is the redeemed spirit. Like unto the grandeur of the eastern clouds when the sun is rising, so is the redeemed spirit. In the school of Christ you have been disciplined; by the fire in Zion you have been tried, until like the gold of Ophir you are purified; and now, saith the Spirit, "Ye shall walk with me in white, for ye are worthy." You whose spirits are replete with that perfect love which casteth out fear. In you is found that charity which never From this high estate, let your blessfaileth, binding up the broken-hearted, ing descend like the dew of Hermon instrengthening the weak and comforting to the hearts of your faithful children. Let your mantles rest upon those who follow in your footsteps, and you shall be more than satisfied when the books are opened, and your eyes behold the record of those whom you have led along in the highway of Holiness. And I will sing, the afflicted. In you is found that power which healeth the sick of sin, casteth out the spirits of evil and giveth sight to those who are blinded to their own best interests. By giving up all, you have received all. For every sacrifice that you have made of selfish pleasures, an hundred fold of spiritual blessings has filled your cup to overflowing, and the pathway in which you walk is leading you nearer and nearer to the fountain of all good, nearer and nearer to God. A few short years here, in which to teach your disciples and followers to do as you have done, to live as you have lived, and then the real home in the Heavens of Glory is opened unto you. "They are slipping away,-these sweet, swift years, Like a leaf on the current cast: With never a break in their rapid flow, We watch them as one by one they go Into the beautiful past. " And one by one you go, beloved, into the beautiful future, into the home of the redeemed, a home that you have made your own by a travel of soul away, far away from sordid passions. Redeemed from all that is not of God. "Let my name be recorded And the seed I have sown I shall reap. I shall find in my Father's house West Gloucester, Me. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL hands are those that do Whose hidden fountain but few may guess. ALL deception in the course of life is, in Like the lake in midsummer when the air is still, so is the redeemed spirit. Like unto the tree clothed with the blos-deed, nothing else but a lie reduced to pracsoms of Spring, and like unto the tree tice, and falsehood passing from words to laden with the ripe fruits of Autumn, so things.-South. I know not why my path should be at times I find no answer; often, when beset With questions fierce and subtle on my way, I often wonder, as with trembling hand I cannot know why suddenly the storm I may not draw aside the mystic veil That hides the unknown future from my sight! I have no power to look across the tide, London Evening Magazine. WASTE NOT THY LIFE. WASTE not thy life on doubts and fears, But do the work before you, As though there were no future years Now is the time to labor; Help on thy needy neighbor. O'er ills which may thy path beset, While youth is still thy dower. The sun will shine and clouds will come, Long as this earth remains thy home, Till comes life's peaceful even; And leave the rest to Heaven. BY H. C. BLINN. A CAREFUL study of the history of the Bible, whether in reference to the Old or New Testament, becomes more and more interesting, as new light is obtained to aid us in a better understanding of the work. One writer says that the books of the New Testament were gathered from more than 500 MSS. more than a dozen ancient versions and from quotations in the writings of more than a hundred Christian fathers. In the introduction to the revised New Testament by J. H. Hall, L.L.D., we obtain the following information. It is supposed that Matthew wrote his book of the gospel in Hebrew, as did Paul his epistle to the Hebrews. The other books of the New Testament were written in Greek. These early books were written on papyrus,-ancient paper. It was not very durable and for this reason, the originals of the New Testament books have all perished. The transcripts of the originals have also perished. In the 4th. century, vellum parchment was made from the skins of animals, which was a more durable material. The most ancient MS. known is from the middle of the 4th, century, and those which are before the 10th. century are exceedingly few. Some 60,000 copies of the New Testament were in eirculation at the close of the 2nd. century and the 1,600 MSS. of the New Testament or parts of it now in existence are copies of those in use at that time. One of the forms of writing at that date was in large capital letters, standing distinct from each other. These form the oldest MSS. of the New Testament, and are thought to be the most correct. The MSS. have no punctuation marks and the liability to error is very common. There are a large number of MSS. in this form dating from the 4th. to the 10th. centuries. These are more or less complete. One closes at the ninth chapter of Hebrews; another contains fragments of all the books of the New Testament, except second Thessalonians and second John. Another contains only the gospels and the book of Acts. The most important one contains all the books of the New Testament and is supposed to consult different commentators on the situahave been written in the 4th. century. Another class of these old books was writ ten more like our ordinary hand writing These are supposed to have been written about the 10th century, and some attempt was made at punctuation. The majority of these books are of but little value, tion of the terrestrial Paradise. Some place it in the third heaven, others in the fourth, some within the orbit of the moon, others in the moon itself, some in the middle regions of the air, or beyond the earth's attraction, some on the earth, others under the earth, and others within the earth. Some have fixed it at the north pole, others at the south Joshua, vi., 4. "Seven trumpets of rams' horns. " The instruments used on this occasion were evidently of the same kind with those used on the Jubilee and were probably A great many translations of the Bible have been made since the days of the apos-pole, etc., etc. tles. The one now in use by the Protestants is called the King James Version. It was or. dered by King James the First of England in 1603 and was published in 1611. It was to be a version of the Bishop's Bible and as lit-made of horn or silver, and the text should tle altered as the original would permit. The Douay O. T. version was made in 1609 and is used by the Roman Catholic Church. From Clark's Commentary, Vol. I. The different nations of the earth which have received the old and new Testaments, have not only had them carefully translated into their respective languages, but have also agreed in the propriety of illustrating them by comments. be translated; and seven priests shall bear before the ark the seven Jubilee trumpets. 2 Samuel, xxiii., 20. "Two lion-like men of Moab." Some think that two real lions are meant; some that they were two savage gigantic men; others that two fortresses are meant. 1 Kings, xii., 2. "I will chastise you with scorpions." The scorpion was a military engineer among the Romans for shooting ar Ex. xii, 19. "Seven days shall there be no rows, which being poisoned, were likened to leaven found in your houses." To meet the letter of this precept in the fullest manner possible, the Jews, on the eve of this festival, institute the most rigorous search through every part of their houses, not only removing all leavened bread, but sweeping every part clean, that no crumb of bread shall be left that had any leaven in it. So strict were they in the observance of the letter of this law, that if even a mouse was seen to run across the floor with a crumb of bread in its mouth, they considered the whole house as polluted, and began their purifica tion afresh. Leaven was an emblem of sin' because it proceeded from corruption. the scorpion's sting. Job, iv., 10. "The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken." By the roaring lion, fierce lion, old lion, stout lion and lion's whelps, tyrannous rulers of all kinds are intended. The design of Eliphaz in using these figures is to show that even those who are possessed of the greatest authority and power, the kings, rulers and princes of the earth, when they become wicked and oppressive to their subjects, are cast down, broken to pieces and destroyed by the Lord. Canterbury, N. H. "IT was my invariable custom in my youth," says the celebrated Persian writer, "to rise from my sleep to watch, pray and read the Koran. One night, as I was thus engaged, my father, a man of practiced virtue, awoke. Behold, "said I to him, "thy other children are lost in irreligious slumber, while I alone am awake to praise God." "Son of my soul," said he, it is better to sleep than to awake to remark the faults of thy brethren. " LINES IN MEMORY OF OUR SISTER ELEANOR VEDDER. [See Dec. Manifesto, 1883.] D. AUSTIN BUCKINGHAM. She We have met to perform our last duty to one who has but lately closed her eyes to the things of time and the trials of this earthly sphere. She acted well her part while in the body, and was true and faithful unto the end; and we read that such shall be saved. passed through the trials and sufferings of life, keeping in view the bright side of her faith and conviction, and indeed, it may be said of her, that her long life and character is without spot or blemish. She has been a faithful burden-bearer a great portion of her life, having experienced the ups and downs of society life, and through all, led her course quietly and in a peaceable manner. Her kindness was not limited and partial, but extended to all without reserve. The poor and needy were remembered especially. She proved herself a true disciple of our blessed Parents in Heaven. We have reason to believe she had overcome the world in the same sense that Jesus declared that he had overcome the world. And his promise to such was,-"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. " She came among Believers in the morning of her days, in company with her sisters, four in number. They were young and in good circumstances as to means for worldly enjoyments, all of which were cheerfully sacrificed for the one great and holy object-the redemption of their souls. She was the eldest of a family of five sisters, and has outlived nearly all of them, being over four score and ten years. Let no one feel discouraged, Cheer up, ye sorrowing faces- My love to you increases And will forevermore; Will surely have a part. My thanks and love, I give you— Increasing evermore, When you with me shall sing sweet songs Take faith and be ye strong; But help each other on; With condescension sweet, A NEGLECTED DUTY. No man has any right to manage his affairs in such a way that his sudden death would bring burdens and losses on other people. There may be rare cases where a man really cannot help entanglements, or where, from inexperience, or lack of judgment, he has brought his affairs into such a state that the in terest of others depends upon his life; but he should make all possible haste to extricate himself from such a position. Honor and honesty We read, "Blessed are the dead that die demand that he should so conduct his business in the Lord. And also, "To him that over- that his death should cause no one to be cometh, will I give to eat of the hidden Man-wronged. And as to dying, although all men na, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a New Name written, which no man knoweth saving him that receiveth it. " Dear Friends-I have not left you, My spirit still is near, To comfort and to bless you,— All who the truth revere. everywhere believe that every other man will surely die, yet they unite in thinking that they themselves are exceptions to this rule; or, at least, they act as if they thought so this is radically wrong. It is every man's duty, in every transaction in life, to be influenced by the fact that at any day or at any hour he may die.-Selected. THE PALL MALL GAZETTE prints a of vegetarianism, as above suggested, to letter from an unnamed person whom it check population and emigration? Recalls an American Shaker to an English ligious celibacy is Nature's balance vegetarian. The Gazette thinks it may wheel to the population faculty in hube interesting to some readers and amus- manity. Try it. ing to the rest, and for the same double purpose it is reproduced below : I am deeply interested in the spread of vegetarian ideas in England, believing as I do, that England will never cease to learn and practice the horrible art of war until she hears the Divine command, "Thou shalt not kill," and religiously obeys it. Of course, a new land system would logically follow, for the war system originated the present land system. Meat-eaters, sword in hand, took possession of the land by force. Possession is hine points in law, and they made the law to secure to themselves title to the remaining tenth part. I am religiously converted and conscientiously convicted that riotous eating of food from the butcher is a direct cause of war, land monopoly, intemperance, and their concomitant evils. SCIENCE AND SPIRIT. PLETUS FIELD. SCIENCE Scars all that is seen below I analyze earth, sea and air, I let celestial life come in; I show to him redemption's plan, You speak of forming a colony of I reach the conscience, wake the soul, vegetarians in England. Do it by all I make the wounded spirit whole; means. My opinion is that such a col-I lead the soul to the Christ divine, I make that soul the sun outshine, ony would soon become a Shaker famiI whisper to the inner man; ly, holding their land in common, laboring in common, all being teetotalers and non-resistants. Also they would refrain from increasing the population until, to all who do exist, life was a blessing. All truths have a family relation; they go together. A Southern planter who owned many slaves, prohibited his daughter from introducing the use of brown bread into his family, saying, "I have observed that vegetarians all become abolitionists, and brown bread is the first step to vegetarianism." Why A BRIGHT spirit veils wrinkles and gives not found Shaker societies, on the basis the buoyancy of youth.-M. W. "A POUND of care will not pay a pound of debt." |