. ANOTHER YEAR The Season of Good Resolutions ANOTHER year is dawning! dear Master, let THE sick-bed, the ocean in a storm, it be and the beginning of a new year are In working or in waiting another year with seasons when mental reformations are Thee! always very near the s~rface of our Another year of leaning upon thy loving tboughts and purposes. The habit of breast, making periodical reforms is not one to Of ever-deepening trustfulness, of quiet, be decried, for tbese are steps in the up- happy rest. ward path. Tbe trouble witb good reso- Another year of mercies, of faithfulness lind lutions is not in the habit of making them, grace; Another year of gladness in the shining of but in tbe habitual failure to carry them thy face. out. One reason wby people so often fail Another year of progress, another year of to live up to tbe good resolutions they praise, adopt at the New Year season is that the Another year of proving thy presence •• all resolutions are so indefinite. Tbey are the days." adopted under a vague sense tbat the life Another year of service, of witness for thy has not been just what it sbould have love; been, and no well-defined sense of what Another year of training for holier work tbe defects are. Tbe only way to make above. Another year is dawning! dear Master, let a reformation effective is to make it defi- it be nite. We need to deal faithfully witb our- . Anywhere and everyw.here, another year for selves. Has life been a struggle for self- Thee! isbends? Have our energies been con- - Francis Ridley HaverlJal. sumed in the narrow purpose of getting wbat we could and trying to keep wbat we got? Then let us remember tbat .. A We indulge the bope that the appear- man's life consisteth not in the abun- ance and contents of the first number of dance of the things he possessetb." Let the new volume will commend the paper us defillitely determine in the strengtb of to our readers with sufficient force to in- God that our hearts shall open to tbe duce them to help in raising our subscrip- wants of others, and our bands sball tion list to a good round number. Tbis minister to the suffering around us. Let is a good number and well wortb the us resolve that not another year or day price, but it is hardly a fair sample of sball pass witbout someone being made wbat we hope to do in succeeding num- bappier and better for our infiuence, and bers. the belp we are waiting to bestow. Do We are sending tbis paper to quite not let us permit either the cares or pleas- a number of friends of the cause whose ures of life, or the deceitfulness of ricbes names are not yet on our lists. It is a to crowd out the better part of life, and gentle invitation to have tbe names of so defeat it. Now it is bigb time to such, and tbe names of tbeir friends, awake out of sleep; for the day is at placed there. hand. Bentley Historical Library .- •• !.-Ll __ _ Digitized by Google BABISM - WHAT IS IT? OWING to the riots which have taken Thus, then, we have the idea that the place during the past few months in Bab is Christ returned with angels, Persia and the hundreds who have laid clouds, and trumpets. His angels are down their lives for what they believe his messengers; the clouds are the to be the truth, we propose to give, as doubts which prevent Christians, Mo- far as is possible in a short article, some hammedans, and others from recogniz- idea of this new religIOn which is ob- ing him; and the sound of the trumpets, taining such a hold on the people, more the sound of the proclamation which we especially the upper-class people in this now hear. land. In August last, the mob, incited by the MullaQ,s, or priests, rose in Tabriz, Teheran, rspahan, and Yezd, and killed some hundreds of those who had joined this new sect, at the same time pillag- ing their houses and carrying off every- thing of value they could lay hands upon. Numbers were, however, able to flee to other towns where the bulk of the population are Babis, and it was in passing through one of these towns that I met some of their chief priests who bad fled there for "refuge from Teheran.

A 8ROTHKR 01" THI£ "R~lItNDRD CHRIST

The Jews were told to expect a Messiah, but when he came, they did not accept him; the Christians to look for Christ's second coming, but when he came (in the person of the Bab), they rejected him ; and the Mohammedans to look for the fulfilment of the promise of Al Mahdi, yet now when that promise has come (the Bab), they persecute him. They deny the crucifixion, saying that God made a man the image of Christ, whom the Jews cruoified by mistake, thinking it was Christ. They '!'HB PUS&MT 8048, WHOM CHRIST I AN Ba CHRIST IIl.TURNBD TO kARTH BA815 BaLI.vB TO deny the atonement, for they say the smaller must be a sacrifice for the Their doctrine is that when one leader greater and not the greater for the less dies, his (i. e., the same divine) spirit (i. e., if a horse is sick. they kill a fowl passes on to his successor, and is the as a sacrifice for it, but would not kill same divine spirit which worked in all a horse if a fowl was sick). They deny the prophets from Adam to Moses, the resurrection and the ascension of Christ, Mohammed, and the Imams, all Christ's body. while they accept the of whom they accept as prophets sent resurrection and ascension of his Spirit, from God. for they hold that flesh and blood can- Digitized by Coogle ~ 222 BABISM- WHAT IS iT'!

not enter heaven, it being a place of spirits only as God is a 8pirit, being everywhere at once and yet unseen. They read and prize the whole of the Scriptures, but twist the meaning of every part to suit themselves. They are exceedingly friendly with Chris- tians, and say, "There is no dif- ference between us, for we both accept Christ as the Son of God." They are taught to practice love and gentleness toward everybody, no matter of what religion; to be kind to strangers and travelers, and to call no one unclean. There is also a sort of free-masonry among Babis and they will always help one another with money, food, or clothes. Of late years the faith is making great strides in Persia, and they have very earnest missionaries working zeal- ously in every part of the country. It is said that some of the highest govern- ment. officials are Babis, and I know of several villages where the whole popu- lation are followers of the Bab. The persecutions which take place from time to time are the cause of numerous converts joining them, for a Babi who is going to be killed, by burn- ing or otherwise, is generally taken into the public square of the town and there given a chance of cursing the Bab and repeating the formula, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God." If they do this, they are allowed to go free, but if they re- fuse, as they generally do, they are put -. A CRYING NEED A. W. SBMMBN S to death. People who are in doubt or dissatisfied with the Mohammedan faith (and there are many), when looking on at one of these scenes, immedi- ately conclude that, if so many are will- ing to die for the Babi faith, then it must be true, and so become enquirers and then converts. Another reason for their increase is owing to the reputed growth of the movement in America. Tales of the most exaggerated description are circu- lated about the hundreds of thousands of followers the Bab has in America. and these poor, uneducated people think that if the Americans accept this faith. then it must be true. Babism, in my opinion, is not a step toward Christianity, but, on the con- trary, they do their best to make' Chris- tianity a stepping-stone toward Babism. The fact that so many hundreds are willing to lay down their lives for what they consider the truth ought to encour- age the missionaries, showing as it does that once the Persians accept Christian- ity, they will not be "rice Christians," but will stand firm through any perse- cution. The fact that under the new customs regulations no Scriptures in the Persian language are allowed to enter the coun- try makes it doubly hard for the mis- sion~' all over Persia. No army can fight without ammunition, and the am- munition of Christ's army is the Word of God.- Ckas. E. G. Tisdall, in Recortf 01 Ckristian Work.

IF ever there was a time in the his- matters pertaining to preventive medi- tory of the world when people needed cine - the simple agencies of nature. educating in the principles of healthful which are within the reach of all, rich living, it is now. The world's greatest and poor alike. Why this ignorance? need to-day is a gospel to reach both One thing seems evident,- the "people body and soul. A gospel that is not perish for lack of knowledge." True, broad enough to include the body, fails there is a wisdom and knowledge to be of its mission. found, but it is the wisdom ot the With all the boasted civilization. en- world, and lacks the most essential lightenment, and progress of this age, element, viz., God. II The fear of the II darkness covers the earth and gross Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and darkness" the multitude of mankind on in him are hid al1 the treasures of Digitized by Google