No, thank you; I don't drink at such places. I drink, indeed, too drown troubles; but I have found that when a person drinks at public houses, or of the liquor that is sold at such places, his trouble not only reappears in an aggravated form, but brings a dozen more with it. The house at which I drink supplies a drink that drowns the trouble so that it is swallowed up for ever, and destroys also the cause of it.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.4

“Tell me about it; for it is truly as you say, the drink does not effectually drown my troubles; the more I drink the more trouble I have. I should like to know a better way.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.5

I will gladly tell you not only a better way, but the very best way. It will not take long, although the subject is vast enough to keep one talking a lifetime. Yet it is very simple.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.6

The secret is simply this: I drink from the fountain of life, while you drink from the stream of death. Life, real life, in its purest form, is freshness, and buoyancy, and gladness. It is not trouble, it makes no trouble, and it renders its possessor so light and vigorous that he rises above all trouble, no matter how great. Look at birds, how joyous and happy they are; they have their troubles, as great for them as any that oppress us, and of the same nature, too; but they are never cast down. They never mourn for anything except the loss of a mate or their young, and even then their mourning does not last for ever, and is music while it continues. For the loss of property, however, for destruction of their buildings, for disappointments and reverses, they never complain for a moment. Notice, too, that they never get up dull and peevish and fretful in the morning, they never seem to have headaches or rheumatism, but sing and hop and fly about as though they could not contain themselves for very joy.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.7

The reason for this? They live near to heaven, and take the gift of life direct from the hands of their Maker.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.8

“Consider the lilies;” give heed to the springing grass and flowers, the sparkling stream, that laughs as it hastens to be lost in the sea, the dew, the rain, the air, and the sunshine; see what a freshness is in them all, showing that pure life is joy and happiness.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.9

Now read: “How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:7-9. Here we see that the drink that comes from God's house is joy-the joy of eternal youth.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.10

Then listen to the words of the Author of Life: “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.” John 4:14.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.11

“Where can I find this water of life? How can I get hold of it, so that I may drink it?”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.12

It is all about you; you are surrounded by it. “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.” And we make known this life until you, “that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:2, 4.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.13

“It breathes in the air,
It shines in the light;
It streams from the hills,
It descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills
In the dew and the rain.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 801.14

It is “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23) and is given to us so that we may be “renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16. It makes our greatest affliction seem but light, and with it even tribulation itself becomes a means for our rejoicing. See Romans 5:1-11, especially verses 2-4, 11. We are surrounded with the love of God, and His love is life, because it is Himself. He is love, and He is life.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.1

“But surely, since everything comes from God, I get my life from His hand just as directly as you do, or as the birds do. The food that I eat, and even the liquor that I drink, is manufactured from materials that He has created, and given to us.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.2

There is an important item that you overlooked. Let me explain it to you in so few words that you cannot fail to remember them. You not know that the water from the purest fountain may become corrupt and deadly by the addition of poisonous matter, or by stagnation? Do you not see that there is a vast difference between drinking from a spring just as it gushes out of a rock, and from that stream after it has been dammed up, or dead animals and sewage have been cast into it? That is the secret of the whole matter; you drink from the stream after it has been allowed to stagnate, and has been corrupted and poisoned by man's devices; I go to the fountain-head for it; I get my life is directly from God as it is possible to find it, pure, uncomplicated, and unadulterated, and recognise Him in the gift. Thus I taste the freshness of it. This principle should be carried out in every detail.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.3

With God is the fountain of life, for He is the life. He is love, therefore His love is life. Now when the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, the free gift to all, you will see “the path of life,” and you will find that in God's presence is fulness of joy, and that His right hand pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11. You will “obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” You will find that the “saving health” of the light of God's face (Psalm 67:1, 2) makes you “perfectly whole,” giving you a “perfect soundness,” not only in body, but in soul, forgiving all your iniquities and healing all your diseases, redeeming your life from destruction, and satisfying your mouth with good things, so that your youth may be renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:2-5. You will find, what De Leon searched for so long in vain, the fountain of eternal youth, and that without leaving home.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.4

Try it! “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!” Oh, taste, and see that the Lord is good!PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.5

“‘Putting on Christ’” The Present Truth 15, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

Text: For as many of you as had been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Galatians 3:27.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.6

Without being at all technical, it is worthwhile to understand the words we use; for if we do not, then the text does not mean anything to us. The word baptized-taken in this connection-has a very deep significance, and is very plain too. If that had been fully understood, the perversion of baptism would never have taken place. There would have been no question as to the “motive baptism.” Baptism, means to immerse, to plunge, to submerge. It was a very common word among the Greeks. When they went to take a swimming bath, a place where they plunged into the water, they went to a baptisterion. We use the same word, leaving off the ending. The swimming pool of to-day was the baptistry of the Greeks. Baptism was simply an immersion in any kind of fluid. The smith, having heated his iron hot, would baptize it to cool it off. A dish might be baptized into water or oil. The hands or the whole body would be baptized-plunged-in water, for cleansing. Jesus Christ used the word, in the sense in which it was commonly understood by all the people. So much for the meaning of the word.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.7

The text speaks about being “baptized into Christ.” When a person is baptized into Christ, it means that he is submerged in Christ. One may take a bath every day-He may baptize himself into water every day of his life,-but that is not baptism into Christ. So you see, while the name presents very vividly the act, yet the form, the very form described by the name, make be present, and there be no Christian baptism.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.8

Faith is the simplest thing in the world. It is the most natural thing in the world. It is the first thing that ever comes to a human soul. The one thing that God has given to every soul of mankind is the power to believe; but it makes all the difference in the world what a person believes-what he has faith in. The very same faculty with which a man believes one thing, he may use to believe another thing. That simple trust which the little child has in the word of its parent, is the faith that saves, when centred in the Lord. It is no new thing that a person must manufacture; there is no way of believing in order to be a Christian; all the difference is in the object toward which his faith is directed. One has but to exercise the faith he has every day, toward another object. So many people say they cannot believe, and then they try to manufacture something they call faith, and it is not faith at all. What the man should do is to centre his faith on Christ,-the faith that he exercises every day in the ordinary duties of life,-and that will make him a Christian.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.9

Baptism into Christ means changing from one phase of life into another. We might say it is becoming absorbed into something else. The man who heretofore has been absorbed in himself, buried in his own thoughts, plunged into his own ways, is now absorbed into Christ, buried in him, swallowed up in His ways and His thoughts. It is a transformation. The man who has lived in one atmosphere, now changes, and breathes in another atmosphere. He has lived in one world, and now he passes from that into another-which is a passing from death to life,-through death to life.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.10

When we are baptized into Christ, absorbed in Him, the difference between what we were and what we are now is the difference between a dead man and a live one. We are all dead in trespasses and sins. We are helpless, we cannot do anything, that is, we cannot do any good deeds. The perfect man is the man who comes up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; brought up to that level where he can reach out and do the things that Christ did. So far as that is concerned, we are dead. Men are utterly helpless, utterly ignorant, unable to do or even to think the things that they should, unable to grasp the things that pertain to the Spirit of God. Men walk before God, surrounded by spiritual things, and yet are utterly unconscious of them, and do not know if there be so much as a Holy Spirit. You talk about spiritual things, and they are foolishness to them.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 802.11

Now when we are buried in Christ, have put on Christ, then we are raised to life with Him, and we see that He is the reality of all things. There is nothing real except with Him. It becomes very easy for one to enjoy the Lord when one believes and understands that the Lord is every good thing, and that there is nothing good except from Him. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” When we believe that, and believe there is nothing good except from Him, and that He gives only good to us, although it may be contrary to our natural likings, then we can like things which we once did not like, because they are from Him, and they are good because they are from Him.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.1

This Scripture tells us that by nature we are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; but in Him is all fulness. In Him are all the riches hid. He is the light, and He gives sight to the blind. He is clothed with light, and He Himself becomes the clothing of those who trust in Him; so as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, are clothed with Him as a garment.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.2

We see the Man Christ Jesus as one single individual in this world, and we see what He was like. He gave an example of a Christian life for thirty-three years. In Him we see what a Christian is. If that were all, however, it would be of no help to us. I used to think about the Lord, and the more I thought of Him and the more I heard of Him the more discouraged I got. Really it seemed to me that I could be a better Christian without Christ than with Him. This seems a paradox, but yet you may have had something of the same experience. That is to say, I would be a great deal better satisfied with myself when I didn't think about the Lord, than when I did think of Him. When I didn't see the example I could be a good deal better satisfied with myself. Now I remember when I went to school I used to have a copy set at the top of the page of my writing books. I looked at the copy, and wrote one line underneath, and then for the next line I would look at the line I had written and so on down. I felt very well satisfied with my writing-and the best satisfied with the last line of all, until I compared it with the copy at the top, and then I saw how far below the standard it was. So according to my own standard I could be a better Christian; but when I looked at Christ, and saw how far I came from being like Him, I grew discouraged. It was a long time that Christ was not a help to me, and so I was the less a Christian. Now we are to look to Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith; but looking at Him as One afar off, or apart from us, even though near, is nothing but discouragement. When you look to Him as a good man, as the one perfect man, the fulness of God, who in everything pleased God, and who is the pattern, and then say to yourself, “I ought to be like that, and I must be that way,” there is nothing but discouragement in it. You actually get discouraged looking at the Lord, simply because the thing is so high that it is unattainable.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.3

I used to look at others and say, “I wish I could do as well as they can-they are not so bad by nature as I am.” How many, many people have gone through that same experience. They have been baptized, taken into the church, but they have never put on Christ,-baptized in water, but not baptized into Christ because they do not know Him. I had heard about Him, but as a Saviour, as a Deliverer, I did not know anything about Him. So for a long time I lived the life of discouragement, so far as any satisfaction was concerned, for several years my Christian experience was a failure, until at last I gave up entirely. I said, “I cannot do right, I was not made that way.” And truly I had not been made that way, for “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” I had not been made new, and of course I could not live a new life.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.4

As many as are baptized into Christ, must of necessity put on Christ. How can that be? That was the question of Nicodemus, and his objection was the objection of others as well: How can this man give us His body to eat? How can that Man become me and I become Him? Then comes the simple revelation of God in all the things He has made. Everything that God has made shows His everlasting power and Divinity. He gives us breath, and that is a constant proof to us, repeated every moment, of His power to fill us with the Spirit of righteousness and life. Sometimes in taking gymnastics you can feel the thrill of life tingle in your very finger ends. It makes you a new man. Many of us have been made new physically when we have been at the very verge of the grave,-all but dead. Where did that new life come from? From within?-No, but God gave us life-fresh air, good food, pure water;-these are given as a proof of the power of God to lift a man up and make him a new creature.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.5

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whether it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” God gives His Spirit as the wind, as the breath He breathes into us, that we may receive the Spirit as freely as we receive God's air. Baptism into the water is simply the symbol of our plunging into the water of life, the blood of Christ, the fountain open for sin and uncleaness, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is what we are baptized into, for His name is Himself.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.6

You remember when Peter spoke to the Jewish Council when the man who had been healed from an incurable lameness stood there; he said, “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, ... even in Him doth this man stand before you whole.” The name of Jesus of Nazareth is Jesus Himself. And what does it mean?-Saviour, Deliverer. The Saving power is in Himself. Virtue, power, went out from Him, and that healed the people. He is life; He is the Saviour, and His name is just what He is,-Jesus. Baptized into the name of Jesus Christ,-into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,-means taking all the fulness of God's life, and letting all of God's gifts combined come in to lift us up. “And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.” Psalm 9:10. Whoever knows the name of the Lord, will put his trust in Him, and will not be disappointed.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 803.7

I tell you it is a wonderfully blessed thing to know the name of the Lord. There is power in that name-not in the five letters that compose it,-but in the name itself, for it is life. You cannot put Jesus on the wall; you cannot picture Him with chalk; you cannot write Him with ink, but He is written by the Spirit of the living God, in the very being, because He is life and energy.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 804.1

There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, who thought they would use the name of Jesus. They were sorcerers. They had seen Paul drive out evil spirits, and so when they saw a man possessed of an evil spirit, they came to him and said, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” But the evil spirit answered, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?” And at that they were driven out of the house, wounded and bruised. Yet when those who had the name and knew it, spoke the name of Jesus, there was power, not only to cast out devils but to heal the sick. “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk.” In the name the lame man got up; he stood in that name, and the next day you remember Peter said to the rulers that it was in the name of Jesus that the man stood there whole.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 804.2

There is just as much power in the name of Jesus to-day as ever. Any professed Gospel that does not come casting out devils, is not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil is just the same roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, the same wily adversary of souls to-day, that he has been all these six thousand years. This same spirit works in the children of disobedience to-day that did when Christ was here in the flesh. The devil must be driven out of a man in order that Christ may fill him. No matter in what form the Word of God is, it has the same power to drive out devils from man that it ever had, and it will do it just as effectually now as ever. And when you and I are conscious of the devil coming in like a flood, filling our hearts with whisperings of evil, making us feel that everything is a fraud, and our past profession is useless, and that he will hold us anyhow-don't believe him. The devil, you know it is said, goes about as a roaring lion. Lions frighten their prey by roaring. When the lion roars, the timid beasts of the forests lose their power, and then he springs upon them. Just so the devil frightens people into thinking that they must give up before he has them at all, and then when they become discouraged and frightened, it is an easy matter to get his claws upon them. Now don't let him get that advantage. You need not, for “we are not ignorant of his devices.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 804.3

“The King of Glory” The Present Truth 15, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

“Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.1

Angels rejoiced and sang for joy when this beautiful world was created, and man was formed to be its king. “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” But their songs of joy were soon changed to mourning when they saw that earth had lost its king, and the blight of sin had come over the fair world.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.2

How glad, then, they must have been to bear to earth, to the sons of men, the good tidings of the coming King, through whom the curse should be taken away from the whole earth, and of whose kingdom “there should be no end.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.3

This was the message, you remember, sent to Mary by the angel Gabriel. Mary was then living at Nazareth, but the Word of God had said that the King, the Shepherd and Ruler of His people, should come forth out of Bethlehem.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.4

So when the time for the royal birth drew near, the Emperor of Rome sent out a decree that all the world should be taxed, and this made it necessary for Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem. And while they were there, in fulfilment of the prophecy, Mary “brought forth her firstborn Son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.5

“Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining,
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall
Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining.
Maker and Monarch, and Saviour of all!”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.6

What a sight for the angels to see,-their Maker and Monarch, their Creator and King, a tiny helpless babe “wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger”!PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.7

And did they honour Him any less, or cease to worship Him, when they saw His helpless human form? No! listen to the words of their glad song of praise: “Glory to God in the highest!”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.8

That little baby lying in the Bethlehem stable with the beasts of the stall was “God in the Highest,”-the Most High-to whom the angels of God were offering deeper love and adoration than ever before. For when God brought the First-begotten into the world He said: “Let all the angels of God worship Him!”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.9

We sometimes sing:- “Lo, He laid His glory by,
Born that man no more may die;” but this is not true. He cannot lay aside His glory, for it is the beauty and power of His own life and kingly character. Those who lived with Him on the earth said of Him: “We beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.10

He did not “lay His glory by,” but He veiled its bright shining in our weak, human flesh, so that He might come near to bless and save us. But this very veiling only made His true glory, His grace and truth, even more plainly seen.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.11

When He became a little human child, and lived and died on this earth for our sakes, He was showing to angels and to men the depths of shame and sorrow to which He, the Creator and King of all, will go, so that He may help and save any of His creatures who are in trouble, even through their own folly and sin.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.12

So even the angels knew Him better than before when they saw the baby lying in the manger. They saw more of His glory, and sang with deeper gladness songs of praise to God in the highest, to whom belongs “the kingdom and the power and the glory,” because He is the Saviour of all.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.13

But “earth asleep unconscious lies” while all the angels of God are worshipping the babe “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” How they must have longed to give the message of salvation and to share their joy with those for whose sake the King of Glory had become a poor babe, that they through His poverty might be rich.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.14

But the children of men are wrapped in slumber. Yet not all: “There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night;” and to these was given the high honour of being the first to hear and carry the good tidings.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.15

“And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them:-PTUK December 21, 1899, page 810.16

“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 until you: Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.1

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.2

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.3

“And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even to Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.4

“And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.5

This glad tidings, this beautiful Gospel message which the angel said should “be to all people” is for each one of you, dear children. “Unto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord,”-“Christ in you” to be your King, to save from sin, and to make you pure and holy.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.6

Are you not glad, as the shepherds were when they heard this good news, and will you not, like them, carry the joyful tidings to others, and make known what God has made known to you about His Holy Child Jesus?PTUK December 21, 1899, page 811.7

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth 15, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

-Three million sterling has just been ordered to be spent, to bring the metropolis main drainage up to date.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.1

-The Metropolitan police force numbers 15,694, and has charge of 678 square miles, and costs the ratepayer 9d. in the pound.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.2

-American machinery to the value of ?500,000 has just been ordered from that country for the erection of an electric plant at Rugby.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.3

-The Governor of Shantung has been dismissed on account of his inability to deal with the anti-missionary troubles which have been rife throughout the province.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.4

-The Viceroy of India had just made public the fact that 2,205,000 persons are now on relief. Showers have fallen in parts of Madras, but there has been no rain elsewhere.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.5

-Over 100,00 idle miners at the collieries of South Wales and Monmouth resumed work last week at a small advance of wages granted under the sliding scale agreement.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.6

-A lifeboat, containing eighteen lifeboatmen, put away at a signal of distress off Suffolk port, but in the heavy sea was overturned and six of the men became entangled in the rigging, and were drowned.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.7

-Spanish gold to the value of $19,000 was found recently by some Cuban wreckers in the wreck of the Spanish cruiser Almirante Owuendo, which was run aground during the Spanish-American fight near Santiage.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.8

-Mrs. Mary Jones, of Chester, has just died at the age of eighty-three years. She was the mother of thirty-three children, and was recently awarded a prize by a London periodical for being the mother of the largest family in the United Kingdom.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.9

-It has just been ascertained that in Paris a mastiff was trained to assist thieves. It was in the habit of bounding against old gentlemen, and knocking them down, whereupon the owner of the dog would come forward professing great regret at the occurrence, and while assisting the man to his feet, would relieve him of his purse and watch.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.10

-The British War Office has order 960,000 pounds of corned beef from Chicago, the meat to be supplied within ten days. A special summer carries it to the South Africa. It is hoped that it will not prove to be “embalmed” as was so much of the meat furnished the American government by Chicago packers during the Spanish war.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.11

-The transport Ismora, laden with horses, ambulance waggons and supplies and artillery pieces, with several hundred men, struck a sunken rock near St. Helena Bay, while on her way to south Africa, and went to pieces. Only twenty of the nearly 300 horses on board were saved, and all the guns were lost. The horses were trained chargers, and the loss is counted guite serious.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.12

-A special crusade against consumption is being made in Northamptonshire by the newly-formed branch of the National Society.A special appeal is made to agriculturists to aid the movement by taking precaution against the spread of the scourge among their cattle, and the President of the Society has set the example of destroying a large portion of his fine herd of cattle because they were found to be tuberculous. When people come to realise that fully three-fourths of all the causes of tuberculosis are contracted from the use of cows’ milk, they will cease its use, and thus remove one of the prime causes of the disease.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 814.13

“Back Page” The Present Truth 15, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

If every reader of the PRESENT TRUTH would secure one other reader, the circulation of the paper could be doubled with but very little trouble. If you are receiving good, you surely ought to wish others to share in it. Will you not make the effort?PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.1

In four days last week there were over eighty alarms of fires in London, and some of the fires were of large proportions. Taking the whole year, the average number of fires is eleven a day, so that last week the number was nearly doubled.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.2

The Chronicle says that “the famine in India is growing more acute. The number of people receiving assistance is not a quarter of a million more than was the case last week. And the suffering is not limited to the poor ryot and peasant cultivators, who feels the pinch of actual hunger, but is reaching the small landowners above them, and the traders who have advanced money to both in hopes of a favourable turn in the prospects of the farming community.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.3

Several London hairdressers were recently prosecuted for violating an Act of Charles II., by carrying on their business on Sunday. The magistrate had no option but to convict, but showed what he thought of the prosecution, by fining the defendants only one penny each, without costs. It is but just to say that prosecutions for Sunday labour are not at all popular, being opposed to ruling love of personal liberty; nevertheless the statutes in behalf of the Sunday remain, to be used whenever anybody wishes to give vent to his religious zeal or to bring somebody into trouble. Besides, “public sentiment” has been known to undergo changes.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.4

The Church Family Newspaper characterises as “a serious mistake” on the part of those who desire to uphold the sanctity of the Sunday, on the ground that “the Act itself is all but obsolete,” and that by the insignificant fine “a whole proceeding was reduced to a farce of a highly injurious character.” Speaking of the subject in general it says:-PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.5

We regret the growing laxity of Sunday observance as one of the most alarming symptoms of modern modes of thought and conduct. It is very largely owing to the evil example set in high places, and to the excessive pursuit of pleasure by those who have the largest opportunities for self-indulgence throughout the other six days of the week. Possibly the disregard of Sunday may be also in some measure traced to the omission of the ante-Communion service at a morning prayer instead of its constant reiteration as in earlier days. But if the people are to be brought back to the due recognition of the day it must be through spiritual influence brought to bear upon the higher classes and not by legal prosecutions of the poor. However well-intentioned such proceedings may be, they will assuredly and deservedly failed.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.6

With the last part of the paragraph we are in decided agreement: Let the efforts in behalf of Sunday observance rest wholly on a spiritual basis. That is the only ground that any Christian can take (see 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5), and the Bible is the only spiritual guide; if it were made the real basis of all efforts to promote Sunday observance, the case would soon end, for the Bible has not a word in favour of the practice, but to the contrary. ‘Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy works; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.7

The two paragraphs that follow are from the Daily Chronicle, and are noteworthy as showing how lightly the journal which, above all others, poses as the champion of morality, treats one of the worst vices of the time:-PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.8

Stirred by such headlines in the New York newspapers as “Cigarettes made him a Lunatic-A Bright Schoolboy becomes a Chattering Beggar from their Use,” and “Made Mad by Smoking-Danced, Raved, and Prayed-Strapped to Stretcher, the Young Tailor was carried Singing to Insane Ward,” the Lancet (which it must be admitted watches over our national health with maternal care) lately appointed an analytical sanitary commission to look into the composition of American cigarettes.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.9

Of the investigation was on foot half a dozen kinds of the more popular English cigarettes were also analysed. The report of the inquiry is of the most satisfactory character. The tests for opium, phosphorus, arsenic, and mercury-the presence of each of which in cigarettes has been alleged at one time or another, did not yield any results in a single instance. As the Lancet says, “there is not a single factor upon which can be fairly based an allegation of the presence of a substance producing injury to health.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.10

Doubtless the Lancet, as well as the Chronicle, thinks that now all opposition to cigarette-smoking ought to cease; but the fact is that this report, calculated to quiet any fears the people may have, calls for more earnest agitation than ever. For the danger of cigarettes lies primarily, not in any opium, phosphorus, mercury, or arsenic that they may contain, but in the tobacco, of which they chiefly consist, the active principle of which, as the Lancet well knows, is a poison more virulent than any of those mentioned. False prophets are they, crying “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.11

The Daily Mail says: “More than one correspondent traces our recent reverses to the fact that the engagements were begun by us on Sunday.” Yet if we remember correctly, the most brilliant victories in the Spanish-American war were one on Sunday. Moreover, whenever anyone loses a battle, the opposing army wins it; if therefore the defeat on one side is to be attributed to Sunday fighting, to what is the gain on the other side do? Would they not be warranted in regarding it as a premium for fighting on Sunday? This shows the folly of trying to prove a thing evil by certain results. The only standard of right and wrong is God's Word.PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.12

“Power Over All Devils” The Present Truth 15, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

Power Over All Devils .-When Jesus sent the first disciples out to preach, He “gave them power and authority over all devils.” Luke 9:1. This was great power, but no greater than He still gives to every one of His followers. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7. This is positive, if our resistance is such that the devil flees from us, it is very evident that we have power over him. Authority is given us over him, even the authority that Jesus had, when He said, “Get thee hence, Satan,” and “the devil leaveth Him.” And this power and authority must be “over all devils;” for if there were a single demon over which God's people had not power, that one would effectually prevent them from overcoming, and would wreck their lives. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable.”PTUK December 21, 1899, page 816.13

December 14, 1899

December 28, 1899