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PINEY
WOODS
ABIDING.
By Belle Boddie.
Norman Duncan did a luminous turn
for us all, when he wielded his master
ful pen to tell of the labors of Higgins,
the Sky Pilot of the Lumberjacks in
Minnesota.
Higgins was a man with a purpose.
Upon entering the camp, he saw at a
glance, much of the blackened deprav
ities rampant that are common in such
places. He perceived, too, that he
was not welcome, but not in the least
did that daunt his courageous soul.
He understood that the spiritual prizes
of the Kingdom were commonly won
by conflict and perseverance, and that
it is the line of greatest resistance
which oftenest leads to the richest re
wards.
From camp to camp, from shack to
shack, through cold, storm and snow
he went
Brought the men from the gam
bling dens, snatched them from the
clutches of the saloonkeepers, took
care of the drunken, nursed the sick
and ministered to the dying. Endured
privations with cheerfulness and
counted obstacles, and oppositions as
special inducements and invitations.
With all his big heart, he loved ev
ery prodigal son in the camps, because
he loved God, and knew He loved and
yearned for them ,and his all dominat
ing purpose was to win them for Him.
Every moment of opportunity he
told them of the infinite love of the
Father, and the efficiency of the blood
of the Son for salvation.
Told them of the need and power
of prayer, and the significance of re
pentance, faith and obedience.
Ultimately, the Pilot won the respect
and love of every member of that long
neglected element of humankind, and
CAIN AND ABEL.
January 26, 1913.
Time —U nknown.
Gen. 4:1 to 15.
Place —Near Eden.
THE GOLDEN TEXT: “Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer.”—l.
John 3:15.
SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS.
What Should I do?
I. Trust in the Blood. Vs. Ito 8.
Adam and Eve, in obedience to God’s
commandment, had begun to multiply.
They had two sons who were the two
types of men of all ages. Abel was
a man of faith, and Cain a selfish and
self-willed man. The sacrifice offered
reveals the character of the two men.
Abel brought “of the firstling of his
flocks.” Paul tells us that “By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice that Cain.” (Heb. 11:4.) No
doubt, but he was obeying an unre
corded command of God. There is
but little doubt but that God had made
known to them that the only way to
put away sin and approach to the holy
God was on the ground of shed blood.
(Heb. 9:22; Heb. 10:19 and 30.) Abel
recognized he was sinful and need
ed an atonement, and with faith in
Him that was to come he approached
God in the God-appointed way. The
lamb thus ottered by him was ft type
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his labors resulted in the victory he
determined through His strength to
win.
And the fruitage is abiding. The
arresting thought to many of us, as
members of the Church is
What are we doing for His other
long-neglected people that will abide.
I refer to those vast multitudes yet
under the shadows of heathenism.
It is a great privilege to be a mem
ber of the Church. But —are there not
some of us who rest so complacently
upon the privileges as to seemingly
forget the lines of duties annexed to
the privilege?
God united the two and we have no
right either to ignore or dissolve them.
We should understand that we came
into -the Church to work, to be a ser
vant, a messenger, a living testimony
for our blessed Master.
The very highest attainment to
which any child of redeeming grace
can aspire this side of heaven is obe
dience to His will.
That obedience being of love for
Him, and welded through faith in Him,
always finds its expression in joy and
service.
This kind of obedience is the great
secret leading to great victories.
This is the kind that will enable us
to attain the loftiest altitude of
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of the true Lamb of God to be offered
thousands of years later on Calvary.
(John 1:29.) Cain, self-willed and
self-righteous, brought the fruit of his
own labor and the fruit of the ground.
His offering was more pleasant looking
than that of Abel, but there was no
recognition of sin in it, and it was not
offered in obedience to the command
of God. Therefore, “The Lord had
respect unto Abel, and to his offering.
But unto Cain and to his offering He
had not respect.” God now has re
spect for the offered blood of Christ
and will receive all who come to Him
through the blood, but He will
not have respect for us or our offering
if we come bringing the fruit of our
own labor and expect to be accepted
on that ground. “Without faith it is
impossible to please God.” (Heb.
11:6.) Faith shows itself in believing
and obeying God’s commandments.
God dealt in mercy with Cain, though
He did not accept his offering. God
put this question to him: “Why art
thou wroth, and why is thy counte
nance fallen? If thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted?” The sin
offering had been provided, and he
oould find no pardon by bringing the
sin-offering, which would show his
faith in the blood to be shed- There
is no reason now for the sinner re
maining under the condemnation of sin,
The Golden Age for January 16,1913.
By B. LA C Y HOGS, Richmond, Va.
Christian strength, and that will ex
pand and clarify our spiritual vision,
and enable us to meet that great and
certain obligation incumbent upon us
as Christians, viz.: to throw out the
life-line to His other people far out in
the benighted regions.
That is all. But it is everything.
Roughly estimated there are some
twenty-five million people yet to be
evangelized.
Christ’s final charge to His disciples
is as binding on us as it was on them.
In the providence of God, we are
placed in circumstances which demand
absolute obedience or non-obedience to
this last command.
And whether conscious of the fact
or not, we are doing one of the two
every day.
We are indeed placed in very sol
emn circumstances.
A question each Christian must an
swer some day, is: What have you
done in retarding, or in hastening the
expansion of His Kingdom on earth?
The evangelization of the heathen
world is the greatest undertaking of
today. And in thinking of it, let us
pause to ask:
What does it mean to bring a soul to
Christ? Amos Wells answers: “For
that soul it means peace, exultant and
growing. It means power, assured
for the great sin-offering has been
made and by faith he can be cleansed,
justified and accepted.
11. Don’t be jealous. V. 8.
Jealousy is an awful sin. It is
nothing but selfishness, and selfishness
leads to the commission of all kinds
of sin and crime. Jealousy caused
Cain to murder his brother, Abel. Jeal
ousy of Joseph, because he was his
father’s favorite son, his brothers
sold him into slavery. Saul, jealous
of David, sought to slay him. The
jealousy of the elder brother in the
parable of the Prodigal Son, caused
him to be angry with his father, and
to refuse to welcome his brother home
and join with the family in the wel
come feast. If you allow jealousy to
fill your breast, it will cause you to
wrong others, to rob yourself and
wrong and rob God. When conscious
of jealousy, confess it as sin to God at
once, and ask and receive the cleans
ing from this sin. Cain was angry
with both God and Abel, because God
had accepted Abel’s gift. The world
today hates God, and those who love
and serve God. (Rom. 8:7; John 15:
18 to 23.) Paul tells us that all who
will live godly in Christ Jesus is
sure to suffer persecution. (11. Tim. 3:
12.) The world will hate you for the
same reason Cain hated Abel, because
his works were evil, and Abel’s were
SKETCHES
By MRS. W. D. UPSHAW
and increasing. It means honor and
prosperity on the whole, even in this
troubled world. It means this for the
coming year, and those months multi
plied by the long years of life, and
that life multiplied by the unimagined
stretches of'eternity, and glorified by
the unguessed joys of Paradise. It
means this for one soul, and for all
the others, whom that one may reach,
and for the myriads these may reach,
then nations and generations. This is
only a hint of what it means to bring
a soul to Christ.”
Is not the quest and the struggle
worth the goal?
Can we afford not to do our part in
establishing and expanding His King
dom throughout the regions beyond?
We have been told of the distressing
needs of His other people there.
That which affronts us is our pres
ent responsibility —not for the sins of
the past; not for the weaknesses of
the present —but for the efficiency of
the future.
The door of opportunity stands open.
Hark! the voice of Jesus crying:
“Who will go and work today?”
Fields are white, and harvest waiting;
Who will bear the sheaves away?
Loud and strong the Master calleth,
Rich reward He offers thee
Who will answer, gladly saying,
“Here am I, send me, send me!”
It is written: “The King’s work
requireth haste.”
Soldiers of the Cross, shall we not
now advance, and let our prayers, our
means, and our services to His long
neglected people ’mid the thick dark
ness of heathendom, become some of
the proofs of our love for our King?
Arcadia, near LaGrange, Ga.
righteous. (I John 3:12.) Hatred
not only leads to murder, but hatred
is essentially murder. (I John 3:15.)
Let us remember that “whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap.”
(Gal. 6:7.) Adam and Eve sowed dis
obedience to God and they reaped a
murdered son and a son who was a
murderer. We will find this always
true. A distinguished statesman of
Virginia served wines and liquors at
his table and a few years later the
news was carried to his wife that her
son had shot and killed a man. On
the receipt of this news she fell back
ward on the floor of their great man
sion and exclaimed as she fell. “I
had only two sons. One was murder
ed in a drunken row, and the other
himself a murderer.”
ill. Don’t seek to hide your sin. Vs.
9 to 15.
Adam and Eve sought to hide their
sin, and Cain sought to hide his, but
they could not hide it from God. To
Adam God said: “Where art thou?”
And He startles Cain with the ques
tion: “Where is Abel, thy brother?”
God is asking us that question, both as
to the ones we have done wrong, and
to those we have neglected to help,
and thus left them to be lost. Is
there some one that you might have
saved, whom you have not saved? If
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