Grind while the wind is fair, and if you neglect, do not complain of God's providence.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 12, 1875): 4.      

      CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.--We regard it as a most favorable sign of higher moral development to find cruelty to animals falling more and more under popular condemnation. Societies for its prevention are multiplying. There are now over fifty of them in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, although the first one was organized only seven years ago.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 19, 1875): 4.      

      WAR AND MISSIONS.--Swords are still making. The time to beat them into plowshares has not yet come. The sword stands for war, and during the past year the nations of Christendom paid for the support of the war-system the enormous sum of $2,000,000,000, and during the same period only $2,000,000 were raised and expended for missionary purposes. Could these figures be reversed for ten years, the sword would not be such a costly means of defense among the nations.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 19, 1875): 4.      

      There is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 19, 1875): 4.      

      As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so men of the least wit are the greatest blabblers.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 19, 1875): 4.      

      THINGS WE NEVER GET OVER.--Upon this subject Mr. Talmage, of Brooklyn, some time ago preached a sermon. He brought out prominently a number of things over which a man never gets in his lifetime. They are worthy of serious consideration of all. As he enumerated them they are

      1. The folly of a misspent youth.
      2. All parental neglect.
      3. The unkindness done the departed.
      4. Lost opportunities of getting good.
      5. Lost opportunities of usefulness.

      There are other things that men seldom if ever get over, but let us seriously reflect on these that we may profit thereby.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 19, 1875): 4.      

      TOO STRONG.--One of our correspondents the other week was too severe in the terms in which he spoke of experience meetings. It is best to guard the mind against thoughts so uncharitable, and it is better yet not to give expression to such thoughts, if one unfortunately happens to entertain them. We should be slow to condemn, and should endeavor to take the best view of men and things around us that circumstances will warrant.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      SENSIBLE WORDS.--The lecturer at one of the Agricultural Fairs in New England, held in September last, spoke some wholesome truths about work, and more especially about the mischief resulting from parents who seek to put their children above work or employment of some kind. We think the history of the world records the names of few young men eminent for piety and virtue who were obliged, by the mistaken, kindness of parents, to live above and without work. We give a brief extract of the lecture referred to, and suggest that it would not defile the pulpit to hear such doctrines occasionally from the lips of ministers. The extract is as follows:

      Working, he said, is not drudging, it is industry. Man is largely educated in the earlier period of his existence. Work is a blessing, without which there can be no individual excellence. Society cannot be strong or secure that is not founded upon the laboring classes. Being obliged to work for food, raiment, and shelter, is a great benefit to man. It is God's distributive whipping. When men are cared for by nature, they are not worth being cared for. Men, by working, become fertile in expedient, and rich in mind and experience. He deprecated the idea of men working through a lifetime to take away the necessity of work from their boys, and said, that by so doing they were made purposeless and shapeless men. Woe, he said, to the girl who is brought up not to know how to work. There are misfortunes enough that fall upon women; there are sudden revolutions in affairs that more often fall like pitiless storms upon their heads than upon those of men, but of all adversities a foolish mother is the worst for a fair daughter.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      THE RITUALISTS.--The Romeward tendency of the High Church party in the Episcopal Church is clearly apparent in some otherwise petty incidents. Take, for instance, some of their religious papers. Therein will be found the fact that the entire ritualistic implements and machinery are coming fast into vogue. They announce the sale of crucifixes to wear, of ebony, pearl, silver, brass and bronze; "clerical tailors" also advertise, and one advertiser in an English paper announces his skill in making surplices, colored stoles, Chasables. Maniples, Burses and Chalice veils, and Orpheys. Another firm announces "Zuchettas made on Roman principles"; "Birettas," and priests' capes and cloaks. We wonder how Christ in the days of his humanity would have looked along side of these "Christian priests." And yet, though the New Testament by its silence condemns all this, there are men who are as punctilious about it as if men's salvation depended on it. When Christianity has been so lowered there is little to be surprised at when we see it shorn of its conquering power.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      THE MOTHER OF ALL SORROW.--In a general way we recognize the fact that sin is at the bottom of suffering, sorrow and evil of every character. So far this is good, but do we feel the force of the truth that sin in us in thousands of instances lies back of our sufferings and our sorrows? Adam has much to bear for the sufferings entailed upon his posterity, but he often gets more than his due from his children. We too sin, and suffer for our sins. A thousand pains, and afflictions, and sorrows, come upon us because of our violations of God's laws, moral and physical. A more perfect obedience to these laws would save us from much that we are now obliged to endure, and that we often endure with some murmuring.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      A GOD IN HIS POCKET.--What we mean by this expression will appear from the following:

      A Wesleyan missionary in the Island of Ceylon has bought an idol-temple and the grove in which it stood, as well as the idol itself. Having completed the purchase from the Brahmin owner, the missionary put the idol into his coat pocket and walked away, instead of dropping dead as the horrified worshipers expected to see him do. It happened to be the God Vyravan, who is the guardian of the other gods, and the seizure of his image, removal of his temple, and grove, and the erection of a school on the sacred spot has created an unusual stir among the people of Calalty.

      Some other people, however, have gods in their pockets that are both more powerful and more dangerous than Vyravan. It would be well if they could get them out of their pockets and give them a little benevolent airing occasionally.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      THE GOWN.--We admire Dr. Hall, of New York, for many reasons. We did not think, however, that he would go so far as to recommend, as he recently did in his Yale lectures on preaching, the use of the gown in the pulpit. His reason is that it helps to hide an ungainly appearance, or an awkward manner. Wonder that Paul did not think of this; or that the Holy Spirit failed to provide this important item in a bishop's outfit.

The Church Advocate, 40 (May 26, 1875): 4.      

      BUT ONE GATE.--The old city of Troy had but one gate. Whoever wished to enter the city was obliged to go in at that gate. To "climb up some other way" was a sure indication of bad intentions, or a bad purpose. So Christ says there is but one gate to the heavenly city of life and rest. He himself is the door, and all who desire to enter must go in at this door. Some may seek to enter in by some other way, but all such are "thieves and robbers."

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 2, 1875): 4.      

      THE MOST PRECIOUS THING.--The most precious earthly thing that any person can have is a good character, out of which grows a good reputation. It requires more real power to secure and establish it than is required in order to secure anything else. There are more agencies working against one in this great effort than in any other, and it is more readily destroyed than any other interest. Worst of all is, that the character may be retained unspotted and the reputation may be destroyed by malicious whisperers. To destroy another's property is considered a serious crime. Men are severely punished for it, both legally and socially. But to destroy another's reputation is by far a more serious thing, and is a much more heinous crime. Hence the extreme care that professedly Christian persons should exercise in this matter. Hence, also, the greater social ostracism that should befall a man who is guilty of so grave a sin. It will be well for us never to forget what James says about the tongue, and about that man's religious whose tongue is not bridled.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 2, 1875): 4.      

      EFFECTS OF BEER DRINKING.--The drinking of beer and wine as a beverage has always led to bad results. We charge the American people with the vice of indulging in strong drink, and we think Germany is free from the evils of this habit because the Germans drink put little liquor, using mainly beer and wine. But these make sad havoc with German converts. The report of pastors of Baptist churches in Germany states that twenty-five per cent. of the converts apostatize chiefly through beer and wine drinking. They attribute this havoc among converts not merely to the drinking of beer and wine, but to drinking it in wrong places and at wrong times--on Sundays, and in beer gardens and public houses. There is, no doubt, that thus to drink is twice as bad as drinking alone, but it is always a great mistake to drink beer, wine or any intoxicant as a beverage.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 2, 1875): 4.      

      PUBLISHING HOUSE FUND.--It is the custom of nearly all denominations, which have as yet no publishing houses, to raise Publishing House Funds. Several of them are doing so at this time. Would it not be well for us to start in with a similar project. We certainly should have such an establishment, where we can have our Book Rooms, our Historical Rooms, our Editorial Rooms, etc., and thus concentrate our publishing interests, all of them, in some good, somewhat central locality. We know that some object to this because they are sure all sections cannot be satisfied. Others are afraid of the power which such concentrated interests would secure. We think such fears are not compatible with the motives hat should control us. Nobler motives should reign in the hearts of Christians, and especially of Christian ministers. We are in favor of making a beginning toward securing a Publishing House Fund, and trust the General Eldership will see its way clear to start a movement looking to that end.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 2, 1875): 4.      

      THE "ONE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE."--In the prolonged and somewhat heated discussion in the Long Island Baptist Association on close communion, Dr. Bright said: "If close communion was surrendered, the Baptist denomination had nothing to work for, no cause for existence, no inspiration to effort; that this was their one essential principle." If this is the sentiment held by the close communion Baptists generally, they have a small stock of essential principles, and it seems to us that before many decades this will have exhausted its vitality. But we have a better opinion of the Baptist Church than Dr. Bright seems to entertain. It has done a noble work for the truth, and we have no idea that its missions is no nearly accomplished as this paragraph of the doctor's speech would lead one to infer.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 2, 1875): 4.      

      GIVING UP THE WRONG.--How hard it goes to give up wrong. It requires more courage and magnanimity than to maintain what is right. Let a man be guilty of wrong practices; let him treat his brother in a wrong spirit; let him imbibe wrong doctrines, and how difficult it is for him to come over to the right. But wrong must be given up, and the sooner the better and easier. If we know ourselves to be doing wrong or to entertain wrong opinions, let us at once summon courage to turn over to the right in actions and in views.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 9, 1875): 4.      

      THE DEMAND--THE GIFT.--Who ever thought that Dr. Watts was too extravagant when in singing of the grace of God he closed his song by saying such grace

We recognize in it the paraphrase of Paul's doctrine, that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, and other kindred texts. Such is the demand. Now what is the gift, or the return that we make after recognizing the justness of the demand?" Who gives his soul, his life, his all to Christ and God? We trust many do, but the evidences of such a gift are not as clear and convincing as we should make them.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 9, 1875): 4.      

      HOW PERISHABLE.--There is nothing on earth that is so enduring as that time will not cause it to perish. Even the mountains and the "everlasting hills," stones and rocks, yea, all that is in the world is subject to change. God's word alone abideth forever.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 9, 1875): 4.      

      Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 9, 1875): 4.      

      PRACTICE AS WELL AS PREACH.--Preaching alone no more save a man than does the hearing of sermons. And yet it is as easy to point out ministers who preach and do not practice as it is to find Christian men who hear and do not. Ministers must practice their sermons. The want of this is the weakness of their stated labors. Not all, not a majority, fall under this condemnation; but these are those who do, and who do it in many and various ways.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 16, 1875): 4.      

      BLUNDERS.--Some men are quite sensitive about typographical errors in their newspapers articles. Sometimes printers are to blame, sometimes proof-readers, and sometimes the writers themselves. But there is no occasion to be so sensitive. Mistakes have occurred in the printing of Bible and other books much more annoying and unaccountable than any in the newspapers. The New York Observer gives some instances. It says:

      "We could make a book of blunders that would amuse, if not edify. The seventh commandment has been blundered about as well as violated, in all ages. Early in the history of printing, the 'Company of Stationers,' having the royal license for printing the Bible in England, put forth an edition omitting the word not in the seventh commandment. When Prof. Bush was proof-reader of the American Bible Society, he let an edition go to press with the expression, 'The desolate hath many more children than she which hath a hundred,' instead of 'hath a husband.' Editions of the Bible have become famous, and exceedingly valuable on account of particular blunders, examples being too familiar to require mention. Public speakers are often mortified by the blunders of reporters and printers. Dr. bethune said: 'While men slept, the devil sowed tares,' and the Christian Intelligencer reported him as having said sawed trees. Dr. Gildersleeve wrote of the burial of a beloved youth, 'Disconsolate friends stood riveted to the spot;' but his own printers, by taking one letter out of one word and putting it into another, made him say: 'Disconsolate fiends stood riveted to the sport.' A writer attempted to say: 'American preachers pay much attention to manner, and British preachers pay very little;' but the types made him say: British preachers pray very little.'"

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 16, 1875): 4.      

      THE BISHOP COMING.--The Free Methodists will also have bishops in the course of time. They have adopted the plan of electing general superintendents, who hold their offices for four years, and whose duties are similar to those of bishops. These things creep into Churches gradually and in modified form, and hence it becomes all who desire to prevent innovations to guard the doors carefully against "innocent" changes.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 16, 1875): 4.      

      GOODNESS AND BLESSEDNESS.--An eminent minister once said:

      "Possibly the highest blessedness of a benevolent being can be known only through self-sacrifice. Blessedness is more than pleasure; it is the consciousness and exercise of the highest goodness. This is the highest form of giving, and constitutes Christ the great gift of God. It makes him not merely the outflow of his natural attributes, but the manifestation of his heart."

      This is in consonance with the Old Testament idea of blessedness. As God's mind is therein revealed, we should conclude that there is no blessedness possible without true moral goodness--that the two are inseparably joined together; and that goodness always will bring blessedness in the end, if not in this life, surely in the life to come. And even in this life, we believe goodness will always have its measure of blessedness.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 16, 1875): 4.      

      A JEWISH VIEW OF JESUS.--The Jews of to-day appreciate Christ much more highly than did their brethren eighteen centuries ago. Who among them then would have dared to speak such words as these:

      "Jesus was a Jew, and of the noblest and sublimest type of Hebrew character, who, though crucified in strict conformity both to Jewish and Roman law, every intelligent Hebrew of to-day must regard as bright and beautiful in life, and of whom no Priest nor Elder of later ages who have said, 'Crucify him!'"

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 23, 1875): 4.      

      SUNDAY CAMP MEETINGS.--The Methodist Church is beginning to see the impropriety of holding camp meetings over the Sabbath. They are enclosing their permanent camp grounds, and although holdings their meetings over the Sabbath, virtually shut out all who would simply attend on that day, by closing the gates. Personally, we are not in favor of camp meetings over the Sabbath. Sabbath desecration is too general a feature of these meetings when continued over the Sabbath. We trust our brethren will begin their camp meetings on Monday, and close on Saturday.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 23, 1875): 4.      

      TOO MUCH OF IT.--It seems to us that many of our ministerial brethren are talking and writing too much about money, money for the preacher. Surely it is not this that they are preaching for. Rest assured that the minister who is so frequently alluding to his support, gets less for that habit than he otherwise would, especially if he goes faithfully about his Master's business. Let us talk and write more about saving souls, and the bread and water that God has promised us will not fail.

The Church Advocate, 40 (June 30, 1875): 4.      

      MOST GRIEVOUS.--Brentius justly said: "There is this in God's judgment that is most grievous--that he seems to favor our adversaries, and to stand on their side, by prospering their counsels and efforts against us." But when a man is thoroughly fortified by the word and grace of God, he can even bear this. It was even so with Christ, but he has made it clear to us that he who sees the end from the beginning will wisely order all our trials.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      THE CENTENNIAL.--The country everywhere is becoming alive to the interests of the American Centennial. It will prove a grand year if Providence favors our plans and purposes. And it is to be hoped that the national authorities will make some special arrangements for the proper recognition of God's agency in our history. But aside from this religious bodies should also have some special plans matured in season for the year. We notice that some of them are already moving in the matter. The Reformed Synods are taking action for the proper observance of the event, and will give their people a chance to make special benevolent contributions. So should we do. Could we not through the Executive Board of the General Eldership ask for two special collections, one for missionary purposes and one for educational purposes? We certainly do not mean to let the year pass without some recognition of God's goodness to us as a nation.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      AM I AN EXCEPTION?--Are we not sometimes disposed to think that we are exceptions in God's faithfulness to his promises? Others seem to have a better lot. Others suffer less from afflictions, from faithless friends, from bitter enemies. But it is not so that God has made us exceptions. His providences are all wise and good, and it may be that wherein we would complain he is ordering all for our good. It is a great point gained when we can have faith in the dark night where nothing good can be seen.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?--It is not by that which is outward, and which is seen and heard, by which God judges us; unless indeed the outward, the word and the deed, truly harmonize with that which is within. It is the inward that determines our character and standing before God now, as it eminently will hereafter. An eminent authors says: "Every one in heaven speaks from his thought. Speech there is what is revolved in the mind, or it is thought-speaking." We can not lay too much stress on this part here in this life; and our efforts cannot be too earnest to have a right heart and then a perfect correspondence between the life and the heart.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      Prosperity is a blessing to the good but a curse to the evil.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      TRUE ADORATION.--There is no one service that so thoroughly lifts up the soul to God as that of devout adoration. It has underlying it every element that can help us to transform us into the divine image. It is based upon sincere admiration of the divine character and attributes. It presupposes a strong desire to become more like God, and will produce efforts to this end. Praise meetings, in which the character of God is spoken of and his excellences chanted in the sacred song, must therefore be of great use to our souls. Such meetings every alternate week might become very profitable. For we are never so holy and so happy as when our adoration of God abounds.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 7, 1875): 4.      

      THAT "UNMEANING PRACTICE."--Elder John Winebrenner in his Preface to the Church Hymn Book says: "He would also suggest to the brethren in the ministry not to line the hymns in time of singing, except where the people are not supplied with books; and then to be sure to avoid the unmeaning practice of lining but half the stanzas." This is excellent advice, and should be remembered by all the ministers.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      UNION CHRISTIAN CONVENTION.--Our thanks are due to Dr. W. B. Wellons for a pamphlet copy of the proceedings of the Second Annual Session of the Union Christian Churches of America. This convention was held at Suffolk, Va., May 5-8, 1875. We should have been gratified if the General Eldership could have had several representatives present, but as no appointments were made, none of our brethren were present. Can we not have a delegate or two present at the next convention?

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      "THE PECULIAR PEOPLE."--Whether they call themselves so we do not know. The London people at any rate do. Their chief peculiarity is that they rely on prayer alone for the healing of the sick, and refuse, therefore, the use of medical remedies. They have rented what they call "A House of Faith" in London. They advertise for persons "considered hopelessly incurable, to be healed by the power of faith." That there are persons in these latter days to whom the power of healing without medical remedies has been given is doubtless true to some extent, but we think much of this work of "the Peculiar People" is fanaticism.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      OLD ANTIOCH.--It was at Antioch, the capital of Syria, that the disciples were first called Christians. There was once a strong Christian Church there, but is gradually died out, and for years and years no Christian was numbered among its inhabitants. Even now it has scarcely any record in the modern missionary enterprises which are seeking to reclaim the old lost ground. It has a small mission congregation of ten or fifteen members, without settled pastor, and at present ministered to by a student from the Bebek Seminary. What a cause of unfeigned rejoicing it would be to see the old and consecrated ground of the Church repossessed. There is progress towards it.

      We also notice that a mission has been started among the modern Philistines: three missionaries, one a European and two native, having been stationed at Gaza. That city has a population of 6,000, and the whole district about 100,000.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      HIDING SKETCHES.--Some ministers are in the habit of carefully hiding, or at least attempting to hide, their sketches somewhere in the Bible while preaching. They receive no thanks from their people. If a man uses notes in the pulpit it is better to be honest about it. This thing of trying to deceive the people in that way will not work. We think there can be no serious objection urged against the use of limited notes from which to preach a sermon, but to us the effort to make the impression that you are not preaching from notes when you really are, is not justifiable or wise.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      DEACONESSES.--We find the following in an exchange:

      "At Troy, Pennsylvania, is a flourishing Presbyterian Church, of which Rev. S. L. Conde is pastor, which has a large female membership. The needs of this class, prompted the selection, a short time since, by the church, of three of its sisters to act in the capacity of deaconesses. The persons chosen were Mrs. L. W. Pomeroy, Mrs. Sarah Waldron and Mrs. Harriet Lampman. They are efficient and godly women, and will be leaders in every good word and work. Their duties are thus defined, viz.: To exercise, with the advice of the pastor and session, a general supervision over the 'Woman's Work' of the church--such as religious visitation, conversation and prayer among the women and children of the congregation; to see to the appointment and sustenance of female prayer meetings; to secure the early visitation and welcoming of strangers, and the gathering of children and young people into the Sunday school; also, to advise with and assist the deacons in the care of the poor, sick, and the distressed needing help, and secure a proper distribution of the charities of the congregation."

      We have no doubt that in apostolic times there were deaconesses in the churches, and yet at this day they are a novelty. In many churches, we believe, it would be an excellent thing to revive this office for pious and zealous women.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 14, 1875): 4.      

      HE WILL MMAKE A WWAY.--In all our troubles, and trials, and afflictions we should remember two things: 1. To do the will of our heavenly Father carefully and scrupulously. 2. To trust him for the issue. He will cause all things in the end to come out for our good. We may not see it always, but the fact is as sure as his own immutable veracity.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      THE NAME OF GOD.--The name of God is not that combination of letters which represents the word that designates God. His name is not a mere word. It is rather "the essential and efficient revelation of God himself by which we not only learn to know God, so that we can speak properly to him and about him, but by which we still more gain true consolation, real power, and actual salvation from God, and wherein we possess a valuable means of communion with God." Somewhat in this sense does David say: "I will praise thy name, O Lord; for it is good."

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      A BAD CONFESSION.--The Methodists are discussing the propriety of making presiding elders elective. In an article against the "modification," Rev. Mr. Holmes says: "You can't have elections without having electioneering; and you can't electioneer without some kind of gingerbread. Wherever there is an election there are bids, bribes, cliques, parties, log-rolling, wire-pulling, pious hobnobbing." We hope this is overdrawn. We know that among us, though we have some men who fall under this condemnation, there are times when our bodies are free from this evil. It has been imported of late, but if we set our faces sternly against it, we can get rid of the evil spirit without being much torn by it.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      IMPLUSIVE.--How many things that we do thoughtlessly and heedlessly are blamed upon our impulsiveness. Here is a man who feels hurt or aggravated at a supposed slight or offense from another. He says hard and uncharitable things about the offending brother. When the matter is explained he sees how unwarranted were his severe remarks, and he says, "Well, you know I am very impulsive, but it soon over, and then I regret what I have done." Now that is not the way. If our impulses do not lead us to do wrong things, we need not apologize: if they do, our Christian intelligence should teach us better what is wrong. Men in ecclesiastical and church relations often suffer from the acts of these impulsive and reckless souls. They should sit more at the feet of Jesus.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      A WRONG COURSE.--There is nothing so painful to a heart filled with brotherly love as the fact that Christian men and ministers talk so much about one another in an unfriendly manner. Some ministers, without any fault of theirs, are talked down completely in this way. We are to tell one another our faults, and to confess to one another our trespasses. But what is the usual course now-a-days? Your sin against your brother is told to everyone but to yourself. If a false report is raised about you, everybody know it as a secret before you even suspect its existence. If Christian people will but reflect they cannot but see that in these things we are pursuing an entirely wrong course. And we are suffering by it. We do not know whom to trust when such a course becomes common.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      THE POPE'S SUCCESSOR.--The present Pope of Rome is so far advanced in years that his death cannot be far in the future. In view of this fact extensive arrangements are already in progress for the election of his successor. We outside parties, of course, have no idea who the next pope will be, but that there will be an election is, humanly speaking, certain.

      A correspondent of the Nation writing from Paris says: "The religious question is likely to continue to agitate the whole of Europe. Great researches on the Conclaves are made in the archives of all countries. The King of Italy has tried to find if any of the states of which he may consider himself as the heir had any particular privilege in the Conclave. The Emperor of Austria has a right of veto; and who knows if the German Emperor will not try to use it through Austria? France has her archives full of documents on this interesting question; but she is not in a position which allows her to take the lead in any great movement."

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      JUDGE NOT.--It is very unfortunate for a man to be obliged to sit in judgment upon the acts of his fellow man when his mind is influenced for or against him. He will surely do and say that which at other times he will not approve. We have seldom seen more forcible words on this point than the following from the lips of one of the most eminent men of this age:

      No man can be just toward a neighbor, toward a delinquent, that hates him. No man can, out of a heart either of malice or of bitterness, or of anger or of coldness, judge correctly in respect to any human being. Now if you are to follow the example of your Master, you are, toward all that have wronged you, to carry a feeling that shall be better and superior to theirs, which belongs to nature. If God has tried you to any purpose with dangers, profit should appear in this, that while you are manly in your judgment, clear, true, and loving in your distinctions or judgments of things, it is a trial the mainspring of which is in the feeling of divine kindness. He who is our Master and our model, and is to be our Judge and our Savior, was right when, in the very anguish of the crucifixion, without waiting for repentance or confession or anything else, he prayed: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." How much more should you be able to speak from the very fulness of your heart toward those that have done you wrong, or those whom you love, and say: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      SLEEPING CHRISTIANS.--We are often at a great loss to reconcile the conduct of some men with their Christian profession. They venture upon such dangerous moral ground that we cannot see how they stand justified before God. Spurgeon has a paragraph in a recent production which touches up this matter in a striking light. He says:

      "Some somnambulists have been able to walk on places where, had they been awake, they never would have been able to endure the dizzy height; and I see some Christians, if indeed they be Christians, running awful risks, which I think they would never venture upon unless they had fallen into the deep sleep of carnal security. Speak of a man slumbering at the mast head, it is nothing to be a professor of religion at ease, while covetousness is his master, or worldly company his delight. If professors were awake, they would see their danger and avoid sinful amusements and ungodly associations as men fly from fierce tigers or deadly cobras."

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      WORD SIGNS.--The kind of words that abound in a man's language indicate his character. It is so with nations, and why not with men. It is said, for instance, that the Bechuanas have no word in their language which properly expresses the idea of gratitude, and the trait itself is very rare among them. Vulgar words are a sure indication of a corrupt heart, especially with men of some culture. Let us watch our hearts, and then our language will be right.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      Men turn their faces to hell and hope to go to heaven; why don't they walk into a mill-pond, and hope to be dry?

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 21, 1875): 4.      

      GETTING TO HEAVEN.--Dr. Lyman Beecher has put a volume into the following excellent paragraph:

      "A great many professed Christians have no other idea of religion than that it is the means of getting to heaven when they die. As to doing anything for God while they live, it does not enter into their plans. I tell you, my brethren, I do not believe there is one in five hundred of such professors that will reach heaven; for there is magnanimity in true religion that is above all such contemptible meanness."

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 28, 1875): 4.      

      OUR DENOMINATION.--First of all we fairly hate the word denomination as applied to the Church of God. And then more than all do we reprobate the expression our denomination. Where do we get any right to apply such terms to the Church of God? If we are only a sect, as others are, and drag down the high name that God has given to his Church for so low a purpose, all the worse for us. But we claim not to be a sect; then let us not stoop to the use of sectarian terms.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 28, 1875): 4.      

      CAMP MEETING PREACHING.--The Earnest Christian has a good article on Camp Meeting Preachers. The main points which it makes are these: 1. Get a special baptism for the work; 2. Preach the gospel; 3. Preach appropriate to the occasion; 4. Get your message from God; 5. Avoid a controversial spirit; 6. Minister the Spirit, but do not attempt to do the work of the Spirit. Four or five preachers at a camp meeting possessed of a spirit like this, will do more good than a score who go there and preach as too many these days do.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 28, 1875): 4.      

      GENERAL MISSIONS.--Nothing surprised us more at the General Eldership than the apparent improvidence in not urging the adoption of some regular plan to secure missionary money for general use. We acted as if the little money on hand would be like the widow's handful of flour; or as if, as a matter of course, next year some one would have to canvass the entire ground again. We do not believe in any such necessity. And if a good plan had been devised it could have been successfully put in operation. Even if the results would have been small, we have at least one year to go on, during which the machinery could have been gotten into working order. We hope the Board will yet act on this matter, and that quite early. If we permit the necessity of these special agencies, etc., to force themselves on us, by and by we will have a bishop or two to take care of general interests. If we want to avoid sowing the seeds from which have grown first permanent agencies, then general evangelists, then superintendents, ripening out into full fledged bishops we must take some other course pretty soon.

The Church Advocate, 40 (July 28, 1875): 4.      

      ANSWERS TO PRAYER.--It is often said that "God answers our prayers not according to our wishes, but our wants; not as in our ignorance we may have asked, but as an enlightened regard to our best interests would have led us to ask." That this is true, we do not question at all. The common Christian judgment and experience endorse it. But in this fact there is a most important lesson: That prayer does not consist in desires, nor in the faithful expression of desires; but in a living, soul-communion with God, whereby we sink into God, so to speak, and thoroughly merge our will, our desires and our all in him.

The Church Advocate, 40 (August 4, 1875): 4.      

      FREE AND CANDID.--A learned author says: "Those who are free and candid with us, give the best proof that they have confidence in us." He had reference to Paul's words: "Great is my boldness of speech toward you; great is my glorying of you." But Paul rather meant to tell these Corinthian brethren that his secret confidence in them was very great, and that he boasted much of them. And yet he was most free and candid with them in endeavoring to correct their faults. This was love. The man who tells you freely wherein you are imperfect, and then goes away and boasts of that is a bad man at heart. We should boast of one another's good qualities, and rejoice in every opportunity of this kind; and, hence, it should be a labor of love to bring all up to such a point as that we can boast of them. Is this so? Or do we pull each other down, and try to life ourselves up by such means above them? To be free and candid by itself are not enough; we also need a love that covers the multitude of sins.

The Church Advocate, 40 (August 4, 1875): 4.      

      THE "OUTSIDERS."--The term here quoted has come to signify non-church members. This class is very large, especially in all our larger cities. Here is an estimate of the City of San Francisco:

      The City of San Francisco is said to contain a population of 275,000. There are in it about 55 places of worship; of these the Baptists have five, the Congregationalists, five, the Episcopalians and Lutherans, seven each; the Methodists, ten, and the Presbyterians, twelve. The congregations in them average a little over 200 persons each; making 12,000 regular worshipers. Besides them, there are thirteen Roman Catholic churches, two Swedenborgian, one Universalist, one Unitarian, one Seventh-day Adventist, one Mormon, and five Hebrew Synagogues. The number of worshipers is estimated at 20,000, making a total of 32,000 for all places of worship. An intelligent observer estimates the non-church-going population of the city at 180,000.

      This proportion, doubtless, holds good of the majority of our cities. What a fearful condition of things is revealed in this picture. Do we realize the state of the Christian world as thus portrayed? Do we make proper personal efforts to improve it, or to bring people to a saving knowledge of Christ their Redeemer?

The Church Advocate, 40 (August 4, 1875): 4.      

      A NOVEL PASSPORT.--Recently a terrible religious riot took place in Salvador. It was occasioned in this wise:

      A great deal of discontent had been excited against the Government by its refusal to allow a pastoral of the Bishop of Salvador, written in a tone hostile to the laws, to be read in the churches. There had also been considerable hostile feeling among the lower classes, owing to some regulations requiring dealers to use a new market place. While matters were in this condition a priest named Palacios preached a violent sermon against the constituted authorities on Sunday, the 20th ult. That evening the mob arose, attacked the Cabilao and liberated some 200 prisoners. They then proceeded to assault the small garrison and took the cuartel, killed Gens. Espinosa and Castro, cut the former to pieces and threw the pieces at each other, split the skull of Gen. Castro and threw him over a wall where he was picked up by his mother, and died in three days. The garrison were nearly all assassinated, and many honorable and respectable citizens killed.

      Many of these Catholic rioters had a novel passport in their pockets, signed George, Bishop of Salvador, which read thus:

      "Peter, open the bearer the gates of heaven, who has died for religion."

      And those poor fanatical dupes doubtless believed this would secure them an entrance into the New Jerusalem. And all this in the name of Christ and of religion!

The Church Advocate, 40 (August 4, 1875): 4.      

      A MYSTERY.--Here is a mystery that we have thus far failed to solve: Here is a man who professes to be a Christian. He knows he is far from what he ought to be. He is so cold that he seldom attends church. He never ventures to commune. He has no true Christian peace and joy. He knows that he must be more like Christ in order to enjoy his favor here or his presence hereafter. Yet so he lives on year after year. He still says he is a professor of religion. He still says he desires to serve God. He still says he aims to make heaven his home, but fears he will not reach it. You exhort him, you entreat him, you argue with him, but all to no purpose. What does this mean?

      He is even a greater mystery than the hypocrite; than the man who puts on quite an air of sanctity, makes a loud profession, prays long and eloquently, talks much of his spiritual attainments, but who serves mammon most faithfully, is a whisperer, a backbiter, a scriptural murderer, a slanderer and all that. No, we can understand such wretched characters better than the former.

The Church Advocate, 40 (August 4, 1875): 4.      

      IS IT HONEST?--Is it true that we as Christians would prefer to die and go to our rest? In many respects probably we would, but it is doubtful whether a majority, whether one in ten among church members would so choose for himself now had he it in his power to choose effectively. It is hence a common, and we have no doubt an honest expression, when in prayer they thank God that their lives have been spared. But is it honest and right to make the impression upon the minds of worldly people that Christians are always rather anxious to "shuffle off this mortal coil?"

      Moreover, we invite attention to a kindred matter as given in the Interior. The writer says:

      Expressions of thanksgiving are often heard in which the speaker alludes to the death of so many around us while our lives are spared as monuments of mercy, and similar comparisons. There is a danger of mistake in this. No doubt Christians who have gone before, in receiving the common lot of humanity could with much greater propriety express thankfulness that while so many others are left to bear the burdens and sins and sorrows of life, they are forever delivered from them. When God spares the earthly lives of his children, it is no doubt an act of mercy; but it is no less an act of mercy when he calls them away. It is right to be thankful for life, but it may be quite absurd as well as impious to express thankfulness that we are more favored than the saintly dead: and we are not authorized to decide, except in general terms, who are, and who are not the happier for the exchange of this world for the future.

[The Church Advocate 40 (May 5, 1875-August 4, 1875): 4.]

      Christian H. Forney's "Notes, Reflections, and Fillers from The Church Advocate" was first published in The Church Advocate, Vol. 40, (May 5, 1875-April 26, 1876), p. 4. The electronic version has been transcribed from a copy of the article printed from a microfilmed edition of the newspaper held by the State Library of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Adams Memorial Library for arranging for the interlibrary loan, and to St. Vincent College Library for the use of its microfilm reader/printer.

      In the printed text, an extended quotation is set off by the absence of leading between lines; in the printed text, it is set off as a block quotation. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained; however, corrections have been offered for misspellings and other accidental corruptions.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 11 June 1999.
Updated 13 July 2003.