great voice to him who sat on the white Private property is inseparably concloud. Send forth thy sickle and reap, nected with the marriage order. Mofor the harvest of the earth is over ripe.nopoly, Wages, Slavery, and War; is And he who sat on the cloud cast his the trinity of that order. The Gentile, sickle upon the earth, and the earth was or Pagan Christian Church (so called) reaped. married, and held slaves. It was not a branch, was not an integral part of the Pentecostal Church. They were distinct bodies; the latter merely allowed and tolerated the former, as an outer court. The Pagan Church was com

From the foregoing, we find, that virgin purity is the order of Christ's kingdom. The order of marriage is not purity, therefore, it is not a Christian Institution. Even should that order become perfected, it would still be of the posed of foolish Galatians, carnal Corearth, earthy. It will ever remain un-inthians, of heterogeneous materialists. der the Law of carnal or animal com- The Greek, the Roman, and Protestant mandment. "Multiply and replenish etc." Should the perfected man and woman come up to the standard of purity manifested by the animal creation, they will do well; but let them not presume to enter the Holy of Holies. Animal life-emotions, have no place therein. Angelic purity, communal life, and divine emotions, can alone enter and abide in the Holy of Holies.

churches of today, are made up of just
such materials. They are the lineal de-
scendants of said Pagan Church, and
within the folds of their drapery is
found "The sum of all villainies,
monopoly of the elements of human
subsistence, War, Usury, Wages, Slav-
ery and Sexual Abominations.
Mt. Lebanon, N. Y.

PURITY.

MARTHA J. ANDERSON.

PURITY is the divinest thought that can enter the finite mind concerning the Infinite. It is the fountain head of life's immortal stream, the source of every attribute and spring of every blessing. In purity are love and goodness perfect. It is the very essence of Divinity that

The law of the order of Christ's kingdom is "The love of others, at the expense of self;" and its temporal procedure corresponds thereto. "Unto this last, even as unto thee, will I give a penny." All shall fare alike, as in the virgin order of the Shaker church. The Law of the marriage order, as generally manifested, is, "The love of self, at the expense of the neighbor." Therefore it is not a Christian Institution. Its tem- permeates and infuses the highest poral procedure, is to monopolize the spheres; the unclouded light of eterniproductive forces of creation for selfish ty's perpetual day. ends. And thus prevents the possibility, of all, to fare alike.

Turn the marriage order round and round; and gather up all the facts; and they are found to point but in one direction. That Marriage is not a Christian Institution.

"God is light, in Him is no darkness at all." The purer we become, the nearer we approach Deity; for, "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God." This is the greatest and most precious of the promises given by the Christ-inspired Jesus, whose life exam

ple-as well as precept-was virgin pu- unhappiness, ungoverned households,

rity.

Impurity broodeth in secret places, under the shadow of darkness; God is not there; and the mind that harbors unchaste thoughts, or the heart that cherishes unhallowed desires, shrinks from the light with a just sense of shame and disgrace. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? If any man defile this temple him will God destroy," by a withdrawal of His pure spirit. It is a law inevitable, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." The written and unwritten revelation of God's eternal truth declares the certainty of this.

of

family brawls, infanticide, fœticide, matrimonial dissolution, and an army neglected vagrant children? God, and his divine laws in nature, are both ignorantly and willfully disobeyed. The earth reels drunk with crime of every name and nature; all springing from the hydra-headed monster Lust! It is the ghoul that is gnawing out the vitals of humanity!

"Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?" 66 "A man is tempted when he is drawn away or enticed by his own lusts. " The evil lies within each human heart; and there must the battle begin, for the subjugation and crucifixion of the carnal, generative life, which has brought sorrow and woe to mankind.

What is it that stultifies the sensibilities, beclouds the intellect, drains the vital forces, sears the conscience, turns love to hatred and disgust, and creates on earth a hell? The carnal mind, unreached by moral law. Lasciviousness is the cancer that is eating out the very heart of Society; its dens of infamy are the plague spots of every civilized com-bryotic brain; the consequence is, thoumunity, the bottomless pit, where virtue is swallowed up, and demons of vice are generated.

The slimy serpent crawls over every threshold, victimizing the young, the beautiful, and would be lovely, by the secret charms of its magnetic power. It stealthily holds its sway, in our schools, colleges and halls of science, robbing our youth of the potency and vitality of noble mauhood.

What hearth-stone boasts of purity's unsullied altar? Whoso still worships there, may "sing of Love, of Home, and Heaven," three words holy and sacred in their significance, and all the outcome of a truly virtuous life.

What means the cry we hear all over the land, the "social evil," domestic

The greatest of all wrongs is the sin of transmission, through which, depraved influences are stamped upon the em

sands walk the earth and mingle in society, in whom the inclination and impulse, is stronger to do evil than good. True love is the offspring of purity; and only under its benign control, can properly developed beings be generated.

The praises of virtue were sung by the bards of olden time. Seers declared the glory of the ransomed! Prophets, sages and philosophers, inspired by the Christ-spirit, conquered the impulses ot passion, and took upon themselves a perpetual vow of celibacy. In ancient temples, vestal virgins were sheltered and secluded far from the eyes of a carnal world; kept for holy purposes, they were vessels of honor, through which the word of God could flow to man.

The baptized Jesus inculcated purity

foremost in his system of ethics. The teachings of the apostles, whether to Jew or Gentile, held up this heavenly principle, or attribute, as the highest point of human attainment; recognizing the fact, that because of low conditions, few would be able in this life, to bear the cross and practice the self-denial necessary to reach the perfect state of angelic purity.

SELFISHNESS.

GILES B. AVERY.

WHAT keenness of the vision e'er can spy,
Or what expanse of imagery descry
The myriad varying forms of selfishness,
Its giant growth, or pigmy littleness!

In one sense, selfishness is ogle eyed, but, its foudness is with the hope of bringing all the treasures home to self. Its side glances are to lure for personal, not social enjoyment; for the sake of

as many

selfishness disregards all the rights and
feelings of other persons; and the char-
acter of selfishness assumes
forms, and different hues, as there are
different dispositions n men. So each
selfish person has a shrine of his own,
at which he worships in greed!—A self-
sanctum, within which no other being
may intrude.

In every heart no matter what the education or the ignorance, there lingers personal gratification and advantage, a hope of probation; and though long and dark be the night of error and sin; there will sometime be kindled a desire for something superior and more soul satisfying, than the fruits of a sensual life. Then will come an awakening. God's pure spirit, brooding over the chaotic elements of the soul, shall find access to its most secret chambers; in its deepest recesses. His searching light will shine; the dawning of a new day will break upon the vision; the first thought that shall fill the mind will be purity! The first step of spiritual progress will be to "cleanse the heart from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; " then will the ascent upward be comparatively easy.

Purity is light, it gilds the mountain tops of God's everlasting goodness, and in its fullness alone, will the soul ever find peace and rest, or realize the blessing-that is vouch-safed to every human soul, immortality and eternal progression !

Mt. Lebanon, N. Y.

The existence of the monster is only possible, in the immediate neighborhood of other beings; it could not exist in a person living alone, on a desolate island! Thus its pigmy littleness and meanness is manifest in an habitual longing for, and reaching after, that which justly belongs to, or should be shared by another.

Selfishness aspires to make the Universe its tributary, for it the ocean should disgorge its pearls; the mines their glittering gold; the fields their gorgeous flowers and sumptuous gustatory fruits; the air its feathered songsters; and the earth its teeming millions. of servile life to man. To selfish greed and ambition unnumbered millions of the human family have sorely worn

It is not the changes of stature, or position, or circumstances, or anything else that can harsh slavery's galling chain; for sorbe seen outwardly that makes or unmakes

character, but it is the changes that are made silent and unnoticed in the hidden chambers of mind, where formless and vague lies the material out of which motives are shaped and character is builded.-E. A. S.

did self's lust of power unnumbered millions. have been shorn of life, and made to bite the dust in pangs of sorrow too deep for human tongue to utter.

ex

But, whoso lives alone for self, dwells ishment bereft; no room for expansion of root, no growth of trunk, nor panse of limb; no fragrant foliage or flower, no recompensing fruit!-The baby plant shrinks in its tiny field, and, withering, dies!

Its narrow walls hide all its treasure rare!

And, now, in vision thus we behold
the final goal of utter selfishness,
Enthron'd upon a pillar, pois'd in ambient air,
Beneath, above, around no int'rests meet nor blend,
No love flows to it, nor affections trend!
And though its art with Phidias may vie,
Its monumental bulk, like Babel's tower,
Reached upward to the skies, and dazed with power,
'Tis art without a patron to commend,
A tower, without a chieftain to defend!
liber-Tis prowess, ne'er a patron to its throne,
A Shrine! No worshipper, but self alone!

And, though from hoarded wealth, like Andes high,

in a narrow prison cell, bereft of all the
blissful benedictions and grateful obla-
tions of hearts gladdened and blessed by
liberal, generous souls! Those sweet
sympathies of loving spirits that steal
softly into the memories and beguile the
otherwise lonely hours of the benevo-
lent, like doves bearing in their beaks
an olive branch of peace, or like the
flitting humming bird that has sipped
from flower to flower of their generous
grace returns with sweet mellifluous con-
tribution to give gustation pure and
heavenly to every thoughtful moment,
all these blessings which make for
al souls consecrating life, time, treasure
to the greatest good of humanity a heav-
en, these, the pigmy selfish soul has
barred from his home, his closeted mind
and imprisoned spirit and interest To
him no voice they speak, no soothing
tune they sing, no taste to sweets is
made a guest!

The honest agriculturist, or orchardist, who plants the noble tree for fruit in a rich and mellow soil with wide expanse for nourishment, in quick returning years finds ample growth of trunk and limb, profuse of bloom, and, following bounteous stores of golden fruits to feed, not only himself, but the hungering multitude, and, in its harvest home his heart is glad. This is the characteristic of the liberal soul that shall live by liberal things, "-the character of those who are truly consecrated to toil in the vineyard of the Lord.

But, the character of the selfish soul is like an orchardist who should set an infant apple tree in a quart bowl, hewn out of a solid rock, and filled with sand, no expanse of earth, rock-bound on ev

And, though a hoard of all that earth may boast,
Exiled from time, 'tis emptiness, at most!
The Selfish Captain, anchor'd at his goal,
Of sailors 'reft, anchor'd in waters shoal,
No more his merchandise can bring him gain,
No more his fragile bark a freight sustain!

The Selfish mariner, on time's wide sea,
Is lost to all the world, but selfish Me!

Mt. Lebanon, N. Y.

IMPETUS.

MARY WHITCHER.

My impetus is love to God,

And love to all his creatures;
For Him I walk the narrow road,

For him, extend my labors.
The flowery mead affords a joy,

The song of birds a pleasure;
But without heart to do for man

I've no abiding treasure.
The eye and ear ne'er satisfied,

The selfish heart still craving,
Must for a goodness be denied,

Which is, the world-wide saving.
To follow Christ in very deed,

We're broad in our endeavor,
And feel our own, another's need,
As felt the lowly Savior.

Canterbury, N. II.

OUR thoughts are character moulds, they

ery hand; no richness of soil; of nour-shape our language and actions.-E. A. S.

"Ignorance is the parent of many in- terize sloth and idleness as the morjuries."

"The hopes of a man void of under- vacuity of indolence; and the united standing are vain and false."