanding of the truth.

I have been instructed that it is not new and fanciful doctrines which the people need. They do not need human suppositions. They need the testimony of men who know and practise the truth, men who understand and obey the charge given to Timothy: "Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Walk firmly, decidedly, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You may be sure that pure and undefiled religion is not a sensational religion . God has not laid upon any one the burden of encouraging an appetite for speculative doctrines and theories. My brethren, keep these things out of your teaching. Do not allow them to enter into your experience. Let not your life-work be marred by them.

A Warning Against False Teaching

A warning against such teaching is found in Paul's letter to the Colossians. The apostle declares that the hearts of the believers are to be "knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." "And this I say," he continues, "lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. . . . As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

I am instructed to say to our people, Let us follow Christ. Do not forget that he is to be our pattern in all things. We may safely discard those ideas that are not found in his teaching. I appeal to our ministers to be sure that their feet are placed on the platform of eternal truth. Beware how you follow impulse, calling it the Holy Spirit. Some are in danger in this respect. I call upon them to be sound in the faith, able to give every one who asks a reason of the hope that is in them.

Diverting Minds from Present Duty

The enemy is seeking to divert the minds of our brethren and sisters from the work of preparing a people to stand in these last days. His sophistries are designed to lead minds away from the perils and duties of the hour. They estimate as nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John for his people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to receive special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science.

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein."

Let none seek to tear away the foundations of our faith,--the foundations that were laid at the beginning of our work, by prayerful study of the Word and by revelation. Upon these foundations we have been building for the last fifty years. Men may suppose that they have found a new way, and that they can lay a stronger foundation than that which has been laid. But this is a great deception. Other foundation can no man lay than that which has been laid.

In the past many have undertaken the building of a new faith, the establishment of new principles. But how long did their building stand?--It soon fell; for it was not founded upon the Rock.

Did not the first disciples have to meet the sayings of men? Did they not have to listen to false theories, and then, having done all, to stand firm, saying, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid"?

So we are to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Words of power have been sent by God and by Christ to this people, bringing them out from the world, point by point, into the clear light of present truth. With lips touched with holy fire, God's servants have proclaimed the message. The divine utterance has set its seal to the genuineness of the truth proclaimed. -

Laborers Together With God

To My Ministering Brethren: I entreat you to rise to your high calling in Christ. The prayer of Moses, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," is recorded for our benefit. We need to present ourselves before the Lord every day, praying with earnest soul-hunger, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory."

What was God's answer to Moses?--"I will make all my goodness pass before thee. . . . And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

It is the glory of God to be merciful, full of forbearance, kindness, goodness, and truth. But the justice shown in punishing the sinner is as verily the glory of the Lord as is the manifestation of his mercy.

"Thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." The Lord God of Israel is jealous for his honor. How, then, I inquire, does he regard the inhabitants of this world, who live in his house, and from his liberal treasury are provided with food and clothing, but who never so much as say "Thank you" to him? They are unmindful of his goodness. They are like the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who were destroyed because they worked continually in opposition to their Creator.

Of the antediluvians we read: "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. . . . And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

Christ said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all."

God warned the inhabitants of the old world of what he purposed to do in cleansing the earth of its impurity. But they laughed to scorn what they regarded as a superstitious prediction. They mocked at Noah's warning of a coming flood.

When Christ was upon the earth, he gave warning of what was coming upon Jerusalem because the people had rejected truth, despising the messages that God had sent. But his warning was unheeded.

The Lord has sent us by his ambassadors messages of warning, declaring that the end of all things is at hand. Some will listen to these warnings, but by the vast majority they will be disregarded.

When Lot warned the members of his family of the destruction of Sodom, they would not heed his words, but looked upon him as a fanatical enthusiast. The destruction that came found them unprepared.

Thus will it be when Christ comes. Farmers, merchants, lawyers, tradesmen, will be wholly engrossed in business, and upon them the day of the Lord will come as a snare.

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch."

To Every Man His Work

To every man there is given a work. This point I wish to impress on all. Each child of God has a work to do for him. But while some are engaged in giving the last message of mercy to our world, others are living in careless indifference to God's requirements.

It is our duty to watch and pray and work. Our lives are not to be spent in idle expectation. Vigilant waiting and earnest watching are to be combined with faithful work, in expectation of the solemn events so soon to take place. The end is near. The commission given by Christ to his disciples is to be fulfilled. To all people the gospel is to be preached.

Upon every one who knows the truth for this time rests the responsibility of making it known to others. The servants of Christ are in a large measure responsible for the well-being and the salvation of the world. They are to be co-laborers with God in the work of winning souls to Christ.

"We Preach not Ourselves, but Christ"

The fourth chapter of Second Corinthians contains a lesson that should be carefully studied by all. "We preach not ourselves," Paul says, "but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."

Those who minister in word and deed are to exalt Christ. If their hearts are filled with the love of the Saviour, their lives will reveal that love. Through them it will speak in its tenderness. But self too often interposes between the soul and God. It is made so prominent that perishing souls can not see Jesus.

When the lips of a speaker move under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the words of God find utterance in warnings, in reproofs, in appeals. This power is not of the speaker. It is a power given him by God, that he may reach those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and arouse them to see the need of receiving power from above. God works through his faithful servants, who do not shun to declare the whole truth in the power of the Spirit. Their work bears his indorsement.

God's messengers are to hold aloft the standard of truth until the hand is palsied in death. When they sleep in death, the places that once knew them know them no more. The churches in which they preached, the places they visited to hold forth the word of life, still remain. The mountains, the hills, the things seen by mortal vision, are still there. All these things must at last pass away. The time is coming when the earth shall reel to and fro, and shall be removed like a cottage. But the thoughts, the purposes, the acts of God's workers, although now unseen, will appear at the great day of final retribution and reward. Things now forgotten will then appear as witnesses, either to approve or to condemn.

Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice,-- these are never lost. When God's chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through the eternal ages. No act of unselfish service, however small or simple, is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness, the fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.

Trusting in Christ

In order to fight successfully the battle against sin, you must keep close to Jesus. Do not talk unbelief; you have no excuse for doing this. Christ has made a complete sacrifice for you, that you might stand before God complete in him. God is not pleased with our lack of faith. Unbelief always separates the soul from Christ.

It is not praiseworthy to talk of our weakness and discouragement. Let each one say, "I am grieved that I yield to temptation, that my prayers are so feeble, my faith so weak. I have no excuse to plead for being dwarfed in my religious life. But I am seeking to obtain completeness of character in Christ. I have sinned, and yet I love Jesus. I have fallen many times, and yet he has reached out his hand to save me. I have told him all about my mistakes. I have confessed with shame and sorrow that I have dishonored him. I have looked to the cross, and have said, All this he suffered for me. The Holy Spirit has shown me my ingratitude, my sin, in putting Christ to open shame. He who knows no sin has forgiven me. He calls me to a higher, nobler life, and I press on the things that are before."

Christ Our Efficiency

"God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

Man is here cautioned against boasting. Christ is his efficiency. God uses human beings as his instrumentalities, to do his work. Our capabilities and talents are all to be held in trust. They do not originate with us. They come from God, and are to be consecrated to his service. To the one who does this the Lord will give higher abilities.

The humility that bears fruit, filling the soul with a sense of the love of God, will speak for the one who has cherished it, in the great day when men will be rewarded according as their works have been. Happy will be the one of whom it can then be said, "The Spirit never stirred this man's soul in vain. He went forward and upward from strength to strength. Self was not woven into his life. Each message of correction and counsel he received as a blessing from God. Thus the way was prepared for him to receive still greater blessings, because God did not speak to him in vain. Each step upward on the ladder of progress prepared him to climb still higher. From the top of the ladder the bright beams of God's glory shone upon him. He did not think of resting, but sought constantly to attain to the wisdom and righteousness of Christ. Ever he pressed toward the mark of the prize of his high calling in Christ."

This experience every one who is saved must have. In the day of judgment the course of the man who has retained the frailty and imperfection of humanity will not be vindicated. For him there will be no place in heaven; he could not enjoy the perfection of the saints in light. He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that he can keep him from sinning, has not the faith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom of God.

Called to Service

Now, just now, is our time of probation, wherein we are to prepare for heaven. Christ gave his life that we might have this probation. But so long as time shall last, Satan will strive for the mastery over us. He works with power to lead men to become absorbed in money-getting. He invents many kinds of amusement, so that their minds may be engrossed with worldly pleasure. He would have them forget all about the inward adorning,--the adorning of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. He is determined that every moment shall be filled with efforts to carry out ambitious projects or to amuse and gratify self. He is determined that men shall find no time to study the Word of God, no time to realize that they have been bought with a price, even the blood of the Son of God.

Satan uses his influence to drown the voice of God speaking to the soul; and the world acts as if under his control. Men have chosen him as their leader. They stand under his banner. They will not come to Christ that they might have life. Infatuated with schemes for pleasure and amusement, they are striving for that which will perish with the using.

At this time the message of mercy and warning is to go forth to awaken the world from its sleep of death. A work is to be done to-day that will live through the eternal ages. As watchmen entrusted with a special message, we are to keep before the people the nearness of the end. "Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

The fast-fulfilling signs of the time declare that the great day of the Lord is right upon us. In that day shall it be said of any of us, "This man was called by God, but he would not hear, he would not give heed. Again and again the Spirit moved upon his heart, but he said, 'Go thy way for this time; and when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.' This man saw the Saviour's sacrifice in a beautiful light; but some matter of minor importance came in, and his heart was captivated. When the Spirit spoke again, the call was not respected. Every gracious, heavenly influence was dismissed"? -

The Revelation of God

"God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Before the fall, not a cloud rested upon the minds of our first parents to obscure their clear perception of the character of God. They were perfectly conformed to the will of God. For a covering, a beautiful light, the light of God, surrounded them. The Lord visited the holy pair, and instructed them through the works of his hands. Nature was their lesson book. In the garden of Eden the existence of God was demonstrated in the objects of nature that surrounded them. Every tree of the garden spoke to them. The invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things which were made, even his eternal power and God-head.

But while it is true that God could thus be discerned in nature, this does not favor the assertion that after the fall a perfect knowledge of God was revealed in the natural world to Adam and his posterity. Nature could convey her lessons to man in his innocence; but transgression brought a blight upon nature, and intervened between nature and nature's God. Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator, had they remained in the path of perfect rectitude, they could have known and understood God. But when they listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them; and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had lightened everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in his created works.

The things of nature upon which we look to-day give us but a faint conception of Eden's beauty and glory; yet the natural world, with unmistakable voice, proclaims the glory of God. In the things of nature, marred as they are by the blight of sin, much that is beautiful remains. One omnipotent in power, great in goodness, in mercy, and love, has created the earth, and even in its blighted state it inculcates truths in regard to the skilful Master Artist. In this book of nature opened to us,--in the beautiful, scented flowers, with their varied and delicate coloring,--God gives to us an unmistakable expression of his love. After the transgression of Adam, God might have destroyed every opening bud and blooming flower, or he might have taken away their fragrance, so grateful to the senses. In the earth, seared and marred by the curse, in the briers, the thistles, the thorns, the tares, we may read the law of condemnation; but in the delicate color and perfume of the flowers, we may learn that God still loves us, that his mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth.

Nature is filled with spiritual lessons for mankind. The flowers die only to spring forth into new life; and in this we are taught the lesson of the resurrection. All who love God will bloom again in the Eden above. But nature can not teach the lesson of the great and marvelous love of God. Therefore, after the fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world might not remain in darkness, in eternal spiritual night, the God of nature met us in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to the world as the revelation of the Father. He was that "true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." We are to behold "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

In the person of his only begotten Son, the God of heaven has condescended to stoop to our human nature. To the question of Thomas, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake."

The most difficult and humiliating lesson that man has to learn is his own inefficiency in depending upon human wisdom, and the sure failure of his own efforts to read nature correctly. Sin has obscured his vision, and of himself he can not interpret nature without placing it above God. He can not discern in it God, or Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. He is in the same position as were the Athenians, who erected their altars for the worship of nature. Standing in the midst of Mars Hill, Paul presented before the people of Athens the majesty of the living God in contrast with their idolatrous worship.

"Ye men of Athens," he said. "I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."

Those who have a true knowledge of God will not become so infatuated with the laws of matter or the operations of nature as to overlook, or refuse to acknowledge, the continual working of God in nature. Nature is not God, nor was it ever God. The voice of nature testifies of God, but nature is not God. As his created work, it simply bears a testimony to God's power. Deity is the author of nature. The natural world has, in itself, no power but that which God supplies. There is a personal God, the Father: there is a personal Christ, the Son. And "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

The psalmist says: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." Some may suppose that these grand things in the natural world are God. They are not God. All these wonders in the heavens are only doing the work appointed them. They are the Lord's agencies. God is the superintendent, as well as the creator, of all things. The divine Being is engaged in upholding the things that he has created. The same hand that holds the mountains and balances them in position, guides the worlds in their mysterious march around the sun.

There is scarcely an operation of nature to which we may not find reference in the Word of God. The Word declares that "he maketh his sun to rise," and "the rain to descend." He "maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. . . . He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: . . . he sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow." "He maketh lightnings for the rain; and bringeth the wind out of his treasuries."

These words of Holy Writ say nothing of the independent laws of nature. God furnishes the matter and the properties with which to carry out his plans. He employs his agencies that vegetation may flourish. He sends the dew and the rain and the sunshine, that verdure may spring forth, and spread its carpet over the earth; that the shrubs and fruit trees may bud and blossom and bring forth. It is not to be supposed that a law is set in motion for the seed to work itself, that the leaf appears because it must do so of itself. God has laws that he has instituted, but they are only the servants through which he effects results. It is through the immediate agency of God that every tiny seed breaks through the earth, and springs into life. Every leaf grows, every flower blooms, by the power of God.

The physical organism of man is under the supervision of God; but it is not like a clock, which is set in operation, and must go of itself. The heart beats, pulse succeeds pulse, breath succeeds breath, but the entire being is under the supervision of God. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." In God we live and move and have our being. Each heart-beat, each breath, is the inspiration of him who breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life,--the inspiration of the ever-present God; the great I AM.

The ancient philosophers prided themselves on their superior knowledge. Let us read the inspired apostle's understanding of the matter. "Professing themselves to be wise," he says, "they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. . . . Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator." In its human wisdom the world can not know God. Its wise men gather an imperfect knowledge of God from his created works, and then in their foolishness they exalt nature and the laws of nature above nature's God. Those who have not a knowledge of God through an acceptance of the revelation he has made of himself in Christ, will obtain only an imperfect knowledge of him in nature; and this knowledge, so far from giving elevated conceptions of God, and bringing the whole being into conformity to his will, will make men idolaters. Professing themselves to be wise, they will become fools.

Those who think they can obtain a knowledge of God aside from his Representative, whom the Word declares is "the express image of his person," will need to become fools in their own estimation before they can be wise. It is impossible to gain a perfect knowledge of God from nature alone; for nature itself is imperfect. In its imperfection it can not represent God, it can not reveal the character of God in its moral perfection. But Christ came as a personal Saviour to the world. He represented a personal God. As a personal Saviour, he ascended on high; and he will come again as he ascended to heaven,--a personal Saviour. He is the express image of the Father's person. "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." -

Co-workers With Christ

Christ intended that a greater work should be done in soul-winning than we have yet seen. He did not intend that such large numbers should take their stand under the banner of Satan, enrolled as rebels against God. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He did not design that human beings should live and die in sin. Why, then, are so few reached and saved?--It is because so many of those who profess to be Christians are working on the same lines as the great apostate. They let Satan plan and devise for them.

Very much more might be done for Christ if all who have the light of present truth would practise the truth. There are whole families who might be missionaries, engaging in personal labor, toiling for the Master with busy hands and active brains, devising new methods for the success of his work. There are earnest, prudent, warm-hearted men and women who could do much for Christ if they would give themselves to God, drawing near to him, and seeking him with the whole heart.

My dear brethren and sisters, take an active part in the work of soul-saving. This work will give life and vigor to the mental and spiritual powers. Light from Christ will shine into the mind. The Saviour will abide in your hearts, and in his light you will see light.

Consecrate yourselves wholly to the work of God. He is your strength, and he will be at your right hand, helping you to carry out his merciful designs. By personal labor reach those around you. Become acquainted with them. Preaching will not do the work that needs to be done. Angels of God attend you to the dwellings of those you visit. This work can not be done by proxy. Money lent or given will not accomplish it. Sermons can not do it. By visiting people, talking, praying, sympathizing with them, you will win hearts. This is the highest missionary work that you can do. To do it, you will need resolute, persevering faith, unwearying patience, and a deep love for souls.

Find access to the people in whose neighborhood you live. As you tell them of the truth, use words of Christlike sympathy. Remember that the Lord Jesus is the Master Worker. He waters the seed sown. He puts into your minds words that will reach hearts. Expect that God will sustain the consecrated, unselfish worker. Obedience, childlike faith, trust in God,--these will bring peace and joy. Cultivate thankfulness of heart. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, . . . and be ye thankful." Work disinterestedly, lovingly, patiently, for all with whom you are brought into contact. Show no impatience. Utter not one unkind word. Let the love of Christ be in your hearts, the law of kindness on your lips.

It is a mystery that there are not hundreds at work for God where now there is but one. The heavenly universe is astonished at the apathy, the coldness, the listlessness, of those who profess to be sons and daughters of God. In the truth there is a living power. Go forth in faith, and proclaim the truth as if you believed it. Let those for whom you labor see that to you it is indeed a living reality.

The gospel standard is to be planted in every place where now it is not. With our eyes fixed on the cross of Calvary, believing that the Saviour will be with us until the end, as our shield, our strength, our efficiency, we are to work for God.

Why is it that we do not receive more from him who is the source of light and power? We expect too little. Has God lost his love for man? Is not this love still flowing earthward? Has he lost his desire to show himself strong in behalf of his people? Christ will give us victory in the conflict. Who can doubt this when we know that he laid aside his royal robe and kingly crown, and came to this world in the garb of humanity, that he might stand as man's substitute and surety?

We do not value as we should the power and efficacy of prayer. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered." God desires us to come to him in prayer, that he may enlighten our minds. He alone can give clear conceptions of truth. He alone can soften and subdue the heart. He can quicken the understanding to discern truth from error. He can establish the wavering mind, and give it a knowledge and a faith that will endure the test. Pray then; pray without ceasing. The Lord who heard Daniel's prayer, will hear yours if you will approach him as Daniel did.

Let us live in close communion with God. The joy of the Christian arises from a sense of God's love and care for his children, and the assurance that he will not leave them alone in their weakness. The Lord never withholds his wisdom from those who are truly consecrated. Those who fear him and seek him daily, walk in security. It is the men who humble themselves even as a little child who are taught by God. The man who does not exalt himself can fill a place in God's plan that no self-sufficient man, however learned and well-prepared he may think himself, can fill. It makes every difference whether a man walks with God, or whether he is satisfied to walk with himself, trusting in his own abilities.

It is the fragrance of our love for our fellow men that reveals our love for God. It is patience in service that brings rest. It is through humble, diligent, faithful toilers that the welfare of Israel is promoted. God upholds and strengthens the one who is willing to learn in the school of Christ the lessons that he teaches.

The power of the Holy Spirit would come to our workers if they would ask for it aright. There will be no change made in the divine economy in order to bring about marked changes in the religious world. Men and women must rise to the emergency. They must receive the holy oil, the divine communication. This will enable them to arise and shine because their light has come.

Those who believe present truth are to live this truth. They are to bring the word of God into the daily life. This word is the bread of heaven, and those who read and study it, making its truths a part of the life, will be given power from above. O, can we not understand this? "This is the will of him that sent me," Christ said, "that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." If this, the life of Christ, be in us, what may we not accomplish in his service?

We are in great need of large-hearted, level-headed men,--men whose daily life shows plainly that they have been with Jesus, and have learned of him,--men who, when called to bear burdens, do not complain, but move cheerfully forward, singing, yes, making melody in their hearts to the Lord.

To those who are presenting from the pulpit the truth for this time, I would say: Remember that you are engaged in a solemn, sacred work. Souls for whom Christ died, and who may have the life that measures with the life of God, are in the valley of decision. Before you present any subject to the people, talk with God in prayer. Hide self in Jesus. Receive the Holy Spirit, and then, in the power of this Spirit, speak to the people. Be sure that you are standing where you can be worked by the Spirit, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power."

To our youth, I would say, As you use for God the talents that he has entrusted to you, you will obtain a knowledge that will make you dissatisfied with yourselves. You will see the great work that is to be done. You will see the need of separating from every hurtful habit or practise, lest you harm some other soul.

There are conscientious young men who are preparing to move into line, to strengthen the outposts. If they will walk with God, he will talk with them and teach them. Let them work where they are, doing what they can to pass along the truth that is so precious to them. Then, when there are vacancies to be filled, they will hear the words, Friend, come up higher. They may be reluctant to advance, but let them move forward, trusting in God, and bringing into his work a fresh, honest experience, and a heart filled with unswerving love.

Open the door of the heart to the knock of Christ. Welcome the heavenly Guest. Then if you are placed in a position of responsibility, you will not lift yourself up unto vanity. There are truths in the Word of God the meaning of which you do not comprehend, but these will open to you in their beauty and loveliness; for Christ is your teacher. If you have improved the past, it is still yours, because you have garnered the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. You have a treasure of knowledge to which you are constantly adding, and thus you are being raised to a higher plane of service. Impart that which you receive, and keep imparting, that you may continue to receive. -

The Result of Beholding Christ

God has promised to draw near to all who will draw near to him. All may delight their souls in the Lord. All may grow in grace, in wisdom, and in love; through faithful continuance in well-doing all may become partakers of the divine nature.

Those who strive for the Spirit of God will be rewarded in accordance with the promise, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." My brethren and sisters, will you not awake out of sleep? Will you not pray, and watch unto prayer? Through the power that Jesus gives, we can be "more than conquerors." But we can not manufacture this power. Only through the Spirit of God can we receive it. We need a deep insight into the nature of Christ and into the mystery of his love, "which passeth knowledge." We are to live in the warm, genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Nothing but Christ's loving compassion, his divine grace, his almighty power, can enable us to baffle the relentless foe, and subdue the opposition of our own hearts. What is our strength?--The joy of the Lord. Let the love of Christ fill our hearts, and then we shall be prepared to receive the power that he has for us.

Let us thank God every day for the blessings that are ours. If the human agent will humble himself before God, realizing how inappropriate it is for him to cherish self-sufficiency, realizing his utter inability to do the work that needs to be done in order that his soul may be purified; if he will cast away his own righteousness. Christ will abide in his heart. He will put his hand to the work of creating him anew, and will continue the work till he is complete in him.

Christ will never neglect the work that has been placed in his hands. He will inspire the resolute disciple with a sense of the perversity, the sin-stained condition, the depravity, of the heart upon which he is working. The true penitent learns the uselessness of self-importance. Looking to Jesus, comparing his own defective character with the Saviour's perfect character, he says only,-- "In my hand no price I bring; Simply to thy cross I cling."

With Isaiah he declares, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name."

"Dead in Trespasses and Sins"

"You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

Spiritual death is here spoken of. How many there are who are unwarned, and in consequence unconvicted. They are passing on, in harmony with the world and with the desires of their own undisciplined, unsubdued hearts. They live in pleasure and worldliness, and should sickness come, and death overtake them, they would be found unready. They are not interested in the race for eternal life. They do not look upon the conflict against sin, the warfare with principalities and powers, as essential. They are in need of light. Satan holds them in his power, and they see not their danger. They know nothing of the crucifixion that cuts away from the life all that separates the soul from Christ. They are subject to the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience.

This spirit is Satan, the fallen angel, the ruler of the power of darkness. He has control of the spirits of evil, and through them he seeks to gain control of human beings. He is the head of the fallen angels. He supplies them with vital force.

How many there are who are left in darkness because the lives of those who have had light, and who profess to believe the truth, are a falsehood, a fatal deception. These professed Christians have kept the truth in the outer court. It has not been brought into the daily life. They may belong to the church, but this will not save them. Those who do the works of a sinner will receive the punishment of a sinner. Profession is but a snare to those who have no experience in the reality of true Christianity, who know not the principles that lead the Christian to inquire at every step, "Is this the way of the Lord?"

Raised to Spiritual Life

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

As God raised Christ from the dead, that he might bring life and immortality to light through the gospel, and thus save his people from their sins, so Christ has raised fallen human beings to spiritual life, quickening them with his life, filling their hearts with hope and joy.

"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

Power That Gains the Victory

Beholding Christ for the purpose of becoming like him, the seeker after truth sees the perfection of the principles of God's law, and he becomes dissatisfied with everything but perfection. Hiding his life in the life of Christ, he sees the holiness of the divine law as revealed in the character of Christ, and more and more earnestly he strives to be like him. A warfare may be expected at any time; for the tempter sees that he is losing one of his subjects. A battle must be fought with the attributes that Satan has been strengthening for his own use.

The human agent sees what he has to contend with,--a strange power opposed to the idea of attaining the perfection that Christ holds out. But he knows that with the Redeemer there is saving power that will gain for him the victory in the conflict. The Saviour will strengthen and help him as he comes pleading for grace and efficiency.

Paul's Experience

Paul had a wonderful experience. He says: "If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more; circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless." That is, he was trying to keep the letter of the law perfectly.

But a change came in his life. On his way to Damascus to persecute the followers of Christ, he was suddenly stopped. Christ revealed himself to him. Henceforth his testimony was:--

"Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

The righteousness that heretofore he had thought of so much worth was now worthless in his sight. The longing of his soul was, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

In his estimation no treasure could equal the gift of the knowledge of Christ. He trusted in the Saviour's power to save even him, who had persecuted his followers.

If God's people to-day would see how far short they fall of being what they ought to be; if they would strive with the powers of the whole being to reach the standard that God has declared they must reach; if they would put into their efforts an energy and a perseverance proportionate to the greatness of the reward offered, how wonderfully they would be blessed, and how much God would accomplish through them!

The adversary stands ready to lead church-members into strange paths. Let them keep the soul fully guarded, and filled with the light and grace and life that heaven is always ready to supply.

"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." We are children of one family,--a family acknowledged to be of heavenly extraction. We are to live lives that declare us to be children of God. We are not to follow the customs and the policy of the world, but the law of heaven. We are Christ's purchased possession, and we are to put away envy and evil-surmising, and love one another as Christ has loved us, helping one another to press onward and upward. -

Help in Every Time of Need

To My Sisters Tempted by Discouragement, -- To each one of us has been given the inestimable privilege of being a child of God. Why, then, should we be unhappy? We are all sinful, but we have a Saviour who can take away our sins; for in him is no sin. We all have many difficulties to meet, many perplexing problems to solve. But we have an all-powerful Helper, who will listen to our requests as willingly and gladly as he listened to the requests of those who, when he was on this earth in person, came to him for help. I ask you not to take the ordering of your life out of his hands.

When discouragement presses heavily upon you, read the following scriptures: --

"My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?. . . Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance."

"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul; and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."

"For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death."

Do you make mistakes? Do not let this discourage you. The Lord may permit you to make small mistakes in order to save you from making larger mistakes. Go to Jesus, and ask him to forgive you, and then believe that he does. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When unkind, discouraging words are spoken to you, do not retaliate. Do not reply unless you can return a pleasant answer. Say to yourself, "I will not disappoint my Saviour. The Christian woman is a gentlewoman. On her lips is ever the law of kindness. She utters no hasty words. To speak gentle words when you are irritated will bring sunshine into your hearts, and make your path more smooth. A schoolgirl, when asked for a definition of meekness, said. "Meek people are those who give soft answers to rough questions." Christ says, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." They will be fit subjects for the kingdom of heaven; for they are willing to be taught.

Do not treat life as a romance, but as a reality. Perform your smallest duty in the fear and love of God, with faithfulness and cheerfulness. God declares, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much."

Study the life that Christ lived while on this earth. He did not neglect the smallest, simplest duty. Perfection marked all that he did. Look to him for help, and you will be enabled to perform your daily duties with the grace and dignity of one who is seeking for the crown of immortal life.

We dwell much on the grandeur of Christ's life. We speak of the great things that he accomplished, of the miracles he wrought, of how he spoke peace to the tempestuous waters, restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and raised the dead to life. But his attention to small things is even higher proof of his greatness. Listen to him speaking to Martha, as she comes to him with the request that he bid her sister help her with the serving. He tells her not to allow the cares of the household to disturb the peace of her soul. "Martha, Martha," he says, "thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Listen to the words that he spoke as the weary mothers brought their children to him to be blessed. The disciples, unwilling that their Master should be disturbed, were sending the women away. But Christ said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." And taking them in his arms, he blessed them. Could the future of these children be opened before us, we could see the mothers recalling to the minds of the children the scene of that day, and repeating the loving words of the Saviour. We should see, too, how often, in after years, the memory of those words kept the children from straying from the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord.

Think of the words that Christ spoke to the one woman in Samaria. He was sitting by Jacob's well, and the woman came to draw water. Christ asked a favor of her. "Give me to drink," he said. He wanted a cool draft, and he wished, also, to open the way whereby he might give her the water of life.

"How is it," said the woman, "that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" Jesus answered, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water....Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

How much interest Christ manifested in this one woman! How earnest and eloquent were his words! When the woman heard them, she left her waterpot, and went into the city, saying to those she met, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" We read that many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him. And who can estimate the influence that these words have exerted for the saving of souls in the years that have passed since then!

My dear sisters, this same Jesus is your Saviour. Have faith in him. Do not distrust him. He is a present help in every time of need. Do not take your troubles to human beings. Take them to the Lord. You may think that others ought to sympathize with you in your trials; but you will sometimes be disappointed. Jesus never disappoints the one who comes to him for help. He is saying to you to-day, "Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest." He will give you rest in him. No one who comes to him goes away unhelped. Take your burdens to the divine burden-bearer, and leave them with him, knowing that he will carry them for you. He is the Christ, the One who bears the sins of the world. He will take you under his watchcare; for he loves you. He will accept you, and set you apart for his service. By the indwelling of his Spirit, he will make you more than conquerors.

Act your part in helping yourselves, as all must do who would be blessed. Do not dwell upon the hardship of the Christian life. Do not talk of your trials. If you do, you will become more and more inclined to complain. God asks you to speak no unkind words of the Saviour. Instead of bemoaning your weakness, and feeling that you are hardly used, talk of the goodness and mercy of the Lord.

Do not utter one despondent word: for such words please Satan. Talk of Christ's goodness and tell of his power. Words of hope and trust and courage are as easily spoken as words of complaint. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

When the enemy tells you that the Lord has forsaken you, tell him that you know he has not; for he declares, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Dismiss the enemy. Tell him you will not dishonor the Lord by doubting his love.

Christ asks us to believe in him as one who is able to keep us from falling. There is no limit to the help that the Saviour is willing to bestow on us. He asks us to bring into our lives the grace that will keep us from sin. From the cross of Calvary there comes to us liberty, hope, and strength. Do not dishonor your Redeemer by doubting his power. Trust him all the time. Take hold of the riches of his grace, saying, "I will believe, I do believe that Jesus died for me." The way before you may seem dark, but Jesus can make it light.

Be joyful in God. Christ is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Look toward the light. Accustom yourselves to speak the praise of God. Make others happy. This is your first work. It will strengthen the best traits of character. Throw the windows of the soul wide open heavenward, and let the sunshine of Christ's righteousness in. Morning, noon, and night your hearts may be filled with the bright rays of heaven's light. -

Partakers of the Divine Nature

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

"Partakers of the divine nature." Is this possible? Of ourselves we can do no good thing. How, then, can we be partakers of the divine nature?--By coming to Christ just as we are, needy, helpless, dependent. He died to make it possible for us to be partakers of the divine nature. He took humanity upon himself that he might reach humanity. With the golden chain of his matchless love he has bound us to the throne of God. We are to have power to overcome as he overcame.

To all he gives the invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

We have a part to act in this work. Let none think that men and women are going to be taken to heaven without engaging in the struggle here below. We have a battle to fight, a victory to gain. God says to us, "Work out your own salvation." How?--"With fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." God works, and man works. We are to co-operate with God. Thus only can we be partakers of the divine nature.

Here is the consistency of true religion. We are to be "laborers together with God," working in harmony with him. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." This figure represents human character, which is to be wrought upon point by point. Each day God works on his building to perfect the structure, that it may become a holy temple for him. Man is to co-operate with God, striving in his strength to make himself what God designs him to be, building his life with pure, noble deeds.

Those who are partakers of the divine nature will not give way to temptation. The enemy is working with all his might to overcome those who are striving to live the Christian life. He comes to them with temptations, in the hope that they will yield. Thus he hopes to discourage them. But those who have planted their feet firmly on the Rock of Ages will not yield to his devices. They will remember that God is their Father and Christ their Helper. The Saviour came to our world to bring to every tried, tempted soul strength to overcome even as he overcame. I know the power of temptation; I know the dangers that are in the way; but I know, too, that strength sufficient for every time of need is provided for those who are struggling against temptation.

"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." And we also have a part to act. We are not to place ourselves needlessly in the way of temptation. God says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." If by associating with worldlings for pleasure, by conforming to worldly practises, by uniting our interests with unbelievers, we place our feet in the path of temptation and sin, how can we expect God to keep us from falling.

Keep yourselves away from the corrupting influences of the world. Do not go unbidden to places where the forces of the enemy are strongly entrenched. Do not go where you will be tempted and led astray. But if you have a message for unbelievers, and if you live so near to God that you can speak to them a word in season, you can do a work that will help them and will honor God. "I pray not," Christ said, "that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

The Plan of Addition

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience."

Notice that patience comes after temperance. In order to be patient, we must be temperate. Those who give loose reign to appetite will be dyspeptics; and we all know how hard it is to live peaceably with a dyspeptic. When the digestive organs are abused and irritated, nervous, hasty, impatient words follow.

God has a work for each one of us to do, and into this work we are to put all the power of brain, bone, and muscle. We are to keep ourselves in the best condition for the accomplishment of this work. We are not our own; we have been bought with a price; and in all that we do or say, we are to glorify God.

"And to patience godliness." In thought, word, and deed. God's people are to be Christlike.

"And to godliness brotherly kindness." Those who are controlled by the Spirit of the Holy One will be kind in the family. They will conduct the affairs of the home without irritation, knowing that irritation on the part of father or mother arouses irritation in the child. Kind, gentle words, which show tenderness and unselfish interest, exert a powerful influence for the right.

We are to live on the plan of addition, and as we do this, God will work for us on the plan of multiplication. Grace and peace will be multiplied unto us.

An Eternal Life Insurance Policy

"If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

This is your life insurance policy. Act well your part, and you will be given entrance into the kingdom of glory. God has chosen you to have eternal life if you will do his will.

One Day at a Time

We shall pass through this world only once. Let us, then, be careful how we speak and act. Let us be careful where we place our feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. Let us so live that God can make us partakers of the divine nature, enabling us to obtain victories, and to overcome as Christ overcame.

God asks us to live only one day at a time. You need not look a week or a month ahead. To-day do your best. To-day speak and act in a way that will honor God. The promise is, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

Courage in the Lord

Troublous times are before us. The judgments of God are abroad in the land. Calamities follow one another in rapid succession. Soon God is to rise out of his place to shake terribly the earth, and to punish the inhabitants for their iniquity. Then he will stand up in behalf of his people, and will give them his protecting care. He will throw his everlasting arms around them to shield them from all harm.

After the passing of the time in 1844, a number of the brethren and sisters were assembled in a meeting. All were very sad; for the disappointment had been sore. Presently a man came in, crying, "Courage in the Lord, brethren, courage in the Lord." This he repeated again and again, till every face was aglow, and every voice was lifted in praise to God. And this morning I say to you, "Courage in the Lord." Ever since 1844 I have been proclaiming present truth, and to-day this truth is dearer to me than ever before.

God loves his believing people. Go through the Psalms, and find all the places where God has promised you his love and his help. Praise him for these promises, and make them your own. Do your best every day, and trust God for the future. We are his little children, and he desires us to trust him as a child trusts its earthly parents. -

Co-operation Between the School and the Home

The work of the teachers in our schools is a part of the work of the Lord for this time. Church-school teachers must not lightly regard the responsibilities of their work. The influence is an important factor in the formation of the characters of the children and youth under their care. If they will strive diligently to keep the way of the Lord, they will be a blessing and a help to their pupils, aiding them to form characters that will stand in the day of judgment.

The character of the work done in our church-schools should be of the very highest order. Great care should be shown in selecting teachers. Wise men, who can discern character, should make the selection; for the very best talent is needed to educate and mold the minds of the children and youth, and to carry on successfully the many kinds of work that will need to be done by the teachers in our church-schools. No one of an inferior or narrow cast of mind should ever be placed in charge of one of these schools. Do not place over the children young and inexperienced teachers, who have no managing ability; for their efforts will tend to disorganization, and every school should in this respect be a model of heaven.

The teachers chosen should have the true missionary spirit; for the children placed in their charge are to be trained to become missionaries. The teachers are to learn constantly in the school of Christ. Unless they have learned to obey God's requirements, how can they teach their pupils to obey? Unless they have learned to be patient, they are not prepared to meet the many trials and annoyances of the schoolroom.

In their work our church-school teachers will find many perplexities. They will have to contend against the prejudices of parents who have incorrect ideas of the characters which their children should form; for there are many parents who, though professing to believe the Bible, fail of bringing its principles into the home life. But if the teachers are constant learners in the school of Christ, these circumstances will never conquer them.

Unjust Criticism

The teachers should not be left to carry alone the burden of their work. They need the sympathy, the kindness, the co-operation, and the love of every church-member. But there are church-members who have been quick to catch up unkind suppositions, and to speak disparagingly of the teacher before other church-members, and even in the presence of the children. Some have talked freely and bitterly concerning a teacher, though not clearly understanding the difficulty of which they were speaking.

This should not be. Let the one who thinks that a teacher has done wrong, follow the directions that Christ has given. He says, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Until you have done this, you are not justified in telling others of your brother's mistakes.

Let the church-members in places where schools are established, keep their own souls in the love of God, lest they become channels through which Satan will communicate evil surmisings and false accusations. Let all rally to the support of the teacher. A spirit of disunion, cherished by a few, will communicate itself to others, and will undo the influence for good that might otherwise be exerted by the school. Let church-members close the windows of the heart against the poisonous malaria of complaint and fault-finding, and open them heavenward to the healing rays of Christ's righteousness.

The Parents' Responsibility

We are not to concern ourselves so much about the course that others are following, as about the course that we ourselves are following. If the children attending a church-school do not improve in manners, the parents should not unduly blame the teacher. They should, rather, closely examine themselves, to see if in the home they are such teachers as God can approve. In many cases the children are greatly neglected in the home, and are more disorderly there than they are in the school. If children who for years have been neglected in the home are not led by the teacher to live Christian lives, shall the parents, because of this, set in circulation unkind criticisms regarding the teacher? Let them rather blame themselves for their own neglect.

Parents have a very important part to act in making the school a success. When they faithfully act their part in the home, the work of the teacher will be greatly lightened. His courage and hope will be increased. But by a failure to govern their households, parents make the work of the teacher hard and discouraging. Parents whose hearts are filled with the love of Christ will refrain from finding fault, and will do all in their power to encourage and help the one whom they have chosen as a teacher for their children. They will be willing to believe that he is just as conscientious in his work as they are in theirs. They will encourage him by showing him that they appreciate his efforts. They will not say nor do anything that will foster insubordination in their children.

I am instructed to say to parents. Raise the standard of behavior in your own homes. Teach your children to obey. Rule them by the combined influence of affection and Christlike authority. Let your lives be such that of you may be spoken the words of commendation spoken of Cornelius, of whom it is said that he "feared God with all his house."

A Reformation Needed

A reformation is needed among our children. Let there be co-operation between parents and teachers. Let a righteous influence be exerted in the home and in the school. Parents need to take an advance step. Let them remember that everything which brings discord is the work of the enemy of souls. Let them carefully refrain from criticizing the teacher, and begin to do practical missionary work in their own homes.

Parents, shall your children be lost because of your lack of faithfulness? Neither you nor they will prosper in any other path than the path of obedience. If you have failed in your duty to your family, confess your sins before God. Gather your children about you, and acknowledge your neglect. Tell them that you desire to bring about a reformation in the home, and ask them to help you to make the home what it ought to be. Read to them the directions found in the Word of God. Pray with them; and ask God to spare their lives, and to help them to prepare for a home in his kingdom. Thus you may begin and continue a work of true reform.

Be pleasant in the home. Restrain every word that would arouse unholy temper. "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath," is a divine injunction. Remember that your children are young in years and experience. In controlling and disciplining them, be firm, but kind. Encourage them to do their duty as members of the family firm. Express your appreciation of the efforts they put forth to conquer their inclinations to wrong. Let the Word of God be your rule, and ever keep in mind the responsibilities for which in the great day of judgment you must give account.

Of the patriarch Abraham, the Omniscient One said, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."

Abraham's household comprised more than a thousand souls. Those who were led by his teachings to worship the true God found a home in his encampment; and here, as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to be representatives of the truth.

Abraham's affection for his children and his household led him to guard their religious faith, to impart to them a knowledge of the divine statutes, as the most precious legacy he could transmit to them, and through them to the world. All were taught that they were under the rule of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on the part of parents, and no disobedience on the part of children. God's law had appointed to each his duties, and only in obedience could any secure happiness and prosperity.

His own example, the silent influence of his daily life, was a constant lesson. The unswerving integrity, the benevolence, and unselfish courtesy which had won the admiration of kings, were displayed in the home. There was a fragrance about the life, a nobility and loveliness of character, which revealed to all that he was connected with heaven. He did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant. In his household there was not one law for the master, and one for the servant; a royal way for the rich, and another for the poor. All were treated with justice and compassion, as inheritors with him of the grace of life.

He "will command his household." There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism, no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws.

How few there are in our day who follow this example. On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, which is manifested in leaving children, with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to the youth, and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young a desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements. Thus they grow up with hearts averse to doing God's will, and they transmit their irreligious, insubordinate spirit to their children, and their children's children. Like Abraham, parents should command their households after them. Let obedience to parental authority be taught and enforced as the first step in obedience to the authority of God.

The Lord is our Creator, and we are his children, subject to his rule. God's method of government is an example of how parents are to train their children. There is no oppression in the Lord's service, and there is to be no oppression in the home. Parents and guardians are to treat those under their care even as God treats his earthly children, with kindness and love.

In the home and in the school there is to be strict and faithful discipline. Neither parents nor teacher are to allow disregard of their authority to go unnoticed. They are to make immediate efforts to lead the offender into right paths. Should they neglect to correct the children when they do wrong, God would hold them accountable for the results of their neglect. But let them be sparing of censure. Let kindness be the law of the home and of the school. Let children be taught to keep the law of the Lord, and let a firm, loving influence restrain them from evil.

Parents, humble your own hearts before God. Begin a thorough work with your children. Plead with the Lord to forgive your disregard of his work in neglecting to train your children in the way they should go. Ask for light and guidance, for a tender conscience, and for clear discernment, that you may see your mistakes and failures. God will hear such prayers.

The world is watching, and it will take notice of every defect in the lives of Christ's followers. Let our words and acts be such that our lives shall not dishonor the Master. May God help fathers and mothers to purify their souls, that they may stand before him and before the world as those who are keeping the way of the Lord. -

Our Duty to the Unsaved

The judgments of God are in the land. Calamities are following one another in quick succession. Shall we allow these things to be, without telling people what they mean, and how to escape the destruction soon to come upon all the world? Shall we allow men and women to go down into the darkness without having been told how to gain a preparation for the future life?

I am grieved in spirit as I see how weak are the efforts put forth to reach the unsanctified and the unsaved. We need more workers to gather in the sheaves. Believers in the truth should watch for souls as they that must give an account. They should seek for opportunities to speak words of warning and encouragement to unbelievers, inviting them to come to the Saviour. Many will refuse, but some will come. If you say nothing to those around you about the love of God, if you allow them to continue unwarned, the time will come when you will bitterly regret your wasted opportunities.

We are to let our light shine amid the moral darkness. Many, as they see the reflection of the Light of the world, will realize that they have a hope of salvation. Your light may be small, but remember that it is what God has given you, and that he holds you responsible to let it shine forth. Some one may light his taper from yours, and his light may be the means of leading others out from darkness.

All around you are doors open for service. All around you are men and women who will gladly receive the message of salvation. Take your Bible, and show them the beauty of the truth for this time. Become acquainted with your neighbors, and seek to draw them to Christ. As you do this, he will cooperate with you.

The Need for More Workers

I hear of workers whose health is breaking down under the strain of the burdens they are bearing. This ought not to be. God desires us to remember that we are mortal. We are not to embrace too much in our work. We are not to keep ourselves under such a strain that our physical and mental powers shall be exhausted.

More workers are needed, that some of the burdens may be removed from those now so heavily loaded down. The Lord desires those who have gained an experience in his service to be educators. They are to be learners in the school of Christ, that they may teach others, and that they may plan wisely for the carrying forward of God's work.

God calls for ministers, Bible workers, and canvassers. Let our young men and young women go forth as canvassers, evangelists, and Bible workers, in company with laborers of experience, who can show them how to labor successfully. Let canvassers carry our publications from house to house. When opportunity offers, let them speak of the truth for this time to those whom they meet, and let them sing and pray with them. When in our work for God right methods are energetically followed, a harvest of souls will be gathered.

There is room in the work of God for all who are filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice. God is calling for men and women who are willing to deny self for the sake of others, willing to consecrate all they have and are to his work. Men are needed who, when they encounter difficulties, will move steadily on, saying, We will not fail or become discouraged. Men are needed who will strengthen and build up the work that others are trying to do.

Different Instrumentalities

It is God's plan that in his work there shall be unity in diversity. In a garden there are no two flowers just alike. Each leaf on a tree differs from every other leaf. So in the work of God, men of different minds and capabilities are needed.

When the tabernacle was to be erected, the Lord instructed Moses: "See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, . . . and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship."

But Bezaleel was not to work alone. God chose another man to stand at his side to help him. "Behold," he said, "I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee."

One man is not to carry the burden of the whole work in the cause of God to-day. God has given each one a special place and a special work. Each one is to fill his appointed place, and is to help others in their God-given work. And each one is to be willing to receive help from those who can assist him.

Our minds need to be broadened, that we may see beyond our opinions and ideas and ways to the purposes and plans of God. We must give our fellow workers elbow room. If their ideas are not precisely like ours, we must remember that God has given them ideas, and we must seek to work in harmony with them, under the guidance of Christ.

Brethren, if you are so situated that the work presses too heavily upon you, and you are unable to do all that you think should be done, do the best you can without endangering your health, and then carry your burdens to the Lord. And when he sends some one to help you, do not be afraid to trust the one who is to associate with you, fearing that he will not work in accordance with your ideas. Do not say, "This man does not agree with me; if I unite with him in labor, he will spoil the work that I have been trying to do. He will introduce plans that will divert my mind from the plans that I have laid." Perhaps God desires your mind to be diverted from the plans that you have been following. Perhaps he desires you to have a change of place.

Give room for all to work. Do not watch to see if another's footsteps measure exactly with yours. Keep your eyes fixed on your Leader. Then you will not be continually criticizing what others do. Remember that God has other workmen, who, even though they do not follow exactly in your footsteps, are serving him in his appointed way.

Satan is seeking to hinder the work of God by filling the hearts of the workers with a desire for recognition and supremacy. Contention and strife as to who shall be the greatest have robbed the Lord's working force of grace and power. God calls for a decided change; it is his purpose that we shall be one in Christ. It is no time now for us to draw apart. Among God's people love and unity are to prevail. Each worker, while preserving his individuality, is to labor in harmony with every other worker. Each is to be united with his fellow workers in the bonds of Christian love, and all are to be united with the Lord. The aim of every one is to be the advancement of the cause of truth. Each is to seek earnestly for the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Each is to look to Jesus, believing that he will receive the blessings he must have in order to be a strength to the work.

The Need of the Church

God's people would put on joy and gladness as a garment if they would only receive what he is waiting to give them,--that which would make them strong to help those in need of help. Our people need the breath of life breathed into them, that they may arouse to spiritual action. Many have lost their vital energy; they are sluggish, dead, as it were. Let those who have been receiving the grace of Christ help these souls to arouse to action. Let us keep in the current of life that comes from Christ, that we may kindle life in some other soul. Healthy, happy, united action is what is needed in the church to-day.

God calls for self-denying, self-sacrificing workers. Those who devote their time to hunting for souls, watching for souls as they that must give an account, will obtain a rich experience. As they communicate the precious truths of God's Word to others, their own hearts will be opened for the entrance of the word. They will be instructed by the Great Teacher.

Christ has opened a fountain for the sinful, suffering world, and the voice of divine mercy is heard, Come, all ye thirsting souls, come and drink. You may take of the water of life freely. Let him that heareth say, Come; and whosoever will, let him come. Every believer in the truth is to sound this message. Then the work will be carried to the waste places of the earth. The scripture will be fulfilled, In that day the Lord shall open fountains in the valleys, and rivers in the desert, and "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." -

The Blessing of Service

God's people are to place in his treasury all the means that they can spare. For this means, needy, unworked fields are calling. From many lands is sounding the cry, "Come over and help us." Our church-members should feel a deep interest in home and foreign missions. Great blessing will come to them as they make self-sacrificing efforts to plant the standard of truth in new territory. The money invested in this work will bring rich returns. New converts, rejoicing in the light received from the Word, will in their turn give of their means to carry the light to others.

The Lord is calling upon his people to take up different lines of missionary service. Those in the highways and byways of life are to hear the gospel message. Church-members are to do evangelistic work in the homes of their neighbors who have not yet received full evidence of the truth for this time.

Let those who take up this work make the life of Christ their constant study. Let them be intensely in earnest, using every capability in the Lord's service. Precious results will follow sincere, unselfish efforts. From the Great Teacher the workers will receive the highest of all education. But those who do not impart the light they have received will one day realize that they have sustained a fearful loss.

Many of God's people are to go forth with our publications into places where the third angel's message has never been proclaimed. The work of the canvasser-evangelist whose heart is imbued with the Holy Spirit is fraught with wonderful possibilities for good. The presentation of the truth, in love and simplicity, from house to house, is in harmony with the instruction that Christ gave his disciples when he sent them out on their first missionary tour. By songs of praise, humble, heartfelt, prayers, and a simple presentation of truth in the family circle, many will be reached. The divine Worker will be present to send conviction to hearts. "I am with you alway," is his promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a helper, we may labor with faith and hope and courage.

The monotony of our service for God needs to be broken up. Every church-member should be engaged in some special service for the Master. Let those who are well established in the truth go into neighboring places, and hold meetings. Let God's Word be read, and let the ideas expressed be such that they will be readily comprehended by all.

There are others who can visit the people in their homes, and speak to them of the love of Christ. By such labor souls will be convicted and converted. Those who do this work should be able to speak and read with clearness and feeling.

There are those who, because of pressing home duties, may not be able to do house-to-house work. But let them not think that they can do nothing to help. They can encourage and pray for those who have opportunity to do this work, and they can give of their means for its advancement.

Medical Missionary Work

When Christ sent his disciples out on their first missionary journey, he said to them, "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." And when at the close of his earthly ministry he gave them their commission, he said, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

Of the disciples after Christ's ascension, we read, "They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

To Christ's disciples to-day there come countless opportunities to minister to sin-sick souls and to those in need of physical healing. Physical healing is bound up with the gospel commission. Medical missionary work is the pioneer work of the gospel.

God's people are to be genuine medical missionaries. They are to learn to minister to the needs of soul and body. They should know how to give the simple treatments that do so much to relieve pain and remove disease. They should be familiar with the principles of health reform, that they may show others how, by right habits of eating, drinking, and dressing, disease may be prevented and health regained. A demonstration of the value of the principles of health reform will do much toward removing prejudice against our evangelical work. The Great Physician the originator of medical missionary work, will bless every one who will go forward humbly and trustfully, seeking to impart the truth for this time.

Establishing Sanitariums

Sanitariums are to be established in many places, to stand as memorials for God. I know that the truth will reach the hearts of many who, but for the agency of these institutions, would never be enlightened by the brightness of the gospel message. Self-sacrificing workers, who have full faith in God, should be chosen to take charge of these institutions. They are to take up this work, not with the hope of gaining financial advantage, but because their hearts are weighted with the burden of the message for this time. They are to be willing to sacrifice personal gain and personal convenience for the sake of saving souls.

A Work Demanding Sacrifice

The work of God is to be carried forward in self-denial and self-sacrifice. "Whosoever will come after me." Christ said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Christ became poor that we might be partakers of the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." We are to practise the same self-sacrifice that led him to give himself up to the death of the cross to make it possible for human beings to have eternal life. In all that we do or say, in all our expenditure of means, we are to strive with full purpose of heart to fulfil the purpose of him who is the Alpha and Omega of medical missionary work. Beside all waters we are to sow the seeds of truth, winning souls to Christ by tender compassion and unselfish interest.

We are to seek to understand the necessities of those with whom we are brought into contact, and to obtain their confidence. People are eager to hear the truth from those whose lips are governed by the law of kindness. The divine word, spoken by such messengers, will be as music in their ears. Thus many of those whose minds are now filled with prejudice against present truth may be won to Christ.

Our work is a great and solemn one, and it needs men who understand what it means to give themselves to unselfish effort for the saving of the lost. But there is no need for the service of men who are lukewarm. Men and women are needed whose hearts are touched with human woe and suffering, men and women who have heard a message from heaven, and whose lives give evidence that they are receiving and imparting light and life and grace.

Our Efficiency

Our faith is to be broader, deeper, more trustful, than it has been. We are to bring all our necessities to Christ, knowing that he will supply our need. The deeper our appreciation of his love, the keener will be our sense of need, and the stronger our faith. And we shall receive according to our faith.

Our belief in Christ is not to be a casual belief, but a belief that enters into every part of the life. Such a belief leads us to ask for his help because we realize that he is our only dependence. A casual belief admits that he is the Redeemer, but does not honor him by receiving him as a friend, a helper. Those who have such a belief work at a great disadvantage; for they do not take Christ into their confidence.

Shall we not avail ourselves of our high privilege in Christ,--sanctification through the truth? O, how greatly our souls need to be revived, quickened, spiritualized, filled with a love for the Saviour that leads us to choose his society, saying with real satisfaction, "In the Lord will I rejoice. His Word is my comfort and my guide." A constant reliance on Christ for success gives an abiding satisfaction. It is a source of peace that the world can neither give nor take away.

Laborers Together With God

By pen and voice, by the circulation of literature, by the preaching of the word, by medical missionary work, by every other agency that can be employed in consecrated service, the work of warning the world is to be carried forward. Every church-member is to do something. God's people are to be laborers together with him. As they take up his work, there will be a manifest increase of faith and piety. There will be greater readiness to offer prayer and praise in the testimony meetings held.

Our ministers may visit our churches, and may offer public prayer to God for the comfort of the sorrowing, asking him to dispel doubt from their minds, and shed light into their darkened hearts. But this will not be so effective in helping these sorrowful, doubting, sin-burdened ones, as to lead them to work for those more needy than themselves. The darkness will be dispelled if they can be led to help others. -

Into Clearer Light

Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was not even accounted a disciple of Christ; but he had faith in God, according to the light that he had, and he was reaching out for more light. The Lord saw this man would do honor to the church, and he brought him into connection with the apostle Peter. He sent a special message from heaven to him, and by another message directed Peter to visit him, and give him light. That is God's way of working. Daily prayers for light and guidance will surely be answered.

In our world there are many such men as Cornelius, and for them the Lord desires his servants to make special efforts. The Lord showed Peter, the Jew, that there were Gentiles who were serving God as acceptably as he was. There are to-day many in the world who are nearer the kingdom of God than we suppose. They are walking in all the light they have, and in the future they will be led into clearer and still clearer light.

In this dark world of sin the Lord has many precious jewels, to whom he will guide his messengers. God will use his believing ones as his instrumentalities, through them ministering to souls fainting for the bread of life. Words of hope and cheer falling from lips that have been touched by a live coal from God's altar, will revive and comfort those who are weary and distressed.

There are many who are represented to me as being like Cornelius, men whom God desires to connect with his church. Their sympathies are with the Lord's people. But the threads that bind them to the world hold them firmly. They have not the moral courage to take their position with the lowly ones. We are to make special efforts for these souls, who are in need of earnest labor because of their responsibilities and temptations.

We talk and write much of the neglected poor; should not some attention be given to the neglected rich? Many look upon this class as hopeless, and they do little to open the eyes of those who, blinded and dazed by the power of Satan, have lost eternity out of their reckoning. Thousands of wealthy men have gone to their graves unwarned, because they have been judged by appearance, and passed by as hopeless subjects. But, indifferent as they may appear, most of this class are soul-burdened. There are thousands of rich men who are starving for spiritual food. Many in official life feel their need of something which they have not. Few among them go to church; for they feel that they receive no benefit. The teaching they hear does not touch the soul. Shall we make no personal appeal in their behalf?

God calls for earnest, humble workers, who will carry the truth to the higher classes. It is by no casual, accidental touch that wealthy, world-loving, world-worshiping souls can be drawn to Christ. Decided personal effort must be put forth by men and women imbued with the missionary spirit, those who will not fail nor become discouraged.

There are some who are especially fitted to work for the higher classes. These should seek the Lord daily, making it a study how to reach these persons, not to make merely a casual acquaintance with them, but to lay hold of them by personal effort and living faith, manifesting a deep love for their souls, a real concern that they shall have a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In order to reach these people, believers themselves must be living epistles, "known and read of all men." We do not represent as fully as we might the elevating, ennobling character of the truth. We are in danger of becoming narrow and selfish. With fear and trembling lest we fail, we should ever remember this.

Let those who work for the higher classes bear themselves with true dignity, remembering that angels are their companions. Let them keep the treasure-house of mind and heart filled with "It is written." Hang in memory's hall the precious words of Christ. They are to be valued far above silver or gold.

There are miracles to be wrought in genuine conversion,--miracles that are not now discerned. The greatest men of the earth are not beyond the power of a wonder-working God. If those who are workers together with him will be men of opportunity, doing their duty bravely and faithfully, God will convert men who occupy responsible positions, men of intellect and influence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit many will accept the divine principles. Converted to the truth, they will become agencies in the hand of God to communicate the light. They will have a special burden for other souls of this neglected class. They will feel that a dispensation of the gospel is committed to them for those who have made this world their all. Time and money will be consecrated to God, means will be brought into his treasury, talent and influence will be converted to the truth, and new efficiency and power will be added to the church.

Everywhere there are those who will take their stand for present truth. Beside all waters we are to sow the seeds of truth. Let us never allow ourselves to be controlled by feelings of hopelessness. God's work will be done. The Lord knows those that are his. In his providence he will direct them as he directed Cornelius.

Have we not a work to do for the Lord? and should we not labor more intelligently, more earnestly, than we have labored in the past for those who need help? Let us remember that we are God's helping hand. With the Bible as our guide and counselor, let us go forth to work for the Lord, serving him in the way he has appointed, proclaiming the message of present truth in a way that will make it impressive and acceptable. We are weak, but if we will but believe. God will give us his enduring strength. -

The Promise of the Spirit

Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.

In the gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow. The Saviour looked on humanity, and saw that it was under the power of the prince of darkness; but he saw also that there was hope for human beings because there was power in the divine nature successfully to contend with evil agencies. With glad assurance he said, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church.

Christ said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify me." As Christ glorified the Father by the demonstration of his love, so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing to the world the riches of his grace. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of his people.

At the cost of infinite sacrifice and suffering, Christ has provided for us every essential to success in the Christian warfare. The Holy Spirit brings power that enables man to overcome. It is through the agency of the Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued. It is the Spirit that convinces of sin, and, with the consent of the human being, expels sin from the heart. The mind is then brought under a new law,--the royal law of liberty.

The Spirit works in us by bringing to mind, vividly and often, the precious truths of the plan of redemption. We should forget these truths, and for us God's rich promises would lose their efficiency, were it not for the Spirit, who takes of the things of God, and shows them to us. Our hearts are warmed by the contemplation of Jesus and his love, and we long to speak to others the comforting assurances that have been brought to our minds.

It is the privilege of every son and daughter of God to have the indwelling of the Spirit. If those who know the truth would love and fear the Lord alway, if they would abide in Christ, they would have moral and spiritual power. The grace of Christ would be in them as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life, and would flow from them as streams of living water.

The Spirit illumines our darkness, informs our ignorance, and helps us in our manifold necessities. But the mind must be constantly going out after God. If worldliness is allowed to come in, if we have no desire to pray, no desire to commune with him who is the source of strength and wisdom, the Spirit will not abide with us. Those who are unbelieving do not receive the rich endowment of grace that would make them wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick to perceive and appreciate heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan's devices, and strong to resist sin. God can not do his mighty work for them because of their unbelief.

Christ has promised the gift of the Spirit to his church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe, and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We can not use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in his people "to will and to do of his good pleasure." But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for his guidance and grace, is the Spirit given.

Christ declared that the divine influence was to be with his followers to the end. But the promise is not accepted and believed by God's people; therefore its fulfilment is not seen. The promise of the Spirit is a matter little thought of; and the result is only what might be expected,--spiritual drought, spiritual weakness, spiritual declension and death. Minor matters occupy the attention, and the divine power that is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in its infinite plentitude.

Just so long as the church is satisfied with small things will it fail of receiving the great things of God. Why do we not hunger and thirst after the gift of the Spirit, since this is the means by which we are to receive power? Talk of it, pray for it, preach concerning it. The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to us than parents are to give good gifts to their children.

If our workers realized the responsibility resting upon them, would they enter the work without cherishing a deep sense of its sacredness? Should we not see the deep movings of the Spirit of God upon the men who present themselves for the ministry? For the baptism of the Holy Spirit, every worker should be offering his prayer to God. Companies should be gathered together to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to devise and execute. Especially should men pray that God will baptize his missionaries with the Holy Spirit.

There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting aside self, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He longs to reveal his grace. If his people will remove the obstructions, he will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through human channels. If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress the zeal, there would be one hundred workers for Christ where now there is one.

God takes men as they are, and educates them for his service, if they will yield themselves to him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend and fulfil the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and his disciples that the Christian becomes like him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ he will have clearer and broader views. His discernment will be more penetrative, his judgment better balanced.

The presence of the Holy Spirit with God's workers will give the presentation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give. The Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving, wrestling souls in every emergency, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, the hatred of the world, and the realization of their own imperfections and mistakes.

A union of divine and human endeavor, a close connection first, last, and ever, with God, the source of all strength,--this is absolutely necessary in our work. -

Words of Encouragement

We need to understand the meaning of the instruction given in the first chapter of second Peter. "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ," writes his second epistle, "to them that have obtained like precious faith" with himself. In order that we may realize the importance of God's claims upon us, we need constantly to cherish the faith that the early Christians cherished. This faith is obtained not through any righteousness of our own, but "through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

To those who have obtained the faith that filled the hearts of Christians in Peter's time, are written the words: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." In the light of this instruction, how important it is that we give strict attention to the formation of character! He who by faith daily lays hold firmly upon the invisible One, will reveal the character of Jesus. With lowliness of heart he will accept Christ's invitation to the weary and the heavy laden. Instead of unloading his burdens upon his neighbor, with whose heart-sorrows and burdens he is unacquainted, he will seek rest by taking upon himself the yoke of Christ. Let us abide in Jesus. Then he alone--formed within, the hope of glory--will appear in our every word and deed.

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

Before us there has been placed an open door, which no man can shut. In the third of Revelation we read: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Why are we so slow to enter this door? The promises given us are yea and amen. Christ declares: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Are we not inexcusable for unloading all our troubles upon our neighbors? Are we not thus insulting God? Is not this why there is among us so much spiritual feebleness? Why do we not take everything to the Lord in prayer? He stands at the head of humanity, enabling men through his sacrifice to become partakers of the divine nature,--to lay hold upon an infinite power that will transform them into the likeness of the Divine.

In co-partnership with Christ, we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, by doing the works he bids us do. We are to be meek and lowly. Trials sometimes come to lead us to humble ourselves before him, and to depend wholly upon him for grace and guidance. We can not afford to live without Christ's presence; for perfection of character comes only through the gift of his righteousness. When we are in trouble, let us go to him instead of to some defective human being. We have a friend in Jesus, and we are without excuse for placing upon our brethren and sisters the burdens that our Saviour alone is able to bear for us.

Peter writes of "the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." To know Jesus, is to know that he is my personal Saviour,--to know that he pities me, that upon his sympathizing heart he bears the wounds of my transgressions.

My brethren and sisters, this is the great Medical Missionary, the greatest Medical Missionary that ever stood on earthly soil. Sometimes when I speak of him, it seems as if the fountain of my heart would break at the thought of how wicked the world is to-day, notwithstanding the fact that they have among them a Medical Missionary ready to help them at any time.

Let us guard against speaking words that discourage. Let us resolve never to engage in evil-speaking and backbiting. Let us refuse to serve Satan by implanting seeds of doubt. Let us guard against cherishing unbelief, or expressing it to others. Many, many times I have wished that there might be circulated a pledge containing a solemn promise to speak only those words that are pleasing to God. There is as great need for such a pledge as there is for one against the use of intoxicating liquor. Let us begin to discipline the tongue, remembering always that we can do this only by disciplining the mind; for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

Through the help that Christ can give, we shall be able to learn to bridle the tongue. Sorely as he was tried on the point of hasty and angry speech, he never once sinned with his lips. With patient calmness he met the sneers, the taunts, and the ridicule of his fellow workers at the carpenter's bench. Instead of retorting angrily, he would begin to sing one of David's beautiful psalms; and his companions, before realizing what they were doing, would unite with him in the hymn. What a transformation would be wrought in this world if men and women to-day would follow Christ's example in the use of words!

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Little do we realize the prevalence of evil among those who claim to be Christians. We, as believers, are exhorted to cultivate the Christian graces. Immediately after holding before us the hope of escaping from the corruption that is in the world through lust, the apostle further declares: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity [love]."

Daily we have a sum to prove; daily we are to add these graces to the character we are perfecting. Faithfulness in the carrying out of this scripture in the life-practise, will result in the conversion of hundreds and of thousands, as upon the day of Pentecost.

"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."

When we submit to the solemn rite of baptism, we testify to angels and to men that we are purged from our old sins, and that henceforth, having died to the world, we will "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Let us not forget our baptismal vow. In the presence of the three highest powers of heaven,--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,--we have pledged ourselves to do the will of him who, over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, declared, "I am the resurrection and the life." Christ forgives every penitent sinner, and as the forgiven one, at the time of baptism, rises from the watery grave, he is declared a new creature, whose life is hid with Christ in God. Let us ever remember that it is our high privilege to be purged from our old sins.

Faithfulness to our baptismal vow gives the heart-preparation needful for saving souls. O how many we might save! As I look over the congregation before me, I realize that there is a work for every church-member to do. All may not have lived up to their baptismal vow; but let every erring one do all in his power to redeem the past, turning from the path that has led astray, to the path of humble obedience. You, my brother, my sister, are to win heaven, and a life that measures with the life of God. You know not how soon your own life may be taken away. Have you secured the better life? Make sure of salvation, I beg of you, while you still have the opportunity.

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall."

This is the only election regarding which the Bible speaks. Fallen in sin, we may become partakers of the divine nature, and attain to a knowledge far in advance of any scientific learning. By partaking of the flesh and the blood of our crucified Lord, we shall gain life eternal. In the sixth of John we read: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." None need lose eternal life. Every one who chooses daily to learn of the Heavenly Teacher, will make his calling and election sure. Let us humble our hearts before God, and follow on to know him whom to know aright is life eternal.

"Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Here are your life-insurance papers. This is not an insurance policy the value of which some one else will receive after your death; it is a policy that assures you a life measuring with the life of God,--even eternal life. O what an assurance! what a hope! Let us ever reveal to the world that we are seeking for a better country, even a heavenly. Heaven has been made for us, and we want a part in it. We can not afford to allow anything to separate us from God and heaven. In this life we must be partakers of the divine nature. Brethren and sisters, you have only one life to live. O let it be a life of virtue, a life hid with Christ in God!

Unitedly we are to help one another gain perfection of character. To this end, we are to cease all criticism. Onward and still onward we may advance toward perfection, until at last there will be ministered unto us an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom.

"Wherefore," says Peter, "I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance."

Supposing we were to cherish a remembrance of the bright chapters in our Christian experience, and dwell upon these in our testimony meetings; would not this be pleasing to God? If unbelievers are present in these meetings, they will recognize the right ring in such testimonies. Why?--Because angels of God are with those who have gained a personal knowledge of Christ Jesus, and these angels will impress hearts.

The Work in Washington

In the city of Washington there is much to be done. I am thankful to God for the privilege of seeing the land that has been purchased for our institutional work in this place. The securing of this land was in the Lord's providence, and I praise God that our brethren had the faith to take this forward step.

As I look over this city, I realize the magnitude of the work to be accomplished. Let every professed Christian feel the necessity of self-denial. Let every one guard against the tendency to expend, for the gratification of mere vanity, money that belongs to God,--especially in this time when our people are making every effort possible to build in the capital of the nation memorials that will stand in vindication of present truth. Let us study the use of every penny. Some may have formed habits of extravagance; let all such now choose another way--the way of obedience and self-denial.

God now calls upon every believer in this center to act his individual part in helping to build up the work that must be done. If you do your duty faithfully, you will find no time for dwelling upon the little trials and annoyances and perplexities that come to you. As the result of laboring earnestly to provide facilities for the salvation of unbelievers, and for the training of many of our own people for soul-saving service, you will find that your souls are refreshed with heaven's richest blessings.

In some respects the situation in Washington reminds me of our pioneer experiences in Cooranbong, Australia. There we secured fifteen hundred acres in the heart of the woods, and began the work of establishing a school. With willing hands the workmen toiled early and late. One by one, at great personal sacrifice to many of our dear brethren and sisters in Australia, the school buildings were erected.

Before this work was finished, the problem of providing a meeting-house at Cooranbong arose. This problem proved to be a perplexing one. It seemed that we had done about all we could, and that it would be impossible to raise means sufficient for erecting a suitable house of worship. Finally, during a council meeting in which the matter was receiving consideration, I offered to go through our settlement, and try to secure gifts of labor and material. Accompanied by my secretary, I visited the workmen living for miles around, and solicited help. Just at this time it happened that several of the carpenters who had been laboring on the school buildings, were temporarily out of employment; and these men generously responded, offering to work on the proposed meeting-house at a very low wage,--less than one half the usual rate. Several worked for nothing a portion of the time.

The erection of the meeting-house was pushed forward rapidly. In the providence of God, two hundred pounds came to me from the Wessels family in Africa, just as we were ready to secure lumber; this money brought great relief, as it enabled us to proceed without delay. Many smaller gifts came in. Within a remarkably short time, the building was completed.

May not we hope to have here in Washington some experiences similar to those we had in Australia, and to receive the same blessings that we received there? May God help us to do what we can in this place. May he give us hearts willing to make sacrifices. O, I am thankful, so thankful, that the work which for nearly twenty years I have hoped would be done at the nation's capital, has now been begun! As we plan and labor, let us do a great deal more praying than talking. If we lean heavily upon the Mighty One, and live on the plan of addition, the heavenly graces will be multiplied unto us, and we shall see of the salvation of God.

Sometimes I hardly know how to express my gratitude to God because the work in this place has actually begun. We are to remember that we can now see simply the alpha; we desire to see the omega. Having begun, let us not cease our efforts before completing the work. Christ declares, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." He has been with us at the beginning: and he will round out all the work we shall do, if by faith we continue to walk in the way in which he leads.

Let us talk faith, and not unbelief; let us praise God, and go forward. The Lord is good, and greatly to be praised. At every step let us praise him from whom all blessings flow. -

Our Work in Washington

Takoma Park, D. C., May 13, 1904. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the blessings that he has bestowed upon me since we left St. Helena.

I have several times gone over the land which has been purchased for school and sanitarium purposes, and all that I have seen is most satisfactory. The land resembles representations that have been shown me by the Lord. It is well adapted for the purpose for which it is to be used. There is on it ample room for a school and a sanitarium, without crowding either institution. The fine stream running through the land is a treasure more valuable than gold or silver.

Our Sanitarium is to have an abundance of water free for five years. The school will pay seven cents for each one thousand gallons used.

To-day our contract with the Takoma Park Town Council for the removal of the sewer-farm was signed, and we can now go forward in carrying out the plans that have been laid. The sewer-farm is to be moved one mile down the creek. We are to have most excellent sewer facilities.

No pains or money should be spared to secure perfect sewer arrangements in connection with our schools and sanitariums. Message after message in regard to this matter has been given to those bearing responsibilities in our institutions. I have been plainly instructed that carelessness or neglect in regard to sanitary conditions, in home or in public buildings, means a withdrawal of the blessing of God. Special directions in reference to sanitary arrangements were given to the children of Israel. Every one was charged to keep his premises clean, within and without, lest the Lord, passing by, should see uncleanness, and should remove his presence from those who were careless and indifferent in this respect.

A week ago we took a drive through various portions of Takoma Park, and Sister Daniells showed me the quiet and beautiful settlements near our land, half hidden by the natural forest. These settlements reminded me of Oakland, as it was thirty years ago. We feel thankful that our work can be located in such a place. It seems as if this place has been waiting to be occupied by our working forces.

The situation here fills me with hope and courage. We know that the Lord desires us to go forward as speedily as possible with the work before us. This work is to be a representation of the work that can be done in other parts of the South. It is to give a clear representation of the principles held by Seventh-day Adventists.

There will be much to do in various branches of the work, and young men and women of solid worth will be needed, who can enter the school as students when the buildings are ready. Wise, experienced teachers will be needed,--men and women who can give the youth lessons in business lines, and who can teach them, also, how to do true missionary work. Nothing is to be neglected that will give a thorough training in right principles.

The Bible is to be made the foundation of all study, the basis of the education given. Thus the students will be taught to build upon the Rock. Many in our world do not understand the truth for this time. Our young men and women should be wise unto salvation. They should know what is required of them.

The true motive of service is to be kept before old and young. The students are to be taught in such a way that they will develop into useful men and women. Every means that will elevate and ennoble them is to be employed. They are to be taught to put their powers to the best use. Physical and mental powers are to be equally taxed. No part of the living machinery is to be overworked, or left to become useless.

Our school here is to follow the plan of the schools of the prophets. It is to be the earnest endeavor of every one to use the powers that God has given him in harmony with God's laws. Habits of order and discipline are to be cultivated. All that is done is to brace nerve and muscle and will to more resolute effort for the harmonious development of the whole being. The power that is exerted by a true, pure life is to be kept before the students. This will aid them in their preparation for useful service. Daily they will grow purer and stronger, better prepared, through his grace and a study of his Word, to put forth aggressive efforts against evil. Ellen G. White. -

Shall We Colonize Around Our Institutions?

Special light has been given me in regard to moving our publishing houses and sanitariums and schools out of the cities into places more favorable for their work, where those connected with them will not be exposed to all the temptations of city life. Especially should our schools be away from the cities. It is not for the spiritual good of the workers in our institutions for them to be located in the cities, where the temptations of the enemy abound on every hand.

The instruction given regarding the removal of the publishing work from Battle Creek to some rural place near Washington, D. C., was clear and distinct, and I earnestly hope that this work may be hastened.

Instruction has also been given that the Pacific Press should be moved from Oakland. As the years have passed by, the city has grown, and it is now necessary to establish the printing plant in some more rural place, where land can be secured for the homes of the employees. Those who are connected with our offices of publication should not be obliged to live in the crowded cities. They should have opportunity to obtain homes where they will be able to live without requiring high wages.

The apprentices in our publishing houses should receive more fatherly care than they had. They are to be given a thorough training in the different lines of the printing business; and they are also to be given every opportunity to gain a knowledge of the Bible; for the time is at hand when believers will be scattered into many lands. The workers in our publishing houses are to be taught what it means to be sincere followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the past, many souls have been left unguarded. They have not been taught what is comprehended in the science of godliness. Not all of those who have borne responsibilities have lived the Christian life.

Consecrated Workers Needed

I listened to words spoken by One who understands the past, the present, and the future. A most solemn representation was given, delineating the characters that should be possessed by those who are accepted as yokefellows in our institutions. These institutions need men who are temperate in the full acceptance of the term. God forbid that men who have not learned to control themselves, and who neglect their own character-building in order to make plans for someone else, should be brought into our institutions at Washington, D. C., and Mountain View, Cal.

The workers in our institutions are to heed the instruction given by Christ. When the truth abides in the hearts of those in charge, when they walk in the light shining from God's Word, the younger workers will wish to understand better the words they hear in the assembly of God's people. They will ask for fuller explanations, and there will be special seasons of seeking the Lord and studying his Word. It was in some quiet room or some retired spot in the country that Christ explained to the disciples the parables which he had spoken before the multitude. This is the work that will need to be done for the youth in our publishing houses.

The Tendency to Colonize

Those who are necessarily situated near our institutions should be careful how they send out glowing reports of the place. Everywhere there are people who are restless and dissatisfied, and who long to go to some place where they think they will do better than in their present surroundings. They think that if they could be given work in connection with some one of our institutions, they would have a better chance to earn a living.

Those who are tempted to gather about our institutions should understand that it is skilled workers that are needed, and that heavy burdens fall upon all who are properly related to the work. Those who are connected with our institutions must be producers as well as consumers. To those who desire to change their location, and settle near one of our institutions, I would say: Do you think that in settling near an institution you will be able to get a living without perplexity or hard work? Have you counseled with the Lord in regard to this matter? Have you evidence that your desire for a change of location is free from selfish motives, and would be for he honor of God?

From letters received by those connected with our institutions, and by movements already made, we see that many desire to obtain homes near these institutions. My mind is weighed down with perplexity regarding this, because I have received instruction from the Lord in regard to the influence that would be exerted upon individuals and upon our work for our people selfishly to gather around our institutions.

For years, in warnings often repeated, I have testified to our people that God was not pleased to see families leaving the smaller churches, and gathering into the places where our publishing houses, sanitariums, and schools are established, for their own convenience, ease, or worldly profit.

In Australia, we went into the forest and secured a large tract of land for our school. Plans were laid to sell to our brethren building lots near the school homes and near the meeting-house. But I was instructed to protest against permitting families to settle near our school homes. The counsel given was that it would be much better for families not to live near the school, and not to live too close to one another.

Those who feel like settling close to our publishing house or our sanitarium and school at Takoma Park, should take counsel before they move.

To those who are looking toward Mountain View as a favorable place in which to live, because the Pacific Press is to be established there, I would say: Look to other parts of the world, which need the light that you have received in trust. Remember that God has given to every man his work. Choose some locality where you will have opportunity to let your light shine forth amid the moral darkness.

It is always the case that when an institution is established in a place, there are many families who desire to settle near it. Thus it has been in Battle Creek and in Oakland, and, to some extent, in almost every place where we have a school or a sanitarium.

There are restless ones who, were they to go to a new place to live, would still be dissatisfied, because the spirit of disaffection is in their hearts, and a change of place does not bring a change of heart. Their characters have not been refined and ennobled by the Spirit of Christ. They need to learn the lesson of contentment. They do not study from cause to effect. They do not seek to understand the Bible tests of character, which are essential to true success.

There are many who are desirous of changing their employment. They wish to obtain advantages which they suppose exist in some other place. Let them ask themselves of what benefit it would be to them to move if they have not learned to be kind and patient and helpful where they are. Let them look at themselves in the light of the Word of God, and then work to the point where improvement is needed.

Let those who are thinking of settling at Mountain View remember that this is not wisdom unless they are called there to connect with the publishing work. The world is large; its needs are great. Go, make new centers in places where there is need of light. Do not crowd into one place, making the same mistake that has been made in Battle Creek. There are hundreds of places that need the light God has given you.

And wherever you live, whatever your circumstances may be, be sure to bring the teachings of the Word of God into your homes, into your daily life. Seek God as your light, your strength, your way to heaven. Remember that to every man God has entrusted talents, to be used for him. Learn at the feet of Jesus the lessons of meekness and lowliness, and then work in the spirit of the Saviour for those around you. By willing obedience to the commandments, make your home a place where God's honor will love to dwell. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

We each have an individual work to do. We are to consecrate ourselves, body and soul and spirit, to God. Each child of his has something to do for his name's honor and glory. Wherever you are, you may be a blessing.

If there seems to be but a slender chance of obtaining a livelihood where you are, make the most of every opportunity. Devise wise plans. Put to use every jot of ability that God has given you. Do your duty to yourself, improving in understanding and adaptability, daily becoming better able to turn to the best account the mental and physical powers that God has given you. He wants you to be a success. He wants you to be a blessing in your home and in the neighborhood in which you live.

Parents, help your children to help you and to help one another. Be kind and courteous to your neighbors. By good works let your light shine forth amid the moral darkness. If you are true Christians, you will become more and more able to understand what the will of the Lord is, and you will move forward step by step in the light of his Word.

Study the life of Christ, and strive to follow the pattern he has given you. Ask yourselves if you have done your whole duty to the church in your own house, and your duty to your neighbors. Have you been faithful in teaching your children lessons of Christian politeness? Are there not many opportunities for improvement in the government of your home? Do not neglect your children. Learn how to discipline yourselves, that you may be worthy of the respect of your children and your neighbors. If Christ is not abiding in your hearts, how can you teach others the lessons of patience and kindness that must be manifest in the life of every Christian? Be sure that you are keeping the way of the Lord, and then teach the truth to those around you. -

The Great Medical Missionary

In the days of Christ there were no sanitariums in the holy land. But wherever the Great Physician went, he carried with him the healing efficacy that was a cure for every disease, spiritual and physical. This he imparted to those who were under the afflicting power of the enemy. In every city, every town, every village through which he passed, with the solicitude of a loving father he laid his hands upon the afflicted ones, making them whole, and speaking words of tenderest sympathy and compassion. How precious to them were his words! From him flowed a stream of healing power, which made the sick whole. He healed men and women with unhesitating willingness and with hearty joyfulness; for he was glad to be able to restore suffering ones to health.

The Mighty Healer worked so incessantly, so intensely,--and often without food,--that some of his friends feared he could not much longer endure the constant strain. His brothers heard of this, and also of the charge brought by the Pharisees that he cast out devils through the power of Satan. They felt keenly the reproach that came upon them through their relation to Jesus. They decided that he must be persuaded or constrained to cease his manner of labor, and they induced Mary to unite with them, thinking that through his love for her they might prevail upon him to be more prudent.

Jesus was teaching the people when his disciples brought the message that his mother and his brothers were without, and desired to see him. He knew what was in their hearts, and "he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

The enmity kindled in the human heart against the gospel was keenly felt by the Son of God, and it was most painful to him in his home; for his own heart was full of kindness and love, and he appreciated tender regard in the family relation. But with their short measuring-line his brothers could not fathom the mission that he came to fulfil, and therefore could not sympathize with him in his trials.

Some of those whom Christ healed he charged to tell no man. He knew that the more the Pharisees and Sadducees and rulers heard of his miracles, the more they would try to hedge up his way. But notwithstanding his precautions, "so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities." Again and again he was followed by the priests, who expressed their violent sentiments against him in order to stir up the enmity of the people. But when he could no longer safely remain in one place, he went to another.

In doing medical missionary work we shall meet the same opposition that Christ met. He declares: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come."

The life of Christ and his ministry to the afflicted are inseparably connected. From the light that has been given me, I know that an intimate relationship should ever exist between the medical missionary work and the gospel ministry. They are bound together in sacred union as one work, and are never to be divorced. The principles of heaven are to be adopted and practised by those who claim to walk in the Saviour's footsteps. By his example he has shown us that medical missionary work is not to take the place of the preaching of the gospel, but is to be bound up with it. Christ gave a perfect representation of true godliness by combining the work of a physician and a minister, ministering to the needs of both body and soul, healing physical disease, and then speaking words that brought peace to the troubled heart.

Christ has empowered his church to do the same work that he did during his ministry. To-day he is the same compassionate physician that he was while on this earth. We should let the afflicted understand that in him there is healing balm for every disease, restoring power for every infirmity. His disciples in this time are to pray for the sick as verily as his disciples of old prayed. And recoveries will follow; for "the prayer of faith shall save the sick." We need the Holy Spirit's power, the calm assurance of faith that can claim God's promises.

We should ever remember that the efficiency of the medical missionary work is in pointing sin-sick men and women to the Man of Calvary, who taketh away the sin of the world. By beholding him they will be changed into his likeness. Our object in establishing sanitariums is to encourage the sick and suffering to look to Jesus and live. Let the workers in our medical institutions keep Christ, the Great Physician, constantly before those to whom disease of body and soul has brought discouragement Point them to the One who can heal both physical and spiritual diseases. Tell them of the One who is touched with the feeling of their infirmities. Encourage them to place themselves in the care of him who gave his life to make it possible for them to have life eternal. Keep their minds fixed upon the One altogether lovely, the Chiefest among ten thousand. Talk of his love; tell of his power to save.

The Lord desires every worker to do his best. Those who have not had special training in one of our medical institutions may think that they can do very little; but, my dear fellow workers, remember that in the parable of the talents, Christ did not represent all the servants as receiving the same number. To one servant was given five talents; to another, two; and to still another, one. If you have but one talent, use it wisely, increasing it by putting it out to the exchangers. Some can not do as much as others, but every one is to do all he can to roll back the wave of disease and distress that is sweeping over our world. Come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty powers of darkness. God desires every one of his children to have intelligence and knowledge, so that with unmistakable clearness and power his glory shall be revealed in our world. -

Medical Missionary Workers to Reveal Christ's Character

True medical missionary work is of divine origin, and has a most glorious mission to fulfil. In all its bearings it is to be in conformity with Christ's work.

At this stage of the medical missionary work nothing will help us more than to understand the mission of the greatest Medical Missionary that ever trod the earth; nothing will help us more than to realize how sacred is this line of service, and how perfectly it corresponds to the life-work of the Great Missionary. The object of our mission is the same as the object of Christ's mission. Why did God send his Son to the fallen world?--To make known to mankind his love for them. Christ came as a Redeemer. Throughout his ministry he kept prominent his mission to save sinners.

When Christ was about to ascend to heaven, he committed to his disciples the mission that his Father had committed to him; and he taught them how to fulfil this mission. He declared that as he had represented his Father to the world, so they were to represent him. Although he would be invisible to the natural eye, yet all who believed on him would be able to behold him by faith. He told his followers to work as he had worked. They were to be a spectacle to worlds unfallen, to angels, and to men, revealing the Father through a revelation of the Son.

The Saviour lived on this earth a life that love for God will constrain every true believer in Christ to live. Following his example, in our medical missionary work we shall reveal to the world that we are his representatives, and that our credentials are from above.

Christ knew that his Father had chosen him to carry out the great plan of redemption by coming to the fallen world to die for sinners. And when he came to fulfil his mission, he was, in every sense of the term, a medical missionary. We can do medical missionary work in a Christlike manner only when we are one with him. United with him, we receive spiritual life and power, and learn to be "laborers together with God," manifesting love for every one for whom he died, and working earnestly to bring into the heavenly garner a harvest of souls. Filled with his Spirit, men and women are animated with the same desire to save sinners that animated Christ in his lifework as a missionary sent of God.

I am instructed to say that God desires to have the medical missionary work cleansed from the tarnish of earthliness, and elevated to its true position before the world. Our medical missionary workers must rise to heights that can be reached only by a living, working faith. At this time in our history, we are to allow no confusion of sentiment to prevail in regard to what should be expected of medical missionaries sent of God. There should be a more clear, definite understanding of what medical missionary work comprehends. Those who desire to honor God will not mingle worldly policy plans with his plans in attempting to accomplish that which this work is ordained by him to accomplish.

Clothed with humanity, Christ performed a work that revealed the invisible Father, in order that his disciples might understand the meaning of the prayer, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." But how many who claim to be his followers concede to a worldly policy! This is because their hearts are not filled with love for the truth. God's purpose in committing to men and women the mission that he committed to Christ, is to separate his followers from worldly policy.

The people of God, those who claim to love him and to keep his commandments, are to reflect a much clearer, purer light than they now reflect. Even Christ desired men to know that he was not acting independently, but in behalf of another, who had sent him. He never for a moment lost sight of the greatness of his mission. He was always conscious of the fact that he was the Sent of God. And to his Father he declares concerning his disciples, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world."

Our work is clearly defined. As the Father sent his only begotten Son into our world, even so Christ sends us, his disciples, as his medical missionary workers. In fulfilling this high and holy mission, we are to do the will of God. No one man's ideas or judgment are to be our criterion as to what constitutes genuine medical missionary work. We can have power and efficiency only by working as Christ worked. And we can be Christlike in word and deed only when his will is perfected in us. Then shall his righteousness go before us, and the glory of the Lord shall be our rearward.

The life of Christ must become our life, our light, our exceeding great reward. Our words and works must bear a living testimony that in our lives we are not lying against the truth we claim to believe. If Christ is indeed formed within, the hope of glory, we shall manifest that tenderness, that love, that fervency of spirit, which reveals his character. Our hearts will be humble, our spirits contrite. Our works will bear witness to his indwelling presence. His disposition, his kindness, his compassion, manifested in us, will inspire hope in the hearts of the most hopeless. Thus in act, as well as in word, we shall reveal to the world the character of the Unseen. -

Our Work

I have been instructed to direct the minds of our people to the fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah. This chapter contains important lessons for those who are fighting on the Lord's side in the conflict between good and evil.

"Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

"Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

"Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer."

"And taketh hold of my covenant." This is the covenant spoken of in the following scripture: --

"Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed,"--in truth, earnestness, and sincerity,--"and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me . . . for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

"And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do."

This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfilment of the terms of their agreement with him. God includes in his covenant all who will obey him. To all who will do justice and judgment, keeping their hand from doing any evil, the promise is, "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."

"The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, besides those that are gathered unto him."

"Seek ye out of the book of the law, and read." "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."

These words outline our work. This scripture is to be received by our people as a message for to-day. The glad tidings of salvation are to be carried to those who have not heard them.

Among the people of God there is to be no colonizing. The word of the Lord to them is, "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left." They are to make plants in all places. Everywhere the truth for this time is to be proclaimed. Those into whose hearts the light has shone are to remember that they are God's workmen, his witnesses. To serve and honor him is to be their science. They are to call upon others to keep his commandments and live. To all people and nations and kindreds and tongues the truth is to be proclaimed. The time has come for much aggressive work to be done in the cities, and in all neglected, unworked fields. This the enemy knows, and he tries to keep the minds of those to whom this work has been committed, occupied with nonessentials. Thus he seeks to lead them to neglect the precious opportunities that come to them to present the truth to those who know it not.

Shall those who know the truth, and who ought to be filled with zeal for its advancement, allow Satan to turn their thoughts from the great truth that has been given them to give to others? The enemy is determined to place God's people in a false light before the world. He is pleased when their lives reveal defects, when they cherish objectionable traits of character. These traits of character he uses in his service.

Many yield to his temptations, and the time and influence of God's servants, which should be used in making known to unbelievers the truth for this time, is used in efforts to recover professing believers from Satan's snares. Thus the way of the advancement of the truth is blocked.

God sees the struggle that is to take place in our world, the whole progress and outcome of which has been traced in the pages of his Word. He sees also the diseased, defective eyesight of his people, which prevents them from discerning their own deficiencies, and from taking an earnest interest in the things of eternity. Christ calls upon the members of his church to cherish the true, genuine hope of the gospel. He points them upward, distinctly assuring them that the riches that endure are above, not below. Their hope is in heaven, not on the earth. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," he says, "and all these things," -- all that is essential for your good -- "shall be added unto you."

With many, the things of this world obscure the glorious view of the eternal weight of glory that awaits the saints of the Most High. They can not distinguish the true, the real, the enduring substance, from the false, the counterfeit, the passing shadow. Christ urges them to remove from before their eyes that which is obscuring their view of eternal realities. He insists upon the removal of that which is causing them to mistake phantoms for realities, and realities for phantoms. God entreats his people to give the strength of body, mind, and soul to the service that he expects them to perform. He calls upon them to be able to say for themselves that the gains and advantages of this life are not worthy to be compared with the riches that are reserved for the diligent, rational seeker for eternal life.

He does not leave us in ignorance of what is before us. He shows us the vast confederacy arrayed against us. He tells us plainly that we are battling against a mighty foe. But he assures us that we shall not be left to fight alone. Angels are in the ranks of God's soldiers. And One more powerful than angels is there. The Captain of our salvation leads the way, saying, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." -

The Workers Needed

The work of God demands true, stanch, whole-hearted, spiritual-minded men,--men who are in earnest, and who have a clear understanding of what is truth,--men who are not fashioned after a worldly mold, but who realize that at this time Satan's power will be exercised through believers who have not held the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. Men are needed who acknowledge Christ as their Master; who realize, as did Elijah and Jeremiah, that they hold their commission from God, and that they are accountable to him for the use they make of the talents entrusted to them. Men are needed who can speak intelligently of the sacredness and importance of the truth,--men who can point their fellow men to the needs of the present hour,--men who have an inspiring message to bear against perverted principles, and who watch for souls as they that must give an account.

To Every Man His Work

Men of varied gifts are needed. In the building of the tabernacle, different lines of work were assigned to different ones; but all worked under the supervision of God. The Lord gives men talents that will enable them to carry forward special lines of work. Each one is to be allowed to do the work for which he is fitted. It is the Lord's purpose that there shall be unity in diversity. He endows men with different degrees of capability, and then places them where they can do the work for which they are best adapted. The trust given to each worker is proportioned to his ability.

While traveling in Switzerland, we passed by a large building in process of erection. Many men were at work. Some were bringing stone from the quarry; others were squaring, shaping, and measuring these stones; and still others were placing them in the building. In charge of the different departments were experienced workers, whose part it was to see that the work was done with care and thoroughness. Over all the men, superintending the work on the entire structure, was the master builder.

United action and perfect order prevailed among the men, and the work moved forward rapidly. Every one was doing something. I was told that in the mountains other men were felling trees for the timber needed in the building, and floating them down the stream.

To me this was an object-lesson of the way in which the Lord's work is to be carried forward. In his work there are many different branches. Workers of different talents and capabilities are needed. Every one is to do his best, under the direction of the great Head of the church.

But there has been and still is great danger of one man meddling with another man's work, not from a desire to help him, but in order to confuse him. The Lord is not in this. He has not given to the one who is neglecting his own work the outlines of his brother's work. How can one improve the methods of his fellow worker by making suggestions and criticisms that only harass and discourage? If he will attend to his own work, the Great Teacher, though unseen, will take the oversight of the work that in his wisdom he has entrusted to other hands.

What was Christ's answer when Peter asked him concerning the work of John? "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Peter inquired. And Jesus answered, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me."

To-day many are making the mistake that Peter made. They are so busily engaged in trying to arrange their brother's work according to their ideas that they neglect the work God has placed in their own hands. They lose all sense of the responsibility resting on them.

He who attempts to unravel another man's work will find in his hands a tangle that he can not straighten. Let every man stand in his own place, doing faithfully the work committed to him. It is the questioning, criticizing spirit cherished that puts so many workers in hard places. Let men humble themselves before God, feeling that it is a sin to criticize and condemn. Satan has snares prepared for the feet of the one who is eager to place himself where God has not placed him.

How rapidly God's work would go forward if when a man received a work from God, he would put his own attention on the faithful performance of this work, and if the next man, receiving his task, would also do with humility and fidelity the work entrusted to him, perfecting it in the simplicity of true faith and earnest prayer.

Let men cease to complain and criticize, and let them do their appointed work. Let them be guided by the Lord. Then the different parts of the work of God, varied in kind, and brought together by Christ, the master workman, will be found to fit perfectly.

A Threefold Duty

To those bearing responsibilities in the work of God, this charge is given: "The elders which are among you I exhort, . . . Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock."

In this charge there is a threefold duty. "Feed the flock of God,"--by giving them his word and setting them a right example. "Feed the flock of God," "taking the oversight thereof," having a personal care for the blood-bought heritage committed to your charge; "being ensamples to the flock," following Christ in self-denial and sacrifice, in the life revealing holiness to the Lord. All this must be done of a ready, cheerful mind, "neither as being lords over God's heritage," tyrannizing over them.

Let those who have been given responsibilities in the cause of God, who are set as guardians of their fellow workers, pray most earnestly for divine grace. Before they take up the work of the day, let them make a solemn covenant with God, promising him that they will keep watchful guard over their lips, not speaking harshly, but kindly, to those who come to them for direction. Let them remember that they themselves are ever to be under the control of the Spirit of God, rendering prompt and cheerful obedience to his commands. Let them remember that they are living epistles, known and read of all men, and that because they are Christ's representatives, they are to be one with him, ever looking to him, and from him receiving strength for every conflict.

O, what a power a converted man, one who is transformed daily, can exert to bring blessing and gladness to those around him! Those who bear responsibilities in God's institutions are to grow in grace and in a knowledge of divine things. They are ever to remember that the talent of speech is entrusted to them by God for the help and blessing of others. It is left with them to decide whether they will speak words that will honor Christ, or words that will be a hindrance to those who hear. O, what a blessing are pleasant, sympathetic words,--words that strengthen and uplift! When asked a question, one should not answer abruptly, but kindly. The heart of the one who is asking may be sorely grieved by a hidden sorrow, which may not be told. Therefore let the words of the one addressed be always kind and sympathetic. By a few well-chosen, helpful words he may remove a heavy burden from a fellow worker's mind. -

Genuine Conversion

In order to be saved, we must know by experience the meaning of true conversion. It is a fearful mistake for men and women to go on day by day, professing to be Christians, yet having no right to the name. In God's sight, profession is nothing, position is nothing. He asks, Is the life in harmony with my precepts?

There are many who suppose that they are converted, but who are not able to bear the test of character presented in the Word of God. Sad will it be, in the day when every man is rewarded according to his works, for those who can not bear this test.

Conversion is a change of heart, a turning from unrighteousness to righteousness. Relying upon the merits of Christ, exercising true faith in him, the repentant sinner receives pardon for sin. As he ceases to do evil, and learns to do well, he grows in grace and in the knowledge of God. He sees that in order to follow Jesus he must separate from the world, and, after counting the cost, he looks upon all as loss if he may but win Christ. He enlists in his army, and bravely and cheerfully engages in the warfare, fighting against natural inclinations and selfish desires, and bringing the will into subjection to the will of Christ. Daily he seeks the Lord for grace, and he is strengthened and helped. Self once reigned in his heart, and worldly pleasure was his delight. Now self is dethroned, and God reigns supreme. His life reveals the fruit of righteousness. The sins he once loved he now hates. Firmly and resolutely he follows in the path of holiness. This is genuine conversion.

In the lives of many of those whose names are on the church books there has been no genuine change. The truth has been kept in the outer court. There has been no genuine conversion, no positive work of grace done in the heart. Their desire to do God's will is based upon their own inclination, not upon the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit. Their conduct is not brought into harmony with the law of God. They profess to accept Christ as their Saviour, but they do not believe that he will give them power to overcome their sins. They have not a personal acquaintance with a living Saviour, and their characters reveal many blemishes.

Many a one who looks at himself in the divine mirror, and is convinced that his life is not what it ought to be, fails to make the needed change. He goes his way, and forgets his defects. He may profess to be a follower of Christ, but what does this avail if his character has undergone no change, if the Holy Spirit has not wrought upon his heart? The work done has been superficial. Self is retained in his life. He is not a partaker of the divine nature. He may talk of God and pray to God, but his life reveals that he is working against God.

Let us not forget that in his conversion and sanctification, man must cooperate with God. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," the Word declares; "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Man can not transform himself by the exercise of his will. He possesses no power by which this change may be effected. The renewing energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit. He who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.

As the leaven, when mingled with the meal, works from within outward, so it is by the renewing of the heart that the grace of God works to transform the life. No mere external change is sufficient to bring us into harmony with God. There are many who try to reform by correcting this bad habit or that bad habit, and they hope in this way to become Christians, but they are beginning in the wrong place. Our first work is with the heart.

The great truth of the conversion of the heart by the Holy Spirit is presented in Christ's words to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above, he can not see the kingdom of God. . . . That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

The leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted. A new standard of character is set up,--the life of Christ. The mind is changed; the faculties are aroused to action in new lines. Man is not endowed with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience is awakened.

The Scriptures are the great agency in this transformation of character. Christ prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." If studied and obeyed, the word of God works in the heart, subduing every unholy attribute. The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin, and the faith that springs up in the heart works by love to Christ, conforming us, body, soul, and spirit, to his will.

A man sees his danger. He sees that he needs a change of character, a change of heart. He is stirred; his fears are aroused. The Spirit of God is working in him, and with fear and trembling he works for himself, seeking to find out his defects of character, and to see what he can do to bring about the needed change in his life. His heart is humbled. By confession and repentance he shows the sincerity of his desire to reform. He confesses his sins to God, and if he has injured any one, he confesses the wrong to the one he has injured. While God is working, the sinner, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, works out that which God is working in mind and heart. He acts in harmony with the Spirit's working, and his conversion is genuine.

The nobility and dignity of the man increase as he takes his position against the wily foe, who for so many years has kept him in slavery. He feels a holy indignation arising within him as he thinks that for so long he has been Satan's bond-slave, allowing the enemy to lead him to refuse to acknowledge his best friend.

Let the sinner co-operate with his Redeemer to secure his liberty. Let him be assured that unseen heavenly agencies are working in his behalf. Dear souls in doubt and discouragement, pray for the courage and strength that Christ waits to give you. He has been seeking for you. He longs to have you feel your need of his help. He will reach out his hand to grasp the hand stretched out for aid. He declares, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Let mind and heart be enlisted in the warfare against sin. Let your heart soften as you think of how long you have chosen to serve your bitterest foe, while you turned from Him who gave his life for you, who loves you, and who will accept you as his, though you are sinners. Step out from under the rebel flag, and take your stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel.

He who would build up a strong, symmetrical character, must give all and do all for Christ. The Redeemer will not accept divided service. Daily he must learn the meaning of self-surrender. He must study the Word of God, getting its meaning and obeying its precepts. Thus he may reach the highest standard of Christian excellence. There is no limit to the spiritual advancement that he may make if he is a partaker of the divine nature. Day by day God works in him, perfecting the character that is to stand in the day of final test. Each day of his life he ministers to others. The light that is in him shines forth, and stills the strife of tongues. Day by day he is working out before men and angels a vast, sublime experiment, showing what the gospel can do for fallen human beings.

Let us not spare ourselves, but carry forward in earnest the work of reform that must be done in our lives. Let us crucify self. Unholy habits will clamor for the mastery, but in the name and through the power of Jesus we may conquer. To him who daily seeks to keep his heart with all diligence, the promise is given, "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, . . . Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee." God himself is "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." And "whom he justified, them he also glorified." Great as is the shame and degradation through sin, even greater will be the honor and exaltation through redeeming love. To human beings, striving for conformity to the divine image, there is imparted an outlay of heaven's treasure, an excellency of power that will place them higher than even the angels who have never fallen. -

The Work in Washington

The Lord calls upon his people in every State in America to come up to his help in the establishment of his work in Washington. Those who have this work in hand are to show no lack of interest in it. And our people are to remember that for the present the work in Washington is to be our first interest. There are many kinds of work to be carried forward in different places; but our first interest just now is our work at the capital of our nation.

We are to center our minds for the present on the work that needs to be done at Washington. Daily our petitions are to ascend to heaven for the success of this work, that it may move forward rapidly. The Lord of hosts gave special direction that the publishing work done in Battle Creek should be transferred to Washington. The directions were so plain that we could see that there must be no delay. And since we have moved forward in obedience to this word, we have had evidence that the Lord has prepared the way at every step for the establishment of important interests at Washington. Thus far he has helped us in a way that leaves no room for any one to doubt or question.

Let the work in Washington move forward. Let every one act his part in self-denial and self-sacrifice. Our people are not to wait for more appeals, but are to lay right hold of the work, making those things which appear impossibilities, possibilities. Let each one ask himself, Has not the Lord entrusted me with means for the advancement of his cause? Has he not bidden his servants in Washington arise and build? Shall I, at this time of great importance, withhold my means, which God asks me to invest in raising up memorials for him?

Let us be honest with the Lord. All the blessings that we enjoy come from him; and if he has entrusted us with the talent of means, that we may help to do his work, shall we hold back? Shall we say, No, Lord; my children would not be pleased, and therefore I shall venture to disobey God, burying his talent in the earth?

There should be no delay. The cause of God demands your assistance. We ask you, as the Lord's stewards, to put his means into circulation, to provide facilities by which many will have the opportunity of learning what is truth.

The temptation may come to you to invest your money in land. Perhaps your friends will advise you to do this. But is there not a better way of investing your means? Have you not been bought with a price? Has not your money been entrusted to you to be traded upon for him? Can you not see that he wants you to use your means in helping to build meeting-houses, in helping to establish sanitariums, where the sick shall receive physical and spiritual healing, and in helping to start schools, in which the youth shall be trained for service, that workers may be sent to all parts of the world?

God himself originates the plans for the advancement of his work, and he has provided his people with a surplus of means, that when he calls for help, they may cheerfully respond. If they will be faithful in bringing to his treasury the means lent them, his work will make rapid advancement. Many souls will be won to the truth, and the day of Christ's coming will be hastened.

God will prepare the way before his faithful people, and will greatly bless them. The righteousness of Christ will go before them, and the glory of God will be their rearward. There will be joy in the heavenly courts, and joy, pure, holy joy, will fill the hearts of the workers. To save perishing souls, they are willing to spend and be spent. Their hearts are filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. The consciousness of God's love purifies and ennobles their experience, enriching and strengthening them. The grace of heaven is revealed in the conquests achieved in winning souls to Christ.

So God's work in this world is to be carried forward. The church here below is to serve the Lord with self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the most glorious triumphs are to be won.

God's word to his workers in Washington is, "Arise and build;" and his word to his people in all the conferences is, "Strengthen the hands of the builders." The work in Washington is to advance in straight lines, without delay or hindrance. Let it not be kept back for lack of means. The workers in Washington will advance with steadfast courage just as fast as the Lord's people will furnish them with means. Let every church in every place act its part cheerfully and willingly.

I know that the people of God desire to act their part nobly in advancing his work in the world. God extends his favor to us daily, and we are to regard it as a privilege to show that we are in harmony with the work now being done at the capital of our nation. We have no time to lose. The bounty that God daily bestows upon us makes a direct and forcible appeal to us to respond to the goodness and love of God by placing all that we have and are upon the altar of sacrifice. We must be co-laborers with God. He calls upon us to engage in his work, to return to him a part of that which he has bestowed upon us. He has made us his helping hand. Our self-denying benevolence, our willing offerings, are to give evidence that the truth has been doing its work upon our hearts. -

The Value of Christlike Love

The Lord desires me to call the attention of his people to the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Read this chapter every day, and from it obtain comfort and strength. Learn from it the value that God places on sanctified, heaven-born love, and let the lesson that it teaches come home to your hearts. Learn that Christlike love is of heavenly birth, and that without it all other qualifications are worthless.

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love," Paul declares, "I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing."

How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator's hand! God presented before the universe a world in which even his all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain. Each part of the creation occupied the part assigned to it, and answered the purpose for which it was created. Peace and holy joy filled the earth. There was no confusion, no clashing. There was no disease to afflict man or beast, and the vegetable kingdom was without taint or corruption. God looked upon the work of his hands, wrought out by Christ, and pronounced it "very good." He looked upon a perfect world, in which there was no sin, no imperfection.

But a change came. Satan tempted Adam, and he fell. He who in heaven had become disloyal and had been cast out, made lying reports of God to the beings he had created, and they believed his lie. Sin entered the world, and death by sin. The consequences of our first parents' disloyalty we now have to meet as we work for God, and until the close of this earth's history our labors will become more and more trying.

I entreat the members of our churches not to make the work more trying than it necessarily is by watching one another for a word or an act upon which to comment unfavorably. Let them, if a report is brought to them about some one, make it a rule to do just as Christ has said should be done in such cases. Let them follow the counsel of the Great Teacher, who gave his life for the life of the world. His directions are plain. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." "Tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Without delay make every effort to heal the wrong that exists. Do not, by speaking unwise words, give the enemy opportunity to arouse suspicion and evil-surmising in the mind of your brother. Be determined to do all in your power to make the wrong right. Do not tell to a third person the story of the difficulty. Go directly to the one who has erred, and "tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Go to him, not to condemn, but to seek for reconciliation, because Christ has told you to love one another as he has loved you.

Our gifts, our prayers, are not acceptable to God while we leave this duty undone, and let the poison of envy and evil-surmising take possession of our souls, to destroy our union and happiness. O, how much unhappiness would be saved, how many evil thoughts would be quenched, if believers would take up the work that Christ has said must be done to prevent evil speaking! We pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us." Do we do our part to remove every stumbling-block from before the feet of our brother? Too often our prayers are hindered by our pride of heart, by our refusal to confess faults and to remove wrong impressions. Let us remember that our prayers are not acceptable to God while we suffer a fellow worker to misapprehend us. If we are not to blame for the misunderstanding that exists, we can, perhaps, make an explanation that will remove the misunderstanding. If we are to blame, if we have left a wrong impression on a brother's mind, we are certainly under obligation to do all in our power to remove this impression.

Let the suspicious ones, who think and speak evil of their brethren, remember that they are doing the devil's drudgery. Let every one pass over little differences and mistakes without comment. Do not magnify the small mistakes made by some one, but think of the good that is in him. Each time mistakes are thought of and talked about, they grow larger. A mountain is made out of a molehill. Ill-feeling and a lack of confidence are the result.

To many these words are applicable: "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

So great is the intemperance in speech that much instruction has been given on this subject by the Great Teacher. He has given special directions for the discipline of the tongue. Study and obey these directions. Check the harsh words that, if spoken, would create difference and alienation. Speak words that will cement hearts, not estrange them,--words that will heal, not wound. When difficulties arise among church-members, let them be cleared away before the Sabbath comes. This should be regarded as a Christian duty by every church-member. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, . . . and be ye thankful." Are you troubled and perplexed? Sweep away the rubbish that has been accumulating before the door of the heart, and open the door, inviting Jesus to come in and abide as an honored guest. Bring peace and comfort into your own heart and the hearts of others. This is most blessed missionary work.

The Lord has instructed me to say to his people, Work for perfection. Do nothing that will cause disaffection to spring up in hearts. Do not serve the enemy. Overcome your inclination to find fault and condemn. Give no place to him whose delight it is to accuse. Remember, my beloved brethren and sisters, that you are pleasing and helping Satan by every word you utter that disparages another.

I greatly desire that you shall follow the directions that Christ has laid down. As you do this, he will certainly help you to adjust the difficulties that exist. He will help you not to make dissension by magnifying little mistakes. The light that the Lord has given me is that he will greatly bless his people, if they will not think or speak evil of one another, but go directly to the one they think is in the wrong, and in a kind, compassionate manner point out his mistake. May the Lord help those who have learned to criticize, to learn to think no evil, and to speak only good words,-- words of comfort and healing. Then they will rejoice; for they will have evidence that they are laborers together with God.

Christ loved the church, "and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish."

My brethren and sisters, I beseech you to give diligent heed to these words, because the day of the Lord is right upon us. You have no time to lose. Do not neglect the word of God to you.

"We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee.)"

Will you not, as servants of the Most High God, give heed to these words? Will you not respond to God's mercy and compassion and love toward you by loving one another as Christ has loved you?

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed." Remember that when you speak words that disparage one another, the ministry is blamed. The lack of power in the church is charged to the ministry, when often it is directly chargeable to the members, because they do not mix faith with their hearing.

The ministers are to be men of faith, men who give expression to the pure love of God. And the members are to give no offense in anything, "that the ministry be not blamed." No unkind dealing or harsh words are to find a place in their experience.

"In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings." We should be preparing for these things; for they will come. Those who share in Christ's glory must share in his sufferings.

May the Lord lead every minister and every lay member to turn to him with full purpose of heart, and make diligent work for repentance. Thus only can they obtain the sanctification of the Spirit. How true are the words of Paul: "Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own affections." Many complain of others because their own hearts are not in unity with the Spirit of God. When self is crucified, Christ will take possession of the soul-temple.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters."

"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Let every one humble his heart before God, and make a surrender of body, soul, and spirit to him, that he may give his people his rich grace abundantly. Let the heart be closed against selfishness. Let us follow the example of Christ. If we fail of doing this, we shall fail of receiving a welcome into the city of God. He who continues to be a transgressor of the law of God, even though he break but one precept, can have no place in the royal family.

I entreat those who have given so much time to talking of the faults of others, to cease this cruel work, and obey the words, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life." The divine directory, God's holy Word, is in our hands. In the toil of business and the unceasing activity of daily life, this Word is to be our guide. This Word is appreciated by him who is striving to overcome. It is to him as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Let God's people set a perfect example, honoring Christ in every place, in every difficulty following his directions. Then at last they will be received into the family of the redeemed, and there will be given unto them a crown of immortal life. -

The World to Be Warned

The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given to us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is our work. The world is to be warned, and God's people are to be true to the trust committed to them. They are not to engage in speculations, neither are they to enter into business enterprises with unbelievers; for this would hinder them in doing the work given them.

Christ says of his people, "Ye are the light of the world." It is not a small matter that the counsels and purposes and plans of God have been so clearly opened to us. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to understand the will of God as revealed in the sure word of prophecy. This places on us a heavy responsibility. God expects us to impart to others the knowledge he has given us. It is his purpose that divine and human instrumentalities shall unite in the proclamation of the warning message.

John writes: "I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." This message is to be proclaimed, not in a few places only, but to the whole world.

"And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice. If any man worship the beast and his image, . . . the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb."

To John was given a view of the remnant people of God, and as he beheld their character and their work, he exclaimed, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. . . . And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

In the issue of the great conflict, there will be only two classes in the world,--those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive the mark of the beast; yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beheld them "that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God," and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

But of those who trample on God's law, and oppress his faithful people, the terrible prediction is uttered: --

"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation."

On which side are we standing? Have we placed ourselves fully under the direction and protection of the Holy Spirit, and are we giving the message for this time? Does every effort we put forth tend to advance the proclamation of the message? So far as his opportunities extend, every one who has received the light of truth is under the same solemn and fearful responsibility as was the prophet of Israel, to whom came the word: "Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

Are we to wait until the fulfilment of the prophecies of the end before we say anything concerning them? Of what value will our words be then? Shall we wait until the judgments fall upon the transgressor before we tell him how to avoid them? Where is our faith in the word of God? Must we see the things foretold come to pass before we will believe what he has said? In clear, distinct rays light has come to us, showing that the great day of the Lord is at hand, "even at the door." Let us read and understand, before it is too late.

Study carefully the following scriptures: --

"Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, . . . and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures."

"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand."

"Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?"

The Lord has declared the judgments and calamities that must fall upon those who continue to dishonor him. Warnings have been given by God, and these warnings should be kept before the people. God's appointed messengers are to give the call to flee from the wrath to come.

"Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children: . . . let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

"Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen."

"Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed."

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call."

God's Chosen People

I have been bidden to call the attention of our people to the instruction given by the Lord to Israel regarding the importance of separation from the world. In the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy we read: --

"Now therefore, harken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."

"Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons."

"When the Lord shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations from before thee, . . . and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them: neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

"But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth."

"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face."

A Departure from Right

Under David's rule, the people of Israel gained strength, and uprightness through obedience to God's law. But the kings that followed strove for self-exaltation. They took to themselves glory for the greatness of the kingdom, forgetting how utterly dependent they were upon God. They regarded themselves as wise and independent, because of the honor showed them by fallible, erring man. They became corrupt, immoral, and rebelled against the Lord, turning from him to the worship of idols.

God bore long with them, calling them often to repentance. But they refused to hear, and at last God spoke in judgment, showing them how weak they were without him. He saw that they were determined to have their own way, and he gave them into the hands of their enemies, who spoiled their land, and took the people captive.

The alliances made by the Israelites with their heathen neighbors resulted in the loss of their identity as God's peculiar people. They became leavened by the evil practises of those with whom they formed forbidden alliances. Affiliation with worldlings caused them to lose their first love, and their zeal for God's service. The advantages they sold themselves to gain, brought only disappointment, and caused the loss of many souls.

The experience of Israel will be the experience of all who go to the world for strength, turning away from the living God. Those who forsake the mighty One, the source of all strength, and affiliate with worldlings, placing on them their dependence, become weak in moral power, as are those in whom they trust.

God comes with entreaties and assurances to those who are making mistakes. He seeks to show them their error, and lead them to repentance. But if they refuse to humble their hearts before him, if they strive to exalt themselves above him, he must speak to them in judgment. No semblance of nearness to God, no assertion of connection with him, will be accepted from those who persist in dishonoring him by leaning upon the arm of worldly power.

God's Word to Us To-day

To-day God's word to his people is: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve him fully, whole-heartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord, and him only.

The Sign Between God and His People

"The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

Do not these words point us out as God's denominated people? and do they not declare to us that so long as time shall last, we are to cherish the sacred, denominational distinction placed on us? The children of Israel were to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations "for a perpetual covenant." The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still the sign between God and his people, and it will be so forever.

Now and ever we are to stand as a distinct and peculiar people, free from all worldly policy, unembarrassed by confederation with those who have not wisdom to discern the claims of God, so plainly set forth in his law.

We are to show that we are seeking to work in harmony with heaven in preparing the way of the Lord. We are to bear witness to all nations, kindreds, and tongues, that we are a people who love and fear God, a people who keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath, and we are to show plainly that we have full faith that the Lord is soon to come in the clouds of heaven.

God is testing his people, to see who will be loyal to the principles of his truth. Our work is to proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angels' messages. In the discharge of our duty, we are neither to despise nor fear our enemies. To bind ourselves up by contracts or in partnerships or business associations with those not of our faith is not in the order of God. We are to treat with kindness and courtesy those who refuse to be loyal to God, but we are never, never to unite with them in counsel regarding the vital interests of his work; for this is not the way of the Lord.

Putting our trust in God, we are to move steadily forward, doing his work with unselfishness, in humble dependence upon him, committing ourselves and our present and future to his wise providence, holding the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, remembering that it is not because of our worthiness that we receive the blessings of heaven, but because of the worthiness of Christ, and our acceptance, through faith in him, of God's abounding grace.

I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel's message means much to us, and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve him not. Let those who have become sleepy and indifferent awake. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith. Upon us rests the solemn obligation of taking a more decided stand for truth and righteousness than we have taken in the past. The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness. We are conscientiously to honor God, diligently using every means of keeping in covenant relation with him, that we may receive his blessings--the blessings so essential for a people who are to be so severely tried. To give the impression that our faith, our religion, is not a dominating power in our lives, is greatly to dishonor God. Thus we turn from his commandments, which are our life, denying that he is our God and we his people.

"The Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face."

Where shall we be before the thousand generations mentioned in this scripture are ended? Our fate will have been decided for eternity. We shall either have been pronounced worthy of a home in the everlasting kingdom of God, or we shall have received sentence of eternal death. Those who have been true and faithful to their covenant with God, those who, remembering Calvary, have stood firmly on the side of truth, ever striving to honor God, will hear the commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant." But those who have given God only half-hearted service, allowing their lives to be conformed to the ways and practises of the world, will hear the sad words, "Depart from me; I know you not."

The Home of the Faithful

"The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."

"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads."

Who are these?--God's denominated people,--those who on this earth have witnessed to their loyalty. Who are they?--Those who have kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; those who have owned the crucified One as their Saviour.

"And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever."

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." -

A Visit to the South, No. 1 (From Berrien Springs to Nashville)

I have just returned to Washington from the South. We were away for about six weeks, during which time we visited Nashville, Graysville, and Huntsville.

On the way from Berrien Springs to Nashville, we had to wait for several hours in Chicago, and Dr. Paulson took us out to Hinsdale, where they are about to establish a sanitarium.

I was very much pleased with all that I saw during the afternoon that I spent there. Hinsdale is about fourteen miles out from Chicago, and is a favorable place for a sanitarium. The atmosphere is good, and the surroundings are beautiful. Many of the houses are large, and are evidently the homes of men of wealth, who live in the country, and carry on business in Chicago. The roads are excellent, and sick people would find health in driving about and enjoying the scenery. The sight of the trees and flowers, with the sunshine and fresh air, would bring health to mind and body. In anticipation I can see the Hinsdale Sanitarium established, and hope and faith coming into the hearts of the patients.

We were taken all over the sanitarium property. It consists of ten acres of land, with two houses and a barn. The place was once very beautiful, but it has been neglected for several years. It is a favorable site for a sanitarium, and I am so glad that it has been placed at the disposal of our brethren.

About five years ago a gentleman from Chicago went to the Battle Creek Sanitarium as a patient. He was very sick, but the treatment given him was successful, and he believes that it was the means of saving his life. After returning home, he told Dr. Paulson that he knew of a place that ought to be used for sanitarium work. A few months ago he bought this place, and has placed it at Dr. Paulson's disposal. It cost sixteen thousand dollars, and can be paid for in small monthly installments.

Dr. Paulson looks upon the opportunity to secure this place on easy terms as a providence of God. And this is right; for the hand of the Lord is in the matter. The outdoor advantages that the sick will have will prove the greatest blessing to them, aiding in the cure of mind and body. And as the sick ones associate with those who love and serve God, they will be doubly blessed.

How I wish that all our sanitariums could be placed among such natural surroundings. Men and women in need of physical and spiritual healing need to breathe just such an atmosphere. They need to be brought in contact with those whose words and acts will draw them to Christ. They need to be brought under the influence of the great Medical Missionary, who can heal both soul and body. They need to hear the story of the love of the sin-pardoning Saviour,--of the forgiveness granted to all who come to him confessing their sins.

There are many, many in our great cities, both in the higher and in the lower classes, who need to be helped into the way of life by being brought into contact with our sanitariums.

There are no entreaties so tender, no lessons so plain, no commendations so decided, as those given in the Word of God. How earnest and loving and compassionate are the invitations to come to the fountain of living water. God's Word is indeed a light shining in a dark place. And in our sanitariums, above all other places, the religion of Christ is to be clearly exemplified. This is why I have urged that many sanitariums be established in places out of the cities, that men and women may hear and understand the word of the Lord, and may be brought under an influence direct from heaven.

God sends angels from heaven to co-operate with human instrumentalities in bringing encouragement and hope and joy and peace to the hearts of the sick and suffering. These men and women need the grace that comes from the Life-giver, the health that the great Medical Missionary alone can give. O that those who have received light from God's Word would take hold in medical missionary lines, to do all in their power to help those in need of help!

Those who plan to establish sanitariums should reason from cause to effect. They should lay their plans with a deep insight into the necessities of a medical institution. One of the first necessities is a site out of the city, in a retired place, where the institution can be surrounded by grounds that can be beautified with flowers and shrubs and trees.

Let the patients be taught that the breathing of pure air is necessary to health. Let there be facilities for the giving of rational treatment, so that there will be no necessity for the use of drugs. By wise methods the patients are to be led more and more to take outdoor exercise. Every one who is recovering from sickness needs such exercise, in order that disease may be completely overcome, and health regained. When physical health has been restored, men and women are better able to exercise that faith in Christ which secures the health of the soul, bringing peace and rest and joy from the consciousness of sins forgiven.

Our sanitariums should be out of the cities. One who is unerring in counsel has given this direction, in mercy to suffering humanity. Physicians and ministers are called upon to exert their influence in favor of establishing our sanitariums, publishing houses, and schools out of the cities. And for the sake of the youth in our schools and publishing houses, and for the sake of the patients and helpers in our sanitariums, this should be done.

We plead the necessity of our sanitariums being out of the smoky, dirty, noisy cities, with their tobacco-laden atmosphere. It is impossible to establish a sanitarium in a city without placing it in an atmosphere that will, to a greater or less extent, undo the good accomplished by the treatment given.

All things are to be considered from the standpoint of the Word of God. The teachers in our schools and sanitariums are to guard the minds of the youth in their care from becoming estranged from God. They are to have an interest in each one. They are to show a Christlike love for souls. Their minds are to be stayed upon Christ, and they are humbly and thankfully to receive, in order that they may impart. In their association with others, they are not to seek to benefit themselves, but to bless others.

And as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, let Christ ever be recognized as our counselor, infinite in wisdom, and always ready to help. Those who know God as revealed in his Word make him chief in all that they do. They say: "Thou, God, seest me. Thou hearest every word I speak; thou knowest the motives that prompt my words and actions."

The wisdom of heaven is to be brought into every sanitarium. All the workers are to live the truth as it is in Jesus. Godliness--the result of the grace of Christ--is to lead souls to drink of the water of life. -

A Visit to the South, No. 2 (The Work in Nashville)

The Work in Nashville

During my stay in Nashville, I saw the necessities of the work there, and its great need of help. I visited the sanitarium conducted by Dr. Hayward and Brother Hansen. For several years Brother Hansen has had treatment rooms in Nashville. Recently the Medical Department of the Southern Union Conference purchased his business, and Dr. Hayward, from Graysville, joined Brother Hansen in the work. They have treatment rooms, a health food store, and physicians' offices in a large house in the city. They have also rented a house three miles out of the city, for the accommodation of patients and nurses. I visited both of these places, and found them full of sick people receiving help.

Brethren Hayward and Hansen, with their faithful helpers, are doing their best with the facilities they have, but the inconveniences under which they are at present conducting their work are very trying, and I longed that they might have a larger building, where they could accomplish more with less effort.

We also visited the colored sanitarium, which is in the charge of Dr. Isabel and Brother Young. This is situated very conveniently for the colored business men of Nashville, and is modestly but well equipped for giving the different kinds of baths. Those in charge have labored earnestly to do what they can with their limited means to provide the necessary facilities, but they need assistance to make the institution comfortable and attractive.

To us has been entrusted the work of proclaiming the last message of mercy to be given to our world,--the message that is to prepare a people to stand in the day of God. Do we realize our accountability? Are we acting our part in the proclamation of this message?

When I see our people spending money for needless trimmings, needless furnishings, I think of Jesus. He might have come to this world in the glory of his kingly power. But he chose to come to this world in the garb of humanity, and to live a life of self-denial and sacrifice. Those who follow in his footsteps will remember that every dollar they can spare is needed in the work that God has said shall be done in this world.

When our sisters are buying and making up their own and their children's garments, let them think of the work in the Lord's vineyard that is still waiting to be done. It is right to buy good material for our clothing, and to have it carefully made. This is economy. But rich trimmings are not needed, and to indulge in them is to spend for self-gratification money that should be put into God's cause.

Schools and sanitariums and meeting-houses are needed in the South. The people there must be warned. To my sisters who are inclined to spend much in trimming their clothes, I would say, Deny yourselves, and put the money thus saved aside to send to the help of those who need help so much. Let the self-denial boxes sent out by the Southern Missionary Society be kept in plain sight in the homes of our people.

My sisters, remember that Christ clothed his divinity with humanity, and came to this world to uplift fallen human beings, that they might stand on vantage-ground, thus escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. He gave his all to the work that he came to this world to do, and his word to us is, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." "So shall ye be my disciples."

Remember, too, the words of the apostle: "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."

Let us take heed to God's words of warning, lest at any time we let them slip, and our hearts become evil hearts of unbelief. Just as soon as those who know the truth put away their unbelief, and practise the self-denial enjoined in the Word of God, the message will go with power. The Lord will hear our prayers for the conversion of souls. God's people will let their light shine forth, and unbelievers, seeing their good works, will glorify our Heavenly Father.

The School Work

In connection with the work in Nashville, I wish to speak of the school work that Brethren Sutherland and Magan are planning to do. I was surprised when, in speaking of the work they wished to do in the South, they spoke of establishing a school in some place a long way from Nashville. From the light given me, I knew that this would not be the right thing to do, and I told them so. The work that these brethren can do, because of the experience gained at Berrien Springs, is to be carried on within easy access of Nashville; for Nashville has not yet been worked as it should be. And it will be a great blessing to the workers in the school to be near enough to Nashville to be able to counsel with the workers there.

In searching for a place for the school, the brethren found a farm of four hundred acres for sale, about nine miles from Nashville. The size of the farm, its situation, the distance that it is from Nashville, and the moderate sum for which it could be purchased seemed to point it out as the very place for the school work. We advised that this place be purchased. I knew that all the land would ultimately be needed. For the work of the students, and to provide homes for the teachers, such land can be used advantageously. And as our work advances, a portion of this tract may be required for a country sanitarium.

Other properties were examined, but we found nothing so well suited for our work. The price of the place, including standing crops, farm machinery, and over seventy head of cattle, was $12,723. It has been purchased, and as soon as possible, Brethren Magan and Sutherland, with a few experienced helpers, will begin school work there. We feel confident that the Lord has been guiding in this matter.

The plan upon which our brethren propose to work is to select some of the best and most substantial young men and women from Berrien Springs and other places in the North, who believe that God has called them to the work in the South, and give them a brief training as teachers. Thorough instruction will be given in Bible study, physiology, and the history of our message; and special instruction in agriculture will be given. It is hoped that many of these students will eventually connect with schools in various places in the South. In connection with these schools there will be land that will be cultivated by teachers and students, and the proceeds from this work will be used for the support of the schools.

We went once more to see the farm, after its purchase had been completed, and were very much pleased with it. I earnestly hope that the school to be established there will be a success, and will help to build up the work of the Lord in that part of his vineyard. There are men of means in various parts of the land who can assist this enterprise by loans without interest, and by liberal gifts.

Let us sustain Brethren Sutherland and Magan in their efforts to advance this important work. They gained a valuable experience in Berrien Springs, and the providence of God has led them to feel that they must labor in the Southern field. God helped them constantly in their efforts at Berrien Springs, as they steadily advanced, determined that obstacles should not stop the work. They are not leaving Berrien Springs because of dissension or strife. They are not fleeing from duty. They are leaving a place where a school has been established, to go to a new field, where the work may be much harder. They have only means enough to pay part of the price of the land. They should not be left to struggle along misunderstood and unaided, at the sacrifice of health.

As these brethren go to the South to take hold of pioneer work in a difficult field, we ask our people to make their work as effective as possible by assisting them in the establishment of the new school near Nashville.

I ask our people to help the work in the Southern field by aiding Brethren Sutherland and Magan and their faithful associates in the carrying forward of the important enterprise they have undertaken. Brethren and sisters, the poverty and the needs of the Southern field call urgently for your assistance. There is a great work to be done in that field, and we ask you to act your part. -

A Visit to the South, No. 3 (The Work in Graysville)

Friday morning, June 17, we left Nashville for Graysville, where we spent Sabbath and Sunday.

I found that the work at Graysville has made much progress. Graysville is a homelike place,--a pretty little village in a valley surrounded by hills. A large part of the village is made up of the homes of Seventh-day Adventists.

On Sabbath I spoke to our people. The church was crowded. The Spirit of Lord rested upon me, and I was given a plain testimony to bear. In my weakness I had much strength; for God was with me. My heart was filled with thanksgiving and praise and rejoicing.

On Sunday we were taken to see the different lines of work that are being carried on by our people in Graysville. We went over the school building, and then we visited the twenty-five acre farm on the hill, which is largely planted with peaches. The young trees look thrifty. After looking at this, we went to see the four-hundred-acre farm, which has recently been acquired by the conference and has been leased to the school. On this farm we saw large fields of corn, broad pasture lands, and on the hill thirty acres of strawberries.

The school is doing well. An addition is needed to the main building; for the chapel is not large enough. But we advised those in charge to wait until the sanitarium could be put in running order. Finishing and equipping this institution will require all the means that they can command at present.

From the school farm we drove to the sanitarium. I am much interested in this institution. It is built on the mountainside, in the midst of a grove of trees. There are pine, oak, chestnut, hickory, and many other varieties of beautiful trees. With proper care this grove can be made very beautiful. It is a place in which any lover of nature would take delight, and is as healthful a location for a sanitarium as I have ever seen.

The institution is well planned, and the physicians and nurses are working disinterestedly and earnestly to bring the work on the building to completion. I wish that I had had time to say to the physician, "It pleases me to see the good work you do while handling the ax, hammer, and plane. You seem to be a master of the situation." His face expressed anxiety, and showed a burden of thought, and I did wish to say to him, "This is the work that Christ did in his youth. And through it all he did not speak an impatient word, not even when he was misunderstood. He always spoke pleasantly. When he was blamed for being so particular about his work, he answered by words of song from the Psalms, and those who had been scolding him often found themselves uniting with him in singing, 'O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever.' 'Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth forever.' 'Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.'"

I should have been pleased to have spoken words of encouragement to the physician's wife and sister. I would have said to them, "Be sure, my dear friends, ever to walk with Christ. 'Learn of me,' said the divine Teacher; 'for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'"

On the second floor we found the nurses busy at work. I hope they all realized that their faithfulness is fully appreciated by One who knows. In looking to their Saviour, they will find peace and joy. We are to unite our influence in making the earth radiant and glorious. Entire consecration is essential, and the union of all is needed, in order that the work of God may advance. No one is to exalt self and disparage others.

I longed to say to all the workers, "Henceforth you are Christ's servants. No longer are you to live to yourselves, but for him who died for you, and rose again. Your lives are to be hid with Christ in God, that when he who is your life shall appear, you may appear with him in glory."

Some of the patients asked if I would not talk to them in the parlor, but I had not the strength to do this, and at the same time to see the various things which our brethren wished me to see in connection with the work in Graysville.

We went up to the third story of the building, and looked off over the treetops across the valley. We greatly enjoyed the view.

I was taken to the spring, which is a little farther up the mountainside. This spring gives an abundance of soft, pure water, and is a treasure of inestimable worth.

I am more than pleased with the earnestness and zeal that the brethren have shown in the erection of this sanitarium. Success had attended their unselfish efforts. Each worker has tried to help the other, and all have worked together harmoniously. This is as it should be. When workers labor thus, their efforts reveal the sweet fragrance of godliness.

On our return, the brother who was driving stopped at the homes of many of our brethren in the village. I did not get out of the carriage, but we drove up to the gate of each house, and the friends came out. Whole families, father, mother, and children came out to speak with me, and I shook hands with them all, not forgetting the children.

Our visit to Graysville was a very pleasant one. We were sorry that we could not stay longer, so that we might have more time to talk with the brethren and sisters there. -

A Visit to the South, No. 4 (The Huntsville School)

Monday morning, July 20, I went from Graysville to Huntsville. We found the school situated in a beautiful country place. In the school farm there are more than three hundred acres of land, a large part of which is under cultivation.

Several years ago Brother S. M. Jacobs was in charge of the farm, and under his care it made great improvement. He set out a peach and plum orchard, and other fruit trees. Brother and Sister Jacobs left Huntsville about three years ago, and since then the farm has not been so well cared for. We see in the land promise of a much larger return than it now gives, were its managers given the help they need.

Brother Jacobs put forth most earnest, disinterested efforts, but he was not given the help that his strength demanded. Sister Jacobs also worked too hard, and when her health began to give way, they decided to leave Huntsville, and go to some place where the strain would not be so heavy. Had they then been furnished with efficient helpers, and with means to make the needed improvements, the advancement made would have given courage to Brother Jacobs, to the students, and to our people everywhere. But the means that ought to have gone to Huntsville did not go, and we see the result in the present showing.

Recently the question was asked me, "Would it not be well to sell the school land at Huntsville, and buy a smaller place?" Instruction was given me that this farm must not be sold; that the situation possesses many advantages for the carrying forward of a colored school. It would take years to build up in a new place the work that has been done at Huntsville. The Lord's money was invested in the Huntsville school farm, to provide a place for the education of colored students. The General Conference gave this land to the Southern work, and the Lord has shown me what this school may become, and what those may become who go there for instruction, if his plans are followed.

In order that the school may advance as it should, money is needed, and sound, intelligent generalship. Things are to be well kept up, and the school is to give evidence that Seventh-day Adventists mean to make a success of whatever they undertake.

The facilities necessary for the success of the school must be provided. At present the facilities are very meager. A small building should be put up, in which the students can be taught how to care for one another in times of sickness. There has been a nurse at the school to look after the students when they were sick, but no facilities have been provided. This has made the work very discouraging.

The students are to be given a training in those lines of work that will help them to be successful laborers for Christ. They are to be taught to be separate from the customs and practises of the world. They are to be taught how to present the truth for this time, and how to work with the hands and with the head to win their daily bread, that they may go forth to teach their own people. They are to be taught to appreciate the school as a place in which they are given opportunity to obtain a training for service.

Wise plans are to be laid for the cultivation of the land. The students are to be given a practical education in agriculture. This education will be of inestimable value to them in their future work. Thorough work is to be done in cultivating the land, and from this the students are to learn how necessary it is to do thorough work in cultivating the garden of the heart.

The man who takes charge of the Huntsville school should know how to govern himself and how to govern others. The Bible teacher should be a man who can teach the students how to present the truths of the Word of God in public, and how to do house-to-house work. The business affairs of the farm are to be wisely and carefully managed.

The teachers should constantly seek wisdom from on high, that they may be kept from making mistakes. They should give careful attention to their work, that each student may be prepared for the line of service to which he is best adapted. All are to be prepared to serve faithfully in some capacity. Teachers and students are to co-operate in doing their best. The constant effort of the teachers should be to make the students see the importance of constantly rising higher and still higher.

The leading, controlling influence in the school is to be faithfulness in that which is least. Thus the students will be prepared to be faithful in greater things. Each student is to take himself in hand, and with God's help overcome the faults that mar his character. And he is to show an earnest, unselfish interest in the welfare of the school. If he sees a loose board in a walk or a loose paling on the fence, let him at once get a hammer and ails, and make the needed repairs. Nothing in the house or about the premises is to be allowed to present a slack, dilapidated appearance. The wagons and harnesses should be properly cared for and frequently examined and repaired. When harnesses and wagons are sent out in a dilapidated condition, human life is endangered.

These little things are of much more importance than many suppose in the education of students. Business men will notice the appearance of the wagons and harnesses, and will form their opinions accordingly. And more than this, if students are allowed to go through school with slack, shiftless habits, their education will not be worth half as much as it would be if they were taught to be faithful in all they do. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." Little things needing attention, yet left for days and weeks, until they become an unsightly neglect, teach the students lessons that will cling to them for a lifetime, greatly hindering them in their work. Such an example is demoralizing, and students whose education is after this order are not needed in the world.

Should not our God be served most faithfully? We are called upon as teachers to rise up with firm purpose of heart, and discipline ourselves with sternness and vigor to habits of order and thoroughness. All that our hands find to do is to be well done. We have been bought with a price, even the blood of the Son of God, and all that we do is to honor and glorify our Redeemer. We are to work in partnership with Christ, as verily as Christ works in partnership with the Father. We are to lay aside every weight, "and the sin that doth so easily beset," that we may follow our Lord with full purpose of heart.

The soul suffers a great loss when duties are not faithfully performed, when habits of negligence and carelessness are allowed to rule the life. Faithfulness and unselfishness are to control all that we do. When the soul is left uncleansed, when selfish aims are allowed to control, the enemy comes in, leading the mind to carry out unholy devices and to work for selfish advantage, regardless of results.

But he who makes Christ first and last and best in everything will not work for selfish purposes. Unselfishness will be revealed in every act. The peace of Christ can not abide in the heart of a man in whose life self is the mainspring of action. Such a one may hold the theories of truth, but unless he brings himself into harmony with the requirements of God's Word, giving up all his ambitions and desires for the will and way of Christ, he strives without purpose; for God can not bless him. He halts between two opinions, constantly vacillating between Christ and the world. It is like some one striving for the mastery, yet cumbering himself by clinging to heavy weights. -

The Relation of Education to the Work of God

With the great work before us of enlightening the world, we who believe present truth should feel the necessity of thorough education in the practical branches of knowledge, and especially our need of an education in the truths of the Scriptures. Error of every kind is now exalted as truth, and it is our duty to earnestly search the sacred Word, that we may know what is truth, and be able intelligently to present it to others. We shall be called upon to make known the reasons of our faith. We shall have to stand before magistrates to answer for our allegiance to the law of God.

The Lord has called us out from the world that we may be witnesses for his truth, and all through our ranks young men and women should be trained for positions of usefulness and influence. They are privileged to become missionaries for God; but they can not be mere novices in education and in their knowledge of the Word of God, and yet do justice to the sacred work to which they are appointed.

In every land the need of education among our workers is painfully apparent. We realize that education is not only necessary to the proper fulfilment of the duties of domestic life, but necessary for success in all branches of usefulness. . . . Whatever business parents might think suitable for their children, whether they desire them to become manufacturers, agriculturists, mechanics, or to follow some professional calling, they would reap great advantages from the discipline of an education. . . . They need to be thoroughly furnished with the reasons of our faith, to understand the Scriptures for themselves. Through understanding the truths of the Bible they will be better fitted to fill positions of trust. They will be fortified against temptations that will beset them on the right hand and on the left. Efforts must be made to fit young men for the work. They must come to the front to lift burdens and responsibilities. Those who are now young must become strong men. . . . The work is now greatly retarded because men are bearing responsibilities for which they are unfitted. Shall this great want continue and increase? Shall these great responsibilities drop from the hands of experienced workers into the hands of those unable to manage them? Are we not neglecting a very important work by failing to educate and train our youth to fill positions of trust? Let the workers be educated, but at the same time let them be meek and lowly of heart. Let us elevate the work to the highest possible standard, ever remembering that if we do our part, God will not fail to do his.

The agency of the Spirit of God does not remove from us the necessity of exercising our faculties and talents, but teaches us how to use every power to the glory of God. The human faculties when under the special direction of the grace of God, are capable of being used to the best purpose on earth, and will be exercised in the future immortal life.

Ignorance will not increase the humility or spirituality of any professed followers of Christ. The truths of the divine Word can be best appreciated by an intellectual Christian. Christ can be best glorified by those who serve him intelligently. The great object of education is to enable us to use the powers which represent the religion of the Bible and promote the glory of God.

We are indebted to him who gave us existence for all the talents which have been intrusted to us; and it is a duty we owe to our Creator to cultivate and improve the talents which he has committed to our trust. Education will discipline the mind, develop its powers, and understandingly direct them, that we may be useful in advancing the glory of God.-- Christian Education . -

Training Children for God, No. 1

"That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."

It should be the object of every parent to secure to his children a well-balanced, symmetrical character. This is a work of no small magnitude and importance. It requires earnest thought and prayer, no less than patient, persevering effort. A right foundation must be laid, a framework, strong and firm, erected, and then day by day the work of building, polishing, perfecting, must go forward.

The early training of children is a subject that all should carefully study. We need to make the education of our children a business; for their salvation depends largely upon the education given them in childhood. Parents and guardians must themselves maintain purity of heart and life, if they desire their children to be pure. As fathers and mothers, we should train and discipline ourselves. Then as teachers in the home, we can train our children, preparing them for the immortal inheritance.

At an early age the minds of children are very susceptible to impressions of good or of evil. Even in infancy a child is affected by a sorrowful expression on the mother's face. In a home where harsh, fretful, scolding words are spoken, a child cries much, and upon its tender sensibilities are impressed the marks of unhappiness and discord. Then, mothers, let your countenance be full of sunshine. Smile, if you can, and the infant's mind and heart will reflect the light of your countenance, as the polished plate of an artist portrays the human features. Be sure, mothers, to have an indwelling Christ, so that on your child's plastic mind may be impressed the divine likeness.

Mothers, have you neglected your God-given responsibility of multiplying agencies for the service of Christ? Children are the younger members of the Lord's family. Parents should not allow them to be hindrances. They should be led to consecrate themselves wholly to God, whose they are by creation and by redemption. With their parents, children are to share spiritual as well as temporal burdens. They should be trained to be helpful. Thus they will be taught to serve the Saviour.

Opportunities of inestimable worth, interests infinitely precious, are committed to every mother. During the first three years of the life of Samuel the prophet, his mother carefully taught him to distinguish between good and evil. By every familiar object surrounding him, she sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator. In fulfilment of her vow to give her son to the Lord, with great self-denial she placed him under the care of Eli the high priest, to be trained for service in the house of God. Though Samuel's youth was passed at the tabernacle devoted to the worship of God, he was not free from evil influences or sinful example. The sons of Eli feared not God, nor honored their father; but Samuel did not seek their company nor follow their evil ways. His early training led him to choose to maintain his Christian integrity. What a reward was Hannah's! and what an encouragement to faithfulness is her example!

The father should be the faithful high priest of the home, the house band of the family. He should not be so absorbed in business life or in the study of books that he can not take time to study the nature and the necessities of his children. He should devise ways by which they may be kept busy in useful labor agreeable to their individual dispositions. It is a great mistake to allow young men to grow up without learning some trade. To the parents of ancient Israel God gave a positive command that every child should learn a trade. The carelessness of parents in neglecting to furnish employment to their children has resulted in untold evil, imperiling the lives of many youth, and sadly crippling their usefulness.

God desires both parents and teachers to train children in the practical duties of every-day life. Encourage industry. Girls--and even boys who do not have outdoor work--should learn how to help the mother. From childhood, boys and girls should be taught to bear heavier and still heavier burdens, intelligently helping in the work of the family firm. Mothers, patiently show your children how to use their hands. Let them understand that their hands are to be used as skilfully as are yours in the household work. Often a fretful infant or a sick child keeps the mother awake night after night. At such times how much better it is for the children to draw upon their strength than to allow the already overtaxed mother to be burdened with work that they should do. Too often the mother succumbs to disease, sometimes lying upon her death- bed before her children realize that by sharing the home burdens, they could have lessened her cares, and spared her much suffering and affliction.

Prayerfully, unitedly, the father and the mother should bear the grave responsibility of guiding their children aright. Whatever else they neglect, they should never leave their children free to wander in paths of sin. Many parents allow children to go and do as they please, amusing themselves, and choosing evil associates. In the judgment such parents will learn that their children have lost heaven because they have not been kept under home restraint. Parents should awake to their solemn responsibility, realizing that they are to teach their children to walk in the narrow way, that at last, a united family, they may enter the heavenly kingdom.

Children left in the hands of Satan are gladly taken by him and used in his service. Fathers and mothers, Satan is seeking to seize every one of your children. Come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty powers of darkness. Consecrate your household to God.

Evening and morning join with your children in God's worship, reading his Word and singing his praise. Teach them to repeat God's law. Concerning the commandments the Israelites were instructed: "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Accordingly, Moses directed the Israelites to set the words of the law to music. While the older children played on instruments, the younger ones marched, singing in concert the song of God's commandments. In later years they retained in their minds the words of the law which they learned during childhood.

If it was essential for Moses to embody the commandments in sacred song, so that as they marched in the wilderness, the children could learn to sing the law verse by verse, how essential it is at this time to teach our children God's Word! Let us come up to the help of the Lord, instructing our children to keep the commandments to the letter. Let us do everything in our power to make music in our homes, that God may come in. Banish the discord of scolding and fretting. Never exhibit passion. Christian parents will put away every objectionable trait of character, daily learning from the Great Teacher to train their children wisely, bringing them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Parents, your own home is the first field in which you are called to labor. The precious plants in the home garden demand your first care. To you it is appointed to watch for souls as they that must give an account. Carefully consider your work, its nature, its bearing, and its results. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, you must instruct, warn, and counsel, ever remembering that your looks, words, and actions have a direct bearing upon the future of your dear ones. Your work is not to form beauty upon canvas, nor to chisel it from marble, but to impress upon a human soul the image of the Divine.

For Christ's sake, for the sake of your children, seek to conform your own life to the divine standard. Let nothing come between you and your God. Be earnest, patient, and persevering; be instant in season and out of season. Give your children intellectual culture and moral training. Fortify their young hearts with firm, pure principles. While you have opportunity, lay the foundation for a noble manhood and womanhood. Your labor will be rewarded a thousandfold. -

Training Children for God, No. 2

The highest duty of parents is to give their children a religious training. To allow a child to follow his natural impulses is to allow him to deteriorate and to become proficient in evil. The results of wrong training begin to be revealed in childhood. In early youth a selfish temper is developed and as the youth grows to manhood he grows in sin. A continual testimony against parental neglect is borne by children who have been permitted to follow a course of their own choosing. Such a downward course can be prevented only by surrounding them with influences that will counteract evil. From infancy to youth and from youth to manhood, a child should be under influences for good.

In the home school--the first grade--the very best talent should be utilized. Instruction should be given as God has directed. Patiently, carefully, diligently, mercifully, children should be trained. Upon all parents rests the obligation of giving their children physical, mental, and spiritual instruction. It is essential ever to keep before children the claims of God.

Physical training, the development of the body, is far more easily given than spiritual training. The nursery, the playground, the workshop, the sowing of seed and the ingathering of the harvest,--all these give physical training. Under ordinarily favorable circumstances a child naturally gains healthful vigor and a proper development of the bodily organs. Yet even in physical lines the child should be carefully trained.

Soul culture, which gives purity and elevation to the thoughts and fragrance to word and act, requires more painstaking effort. It takes patience to keep every evil motive weeded from the garden of the heart.

The spiritual training should in no case be neglected. Let us teach our children the beautiful lessons of God's Word, that through these they may gain a knowledge of him. Let them understand that they should do nothing which is not right. Teach them to do justice and judgment. Tell them that you can not permit them to take a wrong course. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ present them to God at the throne of grace. Let them know that Jesus lives to make intercession for them. Encourage them to form characters fashioned after the divine similitude.

The prudent mother keeps the door of her lips, that she may not utter one hasty, fretful word. Fathers and mothers, never scold. Consecrate to God the talent of speech. Tell your children exactly what you require of them. Then let them understand that your word is law, and must be obeyed. Thus you are training them to respect the commandments of God, which plainly declare "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not." It is far better for your boy to obey from principle than from compulsion. If as teachers in the home the father and the mother allow children to take the lines of control into their own hands and to become wayward, they are held responsible for what their children might otherwise have been. From babyhood the child should be taught that the mother is master. Never is the mother to do anything that would give Satan opportunity to arouse or strengthen the disagreeable passions of her child. She should not use the rod, if it be possible to avoid doing so. But if milder measures prove insufficient, punishment that will bring the child to its senses should in love be administered. Frequently one such correction will be enough for a lifetime to show a child that he does not hold the lines of control.

Few parents begin early enough to teach their children to obey. The child is usually allowed to get two of three years the start of its parents, who forbear to discipline it, thinking it too young to learn to obey. But all this time self is growing strong in the little being, and every day makes harder the parent's task of gaining control. At a very early age children can comprehend what is plainly and simply told them, and by kind and judicious management can be taught to obey.

In the school, as well as in the home, the question of discipline should be understood. We should hope that in the schoolroom there would never be occasion to use the rod. But if in a school there are those who stubbornly resist all counsel and entreaty, all prayers and burden of soul in their behalf, then it is necessary to make them understand that they must obey.

Some teachers do not think it best to enforce obedience. They think that their duty is merely to educate. True, they should educate. But what does the education of children amount to, if, when they disregard the principles placed before them, the teacher does not feel that he has a right to exercise authority?

I know that many parents do not cooperate with the teacher by fostering in the home the good influence exerted in the school. Instead of carrying out in the home the principles of obedience taught in the school, they allow their children to do as they please, to go hither and thither without restraint. And if the teacher exercises authority in requiring obedience, the children carry to their parents an exaggerated, distorted account of the way in which they have been "misused." The teacher may have done only that which it was his painful duty to do; but the parents sympathize with their children, even though they are in the wrong.

Those parents who themselves rule in passion are the most unreasonable when their children are restrained and disciplined in school. Parents, when the church-school teacher tries so to train and discipline your children that they may gain eternal life, do not in their presence criticize his actions, even though you may think him too severe. If you desire them to give their hearts to Jesus, co-operate with the teacher's efforts for their salvation. How much better it is for children, instead of hearing criticism, to hear from the lips of their mother sweet and tender and loving words commending the work of the teacher. Such words make lasting impressions, and influence children to respect the teacher.

The teachers in our schools need the keen perception of the Spirit of God, that they may know how to deal with the youth in their care. Those who conduct church-schools and larger schools should regard it as their privilege, not only to teach in the school, but to bring into the church with which they are connected the same talents that are used in the school. Talk to the parents along educational and medical missionary lines. Show them the privilege they have of using their God-given capabilities in training their children, thus co-operating with the teacher.

We are approaching the day of final reckoning. Christ told his disciples that prior to his second coming the world would be as it was in the days of Noah, when "they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, . . . and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away." Those who believed when Noah began to build the ark, lost their faith through association with unbelievers who aroused all the old passion for amusement and display. For one hundred and twenty years the antediluvians were on probation, free to choose to obey the voice of God and find refuge in the ark, or to refuse to hear his voice, and be destroyed. They chose to disobey, and were destroyed.

In those days "the earth was filled with violence." Is not violence now in the land? How much is human life worth, if man's way is crossed, man's passion excited? If the picture of the present state of the world is not sufficiently startling to arouse parents to do their duty in bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, what will bring them to a right understanding?

Satan is marshaling his hosts. Are you prepared for the conflict just before us? Are you preparing your children for the crisis? Are your children forming habits of decision, that they may be firm to principle? Parental duty has been sadly neglected. Will you not now repent, and take up your God-given lifework? There is no time to lose. Redeem the time, because the days are evil. Pray that your spiritual perceptions may be quickened. Strive to realize the importance of living in obedience to The Holy Spirit. When you do this, the heavenly angels will minister to you as teachers in the home, training you for the work of teaching your children.

When you stand before the great white throne, then your work will appear as it is. The books are opened, the record of every life is made known. Many in that vast company are unprepared for the revelations made. Upon the ears of some, the words will fall with startling distinctness, "Weighed in the balance, and found wanting." To many parents the Judge will say in that day, "You had my Word, plainly setting forth your duty. Why have you not obeyed its teachings? Knew you not that it was the voice of God? Did I not bid you search the Scriptures, that you might not go astray? Not only have you ruined your own souls, but by your pretensions to godliness, you have misled many others. You have no part with me. Depart, Depart?"

Another class stand pale and trembling, trusting in Christ, and yet oppressed with a sense of their own unworthiness. They hear with tears of joy and gratitude the Master's commendation. The days of incessant toil, of burden-bearing, of fear and anguish, are forgotten as that voice, sweeter than the music of angel harps, pronounces the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." There stand the host of the redeemed, the palm branch of victory in their hand, the crown upon their head. These are the ones who by faithful, earnest labor have obtained a fitness for heaven. The life-work performed on earth is acknowledged in the heavenly courts as a work well done.

With joy unutterable parents see the crown, the robe, the harp, given to their children. The days of hope and fear are ended. The seed sown in tears and prayers may have seemed to be sown in vain, but their harvest is reaped with joy at last. Their children have been redeemed.

Fathers, mothers, shall the voices of your children swell the song of gladness in that day? -

An Onward Work

On Sunday, July 17, I spoke in the M Street Memorial church to the company of workers who have gathered in Washington to hold a tent-meeting and to do Bible work. My heart is filled with a longing desire that all who connect with this important work shall themselves have a daily experience in the things of God, that they may fill the place assigned them in a way that will win the Lord's approval. On this point we can not be too urgent. Each worker should feel that he is on trial, and should strive to do his work in a way that will stand the test of the heavenly watchers.

I wish to express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the work that is being done on the school land at Takoma Park. I recently drove over the ground with my son and Brother Baird, and they explained the plans to me, and showed me the buildings going up. All who were on the ground were working diligently and earnestly.

We have an excellent company of workers here. If they will walk with God, they will gain a precious experience; for God takes a special interest in his faithful laborers. The work that they are doing is the Lord's work, and his angels are round about them. We certainly see the hand of the Lord in the establishment of the work in this place. The message received is that many years ago this work should have been done. The call for help that is being made now should have been made long ago.

"The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. . . . And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

"And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made him willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation." And the work went forward according to the word of the Lord.

We would now stir up the minds of our people in America to give willingly to the work that is being carried forward in Takoma Park. A school and a sanitarium are to be established in this place. A building in which publishing work can be done is to be erected. As soon as possible, school and sanitarium work should be set in operation.

We hope that no one will become weary in the special effort that is being made to erect memorials for God in this important place. All our churches are to show an unselfish interest in this work, doing all in their power to hasten it forward. Let church officers counsel together, and present to the church the importance of prompt action, and let the prayers of the church ascend to heaven, that all may see that it is their duty to help.

If there are those who are tempted to be extravagant in dress or in other things, let them restrain their desires, and remember that God calls upon them to show a special interest in the work in Washington. Let them be careful not to set an example that would lead others into extravagance.

The means that is sent in is to be used in the most careful, economical way. The buildings are to be put up and furnished without display, and without an unnecessary expenditure of means.

The Lord expects his people to take hold of this work with willingness, and with a ready mind. He is willing to give wisdom to those who are engaged in the erection of the buildings, and to those who shall be chosen to carry forward the work in these buildings. He now asks his people to offer willingly of their means, that the work on the buildings may be hastened forward.

God will surely bless those who will aid in carrying out the command, "Arise, and build for me a memorial in Washington." Let all his people take an active, unselfish interest in the advancement of the work that the Lord has declared should be done. Let no one yield to selfishness, or give with a grudging spirit. Let all give liberally, that the work may make rapid advancement.

Those who are working on the ground are doing their best. We pray that the Lord's blessing may rest upon them all, that everything may be done in accordance with his will. As the work advances, the workers will gain great blessings in seeing that the Lord answers the prayers ascending to him. His name is to be glorified. His truth is to find standing room here. The Lord God of Israel is in the work in this place, and we acknowledge it.

I call upon every church-member to remember that those who are working in Washington are in need of your stretching your hands toward heaven, and pleading with the Lord to put his Spirit upon every worker, imbuing him with his rich grace. Elder Daniells is bearing heavy responsibilities, and is putting to the tax every power of mind and body to advance the work. He needs each day the healing, reviving power of the Holy Spirit. It is your prayers we need, brethren and sisters, as well as your gifts. Both are essential, but your prayers are needed constantly.

Let every believer ask God to give special help to the workers in Washington, that no wrong moves may be made, that there may be no extravagance in the outlay of means. We need the meekness of the Redeemer. I pray that we may all put on Christ, wearing the robe of his righteousness.

Let us trust in the Lord, and pray earnestly that we may be kept by his power. Looking to human agents for help is very poor policy. We must put our entire trust in God, and exercise faith in him, depending upon his wisdom. Unless we do this, we shall surely err; for Satan is watching every chance to take advantage of us.

We must plan wisely. God will go before us if we will look to him as our counselor and our strength. We need to get away from our selfishness, and begin to work for the Lord in earnest. When he girds us with his strength, we shall have power to rise above the discouragement that the enemy seeks to bring upon us. We are to move guardedly, walking in wisdom's way, true to the Lord God of Israel, glorifying his name in all that we do and say.

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, . . . and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." -

The New England Sanitarium

Ever since the removal of the New England Sanitarium to Melrose, I have had a desire to see the new location, and to tell those connected with the institution of the important influence which its work may exert to benefit the people of Boston.

I have now been at the Melrose Sanitarium for a week, and I find it one of the most favorably located sanitariums that I have ever seen. The spacious lawns, the noble trees, the beauty of the scenery all around, answer to the representations given me of what our sanitariums ought to be. The quietude is delightful. The surroundings are attractive to the eye and refreshing to the mind. Here I see the very pictures that I have been shown in vision,--patients amid beautiful surroundings lying out in the sunshine in wheel-chairs and on cots. I see before me the sights that the Lord has helped me to present before our people in print.

Our sanitariums should be attractive places, and the surroundings of this sanitarium correspond more closely than anything else I have seen to the representations that have been given me by the Lord. This place, and several other places, were presented to me some time ago. This place was pointed out as a most desirable site for the sanitarium work that should be carried on near Boston. It has the attractiveness that will bring to it wealthy people from Boston. It has been reserved for us, that we may reach the people of that city. I have been instructed that it is in the providence of God that the sanitarium is here; and we should appreciate the advantages thus placed within our reach.

Since coming to the sanitarium, I have had opportunity to see a great deal of its surroundings. The buildings, with the forty acres which go with them, are in the midst of the Middesex Fells, a State reservation of three thousand five hundred acres. We have driven slowly through the park in every direction, looking with delight at the trees and the lakes, and inhaling the health-giving fragrance of the pines. It is delightful to ride through the forest. There are many beautiful drives, and much fine scenery. I enjoy looking at the many different kinds of trees, but most of all I enjoy looking at the noble pines. There are medicinal properties in the fragrance of these trees. "Life, life," my husband used to say when riding among the pines. "Breathe deep, Ellen; fill your lungs with the fragrant, life-giving atmosphere."

It is impossible for me to find words to describe the beauty of this place. Just in front of the sanitarium buildings there is a beautiful lake, called Spot Pond. This lake supplies the city of Boston with water, and it is most carefully guarded from contamination. No bathing or boating are allowed in it.

The sanitarium buildings are fairly well adapted to their present use. They were originally used as a hotel, but have been easily adapted to sanitarium purposes, though, of course, some changes had to be made. The buildings, with the forty acres of land, were purchased for thirty-nine thousand dollars. There was about six thousand dollars' worth of furniture in the buildings, and for this no charge was made.

I have been instructed that it was in the providence of God that our people obtained possession of this place. I have also been instructed that proper facilities should be provided for the increasing number of patients. Many from Boston and other places will come to this institution, to be away from the din and bustle of the city. Additional buildings will have to be put up. Rooms must be provided for the rich as well as for the poor. The money of the rich is needed; it will be a great help to the institution.

I groaned in spirit when I saw the sanitarium site in South Lancaster. I knew that the work ought to be carried on in a more favorable place, and when the opportunity came for it to be moved, I felt that the providence of God was guiding. A wealthy family living in South Lancaster offered to buy the sanitarium property, and gave our people a good price for it. Then they offered to give them the building, if they would move it off the ground. This offer was accepted, and the building was afterward taken down, and shipped to Melrose.

At the time that the sanitarium work was moved from South Lancaster to Melrose, I bore testimony to the wisdom of the change, and I now say again, The providence of God has been revealed in the transfer. The Melrose Sanitarium is a place that will be well patronized; and great good will be accomplished by the institution if it is rightly conducted.

There were those who said that the move would result in financial embarrassment. But there is no necessity for this institution to become embarrassed by debt. Should there be a pressure for means, money can be borrowed at four per cent interest. Thus the matter stands at the present time. But another building is needed. There should be accommodations for those who desire and are willing to pay for rooms with a private bath-room. People come here who say that they are willing to pay whatever is asked for rooms which are just what they want. But they see nothing that satisfies them, and they go away. Accommodations must be provided for people of this class. We are to labor in the highways as well as in the byways.

I am instructed that Boston must be worked; and I know that the possession of this sanitarium site is one of the greatest blessings that could come to our work in the Eastern States. A hundred or more might be cared for here were there suitable accommodations. Therefore we advise that the work on the new building be begun soon, so that patients of the wealthy class may be cared for. This class must hear the message. Let those in charge counsel together, and make arrangements to put up a building that will provide the necessary accommodations. The material now lying in the barn can be utilized. Remember, this material was a gift.

We rejoice that the Lord in his providence has guided us to this place. No buildings can be put up near the sanitarium. There is here nothing to offend the sense of sight or the sense of smell, and care must be taken that there shall be nothing of the kind. I am instructed that close inspection is being made by those who are not supposed to be inspectors. Everything about the building will be investigated. Note will be taken of the care given to the barns and stables; therefore there must be no laxness or looseness in the care of the premises. Let everything be such that it will bear favorable testimony to the institution.

Those who are acting a prominent part in connection with this sanitarium should be encouraged by what the Lord has done in behalf of the institution. Let all move forward unitedly. Let every one strive to become better acquainted with Christ Jesus, the great Medical Missionary. Let all strive with every power of the being to control the blind passions, which, if not purged from the life, would lead to the dishonor of God's holy name. Self is to be subdued. Every thought, word, and act is to be brought into obedience to the will of Christ.

Let all who are connected with the sanitarium inquire at every crisis, What would Christ do were he in my place? Keeping the way of the Lord always leads men into paths on truth and righteousness. We are to make advance moves; we are not to stagnate.

If there are members of the board who can not see clearly what ought to be done to advance the work that other members of the board regard as essential, let all bow before God in prayer, asking him to cure the evil of disunion, and make the right way clear. Time is too short for any one to put his foot on the brake, so that the chariot of the Lord can not move forward. If there is one who persists in putting his foot on the brake, let others say, "We will now seek the Lord in prayer." Do not enter into controversy with the one who has set himself against the work that needs to be done. Take it all to the Lord in prayer.

Self, self, self--how it struggles for the supremacy! In all things the Word of the God of truth is to be our criterion. Study this Word. Constantly praying with meekness and reverence, constantly rendering obedience to a plain "Thus saith the Lord," you will reveal to angels and to men that you are members of the redeemed family.

Caution should be exercised not to bring an unnecessary burden of debt upon the institution. Stand in the light and freedom, without a yoke upon your necks. Come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Satanic agencies are constantly seeking to discourage and destroy those who will listen to the counsel of the enemy. Keep close to the word of God; for it is spirit and life. Then the Lord will be able to say of you, Ye "are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." -

Notes of Travel (A Visit to Middletown, Connecticut)

After two weeks' rest at the Melrose Sanitarium, we started Friday, September 2, for the Middletown camp-meeting, where we spent three days.

It had been planned that we should attend the Maine camp-meeting, and the Canadian Union Conference, which was held in Knowlton, Quebec; but I had not strength to endure so many meetings or the fatigue of so much travel.

Toward the close of our stay at Melrose, my strength revived, and I was encouraged to attempt to speak to our people assembled at the Middletown camp-meeting, which was not far away, and to stop on my way West to speak to our people in Battle Creek.

At Middletown we found about one hundred and twenty-five of our people assembled. This was the first annual meeting of the Southern New England Conference. A spot of ground near the city and easy of access had been chosen for the camp, and there was a fair attendance of the public.

During our short stay at the meeting, I spoke four times. Our brethren dared not hope for a large attendance of the public, but on Sunday the large tent was filled, and many were standing outside.

I spoke from the third chapter of First John, about God's great gift to our world. I spoke of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, and then dwelt for a short time on the subject of temperance. I spoke with great plainness, and the people seemed to be interested. The Lord strengthened me, and I felt no weariness after speaking.

Wherever I go, I shall urge the people to keep Christ uplifted. He is always the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever, always seeking to do us good, always encouraging and guiding us, leading us onward step by step. What he is to-day,--a faithful high priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities,--he will be to-morrow, and forevermore. He is our guide, our teacher, our counselor, our friend, ever bestowing his blessings upon us in response to our faith. He invites us to abide with him. When we do this, when we make our home with him, all friction, all ill temper, all irritation, will cease.

Many years ago, when our work was just beginning, my husband and I received a letter from Brother Chamberlain, of Middletown, urging us to attend a conference in Connecticut. We decided to go if we could obtain the necessary means for the journey. My husband settled with his employer, and collected the ten dollars due him. With five of this I purchased articles of clothing that we much needed, and then patched my husband's overcoat, even piecing the patches. We had five dollars left, and with this we bought tickets to Dorchester, Mass. The little box that we used as a trunk contained almost all that we possessed on earth; but we enjoyed peace of mind and a clear conscience, and this we prized above all earthly comforts. On reaching Dorchester, we called at Brother Nichols' house, and as we were leaving, Sister Nichols handed my husband five dollars. This paid our fare to Middletown, Conn. We were strangers in the city, and had never seen one of the brethren living in the place. We had but fifty cents left, and my husband dared not use this to hire a carriage, so we walked on in search of some one of like faith. We soon found Brother Chamberlain, who took us to his house.

It was in Middletown, about 1849, that my husband began the publication of our first paper, a small sheet called, The Present Truth . We were then living in Rocky Hills, seven miles from Middletown, and my husband often walked back and forth between the two places, though he was then lame. When he brought the first number of the paper from the printing-office, we all bowed round it, and with humble hearts and many tears besought the Lord to let his blessing rest upon the feeble efforts of his servant. My husband then directed copies of the paper to all who he thought would read it, and walked seven miles to the Middletown post-office, carrying the precious papers in a carpet-bag. Again and again, before the papers were taken to the post-office, they were spread before God, and earnest prayers, mingled with tears, were offered to God that his blessing might attend the silent messengers. Very soon letters came, bringing means to help in the publication of the paper, and bringing also the good news that many souls were accepting the truth.

A Visit to Battle Creek

On Tuesday, September 6, we reached Battle Creek. Here I spent two days, speaking once to the patients in the Sanitarium parlor, once to a large congregation in the Tabernacle, and once to the Sanitarium helpers. Very short notice could be given of the meeting in the Tabernacle, and I did not expect to see many present. To my surprise, the Tabernacle was filled. It was estimated that about twenty-five hundred people were present. I spoke with freedom for more than an hour.

In the night season I received a special blessing from the Lord. I was to speak the next morning to the Sanitarium helpers, and I felt the need of wisdom and grace from on high. I laid right hold of the great Medical Missionary, and I was assured that his grace would be with me in large measure. This promise was fulfilled to me as I stood on Thursday morning before a congregation of nearly three hundred, mostly made up of sanitarium physicians, nurses, and helpers.

I know that when I ask the Lord to be my helper, he will not deny me, because it is my one desire to do his will and glorify his name. I am weak, but in depending wholly upon him, I obtain strength. In laying my burden upon the Burden-bearer, I find comfort and strength and hope. This is my desire, --to find abiding rest at his feet. While I keep firm hold of his hand, he leads me safely. The living God shall be the joy and rejoicing of my soul.

The Omaha Camp-Meeting

From Battle Creek we went to Omaha, where there was a large camp-meeting in progress. In a conversation with Elder A. T. Robinson, I learned that there were more than one thousand camped on the ground. There is a decided interest in the truth in Omaha, and the people of the city seem to be glad of the opportunity of attending the meetings.

I spoke on Sabbath afternoon and Sunday afternoon in the large tent. At each of these meetings the large tent was full. At the Sunday evening meeting, there were more than fifteen hundred present.

Monday morning I addressed the workers. During my talk I read the following from my diary:--

Many scenes have passed before me during the night, and many questions in reference to the work that we are to do for our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, have been made plain and clear. Words were spoken by One of authority. The heavenly messenger said, "The ministry is becoming greatly enfeebled because men are assuming the responsibility of preaching without gaining the needed preparation for this work."

Those who give themselves to the ministry of the Word enter a most important work. Some have made a mistake in receiving ministerial credentials. They ought to take up work for which they are better adapted. Their efforts are feeble, and they should not continue to receive pay from the tithe. In many ways the ministry is losing its sacred character.

Our churches are becoming enfeebled by receiving for doctrines the commandments of men. Many are received into the church who are not converted. Men, women, and children are allowed to take part in the solemn rite of baptism without being fully instructed in regard to the meaning of this ordinance. Participation in this ordinance means much, and our ministers should be careful to give each candidate for baptism plain instruction regarding its meaning and its solemnity.

The gospel ministry is a high and sacred calling. Properly done, the work of the gospel minister will bring many souls into the fold. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," Christ said. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." This commission is given to every ordained minister. The minister who is merely a speaker, who does not labor as Christ labored, putting his whole soul intelligently into the work, needs true conversion.

Those who preach the gospel without putting the whole being, heart, mind, soul, and strength, into the work, are consumers and not producers. God calls for men who realize that they must put forth earnest effort, men who bring thought, zeal, prudence, capability, and the attributes of Christ's character into their work. The saving of souls is a vast work, which calls for the employment of every talent, every gift of grace. Those engaged in this work should constantly increase in efficiency. They should be filled with an earnest desire to have their power for service strengthened, realizing that they will be weak without a constantly increasing supply of grace. They should seek to attain larger and still larger results in their work. When this is the experience of our workers, fruit will be seen. Many souls will be brought into the truth.

My brethren, labor earnestly and seriously. This does not mean that you are not to be cheerful, but that you are to put your whole soul into the work of preparing the way for Christ's coming. The Lord calls for whole-hearted, unselfish men to sound the note of warning. Workers who perform faithfully the duties given them of God will receive more and more grace. From their lives will shine forth more and more clearly the light of present truth. They will be given power to glorify God. They will be enabled to help and bless others by setting a Christlike example. Their path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Their conversion will become more and more decided, and they will be vessels unto honor. God's purpose for his workers is that they shall grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ. -

The Closing Work

We see before us a special work to be done. We are now to pray as never before for the Holy Spirit's guidance. Let us seek the Lord with the whole heart, that we may find him. We have received the light of the three angels' messages; and we need now to come decidedly to the front, and take our position on the side of truth.

The fourteenth chapter of Revelation is a chapter of the deepest interest. This scripture will soon be understood in all its bearings, and the messages given to John the revelator will be repeated with distinct utterance.

The prophecies in the eighteenth of Revelation will soon be fulfilled. During the proclamation of the third angel's message, "another angel" is to "come down from heaven, having great power," and the earth is to be "lighted with his glory." The Spirit of the Lord will so graciously bless consecrated human instrumentalities that men, women, and children will open their lips in praise and thanksgiving, filling the earth with the knowledge of God, and with his unsurpassed glory, as the waters cover the sea.

Those who have held the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will be wide-awake during the time that the third angel's message is proclaimed with great power. During the loud cry, the church, aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, will diffuse the knowledge of salvation so abundantly that light will be communicated to every city and town. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of salvation. So abundantly will the renewing Spirit of God have crowned with success the intensely active agencies, that the light of present truth will be seen flashing everywhere.

The saving knowledge of God will accomplish its purifying work on the mind and heart of every believer. The Word declares: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." This is the descent of the Holy Spirit, sent from God to do its office work. The house of Israel is to be imbued with the Holy Spirit, and baptized with the grace of salvation.

Amid the confusing cries, "Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is Christ!" will be borne a special testimony, a special message of truth appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon. It is the truth, not fanciful ideas, that is efficacious. The eternal truth of the Word will stand forth free from all seductive errors and spiritualistic interpretations, free from all fancifully drawn, alluring pictures. Falsehoods will be urged upon the attention of God's people, but the truth is to stand clothed in its beautiful, pure garments. The Word, precious in its holy uplifting influence, is not to be degraded to a level with common, ordinary matters. It is always to remain uncontaminated by the fallacies by which Satan seeks to deceive, if possible, the very elect.

The proclamation of the gospel is the only means in which God can employ human beings as his instrumentalities for the salvation of souls. As men, women, and children proclaim the gospel, the Lord will open the eyes of the blind to see his statutes, and will write upon the hearts of the truly penitent his law. The animating Spirit of God, working through human agencies, leads the believers to be of one mind, one soul, unitedly loving God and keeping his commandments,--preparing here below for translation.

There have been conflicts, and there will be until in heaven the voice of the Lord is heard, saying, "It is done." And after the redeemed are taken to heaven, God the Father will be glorified in crowning the Lord Jesus, who gave his life a ransom for the world.

Let the work of proclaiming the gospel of Christ be made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Let not one believer, in the day of trial and proving that has already begun, listen to the devising of the enemy. The living Word is the sword of the Spirit. Mercies and judgments will be sent from heaven. The working of providence will be revealed both in mercies and in judgments. -

If we watch and pray and trust God's living Word, we shall gain victories "Watch and pray," Christ said, "that ye enter not into temptation." The day dawns. We must enter each battle with full faith that through Christ we shall be more than conquerors. As faithful watchmen we must diligently guard against the dangers threatening God's people. Other chapters will open before us, and in order to discern their meaning, we shall need keen perception. We are not to be depressed or discouraged, but filled with holy boldness. We are not to be disheartened by the prevalence of sin, or by the difficulties that arise on the right hand and on the left. We must put on the whole armor of God, and stand firm for the right. In the future, Satan's deceptions will assume new forms. False theories, clothed with garments of light, will be presented to God's people. Thus Satan will try to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Our watchword is to be, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

God's Messengers

Moses was chosen by God as the messenger of his covenant. The Lord called him up into the mountain, to receive his instruction for Israel. Today God chooses men as he chose Moses, to be his messengers. These men are first to receive instruction from God; then they are to impart that which they have received, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Every word they speak must be spoken in truth.

It is fearfully dangerous now to be unable to discern the truth. Those who would proclaim the word of God must be men who know his will. They must be careful least they make mistakes. They must be men of knowledge, able to instruct others. How can they speak clearly and intelligently of the things of God if they do not commune with him. They must obtain wisdom from on high. They are to be instant in season and out of season, always prepared for whatever they may be called to do.

"The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." The people should counsel with him, for he is God's appointed messenger. They should not only hear, but they should ask questions, that they may have a clear knowledge of truth. He is not to withhold his knowledge from them, but is to regard it as a sacred trust, to be imparted to others. His mind is to be a treasure-house of good things, from which, whenever occasion demands, he can draw a "Thus saith the Lord." -

A Call to Service

We are living in the very last days of this earth's history. All the signs that our Saviour predicted would herald his second advent are being fulfilled. We must earnestly continue laboring until the work given us to do is finished. As we see and sense the perils of the last days, and as the powers of darkness press more heavily than ever upon us, should not we, as Bible believers, do our very best work?

We see before us a special work to be done in the time when the whole earth shall be filled with the light and the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. The prophecies in the eighteenth of Revelation will soon be fulfilled. During the proclamation of the third angel's message, "another angel" is to "come down from heaven, having great power;" and the earth is to be "lightened with the glory." The Spirit of the Lord will so graciously and universally bless consecrated human instrumentalities, that men, women, and children will open their lips in praise and testimony, filling the earth with the knowledge of God, and with his unsurpassed glory, as the waters cover the sea.

The proclamation of the gospel is the only means by which God can employ human beings as his instrumentalities for the salvation of souls. As men, women, and children proclaim the gospel, the Lord will open the eyes of the blind to see his statutes, and will write his law upon the hearts of the truly penitent.

To my brethren and sisters I am bidden to say: Let the work of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ be directed and made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Let not one believer, in the day of trial and proving that has already begun, listen to the devising of the enemy. The animating Spirit of God, working through human agencies, leads the believers to be of one mind, one soul, unitedly loving God and keeping his commandments,--preparing here below for translation.

If the families around you are opposed to the truth, strive to lead them to yield to the claims of Christ. Work patiently, wisely, considerately, winning your way by tender ministry of love. Present the truth in such a way that it will be seen in all its beauty, exerting an influence that can not be resisted. Thus the walls of prejudice will be broken down.

If this work were faithfully done, if fathers and mothers would work for the members of their own families, and then for those around them, uplifting Christ by a godly life, thousands of souls would be saved. When God's people are truly converted, when they realize the obligation resting on them to labor for those within their reach, when they leave no means untried to rescue sinners from the power of the enemy, the reproach will be removed from our churches.

Do we realize how large a number in the world are watching our movements? From quarters where we least expect it, will come voices urging us forward in the work of giving to the world the last message of mercy. Ministers and people, wake up! Be quick to recognize and seize every opportunity and advantage offered in the turning of the wheel of providence. God and Christ and the heavenly angels are working with intense activity to hold in check the fierceness of Satan's wrath, that God's plans may not be thwarted. God lives and reigns. He is conducting the affairs of the universe. Let his soldiers move forward to victory. Let there be perfect unity in their ranks. Let them press the battle to the gates. As a mighty Conqueror, the Lord will work for them.

Let the gospel message ring through our churches, summoning them to universal action. Let the members of the church have increased faith, gaining zeal from their unseen, heavenly allies, from a knowledge of their exhaustless resources, from the greatness of the enterprise in which they are engaged, and from the power of their Leader. Those who place themselves under God's control, to be led and guided by him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by him to take place. Inspired with the Spirit of him who gave his life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they can not do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth to the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that his omnipotence will supply their need. -

An Appeal for the Colored Race

The proclamation that freed the slaves in the Southern States opened doors through which Christian workers should have entered to tell the story of the love of God. In this field there were precious jewels that the Lord's workers should have searched for as for hidden treasure. But though the colored people have been freed from political slavery, many of them are still in the slavery of ignorance and sin. Many of them are terribly degraded. Is no message of warning to reach them? Had those to whom God has given great light and many opportunities done the work that he desires them to do, there would today be memorials all through the Southern field,--churches, sanitariums, and schools. Men and women of all classes would have been called to the gospel feast.

The present condition of the Southern field is dishonoring to the Redeemer. But shall it lead us to believe that the commission which Christ gave to his disciples when he told them to preach the gospel to all nations, can not be fulfilled?--No, no! Christ has power for the fulfilment of his commission. He is fully able to do the work laid upon him. In the wilderness, armed with the weapon, "It is written," he met and overcame the strongest temptations that the enemy could bring against him. He proved the power of the Word. It is God's people who have failed. That his Word has not the power on hearts that it ought to have is shown by the present condition of the world. But it is because men have chosen to disobey, not because the Word has less power.

Some time ago I seemed to be, during the night season, in a meeting in which the work in the Southern field was being discussed. The questions were asked by a company of intelligent colored people: "Has God no message for the colored people of the South? Have they no souls to save? Does not the new covenant include them? If the Lord is soon to come, is it not time that something was done for the Southern field?"

"We do not," it was said, "question the need of missions in foreign lands. But we do question the right of those who claim to have present truth to pass by millions of human beings in their own country, many of whom are as ignorant as the heathen. Why is it that so little is done for the colored people of the South, many of whom are ignorant and destitute, and need to be taught that Christ is their Creator and Redeemer? How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? How can they hear without a preacher? And how can one preach except he be sent?

"We lay this matter before those who profess to believe the truth for this time. What are you doing for the unenlightened colored race? Why have you not a deeper sense of the necessities of the Southern field? Does there not rest upon ministers of the gospel the responsibility of setting in operation plans whereby this people can be educated? Does not the commission of the Saviour teach this? Is it right for professed Christians to hold themselves aloof from this work, allowing a few to carry the burden? In all your plans for medical missionary work and foreign missionary work, has God given you no message for us?"

Then He who has authority arose, and called upon all to give heed to the instruction that the Lord has given in regard to the work in the South. He said: "Much more evangelistic work should be done in the South. There should be a hundred workers where now there is but one.

"Let the people of God awake. Think you that the Lord will bless those who have felt no burden for this work, and who permit the way of its advancement to be hedged up?"

As these words were spoken, deep feeling was manifested. Some offered themselves as missionaries, while others sat in silence, apparently taking no interest in the subject.

Then the words were spoken: "The South is a most unpromising field; but how changed would it be from what it is now, if, after the colored people had been released from slavery, men and women had worked for them as Christians ought to work, teaching them how to care for themselves!"

The condition of the colored people in the South is no more disheartening than was the condition of the world when Christ left heaven to come to its aid. He saw humanity sunken in wretchedness and sinfulness. He knew that men and women were depraved and degraded, and that they cherished the most loathsome vices. Angels marveled that Christ should undertake what seemed to them a hopeless task. They marveled that God could tolerate a race so sinful. They could see no room for love. But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

Christ came to this earth with a message of mercy and forgiveness. He laid the foundation for a religion by which Jew and Gentile, black and white, free and bond, are linked together in one common brotherhood, recognized as equal in the sight of God. The Saviour has a boundless love for every human being. In each one he sees capacity for improvement. With divine energy and hope he greets those for whom he has given his life. In his strength they can live a life rich in good works, filled with the power of the Spirit. -

Preach the Word

Satan came to Adam and Eve with the temptation, "Ye shall be as gods." This same temptation comes to all the members of the human family. Naturally, man is not willing to be what God desires him to be. He is not willing to act his part in meekness and lowliness, as did the great Exemplar. Christ laid aside his royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed his divinity with humanity, that he might stand at the head of the human race.

In man's behalf Christ volunteered to pass over the ground where Adam fell, and, by living a life of perfect obedience, place the race on vantage-ground. Power was vested in him for the redemption of mankind. Yet he did not exalt himself. He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Only through faith in Christ's name can the sinner be saved. He is the head of the new creation. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the prophet, priest, and king of all regenerate humanity. He is Immanuel, God with us. The eternal Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and of his fulness have all we received. He is the author and finisher of our faith. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

Faith in Christ is not the work of nature, but the work of God on human minds, wrought in the very soul by the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. With its justifying, sanctifying power, it is above what men call science. It is the science of eternal realities. Human science is often deceptive and misleading, but this heavenly science never misleads. It is so simple that a child may understand it, and yet the most learned men can not explain it. It is inexplainable and immeasurable, beyond all human expression.

All who search the Scriptures with humility of heart will be taught of God. "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass."

Read the whole of this chapter,--the forty-eighth of Isaiah. It has been pointed out to me as a representation of the true condition of those, who, though they have had the truth, line upon line, precept upon precept, have refused to hear and receive the testimonies of warning that God has given. They have hindered the work and cause of God with misrepresentation, falsehood, and heresy, and when the Spirit of God has spoken, they have said, "It is naught, it is naught."

"Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; . . . lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see all this; and will ye not declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. . . . Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened; for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously."

"For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. . . . For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. Harken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last."

The Lord continues to carry forward his work of redemption in the hearts of his people, not because of the goodness and devotion and purity that he sees in those in high places; not because they have feared the Lord; but for the glory of his name, lest the enemies of the truth should triumph.

The Lord has borne long with the waywardness of his people, with their persistency in carrying out their own way,--a way of self-exaltation suggested by the tempter. If they repent, and turn decidedly from their evil ways, they will become monuments of his almighty power and his abounding grace. They will become witnesses for the truth, establishing that which once they tore down. If they will repent, and make straight paths for their feet, that the lame be no longer turned out of the way, God will have mercy upon them.

The Lord desires those who have the light of truth to be wholly worked by the Holy Spirit. The truth is to be taught as Christ taught it. If he had desired us to cherish new views of God and heavenly things, he would have plainly given them to us by revelation. Let not God's servants allow their eyes to be blinded by the sophistries of the enemy. Let them not allow themselves to be led to accept theories that are contrary to the Word of God.

The word of the Lord is yea and amen. Teach the truth in the way that it is taught in the Bible. Teach it with clearness and in the fervency of the Spirit, because you have first talked with God, and have had the burden of the message laid upon your soul by the ministration of the Spirit. Then the truth will be proclaimed in its purity. There will be no tares mingled with the seed sown. The truth will commend itself to men and women of good judgment.

Thousands who have never heard the truth are starving for the bread of life. They want light from heaven. Were the truth presented to them in love, the Holy Spirit would move upon their hearts, leading them to accept it. But while these are waiting for the truth, there are backsliders in our churches, men and women who are acting as sinners. These, if not soundly converted will soon be punished as sinners.

Let no one present beautiful, scientific sophistries to lull the people of God to sleep. Clothe not the solemn, sacred truth for this time in any fantastic dress of man's wisdom. Let those who have been doing this stop and cry unto God to save their souls from deceiving fables.

It is the living energy of the Holy Spirit that will move hearts, not pleasing, deceptive theories. Fanciful representations are not the bread of life: they can not save the soul from sin.

Christ was sent from heaven to redeem humanity. He taught the doctrines that God gave him to teach. The truths that he proclaimed, as found in the Old Testament and the New, we today are to proclaim as the word of the living God.

Let those who want the bread of life go to the Scriptures, not to the teaching of finite, erring men. Give the people the bread of life that Christ came from heaven to bring to us. Do not mix with your teaching human suppositions and conjectures. I would that all knew how much they need to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God,--to make his words a part of their very lives! "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," Christ declares, "and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. . . . As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

We need spiritual strength. If we eat the Word of God, if we practise the teachings of Christ, we shall have life in ourselves. We shall be strong in the strength of God. -

The Power of the Word of God

In the Word of God, studied and obeyed as our guide-book, we possess a spiritual guide and instructor by which the worst forms of evil in ourselves may be brought under the discipline of God's law. If the teachings of this Word were made the controlling influence in our lives, if mind and heart were brought under its restraining power, the evils that now exist in churches and families would find no place. Upon converted households the purest blessings would descend, and from these households an influence would go forth that would make them a power on the side of truth and righteousness.

The work of reformation that is needed must begin in the home. There rests upon parents the most solemn obligation to train their children in the fear and love of God. In the home the purest morals are to be preserved. Strict obedience to Bible requirements is to be taught. The teachings of the Word of God are to control mind and heart, that the home life may demonstrate the power of the grace of God. Each member of the family is to be "polished after the similitude of a palace" by the divine principles and precepts.

Parents need to awake from their deathlike slumber, and no longer neglect the Lord's instructions. As members of the church, and for the benefit of those with whom they may be associated, their characters are to be cast in a Christlike mold. Their course of action is to be a constant declaration that, instead of wearing the stamp and mold of the world, they have put on the image of the heavenly.

In the Bible the will of God is revealed. Through all time this book is to stand as a revelation of Jehovah. To human beings the divine oracles have been committed to be the power of God. The truths of the Word of God are not mere sentiment, but the utterances of the Most High. He who makes these truths a part of his life becomes in every sense a new creature. He is not given new mental powers, but the darkness that through ignorance and sin have clouded the understanding, is removed.

The words, "A new heart will I give you," mean, A new mind will I give you. This change of heart is always attended by a clear conception of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. The clearness of our views of truth will be proportionate to our understanding of the Word of God. He who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he had reached a higher grade of intelligence.

The Word of God, studied and obeyed as it should be, will give light and knowledge. Its perusal will strengthen the understanding. By contact with the purest, most lofty truths, the mind will be enlarged, the taste refined.

We are dependent on the Bible for a knowledge of the early history of our world, of the creation of man, and of his fall. Remove the Word of God, and what can we expect but to be left to fables and conjectures, and to that enfeebling of the intellect which is the sure result of entertaining error. We need the authentic history of the origin of the earth, of the fall of Lucifer, and of the introduction of sin into the world. Without the Bible, we should be bewildered by false theories. The mind would be subjected to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood. But, having in our possession an authentic history of the beginning of the world, we need not hamper ourselves with human conjectures and unreliable theories.

Wherever Christians are, they may hold communion with God. And they may enjoy the intelligence of sanctified science. Their minds may be strengthened, even as Daniel's was. God gave him "knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom." Among all the youth examined by Nebuchadnezzar, there was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

The habits and understanding of the youth who were not instructed by God were in accord with the knowledge that comes from idolatrous practises, and leaves God out of the reckoning. Daniel and his companions, from the first of their experience in the king's court, were gaining a clearer comprehension and sounder, more accurate judgment, than all the wise men in the kingdom of Babylon. They placed themselves where God could bless them. They ate only that food which would not becloud their minds. They followed rules of life which would help to give them strength of intellect, that they might gain the greatest possible benefit from their study of God's Word.

It was to Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar, unable to get help from his wise men, turned for an account of his forgotten dream, and for an interpretation of it. Daniel and his companions sought the Lord in prayer, and he revealed to them the dream and its interpretation. And when they related to the king what God had shown them, Nebuchadnezzar said, "Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret."

The mind of which error has once taken possession can never expand freely to after-investigation. The old theories will claim recognition. The understanding of things that are true and elevated and sanctifying will be confused. Superstitious ideas will enter the mind, to mingle with the true, and these ideas are always debasing in their influence. Christian knowledge bears its own stamp of unmeasured superiority in all that concerns the preparation for the future, immortal life. It distinguishes the Bible reader and believer, who has been receiving the precious treasures of truth, from the skeptic and the believer in pagan philosophy.

Cleave to the word, "It is written." Cast out of the mind the dangerous, obtrusive theories which, if entertained, will hold the mind in bondage, so that man shall not become a new creature in Christ. The mind must be constantly restrained and guarded. It must be given as food only that which will strengthen the religious experience.

The Bible teaches every soul to turn to the lands where the cross of Calvary has not been uplifted, and the name of Jesus exalted above every other name. The nation that gives free room for the circulation of the Scriptures opens the way for the minds of the people to work with greater vigor. The reading of the Scriptures causes light to shine into the darkness. As the Word of God is searched, life-giving truths are found.

In the cities and nations of our world, there will be found among unbelievers a remnant who will appreciate the blessed Word, and who will receive the Saviour. Christ will give men and women power to become the sons and daughters of God. -

Simplicity in Dress

Fashion rules the world. She is a tyrannical mistress, often compelling her devotees to the greatest inconvenience and discomfort. Fashion taxes without reason and collects without mercy. She has a fascinating power, and stands ready to criticize and ridicule the poor, if they do not follow in her wake at any cost, even at the sacrifice of life itself. Satan triumphs that his devices succeed so well, and Death laughs at the health-destroying folly and blind zeal of the worshipers at Fashion's shrine.

Not a few of our people are backsliding. They are imitating the fashions of the world. Their spirituality is dying. Step by step they are approaching world-loving. Selfishness and pride are taking possession of them, and the love of God finds little room in their hearts. Some who were once zealous reformers are now indifferent. Sisters who were once plain in dress are now conforming to fashion. God expects his commandment-keeping people to be distinct from worldlings, but in many instances the line of demarcation is hardly discernible.

As I have seen those of our faith becoming worldly, my heart has been saddened. Some of those who profess to believe that they have the last message of mercy to give to the world, follow the fashions as far as they think their profession of faith will allow them to do. And their influence leads others astray. Their lack of Christlikeness is apparent to all. The Lord is dishonored by their conformity to the fashions of this degenerate age. Outward display is contradictory to our profession of faith. I entreat my sisters to guard against the tendency to dress in accordance with the demands of fashion.

Many of the mother's burdens are the result of her effort to keep pace with the fashions of the day. Terrible is the effect of these fashions on the physical, mental, and moral health. Lacking the courage to stand firm for the right, women allow the current of popular feeling to draw them on in its wake. Much precious time is devoted to needless stitching and ruffling, to add to the outward adorning. Children are robbed of the time that should be devoted to gaining for them the beauty of holiness,--the inward adorning, which, in the sight of God, is of great price.

In order to follow fashion, many of our youth incur expenses that are out of proportion to their condition in life. Children of poor parents endeavor to dress as do those who are wealthy. Parents tax their purses and their God-given time and strength in making and remodeling clothing to satisfy their children's vanity. If our sisters who have an abundance of means would regulate their expenditures by their responsibility to God, as wise stewards of the means entrusted to them; their example would do much to stay this evil now existing among us. Souls whom they might have helped by letting their light shine in good works, are strengthened in unbelief by their inconsistent course.

Mothers can not be slaves to fashion and at the same time exert a sanctifying influence in the home. Too often professedly Christian mothers sacrifice principle to their desire to follow the multitude who make fashion their god. Conscience protests, but they are not brave enough to take a decided stand against the wrong.

Many of our sisters willingly bear the unnecessary burden of conformity to worldly dress. Attempting to follow the fashions, their burdens are greatly increased, yet they willingly bear the yoke, because they worship the goddess of fashion.

It is not only the privilege, but the duty of every one to increase daily in the knowledge of God and the truth. Satan's object is gained if he can invent something that will so attract the mind that God will be forgotten, and he uses fashion with great success to do this. He knows that women who constantly have a feverish desire to follow the fashions, have benumbed their moral sensibilities, and do not realize their real spiritual condition. Worldly minded, they are without God, without hope. They take no time to pray, or to search the Scriptures in order that they may understand the truth, and teach it to their children.

When I have seen Christian women leading out in temperance campaigns, presenting to liquor inebriates a pledge to abstain from all intoxicating drinks, I have thought that it would also be well for them to present to every Christian woman a pledge to abstain from all needless display and extravagance in dress. By dressing simply, thus saving time and means, Christian women can do much to help the temperance cause. The means thus saved will clothe the destitute, feed the hungry, and will help to close the door against liquor drinking. Those who are simple in dress have time to visit the afflicted, and to pray with and for them. On all Christians rests a solemn duty to economize, that they may be better able to help those in need.

We do not discourage neatness in dress. Correct taste is not to be despised nor condemned. Our faith, if carried out, will lead us to be so plain in dress, and zealous of good works, that we shall be marked as peculiar. But when we lose taste for order and neatness in dress, we virtually leave the truth; for the truth never degrades, but elevates. When believers are neglectful of their dress, and are coarse and rough in their manners, their influence hurts the truth. "We are," said the inspired apostle, "made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." All heaven is marking the daily influence that the professed followers of Christ exert upon the world. My sisters, your dress is telling either in favor of Christ and the sacred truth or in favor of the world. Which is it? Remember that we must all answer to God for the influence we exert.

Simplicity of dress will make a sensible woman appear to the best advantage. We judge of a person's character by the style of dress worn. A modest, godly woman will dress modestly. A refined taste, a cultivated mind, will be revealed in the choice of a simple, appropriate attire. The young women who break away from the slavery of fashion will be ornaments to society. The one who is simple and unpretending in her dress and in her manners shows that she understands that a true woman is characterized by moral worth. How charming, how interesting, is simplicity in dress, which in comeliness can be compared with the flowers of the field. -

A Preparation for the Coming of the Lord

Sin is a hateful thing. It marred the moral beauty of a large number of the angels. It entered our world, and well-nigh obliterated the moral image of God in man. But in his great love God provided a way whereby man might regain the position from which he fell in yielding to the tempter. Christ came to stand at the head of humanity, to work out in our behalf a perfect character. Those who receive him are born again. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."

Christ saw humanity, through the working of the mighty growth of sin, demoniacally possessed by the prince of the power of the air, and putting forth gigantic strength in exploits of evil. But he saw also that a mightier power was to meet and conquer Satan. "Now is the judgment of this world," he said; "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." He saw that if human beings believed in him, they would be given power against the host of fallen angels, whose name is legion. Christ strengthened his own soul by the thought that by the wonderful sacrifice which he was about to make, the prince of this world was to be cast out, and men and women placed where, through the grace of God, they would regain what they had lost.

What does the Lord require of his blood-bought heritage?--The sanctification of the whole being,--purity like the purity of Christ, perfect conformity to the will of God. My brethren and sisters, God requires this of us. Into the holy city there can enter nothing that defileth, or maketh a lie. God's word to us is, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." He "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

We can, we can , reveal the likeness of our divine Lord. We can know the science of spiritual life. We can honor our Maker. But do we do it? O, what an illustrious example we have in the life that Christ lived on this earth! He has shown us what we can accomplish through co-operation with divinity. We are to seek for the union of which he speaks when he says, "Abide in me, and I in you." This union is deeper, stronger, truer, than any other union, and is productive of all good. Those who are thus united to the Saviour are controlled by his will, and are moved by his love to suffer with those who suffer, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to feel a deep sympathy for every one in weakness, sorrow, or distress.

Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for his children. He wants our minds to be clear, our tempers sweet, our love abounding. Then the peace that passeth knowledge will flow from us to bless all with whom we come in contact. The atmosphere surrounding our souls will be refreshing.

But how few there are who are making determined efforts to reach this ideal. Satan is trying to keep the people of God dwarfed, feeble, un-Christlike. And too often he is successful. In our churches there are many who have not the spirit of the Master, many who act as if they were in the world merely to please themselves. They forget that the enemy is assailing all who profess to be children of God, trying to overcome them, so that they will disappoint and dishonor the Saviour. They forget that the purity and unselfishness that characterized the life of Christ must characterize their lives, else in the day of God they will be found wanting, and will hear from his lips the irrevocable sentence, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

I have been especially instructed in regard to the danger of drawing apart, and of evil speaking and contention. We need to bow before God in repentance because of our lack of love for one another, and for him who died for us. The gold of love and faith is not abundant among us. Many are holding on to the truth with but the tips of their fingers. The precious time that should be spent in speaking of the Saviour's power to save, is being spent by many in carrying evil reports. Unless they make a decided change, they will be found wanting. Unless they have an entire transformation of character, they will never enter heaven. A deep, thorough work needs to be done in the hearts of those who profess to be children of God. Until they reveal the faith that works by love and purifies the soul, very little genuine work for God will be done in the world.

Let our people take up their appointed work,--the work of soul-saving. Let them not think that upon them has been laid the burden of watching and criticizing the work of others. Those who put their whole souls into the work that God gives them will have no time to criticize the efforts of their fellow workers, no time to weaken the hands of those who are straining every nerve and muscle to advance the work.

Let not any man or woman feel that he or she has been appointed to carry evil reports from church to church, and from conference to conference. I have been grieved beyond measure to see how easy it is for persons to spend precious time in this cruel work. The proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages is now to be our burden. Those who spend their time in thinking and speaking evil are bringing to the foundation, material represented by hay, wood, and stubble, which will be consumed by the fires of the last days. They will one day see that their time has been spent in weakening churches, institutions, and conferences.

God hates all such work. He will call to account all who engage in it. Let those who fear God and believe his word put a guard on their lips. Let them be determined not to speak words that will injure the cause of God, or give a wrong representation of the work being done in any of his institutions. Let them be careful not to speak words that will be a temptation to some one else to withhold the confidence and the words of courage that ought to be given to those who are severely tried, and who, perhaps, work early and late to fulfil the many calls of duty, until it seems as if mind and body would give way under the strain.

Words of suspicion and distrust, like the thistle-down carried by the wind, are scattered far and wide, and can never be recalled. Un-Christlike speech lies at the foundation of nine tenths of all the difficulties that exist in the church. Satan's agents are industriously trying to get professed Christians to speak unadvisedly. When they succeed, Satan exults, because God's followers have hurt their influence. We have no time, in these solemn moments, to contend with one another. Those who give way to evil-thinking and evil-speaking do not realize how much time they cause others to lose. God's servants have been called upon to settle difficulties between brother and brother, and time has been spent in this way that belonged to souls ready to perish,--time that ought to have been devoted to the fulfilling of the gospel commission.

My brother, my sister, be afraid to find fault, afraid to talk against your fellow workers. You have enlisted to fight against Satan's forces, and you have no time to fight against your fellow soldiers. The truly converted man has no inclination to think or talk of the faults of others. His lips are sanctified, and as God's witness he testifies that the grace of Christ has transformed his heart. He realizes that he can not afford to talk discouragement or unbelief. He can not afford to be harsh or faultfinding. He has not received orders to punish the erring and sinful by heaping abuse upon them.

Speak words of kindness, words of uplifting; for this is the fruit borne upon the Christian tree. Overcome all harshness. Eternity alone will reveal the harm that harsh words do to those who utter them, and to those who hear. Hold firmly to the One who has all power in heaven and earth, and although you often fail to reveal patience and calmness under provocation, by no means give up the struggle. Resolve again, this time more firmly, that you will be an example of Christian patience. Remember that those only will enter heaven who have overcome the temptation to think and speak evil.

"The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." Christ will be to his people all that these words express if they will heed the invitation to come to him. He will be to them life and power, strength and efficiency, wisdom and holiness. God calls upon us to live the Christ-life, to reveal this life to the world. When we do this, prejudice will vanish, and difficulties will adjust themselves. We shall gather about the great Missionary, our hearts filled with gratitude and love.

My brethren and sisters, instead of spending your time looking for and talking of the shortcomings of others, give yourselves to the work that Christ did when in this world. How untiringly he labored! In the temple and the synagogues, in the streets of the cities, in the market-place and the workshop, by the seaside and among the hills, he preached the gospel and healed the sick. His life was one of unselfish service, and it is to be our lesson book. The work that he began we are to carry forward.

Brethren and sisters, how much work have you done for God during the past year? Do you think that it is those men only who have been ordained as gospel ministers that are to work for the uplifting of humanity?--No, no! Every one who names the name of Christ is expected by God to engage in this work. The hands of ordination may not have been laid upon you, but you are none the less God's messengers. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, if you know his saving power, you can no more keep from telling this to some one else than you can keep the wind from blowing. You will have a word in season for him that is weary. You will guide the feet of the straying back to the fold. Your efforts to help others will be untiring, because God's Spirit is working in you.

Have you told those with whom you have come in contact what banner you are serving under? Have they been able to see, by the Christlikeness of your words and acts, that you are a true follower of Jesus. O that our hearts may be deeply impressed with the importance of living holy lives, that the world may take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of him. Christian worth does not depend upon brilliant talents, lofty birth, wonderful powers, but on a clean heart,--a heart which, purified and refined, reflects the image of divinity. It is the presence of him who gave his life for us that makes the soul beautiful. It is not eloquent speakers that are needed so much as humble, earnest workers,--men and women who have a childlike trust in God. It is the men of prayer that are men of power. They will be enabled to lead sinners to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

My brethren and sisters, do not allow trifling things to absorb your time and attention. Keep your mind on the glorious themes of the Word of God. A study of these themes will give you a strength that will carry you through the trials and difficulties of the last days, and bring you to where you will walk with Christ in white, because you are worthy. In the Word of God, studied and obeyed, we possess a spiritual guide and instructor by which the worst forms of evil in ourselves may be brought under the discipline of his law. If the teachings of this Word were made the controlling influence in our lives, if mind and heart were brought under its restraining power, the evils that now exist in churches and in families would find no place. Upon converted households the purest blessings would descend, and from these households an influence would go forth that would make God's people a power on the side of truth.

But there are many in our churches who know little of the meaning of the truth for this time. They have not searched for the truth with humble, contrite hearts. I appeal to the members of our churches not to disregard the fulfilling of the signs of the times, which say so plainly that the end is near. O, how many who have not cared for the salvation of their souls will soon make the bitter lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!"

O, that we would remember that it is court week with us, and that our cases are pending! Now is the time to watch and pray, to put away all self-indulgence, all pride, all selfishness. The precious moments that are now by many worse than wasted should be spent in meditation and prayer. Many of those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God are following inclination instead of duty. As they are now, they are unworthy of eternal life. To these careless, indifferent ones, I would say, Your vain thoughts, your unkind words, your selfish acts, are recorded in the book of heaven. The angels that were present at Belshazzar's idolatrous revelry stand beside you as you dishonor your Redeemer. Sadly they turn away, grieved that you should thus crucify him afresh, and put him to open shame.

"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. . . . Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off."

On Christ's coronation day he will not acknowledge as his any who bear spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But to his faithful ones he will give crowns of immortal glory. Those who would not that he should reign over them will see him surrounded by the army of the redeemed, each of whom bears the sign, The Lord Our Righteousness. They will see the head once crowned with thorns crowned with a diadem of glory.

In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and his Son. The angels of heaven, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King, and those who are the trophies of his victory,--those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts accompanied by his redeemed ones, the witnesses that his mission of suffering and self-sacrifice has not been in vain. -

The Day of the Lord Is Near, and Hasteth Greatly

An Impressive Scene

Not long ago a very impressive scene passed before me. I saw an immense ball of fire falling among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard some one say, "We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon." Others said, "You knew? Why then did you not tell us. We did not know." On every side I heard such words spoken.

In great distress I awoke. I went to sleep again, and seemed to be in a large gathering. One of authority was addressing the company, before whom was spread out a map of the world. He said that this map pictured God's vineyard, which must be cultivated. As light from heaven shone upon any one, that one was to reflect the light to others. Lights were to be kindled in many places, and from these lights still other lights were to be kindled. The words were repeated,--

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill can not be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

I saw jets of light shining from cities and villages, and from the high places and the low places of the earth. God's Word was obeyed, and, as a result, there were memorials for him in every city and village. His truth was proclaimed throughout the world.

Then this map was removed, and another put in its place. On it, light was shining forth from a few places only. The rest of the world was in darkness, with only a glimmer of light here and there. Our Instructor said, "This darkness is the result of men's following their own course. They have cherished hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil. They have made questioning and faultfinding and accusing the chief business of their lives. Their hearts are not right with God. They have hidden their light under a bushel."

If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might, ere this, have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. While men have slept, Satan has stolen a march upon us.

No Time to Lose

Soon grievous troubles will arise among the nations.--trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before, we need to press together, serving him who has prepared his throne in the heavens, and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken his people, and our strength lies in not forsaking him.

The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfilment.

From all the countries of the world the Macedonian cry is sounding, "Come over and help us." God has opened fields before us, and if human agencies would but co-operate with divine agencies, many souls would be won to the truth. But the Lord's professed people have been sleeping over their allotted work, and in many places it remains comparatively untouched. God has sent message after message to arouse our people to do something, and to do it now. But to the call, "Whom shall I send?" there have been few to respond, "Here am I; send me."

When the reproach of indolence and slothfulness shall have been wiped away from the church, the Spirit of the Lord will be graciously manifested. Divine power will be revealed. The church will see the providential working of the Lord of hosts. The light of truth will shine forth in clear, strong rays, and, as in the time of the apostles, many souls will turn from error to truth. The earth will be lightened with the glory of the Lord.

Heavenly angels have long been waiting for human agents--the members of the church--to co-operate with them in the great work to be done. They are waiting for you. So vast is the field, so comprehensive the design, that every sanctified heart will be pressed into service as an instrument of divine power.

At the same time there will be a power working from beneath. While God's agents of mercy work through consecrated human beings, Satan sets his agencies in operation, laying under tribute all who will submit to his control. There will be lords many and gods many. The cry will be heard, "Lo, here is Christ," and, "Lo, there is Christ." The deep plotting of Satan will reveal itself everywhere, for the purpose of diverting the attention of men and women from present duty. There will be signs and wonders. But the eye of faith will discern in all these manifestations, harbingers of the grand and awful future, and of the triumphs that will surely come to the people of God.

Work, O work! keeping eternity in view. Bear in mind that every power must be sanctified. A great work is to be done. Let the prayer go forth from unfeigned lips, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations."

Those who realize, even in a limited degree, what redemption means to them and to their fellow men will walk by faith, and will comprehend in some measure the vast needs of humanity. Their hearts are moved to compassion as they see the widespread destitution in our world,--the destitution of the multitudes who are suffering for food and clothing, and the moral destitution of thousands who are under the shadow of a terrible doom, in comparison to which physical suffering fades into nothingness.

Make Christ the Refuge

Let church-members bear in mind that the fact that their names are registered on the church books will not save them. They must show themselves approved of God, workmen that need not to be ashamed. Day by day they are to build their characters in accordance with Christ's directions. They are to abide in him, constantly exercising faith in him. Thus they will grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ,--wholesome, cheerful, grateful Christians, led by God, step by step, into clearer and still clearer light.

Those who do not gain this experience will be among the ones whose voices will one day be raised in the bitter lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved. Why did I not flee to the stronghold for refuge? Why have I trifled with my soul's salvation, and done despite to the Spirit of grace?"

Among those to whom fearful disappointment will come at the day of final reckoning will be those who have been outwardly religious, who have apparently lived Christian lives, but who have woven self into all that they do. They have prided themselves on their morality, their influence, their ability to stand in a higher position than others, their knowledge of the truth. They think that these will win for them the commendation of Christ. "Lord," they say, "we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets." "Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?"

But the Saviour says, "I never knew you: depart from me." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

There is no discussion; the time for that is past. The irrevocable sentence has been pronounced. They are shut out from heaven by their own unfitness for its companionship.

Those who have bowed to the idols of the world will gain no comfort from them in that great day when every one will be rewarded or punished according to his works. But Omnipotence will deal justly. Those who have made Christ their refuge will find that he lives, and that he is conqueror. He will be their defense.

Encouraging Words--the End Near

"The great day of the Lord is near; it is near, and hasteth greatly." Every hour, every minute, is precious. We have no time to spend in faultfinding and contention. All around us there are souls perishing in sin. Every day there is something to do for the Master. Every day we are to point souls to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Be always ready; "in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Go to your rest at night with every sin confessed. Thus we did in 1844, when we expected to meet our Lord. And now this great event is nearer than when we first believed. Be always ready, in the evening, in the morning, and at noon, that when the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!" you may, even though awakened out of sleep, go forth to meet him with your lamps trimmed and burning.

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city of God into the great beyond, the wide, unbounded future that awaits the overcomer. Heed the encouragement in the words, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

Let us be found "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." The Lord has made every provision that we shall have strong hope. If we are true to our covenant with God, the blessing is certain,--as certain as God's promise can make it. And so great is the blessing that it will be a full and sufficient reward for all the self-denial and self-sacrifice that for Christ's sake we have shown here below. -

The Training of Workers

The true worker in the cause of God will banish from the mind, as impious, every thought of inherent merit. Even the heavenly angels take to themselves no praise. Throughout the heavenly courts, in one grand chorus, resounds their acknowledgment to the Creator: "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." Those who live on this earth should unite with the heavenly host in ascribing all praise and glory to the Creator. No man has the least cause for boasting or self-exaltation, even when he does his very best. Man often fails of doing his duty, leaving undone a vast amount that a close connection with God would have enabled him to do.

Constantly God is laboring to make up man's deficiencies. Even repentance is brought about through the application of grace. The natural heart feels no need of repentance. The tears that fall from the eyes of man because of sorrow for his sinfulness and because of sympathy for other sinners, start unbidden. They are as dew from eyes that belong to God. Man's sighs are but indications of the deep feeling in a heart that is God's. The good resolutions we make are but the expression of desires that are his. The reformed life is but the better employment of a life that has been ransomed by the sacrifice of his Son Jesus. No credit should we take to ourselves for anything that we may do. "All things come of thee," we shall eventually be led to acknowledge to our Creator, "and of thine own have we given thee."

Faith, too, is the gift of God. Faith is the assent of man's understanding to God's words, that binds the heart to God's service. And whose is man's understanding, if it be not God's? Whose the heart, if it be not God's? To have faith, is to render to God the intellect, the energy, that we have received from him; therefore those who exercise faith do not themselves deserve any credit. Those who believe so firmly in a Heavenly Father that they can trust him with unlimited confidence; those who by faith can reach beyond the grave to the eternal realities beyond, must pour forth to their Maker the confession, "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."

No man has a right to call himself his own. And no man possesses any good thing that he can call his own. Every man, every thing, is the property of the Lord. All that man receives from the bounty of heaven is still the Lord's. Whatever knowledge he has that in any way helps him to be an intelligent workman in God's cause, is from the Lord, and should be imparted by him to his fellow men, in order that they, too, may become valuable workmen. He to whom God has entrusted unusual gifts should return to the Lord's storehouse that which he has received, by freely giving to others the benefit of his blessings. Thus God will be honored and glorified.

In all the departments of the Lord's work, every laborer is to help his fellow laborers. The workers who have had many advantages are to take no credit to themselves, nor are they to think that they deserve praise for using in the service of Christ the talents that he has entrusted to them. They should realize that the non-employment of their capabilities would place upon them a burden of guilt, making them deserving of God's just displeasure and severest judgments.

Heavenly bestowed capabilities should not be made to serve selfish ends. Every energy, every endowment, is a talent that should contribute to God's glory by being used in his service. His gifts are to be put out to the exchangers, that he may receive his own, with usury. The talents that fit a man for service are entrusted to him not only that he may be an acceptable worker himself, but that he may also be enabled to teach others who in some respects are deficient.

If in their ministry those whom we teach develop an energy and an intelligence even superior to that which we possess, we should be led to rejoice over the privilege of having a part in the work of training them. But there is danger that some in positions of responsibility as teachers and leaders, will act as if talent and ability have been given to them only, and that they must do all the work in order to make sure that it is done aright. They are liable to find fault with everything not originated by themselves. A great amount of talent is lost to the cause of God because many laborers, desiring to be first, are willing to lead, but never to follow. Although they closely scrutinize and criticize all that any one else does, they are in danger of regarding that which goes forth from their hands as perfect.

To those upon whom God has bestowed many talents, I am instructed to say: Help the inexperienced; discourage them not. Take them into your confidence; give them fatherly counsel, teaching them as you would teach students in a school. Watch not for their mistakes, but recognize their undeveloped talents, and train them to make a right use of these powers. Instruct them with all patience, encouraging them to go forward and to do an important work. Instead of keeping them engaged in doing things of minor importance, give them an opportunity to obtain an experience by which they may develop into trustworthy workers. Much will thus be gained to the cause of God.

Those placed in positions of responsibility should patiently seek to make others familiar with all parts of the work. This will reveal that they do not desire to be first, but that they are glad to have others become acquainted with details, and to become as efficient as they are. Those who faithfully fulfil their duty in this respect, will, in time, have standing by their side a large number of intelligent workers whom they have trained. Should they shape matters in accordance with narrow, selfish conceptions, they would stand almost alone.

Some workers are incapable of filling positions that others can fill. Many who might have been able to fill positions of trust, have not disciplined themselves, nor have they done that which they could have done from day to day to meet the increasing demands of the present time. Others are able to bear responsibilities, and would do so, if they were encouraged, and if there were some one who, with patience, kindness, and forbearance, would teach them how to work. Ministers should show a real earnestness in helping such persons succeed, and should put forth persevering effort to develop talent. The inexperienced are in need of wise generals who by prayer and personal effort will encourage and help them to become perfect in Christ Jesus, wanting in nothing. This is the work which every gospel minister should endeavor to do, but which some are liable to fail of doing.

Men of varied talents and superior ability will unite with us in the work of giving the last message of mercy to a perishing world. My brethren, learn to see and to recognize ability and talent in others besides yourselves. Be examples to the flock. Give to others the benefit of all the knowledge that the Lord has given to you. He has entrusted you with this knowledge, that you may impart it. With the same liberality and freedom that the Master teaches you, teach others, binding them to your heart by love and tenderness.

Let no one seek to exalt himself by talking of his deeds, extolling his abilities, displaying his knowledge, and cultivating self-conceit. Let no one strive to tear down the work of others who do not labor according to his standard. The heavenly Teacher extends to us the invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Christ was never self-confident or conceited. He declared. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, there also doeth the Son likewise."

A great work is to be done in America and in other lands. As yet, many fields are still unentered. The most important duty before those who have been sent out into the fields at home and abroad as missionaries, it to combine the forces and strength of all whom they can possibly enlist as helpers. Thus they can make mighty strokes for their Master. God will do a great work in every part of the field, if with willing hearts his servants put self out of sight, and labor for his glory. -

The Privilege of Prayer

Through nature and revelation, through his providence, and by the influence of his Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual intercourse with our Heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward him; we may meditate upon his works, his mercies, his blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to him concerning our actual life.

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to him.

When Jesus was upon the earth, he taught his disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon him. And the assurance he gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.

Jesus himself, while he dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified himself with our needs and weaknesses, in that he became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from his Father fresh supplies of strength, that he might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, "in all points tempted like as we are;" but as the sinless One his nature recoiled from evil; he endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with his Father. And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer!

Our Heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fulness of his blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of his children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of heaven think of poor helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God's heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little, and have so little faith? The angels love to bow before God; they love to be near him. They regard communion with God as their highest joy; and yet the children of earth, who need so much the help that God only can give, seem satisfied to walk without the light of his Spirit, the companionship of his presence.

The darkness of the evil one encloses those who neglect to pray. The whispered temptations of the enemy entice them to sin; and it is all because they do not make use of the privileges that God has given them in the divine appointment of prayer. Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse, where are treasured the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer and diligent watching, we are in danger of growing careless, and of deviating from the right path. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy-seat, that we may not be earnest supplication and faith obtain grace and power to resist temptation.

If we take counsel with our doubts and fears, or try to solve everything that we can not see clearly, before we have faith, perplexities will only increase and deepen. But if we come to God,feeling helpless and dependent, as we really are, and in humble, trusting faith make known our wants to him whose knowledge is infinite, who sees everything in creation, and who governs everything by his will and word, he can and will attend to our cry, and will let light shine into our hearts. Through sincere prayer we are brought into connection with the mind of the Infinite. We may have no remarkable evidence at the time that the face of our Redeemer is bending over us in compassion and love; but this is even so. We may not feel his visible touch, but his hand is upon us in love and pitying tenderness.

When we come to ask mercy and blessing from God, we should have a spirit of love and forgiveness in our own hearts. How can we pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," and yet indulge an unforgiving spirit? If we expect our own prayers to be heard, we must forgive others in the same manner, and to the same extent, as we hope to be forgiven.

There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer-meeting, faithful to do their duty, and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven.

Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You can not burden him; you can not weary him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of his children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." His heart of love is touched by our sorrows, and even by our utterance of them. Take to him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for him to bear; for he holds up worlds, he rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for him to read; no perplexity is too difficult for him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of his children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our Heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which he takes no immediate interest. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share his watch-care, not another soul for whom he gave his beloved Son. -

A Call to Repentance

We are living in the time of the end. Thrones and churches have united to oppose God's purposes. The association of man with man, which God designed should be a means of strengthening goodness and happiness, is used as a means of strengthening evil and of developing tendencies to rebellion. Men have assumed despotic power, and human laws have been put in the place of the law of God.

It is the reign of Antichrist. God's law is set aside. The Scriptures are exchanged for the traditions of men. Satan has become the ruler of the world; and in his hands temptation has become a science. He rules over a vast, well-organized empire. Sin has stimulated his followers into fearful activity. Men have combined to perpetuate evil. The sale of intoxicating liquor, destructive alike to soul and body, is legalized by Christian governments.

Influences are to be set in motion that will proclaim to the world the first, second, and third angels' messages. The world is to be warned, and I beseech those who know the truth to do all in their power to sound the message, "Prepare to meet thy God."

"It is time for thee, Lord, to work," David said; "for they have made void thy law." David lived many hundreds of years ago, and he thought then that the time had come for God to interfere to vindicate his honor and repress the swelling unrighteousness. To-day men have almost filled the cup of their iniquity. But the Lord does not execute the death penalty on the transgressors of his law until they have heard the warning, and have been given an opportunity to see the result of rebellion against him. How wonderful is his forbearance and patience! He is putting a constraint on his own attributes. Omnipotence is exerted over Omnipotence.

"The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power," "plenteous in mercy" and forgiveness; but he "will not at all acquit the wicked." Soon there is to be an awakening of his displeasure, and who then can stay his wrath?

There is a work to be done in our cities,--work to be done in every place. God will take men from the plow, from the sheepfold, from the vineyard, and will put them in the place of those who think that they must have the highest wages. Those who grasp for high wages will find in the money they get all the reward they will ever receive. Such ones can not be expected to feel a burden for the salvation of perishing souls. The Lord can not use such ones in his work. Until they banish selfishness from their hearts, their efforts are worthless.

God says to his people to-day, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Will they heed the reproof? Will they dare to trifle with so direct and decided a statement, and keep their commended excellencies blasted as with a mildew because they allow Satan to steal in among them. "Thou hast left thy first love," and therefore there is no steadfastness of purpose. Without this love, all knowledge, all capabilities, all outward zeal and service, are worthless. You do not receive from Christ grace to impart to others. And while you do not reveal the love that Christ has commanded you to reveal, your light is not shining forth to the world.

Leaving the first love is represented as a spiritual fall. Many have fallen thus. In every church in our land, there is needed confession, repentance, and reconversion. The disappointment of Christ is beyond description. Unless those who have sinned speedily repent, the deceptions of the last days will overtake them. Some, though they do not realize it, are preparing to be overtaken. God calls for repentance without delay. So long have many trifled with salvation that their spiritual eyesight is dimmed, and they can not discern between light and darkness. Christ is humiliated in his people. The first love is gone, the faith is weak, there is need of a thorough transformation.

My brethren and sisters, humble your hearts before the Lord. Seek him earnestly. I have an intense desire to see you walking in the light as Christ is in the light. I pray most earnestly for you. But I can not fail to see that the light which God has given me is not favorable to our ministers or our churches. You have left your first love. Self-righteousness is not the wedding-garment. A failure to follow the clear light of truth is our fearful danger. The message to the Laodicean church reveals our condition as a people.

Satan is seeking with all his subtlety to corrupt mind and heart. And O how successful he is in leading men and women to depart from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ! Under his influence hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are roused into activity. Ministers and church-members are in danger of allowing self to take the throne.

Human wisdom, human ability, is nothingness in God's sight. He who supposes that he is superior to his fellow men in wisdom will sooner or later reveal traits of character that are a dishonor to God. In the church to-day there are many of this stamp,--men and women in whom the loveliness of Christ is hidden by traits of character that unfit the possessor for membership in the Lord's family in the heavenly courts.

There are many who are not Bible Christians. They follow a standard of their own devising. If they would see their defective, distorted characters as they are accurately reflected in the mirror of God's Word, they would be so alarmed that they would fall upon their faces before God in contrition of soul, and tear away the rags of their self-righteousness.

My brethren in the ministry, you ought to be reaching higher and still higher in Christian experience,--higher, not by self-assertion, self-assumption, and self-confidence, but by growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Press forward toward the mark of the prize of your high calling in Christ. How much we need to be faithful watchmen over self, to make sure that we have not the spirit that leads us to hurt and destroy in the place of using our God-given talents to awaken the inhabitants of our world to a realization of their lost and undone condition. Let us not be content to be as those who have left their first love. -

Words to Ministers

"He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. . . . Is it a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth."

This is the word of the Lord to those who are engaged in the ministry of his word. They are in his special service, and they are not to esteem this as a light thing. Proportionate to their position of trust should be their sense of responsibility and devotion. Cheap, common talk, and light, trifling behavior should not be tolerated. Their highest desire should be to offer Christ perfect service.

The object of preaching is not alone to convey information, not merely to convince the intellect. The preaching of the word should appeal to the intellect, and should impart knowledge, but it should do more than this. The words of the minister should reach the hearts of the hearers.

Neither is it the object of preaching to amuse. Some ministers have adopted a style of preaching that has not the best influence. It has become a habit with them to weave anecdotes into their discourses. The impression thus made upon the hearers is not a savor of life unto life. Ministers should not bring amusing stories into their preaching. The people need pure provender, thoroughly winnowed from the chaff. "Preach the word," was the charge that Paul gave to Timothy, and this is our commission also.

The minister who mixes story-telling with his discourses is using strange fire. God is offended, and the cause of truth is dishonored, when his representatives descend to the use of cheap, trifling words.

My brethren, you are required by our Saviour to take heed how you witness for him. You need to go deeper and still deeper in the study of the Word. You have all classes of minds to meet, and as you teach the truths of the Sacred Word, you are to manifest earnestness, respect, and reverence. Weed out story-telling from your discourses, and preach the word. You will then have more sheaves to bring to the Master. Remember that in your audience there are those who are constantly harassed by temptation. Some are wrestling with doubt, almost in despair, almost hopeless. Ask God to help you to speak words that will strengthen them for the conflict.

Read and study the fourth chapter of Zechariah. The two olive trees empty the golden oil out of themselves through the golden pipes into the golden bowl, from which the lamps of the sanctuary are fed. The golden oil represents the Holy Spirit. With this oil God's ministers are to be constantly supplied, that they, in turn, may impart it to the church. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." God's servants can obtain victories only by inward purity, by cleanness of heart, by holiness.

It is of the utmost importance that ministers set a right example. If they follow lax, loose principles, their example is quoted by those who are doing wrong, as a vindication of their course. The whole synagogue of Satan is watching for defects in the lives of God's representatives, and the most is made of every defect.

Take heed lest by your example you place other souls in peril. It is a terrible thing to lose our own soul, but to pursue a course that will cause the loss of other souls is still more terrible. That our influence should be a savor of death unto death is a terrible thought, and yet it is possible. With what earnestness, then, we should guard our thoughts, our words, our habits, our dispositions. God calls for personal holiness. Only by revealing the character of Christ can we co-operate with him in saving souls.

God's ministers can not be too careful that their actions do not contradict their words. A consistent life alone will command respect. If our practise harmonizes with our teaching, our words will have effect; but a piety that is not based upon practise is as salt without savor. It is of no use for us to strive to inculcate principles which we do not conscientiously practise.

Do not try to work in your own strength; for then the angels of God stand back, leaving you to carry on the warfare alone. Our preparation to meet opponents or to minister to the people must be obtained from the throne of grace. Here we see and acknowledge our own incompetence, and receive the divine efficiency. The Holy Spirit takes the things of God, and shows them to us, leading us into all truth, and giving us the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

My brethren, in his great mercy and love God has given you great light, and Christ says to you, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Let the light bestowed on you shine forth to those in darkness. Let us rejoice and be glad that Christ has not only given us his Word, but has given us also the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, and that in his strength we may be more than conquerors.

Christ is saying, "Come unto me. To me belong right counsel and sound judgment. I have understanding and strength for you." By faith we must rest in Christ, remembering the words of one who was inspired of God to write, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." Ask God to give you much of the oil of his grace. Carefully consider every word, whether it be written or spoken.

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." -

If the one who feels that he is called of God to be a minister will humble himself and learn of Christ, he will become a true gospel teacher. There should be among our ministers less sermonizing and more tact to educate the people in practical Christianity. The people must be impressed with the fact that Christ is salvation to all who believe. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There are grand themes on which the gospel minister may dwell. Christ has said, "He that believeth on me, hath everlasting life."

If the minister's lips are touched with a coal from the altar, he will lift up Jesus as the sinner's only hope. When the heart of the speaker is sanctified through the truth, his words will be living realities to himself and others. Those who hear him will know that he has been with God, and has drawn near to him in fervent, effectual prayer. The Holy Spirit has fallen upon him, his soul has felt the vital, heavenly fire, and he will be able to compare spiritual things with spiritual. Power will be given him to break down the strongholds of Satan. Hearts will be melted and subdued by his presentation of the love of God, and many will inquire, "What must I do to be saved?"

My brethren, seek God in earnest prayer, that when you stand before the people, you may realize the solemnity of the message that you are about to bear. Talk simply and to the point. Let your discourses be short. Handle only a few points, saving your strength for house-to-house work. Ministers too often give lengthy discourses. The minds of the people are wearied by such discourses, and the truth loses its effect upon them. Let the teacher of the Word first talk with God. Then he can stand before the people with the Holy Spirit working upon his mind.

The Lord desires that the truth shall come close to the people, and this can be accomplished only by personal labor. Much is comprehended in the command, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." There is a work to be done in this line that has not yet been done. Let God's workers teach the truth in families, drawing close to those for whom they labor. If they thus co-operate with God, he will clothe them with spiritual power. Christ will guide them in their work, entering the houses of the people with them, and giving them words to speak that will sink deep into the hearts of the listeners. The Holy Spirit will open hearts and minds to receive the rays coming from the source of all light.

There are families who will never be reached by the truth of God's Word unless his servants enter their homes, and by earnest ministry, sanctified by the indorsement of the Holy Spirit, break down the barriers. As the people see that these workers are messengers of mercy, the ministers of grace, they are ready to listen to the words spoken by them. But the hearts of those who do this work must throb in unison with the heart of Christ. They must be wholly consecrated to the service of God, ready to do his bidding, ready to go wherever his providence sends them, ready to speak the words he gives them. And if they are what God desires them to be, if they are imbued with his Spirit, they co-operate with heavenly agencies, and are indeed "laborers together with God."

When such a worker offers prayer to God in the family where he is visiting, the hearts of the members are touched as they would not be by prayer offered in a public assembly. Angels of God enter the family circle with him; and the minds of the hearers are prepared to receive the word of God; for if the messenger is humble and contrite, if he has a living connection with God, the Holy Spirit takes the word, and shows it to those for whom he is laboring.

Light, light from the Word of God,--this is what the people need. If the teachers of the word are willing, the Lord will lead them into close relation with the people. He will guide them to the homes of those who need and desire the truth; and as the servants of God engage in the work of seeking for the lost sheep, their spiritual faculties are awakened and energized. Knowing that they are in harmony with God, they feel joyous and happy. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they obtain an experience that is invaluable to them. Their intellectual and moral powers attain their highest development; for grace is given in answer to the demand.

I was shown two Bible workers seated in a family. With the open Bible before them, they presented the Lord Jesus as the sin-pardoning Saviour. Their words were spoken with freshness and power. Earnest prayer was offered to God, and hearts were subdued by the softening influence of the Holy Spirit. As the Word of God was explained, I saw that a soft, radiant light illumined the Scriptures, and I said softly, "Go ye out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."

These workers were not boastful, but humble and contrite, realizing always that the Holy Spirit is the efficiency of every worker. Under the influence of the Spirit, indifference vanished, and an earnest interest was manifested. The precious light was communicated from neighbor to neighbor. Family altars that had been broken down were again erected, and many souls were won to the truth.

Teaching the Scriptures, praying in families,--this is the work of the evangelist, and this work is to be mingled with preaching. If it is omitted, preaching will, to a great extent, be a failure. Come close to the people by personal efforts. Teach them that the love of God must come into the sanctuary of the home life.

Take no glory whatever to yourself. Do not work with a divided mind, trying to serve God and self at the same time. Keep self out of sight. Let your words lead the weary and heavy laden to carry their burdens to Jesus. Work as seeing Him who is at your right hand, ready to give you his efficiency and omnipotent power in every emergency. The Lord is your counselor, your guide, the captain of your salvation. He goes before your face, conquering and to conquer.

Called to Service

Ministry means service, and to this ministry we are all called. It is a dishonor to God for any one to choose a life of self-pleasing. My brethren and sisters, do you realize that every year thousands and thousands of souls are perishing, dying in their sins because the light of truth has not been flashed upon their pathway? Do you realize that the end is near, that already the judgments of God are doing their work in this world? The lack of interest manifested in the work of God by our churches alarms me. I ask all who have means to remember that God has entrusted this means to them to be used in advancing the work which Christ came to our world to do. In the sight of God, we are not owners of what we possess, but only trustees. "Not thine, but mine," God says. He will call all to give an account of their stewardship. Our accountability to heaven should cause us to fear and tremble. The decisions of the last day turn upon practical benevolence. Christ acknowledges every act of beneficence as done to himself.

There is a great work to be done in our world. Men and women are to be converted, not by the gift of tongues nor by the working of miracles, but by the preaching of Christ crucified. Why delay the effort to make the world better? Why wait for some wonderful thing to be done, some costly apparatus to be provided? However humble your sphere, however lowly your work, if you labor in harmony with the teachings of the Saviour, he will reveal himself through you, and your influence will draw souls to him. He will honor the meek and lowly ones, who seek earnestly to do service for him. Into all that we do, whether our work be in the shop, on the farm, or in the office, we are to bring the endeavor to save souls.

We are to sow beside all waters, keeping our souls in the love of God, working while it is day, using the means entrusted to us in the Master's service. Whatever our hands find to do, we are to do it with cheerfulness; whatever sacrifice we are called upon to make, we are to make it cheerfully. As we sow beside all waters, we shall realize the truth of the words, "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."

We owe everything to grace, sovereign grace. Grace ordained our redemption, our regeneration, and our adoption to heirship with Jesus Christ. Let this grace be revealed to others.

The Saviour takes those whom he finds will be molded, and uses them for his own name's glory. He uses material that others would pass by, and works in all who will give themselves to him. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those whom Satan has debased, and through whom he has worked, and make them the subjects of his grace. He rejoices to deliver them from suffering, and from the wrath that is to fall upon the disobedient. He makes his children his agents in the accomplishment of this work, and in its success, even in this life, they find a precious reward.

But what is this compared with the joy that will be theirs in the great day of final revealing? "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face;" now we know in part, but then we shall know even as also we are known.

It is the reward of Christ's workers to enter into his joy. That joy, to which Christ himself looks forward with eager desire, is presented in his request to his Father, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."

The angels were waiting to welcome Jesus, as he ascended after his resurrection. The heavenly host longed to greet again their loved Commander, returned to them from the prison-house of death. Eagerly they pressed about him as he entered the gates of heaven. But he waved them back. His heart was with the lonely, sorrowing band of disciples whom he had left upon Olivet. It is still with his struggling children on earth, who have the battle with the destroyer yet to wage. "Father," he says, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."

Christ's redeemed ones are his jewels, his precious and peculiar treasure. "They shall be as the stones of a crown,"--"the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." In them "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."

And will not his workers rejoice when they, too, behold the fruit of their labors? The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian converts, saying, "What is our hope, or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy." And he exhorts the Philippian brethren to "be blameless and harmless," to "shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain."

Every impulse of the Holy Spirit leading men to goodness and to God, is noted in the books of heaven, and in the day of God every one who has given himself as an instrument for the Holy Spirit's working will be permitted to behold what his life has wrought.

Wonderful will be the revealing as the lines of holy influence, with their precious results, are brought to view. What will be the gratitude of souls that will meet us in the heavenly courts, as they understand the sympathetic, loving interest which has been taken in their salvation! All praise, honor, and glory will be given to God and to the Lamb for our redemption; but it will not detract from the glory of God to express gratitude to the instrumentality he has employed in the salvation of souls ready to perish.

The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I was a sinner," it will be said, "without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me, and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope. And I believed in him. I repented of my sins, and was made to sit together with his saints in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Others will say, "I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and comfortable home, and came to teach me how to find Jesus, and believe in him as the only true God. I demolished my idols, and worshiped God, and now I see him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold him whom I love. I then saw him only with the eye of faith, but now I see him as he is. I can now express my gratitude for his redeeming mercy to him who loved me, and washed me from my sin in his own blood."

Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. "When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me," they say, "to speak words of hope and comfort. You brought me food for my physical necessities, and you opened to me the word of God, awakening me to my spiritual needs. You treated me as a brother. You sympathized with me in my sorrows, and restored my bruised and wounded soul, so that I could grasp the hand of Christ that was reached out to save me. In my ignorance you taught me patiently that I had a Father in heaven who cared for me. You read to me the precious promises of God's Word. You inspired in me the faith that he would save me. My heart was softened, subdued, broken, as I contemplated the sacrifice which Christ had made for me. I became hungry for the bread of life, and the truth was precious to my soul. I am here, saved, eternally saved, ever to live in his presence, and to praise him who gave his life for me."

What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings,--how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction! They will realize the promise, "Thou shalt be blessed; for they can not recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." -

The Condition of Gaining Eternal Life

All the instruction that any one needs in order to gain eternal life is found in the Word of God. This Word is a revelation of the divine will, given to us that by a daily study of it, our characters, showing daily improvement, may become transformed to the likeness of the character of the great Medical Missionary.

The Word of God is definite and specific, pointing out plainly the path to heaven. Those who heed the teachings of this Word will not turn their feet into false paths. Not only is the right way pointed out, but man is commanded to walk in that way, lest by setting a wrong example, he shall lead others in the path that ends in ruin.

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"

The young man who asked this question was a ruler. He had great possessions, and occupied a position of responsibility. Not long before he asked Christ this question, the mothers had brought their children to the Saviour to receive his blessing. The disciples would have kept these mothers away from their Master, but Jesus rebuked them, saying, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."

The ruler saw the love that Christ revealed for these children; he saw how tenderly he received them; and his heart kindled with love for the Saviour. He felt a desire to be his disciple. He was so deeply moved that as Christ was going on his way, he ran after him, and kneeling at his feet, asked with sincerity and earnestness the question so important to his soul and to the soul of every human being: "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

"Why callest thou me good?" Christ said; "there is none good but one, that is, God." Jesus desired to test the ruler's sincerity, and to draw from him the way in which he regarded him as good. Did he realize that the One to whom he was speaking was the Son of God? What was the true sentiment of his heart?

"If thou wilt enter into life," Christ continued, "keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which?" In response Jesus quoted several of the commandments: "Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

The ruler's answer to this was positive: "All these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet?"

"One thing thou lackest," Jesus said. "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven;" "and come, take up the cross, and follow me." Christ read the ruler's heart. He laid his hand upon his idol,--his earthly possessions,--which he must renounce before he could be found wanting in nothing. The possessions that he called his own were the Lord's, entrusted to him to be used for the very purpose that Christ has pointed out,-- for the help of the poor and needy, for the relief of suffering humanity, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry.

Had the ruler been willing to obey Christ, great would have been the good that he might have done in following the Saviour's example. But he was not willing. The cost of eternal life seemed too great, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. The Saviour was not so much to him as his own name among men, or his possessions. To give up his earthly treasure, which was seen, for the heavenly treasure, which was unseen, was too great a risk. He refused the offer of eternal life, and ever after the world was to receive his worship.

Christ came to this world to give men and women an example of how to do true missionary work. He came to bring to human beings physical and spiritual healing. Laying aside his royal robe and kingly crown, he stepped down from his high command in the heavenly courts, and, clothing his divinity with humanity, came to this world to help human beings to rid themselves of selfish practises, and to give themselves to the service of God in helping others.

The healing of diseased souls and diseased bodies,--this was Christ's work in our world, and it is our work also. His words to the rich young ruler, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven," are spoken to all who possess this world's goods. If they will follow Christ's example, using their entrusted possessions to relieve the physical and spiritual necessities of those less fortunate than themselves, they will secure the enduring riches of eternal life.

To those who, like the young ruler, are in high positions of truth, and have great possessions, it may seem too great a sacrifice to give up all in order to follow Christ. But this is the rule of conduct for all who would become his disciples. Nothing short of it can be accepted. Self-surrender is the keynote of the teachings of Christ. Often it is presented and enjoined in language that seems authoritative, because God sees that there is no other way to save man than to cut away from his life that which, if entertained, would demoralize the whole being.

The work of evangelizing the world has been greatly hindered by personal selfishness. Some, even among professed Christians, are shortsighted, unable to see that the work of the gospel is to be supported by the goods that Christ has entrusted to them. Are we obeying the Saviour's instructions? Are we following his example? If we are truly converted, we shall regard ourselves as God's almoners, and will dispense for the advancement of his work the means that he has placed in our hands. Money is needed in order that the work waiting to be done all over our world may be carried forward. If Christ's words were obeyed, there would be thousands where there are hundreds willing to carry out his directions to the ruler. The Lord has entrusted to men and women an abundance of means for the carrying forward of his plan of mercy and benevolence. He bids his stewards of means to invest their money in the work of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and preaching the gospel to the poor. Perfection of character can not possibly be attained without self-sacrifice.

When Christ's followers give back to the Lord his own, they are accumulating treasure which will be theirs when they hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The joy of seeing souls redeemed, souls eternally saved, is the reward of all who follow in the steps of him who said, "Follow me."

There are many in our world who are longing to hear the words of life. But how can they hear without a preacher? And how can those sent to teach them live without support? God would have the lives of his followers carefully sustained. They are his property, and he is dishonored when they are compelled to labor in a way that injures their health. He is dishonored, also, when, for lack of means, workers can not be sent to destitute fields.

We are at this time making special efforts to set in operation certain lines of work in different places. These lines of work must have support. My brethren and sisters, read carefully the following scripture, and ask God to help you to do justice to the needs of his work:--

"He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work, . . . being enriched in everything to all bountifulness." -

Notes of Travel (The College View Council)

From the Omaha camp-meeting we went to College View, where the General Conference Committee was in council from September 15 to 25. We were made welcome, and were well cared for at the Nebraska Sanitarium.

On Thursday morning I spoke to the students in the college chapel. A goodly number of the College View church-members were present, and I was led to present to them the exhortation given by the apostle to those who know that the day of the Lord is near at hand. Please read I Thess. 5:1-7. The apostle continues, "Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another."

This is our work. We are not to watch for defects in those around us. By so doing, we are placing ourselves on the judgment-seat, and are judging. This is not our proper place or work.

If we see one in error, we should go to him kindly, and speak to him in regard to the matter, seeking by every possible means to present the truth in contrast with error. There is always a truth with which to meet error. Let this never be forgotten. And believers are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. Not that you are to watch for their haltings and their errors; you are to watch for the prosperity of their souls, that you may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

We take upon ourselves a grave responsibility when we unite with the church. The church is God's family, and the members of this family are to be unselfishly interested in one another. They are to pray and work for one another's salvation.

This is the work that God expects from us as a people. When you see a church whose members are in arms against one another, complaining and finding fault, you may know that there are duties which they have neglected. You may know that there is something lacking in those who always see something defective in their brethren. You may know that such ones have something to correct in their own characters.

If you think that a brother is in the wrong, go right to him. Do not go to some one else, because this will not cure the difficulty. Go to the very one who you think is in error, and ask him if he is standing in a position that will lead others to make missteps. Tell him that he must make straight paths for his feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.

It will not do for any of us to get careless and indifferent in regard to our church-membership. While on this journey that I am now taking, I have felt a most solemn responsibility to try to show our people that God holds them accountable to live lives that will keep the atmosphere of the church pure and fragrant. God is dishonored, and his Spirit is grieved, when this atmosphere is tainted by careless living and by evil-speaking.

The haphazard work done in the church by speaking to others of errors and mistakes before speaking to the one at fault has been the greatest cause and manifestation of wickedness and defection in the church. Weakness has come to many because they have not taken up their appointed work. God will not accept your gifts, however precious they may be, unless you make a straight path for your feet by following the directions that Christ has given.

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar," he says, "and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

We read again, "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother."

Tell him his fault "between thee and him alone." If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. You have not lost him, you have not built up a barrier between him and you. You have gained him.

Say to him, If you have anything against me, tell me what it is, that I may take it out of the way. Do not blame him. Do not cast reflections on him, but ask, What have I done? If I have done wrong, I want this to be removed; for I have a gift to offer to the Lord, and he has told me first to be reconciled to my brother.

When you have done all in your power to bring about a reconciliation, you have acted your part, and you can then offer your gift, knowing that it will be accepted by God. You will have removed a mountain of difficulty out of the way of your brother. It may be that the difficulty was really only a mole-hill, but it had been made into a mountain. When you remove the mole-hill, the mountain has gone.

This is the work resting upon us, and we are not to delay to do it. We can not afford to delay. We have much of this work to do, because we have left much undone. It is because of this neglect that the Lord of heaven is not glorified in our lives.

When this work is done, the disunion existing in the church will be cured, and the cause of God will move forward with power. When you see that which you think is wrong, do all in your power to correct it. Find out what it is that separates you from your brother, and plead for the unity that Christ has said should exist in the church. Love as brethren, and do the work appointed you. Then you will know the preciousness of Christ's words, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

As you seek for Christ with all your heart, and in faith, that you may reach a higher standard of righteousness, he may reveal to you a duty undone, a stumbling-block that you must remove in order that your brother may be relieved, and that you may advance in the right way. Your brother may be wrong, and you may be wrong; therefore come together as children of the same family. Work as earnestly to make things right as you will wish you had worked in that day when the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened, and every man shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body.

It is the neglect of this work that is standing in the way of our churches all through our conferences. When believers stand where Christ has said they should stand, when they clear difficulties out of the way by the very process that he has outlined, they will be greatly blessed.

On Sabbath morning I spoke in the church to a large congregation. I read from the first chapters of Revelation the messages given to the apostle John for the churches.

John had a message for the people in his day. But they became tired of hearing of Jesus, and of the character which, in order to be saved, they must perfect through him, so they tried to kill the faithful messenger. This plan being thwarted, they banished him to the lonely, rocky island of Patmos. They thought that by separating him from his fellow men, they would silence his testimony, and that he would live out the remainder of his life in mournful solitude. But God was with the lonely exile, and opened to his view the glories of heaven, and the things that "must shortly come to pass."

John bore no uncertain message. "That which was from the beginning," he says, "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

We have, as had John, a message to bear of the things which we have seen and heard. God is not giving us a new message. We are to proclaim the message that in 1843 and 1844 brought us out of the other churches. We need the Holy Spirit to kindle in our hearts the zeal and earnestness that were then seen among God's people. I thank the Lord that there are still living a few who can remember those days, and who know whereof they speak.

John continues: "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

The Lord does not want us to walk in darkness and perplexity. He desires us to know the truth as it is in Jesus, and wherever we go, to proclaim that truth. By word and deed we are to reveal Jesus to the world.

"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

"These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby we know that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked."

My heart was made glad to hear of the unity and good cheer that prevailed during the council. I had a severe cold, and was not able to attend all the meetings, but my mind was constantly exercised. In the night season scene after scene passed before me. I am so sorry that we are such dwarfs in the work of Christ, when such wonderful incentives are placed before us to encourage us to cultivate our powers to the very highest point of development. We are to grow. Christians are to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. Our words and works are to bear witness to the world of what Christianity can do for human beings.

Every church should be a light in the world. If there is in your church a deadness, a stagnation, come together, as the disciples did before the day of Pentecost, and plead with God until you receive the light of life. Then let the light shine forth to those around you. Do not go on from week to week, from year to year, without knowing whether or not you are in the love of God. When Jesus went away, he promised to send the Holy Spirit, and we have a right to claim this promise. God wants us to work in the power of the Spirit. He wants us to be guided and controlled by the living, abiding principles that will keep us firm in the truth.

God has not placed us on the judgment-seat, to pronounce sentence against our brethren. There is only one Judge,--the One who died for us, who took upon himself our nature and all the infirmities of humanity, that we might stand on vantage-ground with God. Never are we to dissect the work or the character of another. Each one has enough to do to attend to the work that has been delivered to him. Each one is to bear his burden in the place in which he has been appointed to labor, doing his work with that perfection which will give character and influence to the cause of God. This is what the Lord expects of every conference president. This is what he expects of every worker in every line. Stand at your post of duty. When you act well your part, in your own place, there will come to you a freedom, a light, a power, that will enable you to endure as seeing him who is invisible. -

Notes of Travel, No. 2 (Moline and Battle Creek)

At the close of the General Conference Committee Council at College View, Neb., we returned to Battle Creek, as I had promised. At Moline Ill., we broke our journey, that we might visit the Moline Sanitarium. Here we had a profitable visit with Drs. Sanford and Maria Edwards, who have charge of the medical work of the institution. We were pleased with the location and appearance of the sanitarium, though we wished it might have been a little way out of the city. Dr. Edwards gave us as much of his time as possible, and took us for a drive through the city and the park.

This city is an important field, and must be given the message for this time. We are glad that the sanitarium work has been begun here, and we hope that a holy influence may be exerted by this institution through its workers. The Lord has many souls in this place that should be visited by workers ready to do their Master's bidding.

Not long ago this sanitarium had a narrow escape from being destroyed by fire. Electric wires set fire to a portion of the upper story, and the flames had begun to burst out from the roof. But Dr. Edwards discovered the blaze, and by quick action with fire-extinguishers succeeded in putting it out. When the fire-engines arrived, the fire had been entirely subdued. All are very thankful that it has not been necessary for the fire-engines to be put in operation.

This sanitarium has a good patronage, and the hearts of the workers have been greatly cheered by the favors and tokens of appreciation shown them by the patients. One day one of the wealthy patients, after climbing the stairs to his room after his bath, remarked that they should have an elevator. Sister Edwards replied that when they had taken in sufficient money so they could afford it, they would put in an elevator. Very soon this gentleman gave Dr. Edwards instruction to select a good elevator, promising that he and a friend of his would purchase it, and present it to the institution. This elevator is now in daily use.

We hope that our brethren and sisters in northern Illinois will encourage and assist Brother and Sister Edwards and their faithful helpers in the good work to be done in the sanitarium and in the city. If all will labor heartily and disinterestedly, the Lord will give them souls for their hire. I think of the many places in need of such work, and wish that all our people could realize that the Lord is ready to go before every self-sacrificing worker who will carry the truth to places where it has not been heard. Then those who are collected in large numbers in some of our churches would feel a burden to go out into other cities and villages to search out those who are waiting for the truth.

In the night season I am repeating the words: --

"My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust."

"Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

As I rode through the streets and parks of Moline, I thought, Verily this is a place where the truth should be firmly established. The Lord will work here if those who are placed in positions of trust will work and watch and pray. He will in mercy call out in this place a people who will be united in keeping his way. I felt an earnest desire that our people, who profess to accept the great commission given by Christ to his disciples just before his ascension, should take up their appointed work, and carry the message to all the cities and villages in our land. The truth must be proclaimed in the high-ways and the byways.

The Lord says to his people: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." O that the Lord would awaken the church-members to go forth to devote their powers to the work of saving the souls that are perishing in sin! God calls upon men and women everywhere to go forth and earnestly prepare the way for his coming.

On our arrival at Battle Creek, we were met by our friends, who gave us a hearty welcome. We spent five days there, during which time I spoke three times to large congregations in the Tabernacle, once to the students in the medical college, and once to the helpers in the sanitarium gymnasium. The Lord gave me a decided testimony to bear at these meetings. I can not find words to tell how heavy was the burden resting upon me as I looked upon the large audience before me in the Tabernacle Sabbath morning, and thought of the instruction and the warnings that have so often come to the people in this congested center. Often has the testimony been borne that there are thousands upon thousands perishing in ignorance of the requirements of God, and of the judgments that will fall upon the disobedient.

There were between twenty-five hundred and three thousand people present. I knew that if they were awake to discern the signs of the times, if they understood the responsibility resting upon them individually, they would not all be in Battle Creek, listening to a repetition of gospel truth, and paying little attention to the messages sent them. If they knew and understood the voice of God, many would leave Battle Creek, and go forth with the light of present truth, carrying it to many places now in darkness.

As I read the words of the twenty fourth chapter of Luke, I wonder that God's people do not see and understand the work they have been given to do. Read the whole chapter carefully and prayerfully.

After receiving the Holy Spirit, the disciples were first to bear their witness in Jerusalem, and then they were to go forth to all nations. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me," Christ declared, "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, thousands were converted in a day. The word of the Spirit, newly edged with power, and bathed in the lightnings of heaven, cut its way through unbelief. The hearts of the disciples were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." They were filled with an intense longing to add to the church such as should be saved. They called on believers to arouse and do their part, that all nations might hear the truth, and the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord.

As the disciples, filled with the power of the Spirit, went forth to proclaim the gospel, so God's servants are to go forth to-day. Every one on whom is shinning the light of present truth is to be stirred with compassion for those who are in darkness. From all believers light is to be reflected in clear, distinct rays. A work similar to that which the Lord did through his delegated messengers after the day of Pentecost he is waiting to do to-day. At this time, when the end of all things is at hand, the zeal of the church should exceed even that of the early church. Zeal for the glory of God moved the disciples to bear witness to the truth with mighty power. Should not this zeal fire our hearts with a longing to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and him crucified?

Sunday afternoon I spoke again in the Tabernacle. The meeting had been advertised, and there were present many citizens of Battle Creek who were not of our faith. At this meeting I assured my hearers that we held the same principles of truth that we had so many times set before them in past years. I assured them that no phase of our message had been changed to meet scientific or spiritualistic philosophy, but that we hold as firmly as ever to the strong-holds of our faith, which have made the Seventh-day Adventist people what they are. We have built our house upon the eternal Rock, the Rock of Ages.

I said that I did not claim to be a prophetess. I have not stood before the people claiming this title, though many called me thus. I have been instructed to say, "I am God's messenger, sent to bear a message of reproof to the erring and of encouragement to the meek and lowly." With pen and with voice I am to bear the messages given me. The word given me is, "You are faithfully to reprove those who would mar the faith of the people of God. Write out the things which I shall give you, that they may stand as a witness to the truth till the end of time."

I said, "If any of the citizens of Battle Creek wish to know what Mrs. White believes and teaches, let them read her published books. My labors would be naught should I preach another gospel. That which I have written is what the Lord has bidden me write. I have not been instructed to change that which I have sent out. I stand firm in the Adventist faith; for I have been warned in regard to the seducing sophistries that will seek for entrance among us as a people. The Scripture says, 'Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.' I present before our people the danger of being led astray as were the angels in the heavenly courts. The straight line of truth presented to me when I was but a girl is just as clearly presented to me now."

I have a most earnest desire that the truth for this time shall be proclaimed throughout the world. God's people have a great and solemn work to do. The day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. Every hour, every minute, is precious. We have no time to spend in the gratification of selfish desires. All around us there are souls perishing in sin. Every day there is something to do for the Master. Every day we are to point souls to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. -

An Open Letter (To Our Workers in Washington, D.C.)

"Elmshaven," Sanitarium, Cal., Jan. 11, 1905. To Our Workers in Washington, D.C. Dear Brethren and Sisters: You are engaged in a most important work, and I feel a deep interest in all of you. I am hoping that every stroke that is made in Takoma Park and in the city of Washington toward the upbuilding of the cause of God, may tell to the glory of the Lord. I pray that you may all work in such a way that many souls shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth for this time. Let all who can speak words of the Master be wide-awake now, just now, when so much depends upon the earnestness of our efforts. We have not a moment to lose, The end is nearer than when we first believed. Keep your eyes fixed steadfastly on Jesus. Seek the Lord daily for a new consecration.

Often ask yourselves the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Then search your Bibles, and pray earnestly for the impartation of the Holy Spirit, that you may understand the truth as it is in Jesus. Remember that you are workers together with God, and that your hearts are to be purified from all defilement. Put away all strife, all evil speaking and evil thinking. Remember that haphazard work will not answer now. We are to do faithful work in upholding the claims of God's law.

Truth in the heart guides us to Christ who is the author of all truth, and the only one who can cleanse the soul from defilement. The practise of the principles of truth fills the soul with peace.

The Medical Missionary Work

I am very much pleased to know that our brethren in Washington have been successful in finding, in a good locality, a building suitable for well-equipped treatment rooms. I see the providence of God in this. I have been instructed that some provision must be made to carry on sanitarium work in this city as soon as possible, while the sanitarium building at Takoma Park is being erected. It would be in harmony with the instruction given me for our brethren to begin sanitarium work in rented buildings in the cities, and then carry on the work until other buildings outside of the cities can be provided. Patients can be transferred from the city place to the institutions in the country. City treatment rooms and country sanitariums can work together advantageously and harmoniously. In Washington the sanitarium work should thus make rapid advancement. The city patients can be gathered in by the place in the city, and from there be taken to Takoma Park, which is only a few miles away, and where they can have the retirement of rural life.

In our Washington work wise, competent physicians, efficient managers, and nurses with the very best qualifications will be needed. Earnest, devoted young people also will be needed, to enter the work as nurses. These young men and women will increase in capability as they use conscientiously the knowledge they gain, and they will become better and better qualified to be the Lord's helping hand. They may become successful missionaries, pointing souls to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and whose healing efficiency can save both soul and body.

The Lord wants wise men and women, acting in the capacity of nurses, to comfort and help the sick and suffering. Through the ministrations of these nurses, those who have heretofore taken no interest in religious things will be led to ask, "What must I do to be saved?" The sick will be led to Christ by the patient attention of nurses who anticipate their wants, and who bow in prayer and ask the great Medical Missionary to look with compassion upon the sufferer, and to let the soothing influence of his grace be felt, and his restoring power be exercised.

O that all who are sick and afflicted could be ministered to by Christlike physicians and nurses, who could help them to place their weary, pain-racked bodies in the care of the great Healer, in faith looking to him for restoration!

The nervous timidity of the sick will be overcome as they are made acquainted with the intense interest that the Saviour has for all suffering humanity. O the depth of the love of Christ! To redeem us from death, he died on the cross of Calvary.

Let our physicians and nurses ever bear in mind the words, "We are laborers together with God." Let every physician and every nurse learn how to work for the alleviation of mental as well as physical suffering. At this time, when sin is so prevalent and so violently revealed, how important it is that our sanitariums be conducted in such a way that they will accomplish the greatest amount of good. How important that all the workers in these institutions know how to speak words in season to those who are weary and sin sick.

Physicians and nurses should ever be kind and cheerful, putting away all gloom and sadness. Let faith grasp the hand of Christ for his healing touch.

As our nurses minister patiently to those who are sick in body and soul, let them ask God to work for the suffering ones, that they may be led to know Christ, and let them believe that their prayers will be answered. In all that is done, let the love of Christ be revealed.

Every sincere Christian bows to Jesus as the true physician of souls. When he stands by the bedside of the afflicted, there will be many not only converted but healed. He who declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," will be with his faithful physicians and nurses as they strive to co-operate with him. If through judicious ministration the patient is led to give his soul to Christ, and to bring his thoughts into obedience to the will of God, a great victory is gained.

It is for the object of soul saving that our sanitariums are established. In our daily ministrations we see many care-worn, sorrowful faces. What does the sorrow on these faces show?--The need of the soul for the peace of Christ. Poor, sad human beings go to broken cisterns, which can hold no water, thinking to quench their thirst. Let them hear a voice saying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Poor, weary, oppressed souls, seeking you know not what, come to the water of life. All heaven is yearning over you.

"Come to Me, that ye might have life."

It is that thirsting souls may be led to the living water that we plead for sanitariums, not expensive, mammoth sanitariums, but homelike institutions, in pleasant places.

Never, never build mammoth sanitariums. Let these institutions be small, and let there be more of them, that the work of winning souls to Christ may be accomplished. It may often be necessary to start sanitarium work in the city, but never build a sanitarium in a city. Rent a building, and keep looking for a suitable place out of the city. The sick are to be reached, not by massive buildings, but by the establishment of many small sanitariums, which are to be as lights shinning in a dark place. Those who are engaged in this work are to reflect the sunlight of Christ's face. They are to be as salt that has not lost its savor. By sanitarium work, properly conducted, the influence of true, pure religion will be extended to many souls.

From our sanitariums trained workers are to go forth into places where the truth has never been proclaimed, and do missionary work for the Master, claiming the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Christ can bring light out of darkness.

I appeal to all who have means to make a determined effort to carry out the instruction God has given regarding the establishment of a sanitarium in Takoma Park. Let our people rally to the support of this important enterprise. Let the churches in every State act their part, that the work in Washington may not come to a standstill. Let us make liberal gifts to this work, and the Lord will bless us and it. We can not see this work coming to a standstill while it is but half done. It need not come to a standstill if all our people will come up to the help of the Lord.

Let us come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty powers of darkness. Satan is working with intensity of purpose to enslave and destroy souls. Let us take a firm stand against him. The word of God urges every one to go steadily forward on the upward grade, pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Signed) Ellen G. White. -

Notes of Travel, No. 3 (Chicago to St. Helena)

Leaving Battle Creek on the morning train, we spent Monday afternoon, October 3, in Chicago, visiting some of our institutions there. In company with Dr. Paulson and Elder Sadler, we visited the Life Boat Mission and the Working-men's Home. I was much pleased with the report of the work being done in this place. The workers assured me that the Lord was giving them success. I rejoiced with them, but I was so weary that I could not enter into the details of the work as fully as I should have been glad to.

The Lord is pleased with the efforts made to gather people to a place where they can hear his praises sung and his Word explained in the simplicity with which Christ explained it as he went through Palestine from village to village and from city to city. Those engaged in this work may take courage. As they walk and work humbly with God, he will certainly impart his grace to them, that they may impart it to others. I shall ever encourage any work that brings souls to Christ. How large a number of our cities might hear the truth if the people of God would put their talents out to the exchangers.

From the Life Boat Mission we drove out to see the newly established Swedish Mission on Oak Street. There we were shown a building which our Swedish brethren, under the leadership of Elder S. Mortenson, have recently purchased for the headquarters of their work in Chicago. The building presents a good appearance. In the basement they have a well-equipped vegetarian restaurant. On the first floor there is a pleasant, commodious hall for meetings, comfortably seated for a congregation of about one hundred and fifty, and the two upper stories are rented to lodgers. I was indeed glad to see this evidence of progress in the Swedish work in Chicago.

There is a great work to be done for the people of all nations in the large cities of America, and such rallying points as this may be a great help in the matter of gaining the attention of the people, and in the training of workers. In every large city in America there are people of different nationalities, who must hear the message for this time. I long to see evidence that the lines of work which the Lord has marked out are being disinterestedly taken up. A work similar to that which is being done in Chicago for the Swedish people should be done in many places.

Time is fast passing. The day of the Lord's reckoning is approaching. Seventh-day Adventists are not to colonize. We are to work as Jesus has given us an example. Of the work of Christ we read: "And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people." This is the work that will open doors for the truth.

"And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan."

Thus was the time of the Great Missionary occupied. I think of the work that might be done if those held in Battle Creek and a few other favored places, were carrying forward the work in the villages and towns and cities in which there are no memorials for the truth.

We are to do all in our power to fulfill the commission given by Christ to his disciples just before his ascension. Of the giving of this commission we read: "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

When the eyes of the members of our large churches are anointed with the heavenly eye-salve, they will arise, and go forth to fulfil this commission. When their hearts are imbued with the Holy Spirit, they will worship the Lord their God, and him only will they serve. The Lord is calling upon those who are congregated in congested centers to go forth into the places where the truth has never been proclaimed. They are to teach the things that Christ has commanded, leaving alone the various suppositions born of erratic theories. False teachers will come in, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. Satan will bring forward fables to militate against the principles of Christ's teaching. God calls upon his faithful messengers to search his Word, and to teach only those things that Christ has commanded.

To give all nations the message of warning,--this is to be the object of our efforts. A way will be prepared for the faithful worker to labor at all times and seasons for the conversion of souls. Upon all who have received the word of God there rests the burden of doing this work. From city to city, and from country to country, they are to carry the publications containing the promise of the Saviour's soon coming. These publications are to be translated into every language; for to all the world the gospel is to be preached. To every worker Christ promises the divine efficiency that will make his labors a success.

There is too much hovering round our institutions; too much ease-loving. The commission of Christ is to be carried out to the letter. God's people must consecrate to him their means and their capabilities. The faithful soldiers of the cross of Christ are to go forth without the camp, bearing the reproach, and following in the path of self-denial trodden by the Redeemer.

The ministers who are hovering over the churches, preaching to those who know the truth, would better go into places still in darkness. Unless they do this, they themselves and their congregations will become dwarfed. Our religion has become weak and sickly because the members of the church have left their first love. They might be strong men and women in Christ if they would obey the Lord's directions.

I am commanded to lift my voice in warning, and to call upon our people who are gathered together in Battle Creek to go forth and take up the work appointed them by God. The world is perishing in sin. How much longer will you allow yourselves to be held from the great, needy vineyard, when the history of this world is so near its close?

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel." This is the message that we are to proclaim at this time. Men and women are turning from obedience to the law of God, and are perishing in transgression. They must reap the sure consequence of their abuse of the laws of nature. By habits of intemperance, they lay the foundations of disease, and crime after crime is the result. Under the influence of poisoned liquor, men lift the hand of murder, and bring dishonor upon themselves, and want and wretchedness upon their families. Obedience to the law of God would save those who are perishing in defiance of truth and righteousness. ( To be concluded ) -

A Call for Active Work

THE FOLLOWING EXTRACTS FROM A COMMUNICATION FROM SISTER WHITE, UNDER DATE OF JAN. 16, 1905, ADDRESSED TO SOME OF OUR WORKERS IN WASHINGTON, ARE BOTH INSTRUCTIVE AND ENCOURAGING: --

"Now is our time to press to the front in Washington. A decided testimony must be borne to the people in the national capital, and this work must not rest upon a few.

"A most important work is to be done in Washington, and I inquire whether you do not need the help of those who in years past have stood prominently for religious liberty.

"As we work with all our might, our trust must be in God. Sooner or later Sunday laws will be passed. But there is much for God's servants to do to warn the people. This work has been greatly retarded by their having to wait and stand against the devisings of Satan, which have been striving to find a place in our work. We are years behind.

"God's law is to be vindicated, by the obedience of heart and mind, and by strong arguments.

"For a long time I have carried a heavy burden regarding the work to be done in Washington. Not one in a thousand of the people there knows what the Bible says about the Sabbath. The instruction given me is that the ten commandments should be printed in plain letters in a prominent place in the Review. Had these commandments been obeyed, the wickedness now seen in our world would never have existed.

"The time has come when the liberty of the church of Christ is endangered. Let it be a time also when true missionary work shall be done, in public ministry and in house-to-house labor. The oppression of Christ's church would apparently be a great victory for the side of transgressors of the Sabbath, and would cause rejoicing among evil-doers. But nothing should discourage us. God has victory for his people. Let sanctified ability be brought into the work of proclaiming the truth for this time. If the forces of the enemy gain the victory now, it will be because the churches have neglected their God-given work.

"When all our ministers and physicians come into line, taking their stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, we shall see an army of men and women going forth to work for Christ, speaking the word with holy boldness and power.

"Remind our people often of the work that may be done by the sale of our books and the distribution of tracts. Encourage them to sell the periodicals containing the message for this time. Our large books can be sold in Washington and other cities in the East, if the canvassers will take up the work courageously.

"Instruction has been given me that the important books containing the light that God has given regarding Satan's apostasy in heaven should be given a wide circulation just now; for through them the truth will reach many minds. 'Patriarchs and Prophets,' 'Daniel and the Revelation,' and 'Great Controversy' are needed now as never before. They should be widely circulated because the truths they emphasize will open many blind eyes.

"When 'Patriarchs and Prophets' was first issued, it was neglected for a book easy to sell and more profitable to the publishers. Many of our people have been blind to the importance of the very books that were most needed. Had tact and skill then been shown in the sale of these books, the Sunday law movement would not be where it is today.

"I am glad that the Lord has at Washington able men, who can treat this Sunday movement as it should be treated. Let every minister, every evangelist, now put on the whole armor of God, and work and watch and pray. Our church-members also should humble their hearts before God, and cry aloud, and spare not. O that the Lord would imbue the members of his church with a sense of the importance of the responsibility of being laborers together with him!" -

Notes of Travel, No. 3 (Concluded: Chicago to St. Helena)

From the North Side, we drove across the city to the neighborhood of the great Chicago University, to visit Brother R. Eason and his family, who are conducting the Drexel Avenue restaurant. We were pleased to hear of the interest that some of the students who patronize the restaurant manifest in the principles and belief of those who conduct it. We had a short talk with Brother Eason's sick daughter. My heart was made sad as I saw her unable to take part in the work in which she was so much interested. She made no complaint, but put her whole trust in the Lord, saying, "Thy will be done," yet hoping that her life might be spared, that she might help in the work so greatly needing to be done.

Brother Eason is doing a good work, and I pray that he may see many souls converted as the result of his efforts. Already some of those coming to the restaurant for their meals are interested in the truth for this time.

It is certainly a great blessing to students for them to be able to take their meals at a restaurant where they can get pure, wholesome food, free from grease, condiments, and stimulants. Far more good may be accomplished by this line of work than is generally supposed. Those engaged in it are obeying the command to sow beside all waters.

In our restaurants no opportunity for presenting the truth should be left unimproved. Free reading-matter should be provided, and an occasional lecture on health topics should be given. The instruction that for years has been given me is that most earnest efforts should be put forth by believers for those outside the church. Not only should the truth be proclaimed from the pulpit; the Lord's servants are to go forth into the highways and the byways, to seek for souls. Let our restaurant workers learn to make the best use of our periodicals, tracts, pamphlets, and books.

Late at night we took our places in the tourist sleeper that was to take us home to California over the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Southern Pacific Railways.

At Salt Lake we were met by several of our brethren, who urged us to remain with them for a few days. By a hard struggle the church in Salt Lake City has built a good meeting-house. In a prominent part of the city our brethren are conducting a vegetarian cafe and a health food store; and all felt the need of counsel as to how to conduct the work in Utah.

This invitation we were obliged to refuse. We had cut short our work in Battle Creek because of the sickness of Sister Marian Davis, and had to hasten home as quickly as possible on her account. Our visit with the brethren at Salt Lake was a short one, but it was cheering to hear of the progress of our work in this citadel of Mormonism.

About half an hour's ride west from Ogden, we came to the shore of the great Salt Lake, and instead of skirting round the north end of the lake as we used to do, our train kept straight on in its westward course on a long embankment built across the lake.

From shore to shore the distance across the lake is thirty-one miles. For more than an hour the shores seemed far away and indistinct, the mountains looming up in the distance. By one hundred and three miles of new road that has been built, the line has been shortened nearly forty-four miles, and many steep grades are avoided. Three thousand men were employed on the work for more than a year, and the cost is said to have been four and a half million dollars.

All the way from Chicago the traffic along the lines seemed heavy, and from Ogden west the number of long passenger-trains and freight-trains was surprising. Waiting for trains to pass delayed us, and Friday morning we saw that we could not reach home before the Sabbath. So we stopped off at Reno, Nev., and spent the Sabbath with my granddaughters, Ella and Mabel White, who had recently gone there for the winter. Ella was teaching the church-school, and Mabel was conducting a small kindergarten. On Sabbath I spoke to our people in their little meeting-house, and met some who were at the camp-meeting which I attended in Reno many years ago.

Some of our brethren and sisters in Battle Creek and other favored centers should be working in Nevada.

Death of Sister Marian Davis

Sunday evening, October 9, we reached home, after an absence of nearly six months. We found Sister Davis very sick. For twenty-five years she had been a member of my family, and a most efficient helper in my literary work. She had been with me in Texas, California, Michigan, Europe, and Australia. A year ago last May, during the General Conference at Oakland, she caught a severe cold, which led to pneumonia. This brought her very low; but during the autumn she recovered, and carried on her work during the winter. Last summer her health began to fail rapidly, and the best care of physicians and nurses could not avail to restore her to health and strength.

On our arrival home, we found her weak and emaciated, unable to eat enough to sustain life and build up her strength. When we had been at home for about a week, she rallied a little, and for a few days we hoped for her recovery. But suddenly she failed, and on Tuesday, October 25, she closed her life-work. Her sister, Mrs. W. K. Kellogg, and her niece, Miss Beth Kellogg, were with her during the last six weeks of her sickness. At the funeral Elder H. A. St. John spoke words of comfort, and we laid our faithful helper away to rest in the St. Helena Cemetery.

Of Sister Davis it can truly be said, "She hath done what she could." All the energies of her being were freely given to the work she loved. Her quick appreciation of truth, and her sympathy for the seeker after truth, enabled her to work enthusiastically in preparing for the press the matter which the Lord has given me for his people. I miss her at the fireside, at the table, and at the family altar; but we sorrow not as those who have no hope. The time is not far when the trump of the Archangel shall sound, awaking all who sleep in Jesus to a life of endless joy. -

Notes of Travel, No. 4 (Labors in Central California)

Friday morning, October 28, we left St. Helena for southern California. We had been at home less than three weeks, and the need of completing unfinished books was urgent. But there were two new sanitariums in southern California in which I was deeply interested, and I hoped to be able to help our brethren who had the burden of the work in arranging for the opening and successful operation of these two sanitariums.

We spent the Sabbath in Fresno. I spoke to the church there on Sabbath afternoon. The large meeting-house was well filled, and the Lord helped me to bear my testimony. Here we met Dr. G. A. Hare, from Washington, who had been called back to his old home by the sickness of his mother. He told us of the advancement of the work at Takoma Park, and of the excellent place secured for treatment rooms in the city of Washington.

We intended to go on to Los Angeles Saturday night, but we were unable to secure accommodations on the train, so we stayed over, and on Sunday went to the Hanford-Lamore district, intending to spend the day visiting old friends. On our arrival there, we found a missionary convention in progress, and the brethren asked us to stay with them for a few days. This we consented to do, and I spoke each afternoon while I was there, twice in Hanford, once in Lamore, and once in Armona.

On Sunday afternoon, when I spoke at Hanford, the Lord gave me much liberty, and I think that a good impression was made. I dwelt especially on the words, "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

I sought earnestly to carry the minds of those present from the things of this world to the things of eternity. I sought to impress them with the thought that those who are saved must now prepare for the heavenly mansions by washing their robes, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb. I urged the fathers present to realize the duty resting upon them to train their children for God. I told them that this work is of infinitely more importance than all the advantages that they gain by undue devotion to the things of this world. Those parents who set their affections on the things of earth rob themselves and their children of a place in the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love him.

It was at an infinite sacrifice that Christ redeemed the human race. But in his parting conversation with his disciples, he made no reference to the suffering that he had endured and must still endure. He did not speak of the humiliation that was before him, but sought to bring to their minds that which would strengthen their faith, leading them to look forward to the joys that await the overcomer.

Adam sinned, and his posterity became sinners. Christ came to this world, and died on the cross of Calvary, that human beings might not "perish, but have everlasting life." O how diligent and faithful we should be, in view of the great sacrifice that has been made for us! How earnestly we should strive to separate from all sin, and through Christ become partakers of the divine nature.

On Tuesday afternoon I spoke at Lamore. I spoke of the great opportunities offered God's people to present the truth for this time to those who know it not. This truth must be proclaimed throughout the world. It is positively necessary that we become more deeply interested in the work that must be done to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Those who know the truth must give of their means to send it to those who know it not. They must not be so engrossed in worldly business that they have little time to keep their souls refreshed and strengthened with the bread of heaven, of which they must eat daily if they would prepare for the future immortal life.

I endeavored to set before those present the necessity for strict economy in the outlay of means, that they may have something to bring to the Lord, saying, Of thine own we freely give thee. Thus they are to offer God thanksgiving for the blessings received from him. Thus, too, they are to lay up for themselves treasure beside the throne of God. Hear the words of the Great Teacher; "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and Mammon.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought"--no anxious, troubled, complaining thought--"for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

In these words the great Master speaks to every one. There are many who spend upon dress large sums of money,--money that ought to be used in feeding and clothing those who are suffering from hunger and cold. Many of those for whom Christ died have but little even of the cheapest, most common clothing, while others are spending thousands of dollars in the effort to satisfy the never-ending demands of fashion.

Even among those who profess to be children of God there are those who spend more than is necessary upon dress. God's children should be neatly and tastefully clothed, but they should leave off all unnecessary trimmings, and lay aside the means thus saved for the advancement of the cause of God.

Parents, learn the lesson of self-denial, and teach this lesson to your children. Every dime that you can spare is needed now in the work that must be done. The necessities of the suffering must be relieved; the naked must be clothed, and the hungry fed. The truth for this time must be proclaimed to those who know it not. By denying ourselves of that which is not necessary, we may all have a part in this great work.

We are Christ's witnesses, and we are not to allow worldly interests and plans to absorb our time and attention. There are higher interests at stake. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Christ gave himself willingly and cheerfully to the carrying out of the will of God. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. In view of all that he has done, should we feel it a hardship to deny self? Shall we draw back from being partakers of Christ's sufferings? His death ought to stir every fiber of our being, making us willing to consecrate to his work all that we have and are. As we think of what he has done for us, our hearts should be filled with gratitude and love, and we should renounce all selfishness. What duty could the heart refuse to perform, under the constraining influence of the love of God and Christ? "I am crucified with Christ," the apostle declares; "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 me."

Let us relate ourselves to God in self-denying, self-sacrificing obedience. Faith in Christ always leads to this. The Saviour died to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. There is to be perfect conformity, in thought, word, and deed, to the will of God. Heaven is for those only who have purified their souls through obedience to the truth. It is a place where unsullied purity alone can dwell. "Every man that hath this hope in him"--the hope of seeing Christ--"purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

In perfect obedience there is perfect happiness. "These things have I spoken unto you," Christ said, "that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." May the Lord bless his people, and strengthen their faith, and lead them onward to the heights to which they have not yet attained. He gave Christ to die for us, that we might be purified from all iniquity. He has promised to pour out his Spirit upon us, that we may be sanctified through the truth. He has given us his Word, that through obedience to its teachings we may be made holy. This is the will of God, even our sanctification. -

Notes of Travel, No. 5 (Los Angeles, Cal.)

After four busy days spent at Hanford, Lamore, and Armona, we resumed our journey south, and reached Los Angeles on Thursday, November 3. At the restaurant and treatment rooms we were welcomed by Elder Burden and Dr. Simpson, and there we met Elders Santee, Healey, Simpson, and Adams.

The next day several of us went out to Glendale to see the large building that our people have recently purchased for a sanitarium. We found this building well adapted to sanitarium use, and conveniently located. The new electric street-car line runs past the property. The Glendale post-office is but two blocks away. We found that double treatment rooms were being added to the building, and painting, plumbing, and plastering were going on.

Elder W. W. Simpson had been holding tent-meetings in the heart of the city of Los Angeles during a large part of the summer, and the large tent, then standing on Grand Avenue and Seventh Street, was being used by the church for their Sabbath meetings. Soon after our arrival, letters were sent to our people in the neighboring churches, suggesting that a general meeting be held at Los Angeles on Sabbath and Sunday. In response to this, two or three hundred brethren and sisters came in from surrounding towns, and these, with the believers in the city, filled the large tent on Sabbath morning. The Lord helped me to speak to this congregation of over a thousand souls, all of whom seemed much interested. At the close of my discourse, a collection amounting to seventy-five dollars was taken up for the work among the colored people of the Southern States.

In the churches that I visited in central and southern California, I made earnest appeals in behalf of this needy work, and I hope to hear that our churches throughout the land are becoming aroused to their duty to give the work for the colored people their continual support.

There were about six hundred present at the afternoon meeting, and Brethren Adams, Ballenger, Santee, and W. C. White presented the plans for the home missionary campaign, and three thousand copies of the four special numbers of The Signs of the Times were subscribed for.

On Sunday morning W. C. White presented some encouraging facts about the progress of our work in many lands. Then Elder Burden made a plea in behalf of the Glendale Sanitarium, presenting especially the need of furniture, that the beautiful building may soon be opened for patients. In response to this appeal, eight hundred dollars was subscribed for furniture, and one hundred dollars toward the purchase fund.

On Sunday afternoon I spoke again to a large congregation. At the close of my talk, W. C. White told the people of a letter that my son Edson had written me, saying that he had gathered together one hundred and sixty dollars toward the building of an orphanage for colored children, and pleading for my help in raising one hundred and forty dollars more, saying that with three hundred dollars he hoped to be able to put up one wing of the orphanage, and open it for the waiting, suffering orphans. A collection was taken, and sixty-five dollars was given for this blessed work.

Advancement in Los Angeles

We rejoice to see that the work is moving forward in Los Angeles. The interest aroused by the meetings that Elder Simpson has been holding is remarkable. Night after night the large tent, holding two thousand persons, has been crowded. As a result of these meetings, a large number have taken their stand for the truth.

Elder Simpson presents the truth as it was presented in past years, illustrating his remarks by means of many charts. He explains the prophecies very clearly, showing plainly that the end of all things is at hand. The Lord certainly works with him, and I wish that there were hundreds of such workers in the field, proclaiming with the same earnestness and enthusiasm the last message of warning.

Special light has been given me regarding the character and magnitude of the work to be done in Los Angeles. Several times messages have been given regarding the duty that rests upon us of proclaiming the third angel's message with power in that city. And now, as we see that the Lord has blessed the labors of Brother Simpson and his faithful helpers, and that large additions have been made to the Los Angeles church, it is our duty to be wide-awake to the privileges and opportunities of the hour. Wherever such an interest is awakened as that which is now shown in Los Angeles, men of the best ability should be chosen to help in the effort. They should enter heartily into the work of visiting and holding Bible readings with those newly come to the faith, and with those who are interested, endeavoring to establish them in the faith. The new believers are to be carefully instructed, that they may have an intelligent knowledge of the various lines of work committed to the church of Christ. One or two men should not be left alone with the burden of such a work.

Much depends upon the work done by the members of the church in connection with and following the tent-meetings that shall be held in our cities. During the meeting, many, convicted by the Spirit, may be filled with a desire to begin the Christian life; but unless there is constant watchfulness on the part of the workers who remain to follow up the interest, the good impressions made on the minds of the people will become indistinct. The enemy, full of subtle reasoning, will take advantage of every failure on the part of God's workers to watch for souls as they that must give an account.

Earnest efforts must be made to lead men and women to place themselves on the Saviour's side. In this work there is need of divine help and of untiring vigilance. No one is to sleep at his post of duty. Every capability must be put to use to win for Christ a victory against the powers of darkness.

The voice of duty is the voice of God. The gospel demands from Christians unreserved consecration of soul and body. The Lord claims the highest service that men and women, aided by divine grace, can offer. In childhood, youth, and age, human beings of every rank, high and low, rich and poor, belong to God. They are to withhold nothing from him. Each one is to stand at his post of duty in the great enterprise of saving souls.

Those who present the truth are to enter into no controversy. They are to preach the gospel with such faith and earnestness that an interest will be awakened. By the words they speak, the prayers they offer, the influence they exert, they are to sow seeds that will bear fruit to the glory of God. There is to be no wavering. The trumpet is to give a certain sound. The attention of the people is to be called to the third angel's message. Let not God's servants act like men walking in their sleep, but like men preparing for the coming of Christ. -

A Stirring Exhortation

A STIRRING EXHORTATION

WE GIVE BELOW SOME EXTRACTS FROM A COMMUNICATION FROM MRS. E. G. WHITE, DATED FEBRUARY 15. THIS INSTRUCTION OUGHT TO BE STUDIED BY ALL OUR READERS, AND ESPECIALLY BY THE CONFERENCE WORKERS. NOTE THE STATEMENT, "THE LORD CALLS FOR ACTION." IT IS EVIDENT THAT PROMPT AND DECIDED MOVES OUGHT TO BE MADE TO PRESENT THIS MESSAGE TO ALL THE PEOPLE. EVERY LEADER SHOULD PLAN WISELY, AND THEN COMMAND ALL HIS FORCES FOR SERVICE. SISTER WHITE WRITES:--

Let those who have been trained for service now take their places quickly in the Lord's work. House-to-house laborers are needed. The Lord calls for decided efforts to be put forth in places where the people know nothing of the truth. Singing and prayer and Bible readings are needed in the homes of the people. Now, just now, is the time to obey the commission, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Those who do this work must have a ready knowledge of the Scriptures. "It is written" is to be their weapon of defense. God has given us light on his Word that we may give it to our fellow men. The truth spoken by Christ will reach hearts. A "Thus saith the Lord" will fall upon the ear with power, and fruit will appear wherever honest service is done.

The Lord calls for action. The Sabbath question is being agitated in Washington, and while minds are stirred, there is an opportunity for our people everywhere to sow the seeds of truth. Should we neglect to take advantage of this time, we should miss a great opportunity for letting light from God's Word shine forth. The trumpet is to give a certain sound.

Christ's divinity is to be steadfastly maintained. When the Saviour asked his disciples the question, "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Said Christ, "Upon this rock," not on Peter, but on the Son of God, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Great is the mystery of godliness. There are mysteries in the life of Christ that are to be believed, even though they can not be explained. The finite mind can not fathom the mystery of godliness.

Christ is to be preached, not controversially, but affirmatively. Take your stand without controversy. Let not your words at any time be uncertain. The Word of the living God is to be the foundation of our faith. Gather up the strongest affirmative statements regarding the atonement made by Christ for the sins of the world. Show the necessity for this atonement, and tell men and women that they may be saved if they will repent and return to their loyalty to God's law. Gather all the affirmatives and proofs that make the gospel the glad tidings of salvation to all who receive and believe on Christ as a personal Saviour.

God's Purpose for Us

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Those whom the Lamb shall lead by the fountains of living waters, and from whose eyes he shall wipe away all tears, will be those now receiving the knowledge and understanding revealed in the Bible, the Word of God. To us has been given the privilege of receiving the wisdom that cometh from God, of seeing the beauty and the glories of that Word which lies at the foundation of all true knowledge. The Bible teaches us what a Christian ought to be, and what he ought to do.

We are to copy no human being. There is no human being wise enough to be our criterion. We are to look to the man Christ Jesus, who is complete in the perfection of righteousness and holiness. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the pattern Man. His experience is the measure of the experience that we are to gain. His character is our model. Let us, then, take our minds off the perplexities and the difficulties of this life, and fix them on him, that by beholding we may be changed into his likeness. We may behold Christ to good purpose. We may safely look to him; for he is all-wise. As we look to him and think of him, he will be formed within, the hope of glory.

Let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the hundred and forty-four thousand. And let us do all that we can to help others to gain heaven. We are to have an intense interest in Christ Jesus; for he is our Saviour. He came to this world to be tempted in all points as we are, to prove to the universe that in this world of sin human beings can live lives that God will approve.

Think of how much it cost Christ to leave the heavenly courts, and take his position at the head of humanity. Why did he do this?--Because he was the only one who could redeem the fallen race. There was not a human being in the world who was without sin. The Son of God stepped down from his heavenly throne, laid off his royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed his divinity with humanity. He came to die for us, to lie in the tomb as human beings must, and to be raised for our justification. He came to become acquainted with all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He rose from the grave, and proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, "I am the resurrection and the life." One equal with God passed through death in our behalf. He tasted death for every man, that through him every man might be a partaker of eternal life.

Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with him into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages he will bear it, as the One who has redeemed every human being in the city of God the One who has pleaded before the Father, "I have graven them upon the palms of my hands." The palms of his hands bear the marks of the wounds that he received. If we are wounded and bruised, if we meet with difficulties that are hard to manage, let us remember how much Christ suffered for us. Let us sit together with our brethren in heavenly places in Christ. Let us bring heaven's blessing into our hearts.

Our Saviour bore all that we are called upon to bear, so that no human being could say, "He does not know my suffering and my trials." In all our afflictions he was afflicted, and because of this, the Father has committed to him all judgment.

Satan declared that human beings could not live without sin. Christ passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell, and by a sinless life placed the human race on vantage-ground, that every one might stand before the Father accepted in the Beloved.

The Saviour ascended to heaven to plead before the throne of God in our behalf. Just before his ascension he gave to his disciples the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." To us as well as to the disciples this commission is given. We are to speak the things that Christ has commanded us. Let us not talk of the mistakes and defects of others. Let us speak the words that Christ has given us to speak. Let us seek for the blessings that Christ has placed within our reach, that we may be made capable of receiving more and still more of his grace, and that we may be filled with a living, active, growing faith,--a faith that believes the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." -

Notes of Travel, No. 6 (San Diego County, Cal.)

From Los Angeles we went to San Diego, and spent three weeks, from November 7 to 28, at the Paradise Valley Sanitarium.

There are nearly three hundred Sabbath-keepers in San Diego County, settled mostly in San Diego, National City, Escondido, and San Pasqual. A general meeting was appointed to be held in the San Diego church, November 12 and 13. The brethren responded cheerfully, and the commodious meeting-house was well filled. Elders Santee, Healey, and Burden came down from Los Angeles County to take part with us and Elder F. I. Richardson in the general meeting, and to counsel about the work of our new sanitarium.

It had been announced that I would speak on Sabbath morning, but I was unable to fill my appointment. While traveling I had caught a severe cold, and could only whisper. Sunday afternoon was pleasant, and I attempted to speak. With great difficulty I spoke for about twenty minutes. Then Elder Healey gave a stirring discourse to the large audience that had assembled.

On Monday the attention of our brethren was given to the affairs of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. They looked over the land and the buildings, and saw the improvements that were being made. All were surprised to find that so much had been done during the summer in preparing the building for occupancy, and with thankful hearts they entered into counsel concerning future plans and work.

A Review of Our Experiences

During the spring of 1902 the attention of several of our brethren was called to the Paradise Valley Sanitarium building, which was erected for a sanitarium by Mrs. Mary L. Potts about twenty years ago. After being used for a few months, it lay idle for many years, and was then offered for sale at twenty thousand dollars, with encouragement that it might be purchased for fifteen thousand dollars cash.

In September, 1902, after the Los Angeles camp-meeting, we spent a week in San Diego, and visited several places that were offered us for sanitarium work. In the building offered us by Mrs. Potts, it seemed to me we found about all that we could ask. Here was a well-constructed, three-story building of fifty rooms, with broad verandas, standing upon a pleasant rise of ground, and overlooking a beautiful valley. Many of the rooms are large and airy, and there is a stationary marble wash-bowl in most of the bedrooms.

Besides the main building, there is a good stable, and also a six-room cottage, which can be fitted up for helpers. The property is conveniently located, being less than seven miles from San Diego, and about a mile from the National City post-office.

There are twenty acres of land. About one half of this had once been planted to fruit-trees, but during the long drought that this country has suffered, all the trees died except the ornamental trees and shrubbery around the buildings, and about seventy olive-trees on the terraces.

When we learned that the owners of this property had become so discouraged on account of the many years of drought that they were offering it for twelve thousand dollars, I said to our brethren, "I believe that the Lord has kept this place for us, and that he will open the way for us to secure it. I never saw a building offered for sale that was better adapted for sanitarium work. If this place were fixed up, it would look just like places that have been shown me by the Lord."

A year before, light had been given me that our people in southern California must watch for opportunities to purchase such properties, and it seemed plain to me and to those who were with me that the opportunity of securing this place was a fulfilment of the encouragement given us, and published in the "Testimonies for the Church," Vol. VII, in the following words:--

"As soon as possible sanitariums are to be established in different places in southern California. Let a beginning be made in several places. If possible, let land be purchased on which buildings are already erected. Then, as the prosperity of the work demands, let appropriate enlargement be made. . . . In southern California there are many properties for sale on which buildings suitable for sanitarium work are already erected. Some of these properties should be purchased, and medical missionary work be carried forward on sensible, rational lines. Several small sanitariums are to be established in southern California, for the benefit of the multitudes drawn there in the hope of finding health. Instruction has been given me that now is our opportunity to reach the invalids flocking to the health resorts of southern California."

In December we learned that this place could be purchased for eleven thousand dollars, and I encouraged Dr. Whitelock to take steps to secure it. But our leading brethren in the Southern California Conference were not ready to co-operate in the matter, and nothing was done.

In the summer of 1903 the property was offered to us for eight thousand dollars, and again we found that our brethren were not in a position to act.

The drought continued, and the owners of this property were very much discouraged. In January, 1904, Dr. Whitelock wrote me that the mortgages could be bought for six thousand dollars, and perhaps less. Again I advised our brethren connected with the medical work in southern California to secure the place. But I learned that they were not prepared to act. Then I laid the matter before Sister Gotzian, and she consented to join me in securing the place. Then we telegraphed an offer of four thousand dollars for the mortgages. Two days later a telegram was returned accepting the offer. Meanwhile a letter from other parties in San Diego was on its way to New York, offering six thousand dollars for the mortgages.

Shortly after we had secured the place, Elder and Mrs. J. F. Ballenger joined us in raising the amount to be paid for the property.

Having secured the place, we needed a manager, and we found one ready for the work. Brother E. R. Palmer and his wife, who had spent the winter in Arizona, were in San Diego. Brother Palmer's bronchial trouble, which had brought him West, was being overcome, and they were willing to take charge of the work of fitting up the sanitarium building for use.

At first Brother Palmer had to work moderately and with great caution. His health would not admit of violent exertion, and our funds would not admit of hiring much help. He began the work cautiously, and the way opened for advance.

When we visited the place in November last, we found that much had been done during the summer. The building had been thoroughly repaired, inside and out, and painted outside. It had been fitted up with electric lights, and about one third of the rooms were furnished. By taking advantage of several sales of furniture by wealthy families leaving the country, first-class furniture had been secured at very low prices.

Our great anxiety about the place was the matter of an ample supply of water. Years ago, when the valley was prosperous, it depended upon the water of the mountain streams stored up by great dams, but as the result of the many years of drought, there was no water in the reservoirs to supply our needs. Some of our neighbors in the valley had good wells, but our place was a little to one side. The great question was, Can we get plenty of water by digging?

The well-diggers had gone down eighty feet, and found a little water, but they wanted much more. O how much depended upon our finding plenty of good, pure water! With an abundance of water our work could go forward, but without it, what should we do? From the beginning, I had felt the assurance that the Lord would open the way for our work to advance; but who could tell when and how? Our people were deeply desirous of seeing the sanitarium make a success, and as we met them, the question was, "Have you found water?"

While this important question was pending, Prof. E. S. Ballenger and my son went to San Pasqual and Escondido to present to our people the encouragements that had attended the enterprise thus far, and the plan of organization that had been prepared, and to ask for their help.

All were glad to share the burden of making this sanitarium, as far as possible, a San Diego County enterprise, and they gave freely according to their ability. About fifteen hundred dollars was subscribed, and half of this was brought back for immediate use.

The very day of the return of Professor Ballenger and my son, with the evidence of the hearty, practical support of the people, the workers in the well struck a fine stream of good, pure water. The next morning Brother Palmer came up early to tell me that there was fourteen feet of water in the well. The water is soft and pure, and we are greatly rejoiced to know that there is an abundant supply. This well is a treasure more valuable than gold or silver or precious stones.

The workers at the sanitarium are all cheerful and hard working. Every morning and evening they have a season of worship. For a day or two after reaching there, I met with them, and enjoyed the privilege very much. The blessing of the Lord rested upon us, and I was very sorry when sickness prevented me from attending regularly.

When shall we open the place for patients? was a question often discussed. Several were impatiently waiting to enter, but how could we admit them while the house was being repainted inside, and while the large kitchen range was being set up?

One morning a lady came unannounced, and insisted upon staying. Others came before we were ready, and patients continued to come till there were twenty, and our workers were kept so busy that there has been no time as yet for a formal opening.

One evening, just before we left, a four-horse team drawing a large, heavy wagon, drove in, bringing gifts to the sanitarium from San Pasqual. In the load there were potatoes, squash, canned fruit, and two beautiful Jersey cows.

During the last three nights of my stay at this institution, much instruction was given me regarding the sanitariums which for years have been greatly needed, and which should long ago have been equipped and set in working order. Medical missionary work is to be to the third angel's message as the right hand to the body. Our sanitariums are one great means of doing medical missionary work. They are to reach the people in their need.

The workers connected with our sanitariums are to be sympathetic, kind, and straightforward in their dealings with one another and with the patients. Their words and deeds are to be noble and upright. They are ever to receive from Christ light and grace and love to impart to those in darkness. By their efforts the sick, the sinful, the prodigals, who have left the Father's house, are to be encouraged to return. God's word to these workers is, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "Fear not, neither be discouraged; for I am thy God." -

An Open Letter

Sanitarium, Cal., March 6, 1905. Dear Brethren and Sisters: There is a great work to be done in many cities. Just now is the time for a deep, earnest effort to be made in Washington, the capital of our nation.

I feel somewhat disappointed that the gifts that are being made toward the work in Washington do not steadily increase. The remarkable developments in the work in Washington, showing the importance of our moving there, should lead the people of God to make their offerings toward the One Hundred Thousand Dollar Fund larger and larger. The present showing should be decidedly different. My brethren and sisters, do not allow the large gifts for the work in Washington to be so few. We thank the givers of the small sums. And we know that there are those who can make larger gifts. The occasion demands that the men of means among us should bestir themselves. Our reputation is at stake. Now is the time for all to act a part. Unbelievers are looking on, and forming their opinions by the representation made.

Let our ministers arouse, and fully realize the importance of the situation. Let the work in Washington become a matter of the first interest now. Let every believer in every place feel called upon to help. Let all feel that the work in Washington belongs to them, and let them do their utmost toward its advancement.

Come to the front, my brethren and sisters, with your gifts and offerings. Awake to the responsibilities of the hour. We plead with the Lord to work upon minds, and to lead those who have means to realize that now is their time to help liberally in a most important crisis.

The Takoma Park Sanitarium

We have purchased land in Takoma Park, not for the purpose of building up commercial enterprises, but for the purpose of establishing institutions in which workers may be prepared to go out into the great harvest-field. The school has made a humble beginning. A sanitarium must be established there. The ground is ready for the building. Who will now bring their hundreds and their thousands for the help of this enterprise? And let not those who can afford to give but little withhold the smaller sums.

Our sanitariums are one of the most successful means of reaching all classes of people. Christ is no longer in this world in person, to go through our cities and towns and villages healing the sick. He has commissioned us to carry forward the medical missionary work that he began; and in this work we are to do our very best. Institutions for the care of the sick are to be established, where men and women may be placed under the care of God-fearing medical missionaries, and be treated without drugs. To these institutions will come those who have brought disease on themselves by improper habits of eating and drinking. These are to be taught the principles of healthful living. They are to be taught the value of self-denial and self-restraint. They are to be provided with a simple, wholesome, palatable diet, and are to be cared for by wise physicians and nurses.

Our sanitariums are the right hand of the gospel, opening doors whereby suffering humanity may be reached with the glad tidings of healing through Christ. In these institutions the sick may be taught to commit their cases to the Great Physician, who will co-operate with their earnest efforts to regain health, bringing to them healing of soul as well as healing of body.

There is most precious missionary work to be done in our sanitariums. In them Christ and the angels work to relieve suffering caused by bodily disease. And the work is by no means to stop there. The prayers offered for the sick, and the opening of the Scriptures to them give them a knowledge of the great Medical Missionary. Their attention is called to him as the One who can heal all disease. They learn about the great gift of eternal life, which the Lord Jesus is longing to bestow on those who receive him. They learn how to prepare for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love him. If I go away, he said, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." In the Word of God there are gracious promises, from which those who are suffering, whether in body or in mind, may receive comfort and hope and encouragement.

The plan to provide institutions for the proper care of the sick originated with the Lord. He has instructed his people that these institutions should be established. With them are to be connected intelligent, God-fearing physicians, who know how to treat the sick from the standpoint of the skilful Christian physician. These physicians are to be earnest and active, serving the Lord in their activity. They are to remember that they are working in the place and under the oversight of the Great Physician. They stand as guardians of the beings that Christ has purchased with his own blood, and it is therefore essential that they be governed by high, noble principles, carrying out the will of the divine Medical Missionary, who is ever watching over the sick and suffering.

He who is set as a guardian of the health of the sick should understand by experience the soothing power of the grace of Christ, so that to those who come to him for treatment he can impart in words the uplifting, health-giving power of God's own truth. A physician is not fit for medical missionary work until he has gained a knowledge of him who came to save perishing, sin-sick souls. If Christ is his teacher, if he has an experimental knowledge of the truth, he can hold up the Saviour before the sick and dying.

The sick note carefully the looks and words and acts of their physician, and as the Christian physician kneels beside the bedside of the sufferer, asking the Great Physician to take the case into his own hands, an impression is made upon the mind of the sick one that may result in the saving of his soul.

A sanitarium building is to be erected at Takoma Park, that this work may be carried forward. Will not those who have means feel it a privilege to give something toward this work, that the needed fund may be raised soon? The Lord will certainly bless those who will cheerfully return to him his own. Doors that were once fast closed are now opening wide for the entrance of our workers. I call upon our people, while the way is open, to do earnest work, to rally round the standard, to answer the call that has been made for the completion of the One Hundred Thousand Dollar Fund. Come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. This work is the Lord's, and he calls upon those who have means to place it in the treasury for the advancement of his work. Send in your offerings for the buildings to be erected at Takoma Park. We are praying that the money buried in lands and houses may now be called in, because it is the Lord's money, and he needs it. It is to our honor to send in large and small sums, so that, when the next General Conference shall assemble, we can say that the fund needed has been raised.

We call upon those who have invested money in worldly interests to withdraw it, and place it in the Lord's cause, where it is now greatly needed. Show your gratitude to God by the liberality of your offerings. Thus you may give evidence that you appreciate the mercies of the gospel.

To the workers in Washington, I would say: We have faith, my brethren and sisters, that if you will walk humbly with God, you will see of his salvation. It is the desire of my heart that you shall know the power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an all-sufficient Helper. He understands our weakness and our needs. Let there be fasting and prayer. Let self be humbled. Let the heart be cleansed from all impurity. Confess your sins, and plead with God day and night for the victory, and you will walk in the light as Christ is in the light. Ellen G. White. –

Ellen White

Advent Review and Sabbath Herald-3

Оглавление