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TWO DOLLABS AND FIFTY CENTS. PPIR ANNUM. ' VOLUME XLI., NO. S. fnetrj, MEET ME—A HYMN. BY JOHN W. CORSON, M. D. 1 1 will come to you.”—John xiv : IS. "Lo, lam with you.”— Mac xxviii: 20. Air, “Bet in y”* Jesus, by faith be known. Thy love bestow; Bless, from Thy lofty throne, My home below : Meet me and claim thine own, Ofi in the closet ’ one. Thy mercy show. Come, and with accents or Id, Calm needless fears ; Still every tempest wild, Stay Thou my tears ; Let me be reconciled— Only Thy loving child Through coming years. Meet “ two or three,’* in prayer, Ap Thou hast ‘aid ; Or, in Thy temples fair. Be Thou the Head; Meet uie with thivngs that there, Anthe c: rraTirs Phare o'ith sainted dead. Come to my bed of pain. Nuht-wiitches keep: Life-giving pece maintain Tn angui-.h deep; Ouiet my fevered brain. Let not my trust be vain, Lull mo to sleep. On to the brighter lard, <Hadden my way ; Savioor, with gentle hand, Be Thou iny stay : Leal to the angel-band, Let me with loved ones stand, In fadeless day. Oranoe , N. J„ . 1877. •Repea t the sixth line of each stanza in singing. Contributions. where IS THE RESPONSIBILITY. Dr. Guthrie, of Scotland, in 1852 deliv ered wild published a sermon on the results of the war which England was then waging in the Crimea. His biographers tel! us that his views were not in agreement with those which were then common. He was of course unpopular for a while, and was doubt less accused of bringing politics into the pul pit. As long aB the preacher was willing to be a fixture in the general framework and borne onward by the public current, the pol iticians around him said, he was sitting still, as a well-behaved minister ought to do. But as soon as he began to move individually up stream, they suddenly found our that he was meddling with politics. Such is the harsh and capricious rule wbicti applied to mod ern ministers. Three years ago Rev Thomas Binney, a well known English preacher, died. From notices which appeared at the time, it may be interred that he was one of those minis ters who claim the right to press everything of public interest, into the Christian educa tion cf their hearers. Everything that stirred the mind or heart of England,everything hat. moved the sympathies, the hopes, the tears, the passions of Englishmen, could be stu dii-d r“ligiou.“Ji.y *lO ha believed and 5 > ticed. v Vffa he necessarily wrong in tnis ? In our last Sunday-school Lesson th se remarkable words were spoken—not in par tisan zeal (as they have often been spoken since!), but by one uuder the sure guidance of inspiration: ‘-The battle is not yours, but God's.” In an hour like that the usual distinction between sacred and common, between preaching and politics, disappears. It is possible that crises like that may occur in modern histoiy. But the caee3 are far more common, in which iue Bible does not dictate our politics. Even when reverently and intelligently consulted, it may leave us a wide margin within which to choose. But it always decides the spirit in which our opinions are to be held and defended. If a traveler in a strange land, comes to where the roads part, his Bible does not tell him which to take. But it does tell him in what temper he must, travel over anvrosd. Our opinions we may modify by discussion. Our tone and spirit and characerare prescribed. -This rule applies to politics, as well as to other fields. And here, certainly, the pro fessed expounder of the Bible may have something to say. Let ns suppose the Sab bath before our Fall Elections to have come. A preacher, in the coarse of his usual ser mon, speaks such words as these: “ Nothiug can be more natural or more proper than that those who have strong im pressions themselves as to the line to be fol lowed in public matters, should be desirous of persuading others to think as they do ; every man who loves truth and righteous ness. must wish that what, he himself ear nestly believes to he true and righteous, should be loved by others also; but the highest truth, if professed by one who be lieves it not in his heart, is to him a lie. and he sins greatly by professing it. Let ns try as much as we will to convince oar neigh bors ; but let us beware of influencing their conduct, when we fa’l in influencing their convictions. He who bribes or frightens his neighbor into doing an act, which no good mau would do for reward, or from fear, is tempting his neighbor to sin ; he is assisting to lower and to harden his conscience—to make him act tor the favor or from the fear of man. instead of for the favor or from the fear of God ; and if this be a sin in h'm, it is a double sin in us to tempt him to it. N r let us deceive ourselves by talking of the greatness of the stake at issue; that God's glory and the public good are involved iu the result of the contest, and that therefore we must do all in our power to win it. Let us, by all means, do all that we can do with out sin; but let us not dare to do evil, that good ma r come ; for that is the part of un belief. It becomes those who will not trust God with the government of the world, but would fain guide its course themselves Here, indeed, our Lord's comm :nd does apply to us, that we be not anxious:‘‘Which of yon by taking though; can add to his stat ure one cubit?” How little can we see of the course of Prov deuce! Haw little can we be sure that what we judged for the best in public affairs may not lead to mhehiet 1 But these things are in Goa's hands; our business is to keep ourselves and our neigh bors from ein, and not to do, or encourage in others, anything that is evil, however great the advantage which we may fancy likely to flow from that evil to the cause even of the highest good. “ But what is going on all around us, what we hear of, read of, and talk of so much, as we are many of us likely to do, in the next week or two, about political matters, that we should be accustomed to look unon as Christians: we should by that standard, try our common views and language about it, and, it it may be, correct them; that so hereafter, if we be called upon to act, we may act according to the Apostle’s teaching in the name of our Lord Jesus. And lam quite sure, if we do so think and so act, al though our differences of opinion might re main just the same, yet the change in oar selves, and I verily believe iu the blessings which God would give us, would be more thau we could well believe’; and a general election, instead of calling forth, as it now does, a host of unchristian passions and practices, would be rather an exercise of Christian judgment and forbearance and faith and charity ; promoting, whatever was the mere political result, the glory of God, . advancing Christ's kingdom, and the good *t .Jffiis—;as it would be then truly called— nation.” *§oiilwn Clfisliitt Is this polit'cal preaching? In one sec tion of the country it might be bo consider ed. In other sections it might not. Or, stranger still, in the same congregation, some would consider this as political preach ing, while others would call it religious preaching. These paragraphs are a verbal ly exact quotation from a sermon spoken in England, and the preacher has been resting in his peaceful grave for more than thirty years. He had no strained or fanciful text. He had before him these sublime words: “ Whatever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Was he wandering from this inexhaustible text, or was he profaning it, when he spake the words given above ? Can yon tell from that ex tract whether, on the following Thursday, the speaker voted the conservative or radi cal ticket? The question before U3 now, is not the special fitness, of this teaching to his hearers, or to our readers, but can such words is Votes, Election, be int-odneed in a st-rmou ? The responsibility of bringing the highest motives and restraints to bear oa the public mind, in itg most excited moods, must re3t somewhere, on the pulpit, ou the press on private cit'zenß, or on all of these togethi r. The field of politics is not, in itself, ac cursed or unclean. The name is of human invention. The thing is of divine appoint ment—as really so as the Church. If we, from reason or revelation, it must be the will of the Creator, that men should live to gether in society. If so, there must exist that singular and far reaching network of relations, which we call politics. No man, no party, no nation, can separate that which God has toined together, and say that all this array of necessary and powerful forces, must be irreligious in its impulse, guidance, or results. But in that field, which in itaeif is as pure as any field of human enterprise, gome of the worst spirits that scourge our race, have their favorite retreats. The de mons ofgreed, selfishness, and discord, are holding high carnival in our land. If Chris tianity has any word of counsel or warning for a distres.-ed nation, now is the time to say it. Jas. H. Carlisle. WITH THE DEAD. In 1801, v.hen I first reached Lynchburg with my command. I was the guest of Geo. W. Laughorne, 1). I)., since dead. Iu his family, and in that of Bishop Early, I heard very much of Jimmy Duncan, of his match less humor, his amiability, his attractiveness. Teat summer I saw him. That classic face, so tamiliar to all our people as it has been presented in the fine likenesses published, was only a little more youthful then, but not less fascinating. I heard him preach. I thought then, and think now, he was the finest pulpit declaimer I had heard in our Church, save one. If he had art, it was the high art which conceals itself. After the war I was a guest at Mr. Chas. .1. Biker’s, where he was also entertained, and with whom he was also a great favorite, and 1 was with him for several days. I met him after this in private circles in Virginia and Maryland. He was‘the most sparkling mau 1 nearly ever Knew. His hutnor was irresistible. The man who was dignity itself when dignity was demanded, was mirth innate when mirth was in place. F’ull of health, full of love, he made every fireside he sat at a piece of joy. Where one is known is the place to weigh his merits ; and in Virginia, where he had been known from h-,s btr h—in that Conference, of which he had been a member before he had passed his first score of years, he was most beloved. His robe was spotless. Those who knew him far better than I did, have told me of the depth of his tenderness, the breadth of his sympathy. He impressed every one with whom he came in coutact by his remarkable common sense. He was emphatically level headed. He would have made a grand Bishop, or a capital circuit preacher. He would have managed a Sunday school or a college with the same ability. If he worked himself to death, he did it.because he would, and not because Virginia called for the sac rifice. Nobody ever dreamed of his being tired. He was so bright, and when I knew him, so strong, that work was a joy. What a different man was Elbert Munsey, the most astonishing genius of this era, as far as our Church is concerned. I met him first the same year, 1861, when he had been driven from Knoxville because of his intense Southernism. I think it was probably in the very room he died, that I first saw him, with his portfolio on his knee, working out some of the great ideas of his wondrous brain. I never saw him again, until he burst upon the sky in Virginia and Maryland, a comet of amazing lustre. He had come from the mountains of South-West Virginia at the in stance of Dr. Harris of Staunton—had as tonished Staunton; then amazed and de lighted cultivated Lexington, with its Uni versity ; then enraptured the literati of the University of Virginia. His fame was wide. No church could hold the people he preached to, and for that fame he yielded up his life. I knew him afterwards intimately. I loved him truly. I never knew a more child like, unselfish, hone=t, unpretending soul, than his. Transparent as glass, delighted at the conquests he had won, he was unable to conceal his delight; yet never arrogant, never offensively conceited, always gentle, loviiig,*child:sh. He had no particle of worldly wisdom. If he had found Golcon da, he would have revelled in the beauty of its gems, then given them to children whom he met. There are stories of his early life, which I know to be true, that are most touching and beautiful. Left with a mother and sisters upon his hands to maintain, living under the dankest of the Blue Ridge, he toiled like a slave to support those he loved, denying himself the very necessaries of life, that he might care for them. Working by day, and studying by night, preaching when he could, he then penniless joined the Conference, and began to walk to bis first circuit. His first friend was A. G. Worley, of our Con ference, who gave him a horse. He preach ed wondrously, toiling on and learning as best he could. Alas! for him that he ever learned that he had matchless powers; for this knowledge intoxicated him, and to win ame and to keep it, he wore down a frame like mountain oak, until it was a bruised reed. He wrote, and polianed, and committed, till night after night two o’clock found him at work, giving more toil to one grand sermon than a volume demand ed. His frame gave way—the sad sequel the world knows. It is due to his memory to Bay, that save that weakness when his body escaped him, and when the demand for narcotics and stimulants was an insan ity, he was as pure, as Christ like, as he had ever been. I inquired of those who knew him well in his last days, and that was their united testimony. He was, the; said, a prayerful, loving man to the last, though PUBLISHED BY J. W. BURKE & COMPANY, >,OR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. sadly weak. God only knows what he en dured. God only knows how many acts to which we attribute guilt are involuntary, and how many hearts are loyal to him, who rr* ceive our condemnation. If to be a good, self denying son, if to be a kind, though fa 1 husband, if to be as true a frieud as ever lived, if to be as brave a patriot as ever was exiled, if to be as loyal to the Church as man was ever loyal, if to be as honest in confessions of weakness as Peter was, if to love Jesus and His honor—make a good man—then, I believe Elbert Munsey was a good man to the death. He was as peculiar in person and manner as he was in mental make up. Tall, fragile, with a giiatening, restless eye of blue, with his hair almost shaven from his head; with a nervous excitability which kept him always in motion; with an abstracted air which told others that his thougts were far away, he would have attracted any eye. To prepare a sermon —for he did not have many—he read and thought widely. On one sermon he exhausted the real of metaphy.-ics, on another moral philosophy, on another geo logical science. When his work was done — and it took him weeks to do it —he was com pelted to go over what he had done, as though it had been done by another,and labo riously commit ail to memory. He dared not go into his pulpit without the book in which his sermon was written, though he did not look into it at all. He preached every sermon with trepidation, and found himself sick whenever he had preached. A frame of steel could not have borne the strain he put upon it, and his gave way of course. Remonstrated with, he said God called for a few preachers like himself, and ho was conscientious in his work arid must go on. When his book of sermons is published they will be widely read. I certainly hope they will not be imitated. There was but one Munsey—we do not need another. He was put up on a different plan from other men, and any man who tries to follow his footsteps will be lost in the mazes. G. G. Smith, Jr. “MY HEART IS FIXED; Oil, GOD! MY MY HEART IS H\Kll.” Dear Bro, Kennedy: In the last, issue ef our excellent Advocate, I found an interest ing communication from Bro. Weber, based on the above text. My miud involuntarily went back to the last time I heard our now sainted Bishop Capers preach. It was from the above written texf. It was about six months before he entered into rest. He came to Charleston on a visit to his sou, Col. F. W. Capers, who was at that time at the head of the Citadel Academy. It was the good fortune of the writer to secure his services for the Sunday morning appointment at Cum berland Street Church. Bro. Samuel J. Wag ner, now in heaven, furnished the convey ance to bring the Bishop to the Church. The writer was early in the campus, and after waiting awhile, informed the Bishop that the horse and carriage were awaiting him, and that we had probably better go. “ What horse and carriage ?’’ he asked, with some surprise. I informed him. “ I cannot ride. to church in Charleston,” he replied, ‘-for the reason that years ago we organized a so ciety in this place for the ‘ better observance of the Sabbath, and the relief of the servants who might be required to labor for us on the Lord’s Day.’” I insisted that in his weak bodily condition, he ought to avail himself of the offered help. ‘T cannot, and will not, ride to church in Charleston,” he replied ; and added, “ Go and dismiss the servant and carriage, and we will walk slowly to the church." He leaned heavily on my arm as we went down Meeting street, and I thought he had never treated me so affectionately as during that walk. His heart seemed to over flow with kindness, and his whole mannei was gentle, even to tenderness. That walk will not be forgotten until we may be privi leged to renew it on the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. After the preliminary services he announc ed for his text, the words at the heal of this article. He was always a favorite in Charles ton, but the old Methodists of Cumberland Street Church almost idolized him. His voice was feeble, and his whole hearing that of one fatigued with labor, or worn with sick ness. There was one feature, however, which had not suffered by age and infirmity, viz : that keen, peuetrating, flashing black eye, which had of itself carried conviction, perhaps terror, to many hearts during his long and distinguished ministry. Theie was a band of silken, gray hairs, which flowed loosely over his upright coat collar, and which imparted a look, peculiarly venerable, to his regular and handsome face —handsome even in old age. Someone has said that the very pres ence of Bishop Capers was an eloquent ser mon to him. On that occasion, as he warm ed to his subject, his voice became clearer and more musical, and his attitude and bear ing more like that to which we had been ac customed in the days of his glorious man hood. At times there was a peculiar unction of the Holy Spirit attending his preaching; and that day was one of his happiest and best. The analysis of the sermon, I cannot give after the lapse of so many years. Bishop Capers’ sermons sometimes defied all analy sis. They were always elegmt, simple, tin pretending—sometimes searching and poic erful beyond description. If you went to take notes you would most likely put up pencil and paper, and resort to your pocket handkerchief. You felt more like praying than criticising. On the Sabbath referred to, he seemed, unconsciously to himself, to be preaching his own funeral, at least so far as his Cum berland hearers were concerned. They never heard him again. Nor did the writer of this imperfect sketch. The Moods, Wagners, Justs, and indeed the larges; part of those who beard him that day, are in the dust—Cam berland Church itself in ashes —and the sor vivors, one here ond another there, await ing their translation to the Paradise of God. But we can never forget the solemn and im pressive manner in which he repeated the text, raising his hands and eyes to heaven. “My heart is fix ed : Oh, God ! my heart is fix ed” —adding, * I will sing and give praise.” He seemed to throw his whole soul into the words of the Psalmist; as if above all other words theyjexpreseed his own unal terable resolution to consecrate the remnant of hiß days to that Divine Being whose ser vice and praise had formed the great and undivided work of nearly all his past life. To hear a veteran of the Cro-s, stand ing on the very verge of eternity, whilst apparently gathering up the shreds of re maining bodily strength, give such decided expression to his entire devotion to God, was refreshing and edifying in the highest degree. It might seem to be a small thing in this connection, to call attention to the peculiar manner in which he pronounced the word MACON, GEORGIA, fi IDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1878. •‘fixed.” Small strAefroL>yft and ’e are, however, necessary to give con ,p 'e ness to any picture, and no one realized .his more fully than our good Bishop him.' If. His taste was exquisite in small as well as g -at matters. He was himself a great word painter, and some of his happiest efforts in the P’-'Pit consisted largely in the minuteness as well? as the delicacy with which he handled any ib ject. Minuteness, not because the preacher was of small proportions, or his subjects ‘ un important, but because in the _grnJ?ur of the highest mental conceptions, and the glow of the most fervent zeal, he >ad a high appreciation of little things. -He called “fixed” fix-ctf, dividing the wprd into two syllables, and distinctly piano iuc ing the last. Such, and a thousand fj>ld more, was my dear, devoted, beloved Bis* op Capers. It- A FEW QUESTIONS. Mr. Emtor: A word just bf re ' ‘ ' please, about Frothingham and other- -no seem to be greatly exercised upon the jo ject of hell, who are really frothy about it. 1. If there is no hell fire, why lus it UOn bled the world so long ? 2. If it amounts to nothing, why not Kip it alone, and preach about something 1 3. If this be an advanced age, too far ahead of ali the past to allow the doctrine of etetual punishment, why go back over the centuries to ascertain what Father Origen tho< ht about matters? I once heard of a man who had trave ed so far East that he could hear the Sun mak "g a fuss in the chiiiquenin bushes of mornings when he was trying to getup. If we go buck to Origen wu can find almost anything. Those of us who differ from the mc 'Cy preachers, belong to the advanced thinke-;*. Origen is too dusty for us. The dirt-daubers have been building to those old books, a td the spiders have been covering them v*h their webs too long for advanced thinkers. 4. But if men will quote Origen, why be honest enough not to garble? Why r go on with Origen and insist as bedid: “Tail spirits, after they have been purified by Die tire of hell, will return to the bosom of God: that at length they will detach themselves from him, and that God, to punish their inconstancy, will lodge them again in n'•*% bodies, and that thus eternity will be noth ing but periodical revolutions of time?” 5. If hell is missionary ground, did iu-bt St. Paul speak hastily when he said “1 ha -e finished my course?” A “chosen vesse ” in this world, would hardly be left off Vie programme in the world to come. Lastly: A preacher in hell, trying to mske t bc miserable inhabitants believe that all iJe “smoke,” horrible tempest,” “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth,” “torment, ! ’ to be found there is simply medicinal! God, “mocking at their calamity,” “laughing-at their fear,” to get them on good terms wi -h Him 1 Better let Origen alone, and catch np wi'h the advanced thinkers. Jonas. \ Bermuda Hundreds. AN APPEAL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BIBLE CAUSE. The attention of pastors, officers of auxili aries, and all other friends of the Bible So ciety, is respectfully invited to the following statement: 1 During nine months of the current finan cial year the Board of Managers have been called upon to make grants of nearly 200,000 copies of the Scriptures for varied distribu tion through Churches, Bible Societies, Mis sionary Boards, and individuals, including the books circulated under the direction of the Society’s own representatives in different parts of the land. Besides theße large dona tions, from which little can be expected in the way of direct returns, about fifty colpor teurs have been employed at the expense of the Society, in the South and West, for the sole purpose of searching out and supplying families and individuals who are destitute cf the Scriptures. As the sale of books at cost yields no profit, ani as the larger part of th e Society’s issues are sold at less than cost, the Managers can continue this work onljra. they are furnished with money through thjs gifts of those who desire to see the Holy Bible more and more widely distributed. For this one department of work, and for the Super intendents who have charge of it, at least $l4O 000 are absolutely required this year, 2. For expenditure on foreign fields, there were appropriated at the beginning of the year $96,400. Additional requests have since been presented, and should all be called for, the sum to be expended in this way in cash during the current year will amount to not less than SIIO,OOO. This expenditure is needed to prosecute the work of the Society through its flourishing agencies in Tarkey, Brazil, Uruguay, China, and Japan, and to supply to American missionaries in Syria, Persia, India, Siam, Africa, Micronesia, and Mexico, and in various parts of Europe, the means of confirming their instructions by an appeal to the written word of God. 3. This work is now prosecuted on a large ly diminished income. As thus outlined, it involves an expenditure of $250,000 per an num. which Uifabout the average amount. re ceived yearly for the last seven years ia cash donatioas from auxiliary societies, from congregational collections, from indi vidual donations, and from legacies. Du ring the last year the donations receive! from the living were $68,685, and from legacies SIBB,OIB. But during nine month., of the year, only $33,167 have been received as donations from congregations, individuals and auxihV-ies, and only $77,- 937 from legacies; and as the expenditures thus far exceed the donations by more than $50,000. prompt and generous contributions are required to relieve the Board from th® necessity of largely curtailing their bekey. olent and noble work. 4. This large falling off in the contribu tions to the treasury of the American Bible Society is dne in a considerable degree to the fact that the Bible cause has been crowded out from the consideration of the Churches by purely denominational claims. The building of churches, the liquidation of parish debts, the provision for current ex penses, the contributions for home and for* eign missions, for Ssbbath schools, for edu*' cation and important causes, have beeii made so prominent, that the unsectarian undenominational, fundamental work dif giving the Bible to the nation and the world has been to some extent, overlooked, and too often the Bible collection in the Churched has been omitted. 5. The benevolent work of the Bible So ciety depends upon the gifts of the Chris-t tian public. In its behalf pastors are re-j spectfully urged to solicit annual contribu; t.ons from their Churches. The officers of auxiliary societies arealao invited to JQm| sent this matter before their constituents, and to forward at an early date any sums which may be in their treasuries, whether on purchase or donation account. From life members and all other friends of the Socie ty, renewed gifts will be thankfully received and judiciously expended in promoting the widest circulation of the Holy Scriptures.— Bible Society Record. FALSE VIEWS OF SIN. We often query when we meet with “libe ral ideas," so called, whether their holders apprehend the real nature and guilt of sin. They certainly entertain no such conceptions of its radical and terrible character and con sequences as we do, or they would change their notions of its remedy and penalty. If sin were an error, an accident, a fault, or a misfortune, then might a good man correct it; a change of circumstances remove it, a loving Father overlook it, or a kind provi dence take away its sting and bring its mise ries to an end in the natural order of things. But if it is something ingrained in the human constitution, if it is voluntary and habitual, if it is a crime of deep dye. and “exceeding sinful,” then must we expect relief from its power and curse, through means which God only institutes and clothes with vital energy, yea charges with omnipotent force. All theology diverges into opposing schools just at this point: a truth which may be ilius” trated by an incident in the history of the building ot anew custom house aud post office at Chicago by the Government. When the walls of the vast structure bad risen a story, the report spread that its foundations were insecure. Ali work was stopped. Con gress sent a committee of architects and others to examine the questionable founda tions, who reported them wholly insufficient to sustain the enormous weight they must carry. The citizens, who were anxious to have the work proceed, for many reasons, raised a home committee of experts, who, after a searching investigation, pronounced the impugned foundations adequate to sup port any weight that would be required by the builder'B plans. This absolute disagree ment by the ablest men in the country, led to crimination and recriminatien, and to utter distrust of the honssty and ability of an honorable profession, until it was discovered that the government committee had calcu lated that the foundations must sustain twelve thousand pounds to the Bquare inch, while the citizens’ committee had allowed but for three thousand pounds to the square inch. The contradictory results were at once ac counted for without damage to the heads or hearts, capacities or motives, of the opposing investigators. Now if we believe that sin is a horrible evil, a huge crime, which destroys mans hap piness, and brings upon him the wrath of God forever, we look for a remedy outside of human nature, above Suite creatures, and are only satisfied when we know that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, have undertaken our salvation from its bondage and guilt. We cannot see any door of hope for sinners but that of the Gos pel, which proclaims a Deity crucified and i r.£, a*d M.a©a**4 a-.re - generation of the sonl by the Omnipotent Creator Spirit. Our heaven is founded on the Rock of Ages, on a pardon blood bought, a justification that implies and contains a new life, a promise that involves a satisfac tion of all the attributes of God, and a com plete and glorious reconstruction of man as an immortal being. Has there ever been a holy man or woman on the earth who did not experience, at some time, a profound conviction of the guiltiness of their nature and life, which could not be disposed of without the blood of atonement? Nay, is not holiness wrought iato the sub stance of our souls through a perpetual sense of the awful evil and peril of sin, accorn panied by an overmastering consciousness of God’s infinite mercy in the “unspeakable gift?” If we consider the great preachers of all ages of the Church, the men who have moved masses, and uplifted souls to a plane of entire consecration, we find them all profoundly conscious of the total loss of men under sin, and possessed with a realization of the soul’s immeasurable possibilities of suffering under the eternal judgment of God. There has been no powerful preacher of Christ who has not been inspired by the belief that He, by His blood, cancelled a debt and atoned for a crime practically infinite. Earnestness in dealing with men’s spiritual interests is al ways proportioned to the grasp we have of the truth that sin is a deadly, damning reality, which Jesus Christ alone can destroy, by virtue of His sufferings and death, resurrec. tion and intercession. What Church has had any wide sway, or firmly held individual adherents; what Church has furnished martyrs and missionaries, that maintained low, loose views of sin and its issues? The historic Churches, and those that now move with aggressive energy, teach that man is in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, that God will by no means spare the guilty, and that these shall go away into everlasting punishment, where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quench ed. Such facts can not go for naught with thinking men, but must lead to a uew study and consideration, and a more thorough pro clamation of the doctrine of sin, suctf.il will give pith; point, and convicting power, to our. testimony for the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.— Northern Christian Advocate. A DEATH-BED WITNESS. A New York journal, according to the Baltimorean —from which we copy —gives the following incident, which we reproduce as a warning to poor rich men : “ A gentleman died last week, at his resi dence in one of our up-town fashionable streets, leaving $11,000,000. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, in ex cellent standing, a good husband and father, and a thriving citizen. On his death bed, lingering long, he suffered with great agony of mind and gave continual expression to his remorse at what his conscience told him had been an ill spent life. ‘ Oh,” he ex claimed, as his weeping friends and relatives gathered about his bed—‘Oh, if I could only live my years over again. Oh, if I could only be spared for a few years, I would give all the wealth I have amassed in a lifetime. It is a life devoted to money-getting that I regret. It is this which weighs me down and makes me despair of the life hereafter!” His clergyman endeavored to soothe him, but he turned his face to the wall. ‘You have never reproved my avaricious spirit,’ he said to the minister. ‘ You have called it a wise economy and forethought, but my riches have been only a snare for my boul I 1 would give all I possess to have hope for my poor soul 1’ In this state of mind, re fusing to be consoled, this poor rich man bewailed a life devoted to the mere acquisi tion of riches. Many came away from his tsidWi? pressed with the uselessness of such an existence as the wealthy man had spent, adding bouse to house, and dollar to dollar, until he became a millionare. All knew him to be a professing Christian and a good man, as the world goes, but the terror and remorse of his death bed administered a lesson not to be lightly dismissed from memory. He would have given all his wealth for a single hope of heaven.” EACH IX HIS OWN WAY. All great works are done by serving God with what we have in hand. Moses was keep ing sheep in Midian ; God sent him to save Israel, but he shrank from the undertaking. We sympathize with Jethro’s herdsman,alone and a stranger owning not a lamb that he watched. He had nothingbuthis shepherd’s rod, cut ont of a thicket, the mere crabstick with which he guided his sheep. Any day be might throw it away and cut a better one. And God said: “ What is that in thine hand? With this rod, with this stick, thoa shall save Israel.” And so it proved. “ What is that thou hast in thy hand, stranger ?” “ An ox-goad with which I urge my lazy beasts.” Used for God, and Shamgar’s ox-goad de feats the Philistines. “ What is that in thine hand, David ?” “My sling with which I keep the wolves from :he sheep.” Yet with that sling he slew Goliath, whom an army dared not meet. “ What is that in thine hand, disciple?” “ Nothing but five barley loaves and two little fishes.” “ Bring them to me; give them to God.” Andi he multitude was fed. “ What is that in thine hand,poor widow ?” “ Only two mites.” Give them to God, and behold, the fame of your riches fills the world. “ What hast thou, weeping woman ?” “An alabaster-box of ointment.” Give it to God. Break it; pour it upon the Saviour’s head, aud its sweet perfume is a fragrance in the Church until now. “ What hast thou, Dorcas?” “ My needle.” Use it for God, and those coats and gar ments keep multiplying, and are clothing the naked still. You are a manufacturer, or a merchant, or a mechanic, or a man of leisure, or a stu dent, ora sewing woman. God wants each of you to serve him where you are. You have your business; useitforGod: order it in a godly manner; ando 1 not allow wickedness in it; give godly wages ; preach Jesus to your clerks —not by a long face, but by being like him and doing good ; use yoar profits for God—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, comforting the wretched) spreading the gospel far and wide. What a field you have to glorify God in just where you are 1 If you have nothing, use your tools for him. He can glorify himself with them as easily as he could with a shepherd’s stick, an ox goad, a sling, or two mites. A poor girl, who had nothing bat a sewing machine; used it to aid a feeble Church ; all her earnings, above her t ee4(j, were ei(-eri toward building a house of worship, and in a year she paid more than others a hundred times richer than she. So you can do if you will Think of the widow and her two mites, the woman with the alabaster-box, and Dor cas and her garments! You may do as much, aud have as great a reward. —Bible Student. A HAPPY FUTURE. “We know tnat when He shali appear, we shall be like Him.” We have a future which is an object, not of dim expectation and trembling hope, but of knowledge. Ou r word is not, “it may be,” but ‘‘it will be. ’ We have a certainty, not a possibility or a probability, for our hope. That which is to be becomes as firm reality as that which has been. Hope is truerthan history. The future is not cloudiand, but solid, fruitful soil, on which we may plant a firm foot. And the,refore the habit of living in the future should make us glad and confident. We should not keep the contemplation of another state of existence to make us sor rowful, nor allow the transiency of this pre sent to shade our joys. Our hope should make us buoyant, and should keep us firm. It is an anchor of the soul. All men live by hope, even when it is fixed upon the changing and uncertain things 01 this world. But the hopes of men who have not their hearts fixed upon God, try to grapple themselves on the cloud rack that rolls aloDg the flanks of the moun tains; and our hopes pierce within that veil, and lay hold of the Rock of AgeH that towers above the flying vapors. Let us then be strong; .or our future is not a dim peradven tnre, nor a vague dream, nor a fancy of our own, nor a wish turning itself into a vision; bat it is made and certified by Him who is the God of all the past and all of the present. It is built upon His Word; and the brightest hope of all its brightness is the enjoyment of more of His presence, and the possession of more of His likeness. That hope is certain. Therefore let ns live in it, and “reach forth nnto the things that are before.”— Alexander MacLaren. WORK FOR CHRIST. There is no joy like that of winning souls for Christ. I thought when I was converted that there was great joy, bat, oh, the bliss of saving others! There is no joy in the world like that. The luxury of winning a soul to Christ, the luxury of being used by God in building up His kingdom, the luxury of hear ing the young convert testify of what God has done for him. And to think that God condescends to use us 1 Why, what a con descension that He gives ns the privilege of leading men out of darkness into light! Some one has said that he does not believe that there is an angel in heaven that would not, if he could, leave his position and come into this world, that he might have the privilege oi working for Christ. Suppose an angel could wing his way from this place to the in finite world, and make the statement to God, the Father, that there is one solitary child in Boston, shoeless and hatle33, his mother, may be, dead ; and his father, perhaps, a drunkard: the poor boy wandering in the streets of Boston, with no kind friend to lead him to Christ, and called from His great white throne in heaven, and God asked if there is an angel in heaven that would be willing to leave his home and come down into this city and live here fifty years to save that soul, do you believe there would be an angel left in heaven in three minutes 1 Even Ga briel, from his high place, would say: “ Let me go; let me leave this lofty position, and have the privilege of leading this child to Christ.” And yet the Church is folding its arms, and Christians are saying, “Don’t send me —let the minister do it, or the stew ards, or the deacons; bat don’t send ns.” May God give you courage. Go forward and conseorate yourselves to His aervioe and He will stand by you.— Moody. AX EDUCATIONAL ABOMINATION. “ The educational abomination of desola tion,” says Prof. Huxley, in the Fortnightly Review, “ is the stimulation of young people to work at high pressure by incessant com petitive examinations. Some wise man (who probably was not an early riser) has said of early risers in general, that they are conceit ed all the forenoon and stupid all the afpin noon. Now, whether this is true of early risers in the common acceptation of the word or not, I will not pretend to say ; but it is often too true of the unhappy children who are forced to rise too early in their classes. They are conceited all the forenoon of life and stupid all its afternoon. The vigor and freshness which should have been stored up for the purposes of the hard struggle for ex istence in practical life, have been washed out of them by precocious mental debauche ry —by book-gluttony and lesson-bibbing. Their faculties are worn out by the strain put upon their callow brains, and they are de moralized by worthless childish triumphs be fore the real work of life begins. I have no compassion for sloth, but youth has more need for intellectual rest than age ; and the cheerfulness, the tenacity of purpose, the power of work, which make many a success ful man what he is, must often be placed to the credit, not of his hours of industry, but to that of his hours of idleness in boyhood.— Even the hardest worker of us all, if he has to deal with anything above mere details, will do well, now and again, to let his brain lie fallow for a space. The next crop of thought will certainly be all the fuller in .the ear, and the weeds fewer.” Com!tinned from NationaUSuadjj'-sctiool Teacher. INTERNATIONAL LESSONS. March 3, 1878. —Ahaz’s Persistent Wick edness. 2 Chron. xxviii: 19-27. Golden Text. —'’And in the time of liis distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord : this is that king Ahaz." —22. Topic.—“l Voe unto the wicked! It. shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” —ls. hi: 11. Home Readings. —Monday, Is. iil: 1-26 — Woe unto the Wicked : Tuesday Ps. xi: 1- 7 —Upon them rain Snares; Wednesday, Ps. i . 1-6—Ungodly like the Chaff; Thurs day, Is. xiviii: 1-22—No Peace to the Wick ed ; Friday Is. Ivii: 1-21—Like the Troubled Sea ; Saturday, Gal. vi: 1-10 —Ashe Soweth, shall Reap; Sunday, Rom. ii: 1-16—Accord ing to his Deeds. Time —B. C. 742-726. Place.—Jerusa lem. Rulers. —Ahaz, king of Judah; Pek ah, king of Israel ; Tiglath-pilever, king of Assyria. Prophets. —Hosea, Micah, Isaiah. NOTES AND COMMENTS. Brought Low by Sin (19). —“This is that King Ahaz.” The king whose life we are no.v to have under examination was so pre eminently weak and wicked among the kings of Judah that the sacred historian sarcastically refers to him in the words we have quoted. 22. To those who knew any thing about the history of Judah nothing more was needed to evoke the contempt and disgust of men. The very name of Ahaz Bug gested impotence, folly, and sin. He had splendid opportunities lor achieving distinc tion. Everything was favorable to Ahsz, when became to the throne. He had great dominions, great riches, great power, and he was admirably prepared tor warboth abroad and at home. But it is not the young man who starts best in life that always comes out, best in the end. The very things that, should he qjje’a menus of aivancemer.t are some times the means of one’s ruin. “The pros perity of fools shall destroy them” Very likely the luxury that had begun to creep in with their prosperity had something to do with the incapability exhibited by Ahaz. Perhaps he was a fast young man. It. is quite likely that in youth he sowed “wild oats” the harvest of which he never gpt through reaping. Had he been an exempla ry youth he would have been a better man. And he had every reason to be; for his grandfather, except in the matter of his one great offense, had set for him a good exam ple—an I the punishment for that one tres pass should have been more influential for good, even, than all the rest of his life be side. And then there was the quiet, consis tent,worshipful life ofhis father,who,avoiding he i ransgression of Uzziah, “prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” Ahaz was the son of a good father, and the father of a still better son —a blotch of mud between two diamonds —rebuked by the characters aud the examples of each. Abaz fell from a very high pinnacle to a very low estate. Lei us see the means which precipitated him thither. No one ever takes a headlong plunge into wickedness. The venture is gradual. Ahaz began by follow ing the example of the kings of Israel, prob ably, at first, by worshipping Jehovah in forbidden ways. Next he made “molten images for Baalim.” He had gone a step farther. His next step was a long one in deed ; for he sacrificed his own children in the fire to Moloch. Incidentally we wish to call attention to the fact that all worships, except the worship of the true God, are in their nature cruel. It is the only one that begets a regard for the well-being of each member of the household. From being a worshiper of one God, Ahoz had become a devotee of many gods, and had shown the sincerity of his adoration of the worst one among them all by placing his own children alive upon the heated arms of the idol. Hav ing done this, we are prepared to learn, further, that he sacrificed and burnt incense “in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” He had become a wholesale offender against the commands of God. Next we look at his punishment. Iniquity like this could not go unrewarded. His first punishment waß connected with the joint invasion of the kings of Israel and of Syria. These two kings had thrown off the Assyrian yoke, and Isaiah tells us that their object was to put ‘‘the son of Tabeal,” a creature of their own, upon the throne of Judah. lavii: 1-6. There is strong con firmation of the assertion that they wished to do this in order to use the vast power of Judah to help them make good their rebel lion against the Assyrian domination. Isaiah assured the king in the name of the Lord that their expedition should be unsuccess ful and, in order to bring him back to a re liance upon God, told him to aska sign “eith er ia the depih or in the hight above.” Is. vii: 11. But the stubborn king would not do so, though by the news of the expedition “his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the tree3 of the wood are moved with the wind.” Is. vii: 2. He fought in his own strength, and, of course, he failed. Though no reliable plan ot the campaign can be gathered, all its facts may be gleaned from a careful sifting of the two accounts given in the chapter we are engaged upon in Chronicles, and 2K. xvi. Rezin recovered Elath, the port upon the Idutuean Sea that Uzziab had built and restored to Judah, and, besides, he met the king in' batile, defeated him, and carried away a great number cap tive to Damascus. Ahaz was, also, deliver ed into the hand of Pekaa, who slew 120,000 of his soldiers and carried off 200,000 women and children as captives. The hand of the Lord lay heavy upon Ahaz;tor these calam ities happened “because they had forsaken the Lord God ot their fathers.” But dig asters did not stop here. The Edomites took this occasion to revolt, and made an attack upon Judah from the south, and, likewise, were successful, carrying captives home as a part of their booty. The Pailistines, also, seized their opportunity, and wrested from the plundered kingdom more than Uzziah had taken from it. in this way had the Lord brought Judah low because of Abaz, king of Israel. By his transgressions he bad made J udah naked —stripped her of her territory, her wealth, her people, her prestige, her honor, and, worse than all, had made her naked in her shame betore the God of Israel. Distressed By Sin (20, 21). —As Isaiah had predicted, the two kings did not suc ceed in the main purpose for which they in vaded Judah. They were not able ?o cap ture Jerusalem. That is probably to j|je ac counted for upon two reasons. The fi.it of these is that that city strong ly tortified both F. M. KENNEDY, D. D., Editor J. W. BURKE, Assistant Editor A. G. HAYGOOD, D.D., Editorial Correspondent WHOLE NUMBER 2090 The second was that the petition of Ahaz had reached the Assyrian king, Tiglath pileser, and he had come up against Da mascus, rendering it neceisary for King Rezin to hasten home to proteet his own dominions. Damascus fell before the con queror, Rezin was slain, and his people were carried into captivity. How literally that fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah to which Ahaz had refused to listen: “For before the child shall have knowledge to cry My father and my mother, the riches of Damas cus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria. Is. viii: 4. The fulfillment of the latter part of that prophecy, just quoted, followed hard on after the other; for Tiglath-pileser, having sub dued Syria, tamed his attention to Israel. He conquered the district east of the Jordan and the northern half of Israel, and carried their inhabitants away captive Pekah saved himseli from’ the fate of Rezin, probably, by submitting before it was too late to pla cate the victor. By releasinghim from fhe folds that Pekah and Rezin had wrapped around him, Tiglath pileser had been of service to Ahaz. But it was a service for which he paid a costly price. In sending to him, he said : “I am thy servant and thy son”—a poetical way of saying that from henceforth he would be his vassal. From the warning of Isaiah and from the circumstances of the case, there is every reason for supposing Tiglath-pileser was about to undertake the conquest ot these two refractory vassals on his own account, and, therefore, if that be true, Ahaz bowed his neck to the yoke before there was any necessity for doing it. The presents to the Assyrian king were not made until after the of capture Damascus, and, most likely were in response to a demand of that monarch for tribute. Tiglath pileser came not to help Ahaz, but to help himself. To meet this demand, ticking had to plunder the temple once more/ms own palace, and levy upon the treasures of the princes. Instead of helping, him the Assyrian king distressed him. F - om the fact that it is said Ahaz went to Damascus (2 K. xvi: 10) to meet Tiglath pileser, it is likely that he took the presents to that monarch himself. It is affirmed that before the Assyrian king returned home, he summoned twenty fonr kings to meet him at the Syrian capital and do him homage, and that among these was Ahaz. king of Judah. His petition had placed him on no better footing with the Assyrian monarch than hig enemies themselves. With the losses he had suffered from the hands of Pekah, Rezin, the Edomites, and the Philistines, it was,-no doubt, provocative of great distress to raise the amount necessary to satisfy the demands of one like Tiglath pileser. And, of course, there was the yearly tribute besides. King Ahaz was experiencing the fact that the way of the transgressor is hard—though he does not appear to have been able to perceive the real reasou of all his distresses. Persisting in Sin (22-26). —In times of distress, if evpr, people are wont to tarn nnto the Lord. When all other help fails, they begin to think that possibly there may be some help in the Lord. If one in his dire need will not call upon the Lord, ther- is no hope that he ever will. Aflictions are sent as the last and most powerful arguments. “In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord : this iB that king Ahaz.” He not only did not beseech him for help, but set him still more at defiance He ascribed the cause of all his difficulties, not to the fact that he had not worshiped God, as he should, but to his not having worshiped the gods of those who had pre vailed against him. He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus that smote him. It is plain iiiat the writer is expressing, not the opinion of himself, but the opinion of Ahaz, when he thus states the power of the gods of Damascus. In the order of record, this event hardened right after he had the temple for the sake of hut in point of fact it mu9t have taken immediately after his defeat by Rezin. next transgression was in substituting the altar whose pattern he saw while in Damas cus for the brazen altar of burnt offering that stood just before the temple. 2 K. xvi: 10-16. Having done thus much, we are not surprised that, undeterred by the swift retri bution that came upon his grandfather, he usurped the priestly functions long enough to offer a sacrifice upon it. 2 K. xvi: 12. U r ijiih was not of the sterling temper of Azariah. The priests and the people took this innovation so very tamely that he was encouraged even to commit depredations against, the temple. He gathered together and cut to pieces the vessels of the House of the Lord. Some suppose he did this in pure wantonness, but it is probable, rather, that he did it to fill his exhausted treasury. 2 K. xvi: 17, 18, more specifically tells what these outrages were. He cu r off the borders from the bases, removed the laver, took down the sea from the brazen oxen and pnt it on a pedestal of stones instead. The cov ered platform where the king sat was taken down, and the ascent in which Solomon took such pride (1 K. x : 6) was removed. The next count in the indictment against Ahaz is that he shut the doors of the temple. For the first time in nearly three hundred years the people had no open temple. There had been wicked kings, kings that had dared do acts of profanation, bnt none had even conceived of an outrage so impious as this. But having rifled the temple, very likely he closed it because it was inexpedient to keep it open. The priests could Dot perform their part of the services because of the destruc tion of the consecrated vessels, and the mu tilated ornaments would have been so many eloquent and condemnatory voices had the people heen allowed to see them. The tem ple was closed less on account of a hostility to its worship than to conceal its poverty. Having shut the doors of the temple, he felt the necessity of giving the people some thing eLe in the place of the worship that he had discontinued. Hence he set up altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. Je hovah ceased to be the pre-eminent God. Hts temple was shut up, and in lieu of its one altar, there were altars upon every street corner in the Holy City, and, in every ci’v of Judah, there were high places estab lished for the purpose of burning incense untoother gods. One man can do more evil than many others can undo. And he can nullify the efforts of as many more. Thus in the few years of his reign, Ahaz had reversed t.he work of the good kings Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziab, and Jotham, and had given the nation such a strong impulse to ward evil that subsequent, and better minded kings, were not wholly able to arrest it. The greatest mischief that Ahaz did to his time was, not that in a few brief years he lost the territory that bis father and grand father had won and bequeathed nnto him ; that he had become the epoil of the nations round about; that he had redneed the nation from unexampled prosperity to indigence, and from supremacy to vassalage—it was not in the injury done to the kingdom of Judah, though that was great, that he did the keenest injustice to his age, but it was in the evil that he did to the kingdom of God in Judah. Disgraced by Sin (26, 27). —The people of Judah had a most singular way of passing upon the character -of their kings after they were dead. None but good kings, those who had been faithful followers of the true God, were allowed burial in the sepulchers of the kings. By what process of trial, judgment in each case was reached, weare notinformed. But thejndgment was inexorable however reached. Jehoram and Joash were express ly denied this privilege, and, ip the case of others who had transgressed, it is said of them that they were buried “in the city of David,” all mention of “the sepulchres of the kings” being significantly omitted. And this final honor waß denied, no matter how much the people had shared in the sin of the dead king. Here was a solemn court before which the body of the deceased king appeared and was judged for the deeds it had done while it was tenanted. Before this tri bunal the body of Ahaz was summoned, and it passed upon it the sentence of exclusion, though all the land was still fall of the altars and the high places he had set np, and be fore which the people were still bowing in gratified worship. No one had a good word for the dead. Hts name was despised eveu by those whose lust for idolatry heJiad sat-, j istied. He was known to all king Ahaz.” His very name word and a reproach. doers themselves “the menJK blessed, but the name ot^ffi