p. 30 | Gleanings Arranged by M. W. HOWARD

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 26, 1865

Gleanings Arranged.

By M. W. HOWARD

RECENTLY I have been reading a book, written by one well reported for modern orthodoxy; and having been well pleased with remarks oft recurring, regarding the resurrection, I will give them here, before I go on to cite some other passages from the same author, that I penciled down at the time, thinking I might some time set them up, as beacon waymarks for modern Spiritualism! hoping they might cause the observant to discrimination, out of which should grow an enlightened consistency of theory. I prefer giving first that which I would approve, for it is pleasant to re-produce such thoughts as these:

“If you ask, ‘When will he rise?’ I reply, not now. It is God’s will that the dust shall mingle with its kindred dust, be swept, scattered and dissolved. But on the morning of the resurrection he shall rise again. This corruptible must put on incorruption; this mortal must be arrayed in immortality. The resurrection of Christ is pledge and proof of our resurrection.

Under the head ‘Where shall he rise?’ comes the reply—The spot whereon he fell. The sod whereon you stood and wept, where you have placed sweet flowers, the spot to which you have so loved to repair, will be the spot on which his ransomed feet shall stand, to wait the crown of glory that shall circle the no longer wasted brow.’ How beautiful the thought that when the trumpet sounds, the dead shall come forth from the spot where they were laid to rest. If you ask, ‘How shall he rise?’ I reply, he died with a corruptible body, he shall come forth from the grave with an incorruptible one; the same form, the same flesh, but changed and purified and blest, so that it may exist imperishable forever.

The italics are mine, but the words are the author’s own, as also the following:

“The bones and the flesh come again: the dead form arises, arrayed in new beauty and instinct with new life; crowned with glory, and adorned in light, the dead come forth. This is no illusion which could never be realized, but the deep mysterious teachings of Christian faith.”

Well! the reader is ready to exclaim this is sound Bible doctrine. Yes! and this is why I copy it, that I may place it side by side with other teachings of the same writer, believing that contrast is a strong illuminator and that some inconsistencies in belief which have unawares crept in to most Christian theories, need only to be held up so conspicuously, that they may be seen through and through, to convince the candid that in many instances, creeds have come to stand between the nominal Christian and Bible truth! Indeed, many who read this article have not yet forgotten the time when such sentiments as quoted by G. from the article, “Sweet Thoughts,” in a recent number of the Review, as well as what I am about to quote, seemed interwoven into our own religious thinking.

Before I proceed to give the quotations from the author in hand, I will cite one verbal one, heard from a Baptist minister’s pulpit at the time my own mind was beginning to cast away the vail that had bewildered my vision, and began to receive the doctrine of the resurrection as I now regard it—the crowning feature of the gospel plan of salvation. It was by him assumed, “That during the agonies of the death-throes, there was from the corporeal body, a spiritual body separated, which ascended to God.” It would seem that such unscriptural and therefore reprehensible teachings would be sufficient to open the eyes of the determinedly blind. A “loop-hole of retreat” was however left, in case the validity of the doctrine was assailed; for he prefaced it with a rhetorical, “They tell us—I cannot say if it be true or not.”—Had he forgotten, or did he never know the rule, “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. viii, 20.

But I started this article to show forth some of the foot-prints of Spiritualism, even in the writings of those who would recoil at the charge. But out of their own mouths would I convict them; even after having given utterance to the beautiful scriptural sayings that I have quoted. In speaking of one recently removed by death he said, “While the form has gone, the spirit still lingers, and hovers over surviving friends.” Again he says, “Our brother lives, he lives in Heaven;” and referring to the resurrection he adds, “Methinks that event has come, and I see the spirits of the departed as they descend from Heaven, and stand by yonder tombs to wait until the trumpet of the archangel brings the body forth; the trumpet sounds—the doors of the tomb are burst open—the dead in Christ arise first—the judgment comes;” then again, “he stands with the angel throng before the throne. From this bright abode he is looking down on you.” But to crown all comes this poetic effusion:—

“Death is the crown of life:” “Were death denied, poor man would live in vain, Death wounds to cure; we fall, we rise, we reign, Spring from our fetters, hasten to the skies, Where blooming Eden gathers on our sight, The king of terrors is the prince of peace!” (?)

Could the Arch-Receiver, whose great work in this last dispensation is to be the “Spirit of Devils working wonders,” desire better aid from a minister of the gospel? for the quotations I have given are from a book of pulpit themes. And with all its inconsistencies, specimens of which I have given, I did yet like to read it, for scattered here and there rich gems of thought would sparkle out, like the following:

“The Revelation—a revered book, now surrounded with perplexities and mysteries, but hereafter to be opened, explored and fulfilled.” The word of God compared with the history of passing events, fully indicates that earth’s great drama is hastening to a close. Time has grown old; six thousand years encircle its weary brow, and with inconceivable velocity it is rushing to its sepulcher. And soon the end will come. The great events connected with the winding up of all earthly affairs, the rendering of the last account cannot be far distant. The earth wrapped in flames, the heavens bleached and pale with terror fleeing away, the opening of the book of remembrance in which all our good and evil deeds are recorded, are but a step before us.”

“And there cometh on the world another flood not of water, but a flood of tribulation to destroy them that fear not God—a flood compared with which the deluge that swept the antediluvian world away, will be as nothing. But now as then an ark will ride on the flood—Christ is that ark. All who are in Him will survive the general wreck, outsail the storm, outride the deluge. . . . Alas where then will the wicked be? Where will be the innumerable company that know not God, and obey not his Son? ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the end of the world.’ Swept away! will be the history of the throngs who refuse to yield to Christ and enter the Ark of safety!”

How very like our Advent faith the last three quotations sound. Are there those who are so thoroughly indoctrinated in the expectation of the “millennial dawn,” that they incredulously ask, “When is to be this deluge of fire—of tribulation to destroy the wicked?” I answer in the words of Holy Writ. “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God.” 2 Thess. i, 7, 8. When “The day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Mal. iv, 1.

M. W. HOWARD. Malone, N. Y., Nov. 1865.