Misconceive, mistrust, misunderstand, misconstrue, misrepresent, misquote, misapply, misuse, mislead, misreport—here is a lengthy list of troublesome misses. Who has not seen a victim of their awful work? They have trampled upon and triumphed over the just. They have drowned out the voice of the innocent with their unrighteous din. The Lord himself suffered from the most of them. He was misunderstood, misjudged, and misrepresented; and His words were misconstrued and misapplied, and are to-day. He heard Scripture misapplied, [R1317 : page 110] and at last suffered death through the misapplication of his own words. Can a disciple expect better treatment than his Master? Poor, frail humanity is always missing the mark. A good man may be the victim of all these troublesome misses, but no good man will entertain or employ them as soon as he finds out their character. We had better be praying to God for more wisdom than to be missing the mark with any of this list. "A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards." It saves heaps of trouble to have a mouth that won't go off half-cocked, like a dangerous piece of fire-arms, and wound somebody. It is a mark of wisdom to keep the tongue still unless divine grace causeth it to move. —Selected.
In a recent magazine article the Princeton College astronomer gave an account of the latest astronomical news, mentioning by the way the service which photography is lending to his science. An illustration of that is in this statement, made at the meeting of the Photographers' Association of America: "After an exposure of thirty-three minutes the same instrument which rendered visible to the human eye stars of the fourth magnitude, which in the centre heavens would register 44,000,000 stars, showed to the photographic eye 134,000,000, and upon exposure of one hour and twenty minutes would throw before the gaze of the beholder luminous dust of 400,000,000 stars." Never before had there been such a revelation of the depths of the infinite.
Truly, as the Prophet has declared, Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. How the increasing light of revelation and invention assure us of the boundlessness of our Father's house of many mansions or apartments! What a field for pleasure and usefulness in the divine service, everywhere revealed, God hath prepared for those that love him! When as joint-heirs with our Lord we shall have finished the great work of blessing all the families of earth at the close of the Millennium, there will evidently be other worlds to bless and enlighten. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no limit.
What are the distinguishing marks of a ripe character? One mark is beauty. Ripe fruit has its own perfect beauty. As the fruit ripens, the sun tints it with surpassing loveliness, and the colors deepen till the beauty of the fruit is equal to the beauty of the blossom, and in some respects superior. There is in ripe Christians the beauty of realized sanctification, which the Word of God knows by the name of "beauty of holiness."
Another mark of ripe fruit is tenderness. The young, green fruit is hard and stone-like. The mature Christian is noted for tenderness of spirit.
Another mark of ripeness is sweetness. The unripe fruit is sour. As we grow in grace we are sure to grow in charity, sympathy and love. We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness toward our fellow-Christians. Bitter spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature.
Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet immature in heart. I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian Church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms. Another and a very sure mark of ripeness is a loose hold of earth. Ripe fruit easily parts from the stem.—Spurgeon.
Nos. 9 and 10 of the OLD THEOLOGY TRACT Series are now ready. No. 9 is a translation of TRACT NO. 1 into the SWEDISH language. No. 10 is "The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints."
To regular THEOLOGY TRACT subscribers we sent only one of No. 9 as a sample, not knowing how many each could use, and a double quantity of No. 10 to make up the difference. Should any be able to use more of No. 9, we will furnish the number for which they subscribed without extra charge.
These Tracts will be furnished to others at the same rate as the preceding numbers—one cent each.