p. 5 | Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 19, 1871

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

A CHANGE AT HAND.

Everywhere, men of all classes are looking for some great change to immediately come.

“The Christian Work, London, in its issue for January, 1871, reviewing the events of the year previous, has the following passage:—

“‘It is quite impossible for any one, with the most general glance at prophecy, not to feel that we are living in the midst of an important prophetic era. Changes are taking place in years and decades, which used to occupy centuries. Things generally are in a state of confusion. Men’s minds are not at rest.’”

INFIDELITY AND CORRUPTION OF CATHOLICISM.

Infidelity is spreading, even among church members and officers in high places. I know this to be so from my conversation with men everywhere. But listen to the following, on Infidelity in the Romish church, from Rev. Mr. Langdon of Florence, Italy:—

“‘Break through but the thin surface crust of names, and forms, and old associations, and the fact is revealed that there is nothing spiritual left; that Romanism is thoroughly materialistic; and that it has practically brought Christian Italy back to its own ancient paganism. But for the instinctive habit they have of using the word Christian, as implying, if not as being synonymous with the highest cultivation and enlightenment, many of the first publicists of Italy would, very probably, admit it in so many words.’”

“‘Who can be a fairer judge than that venerable statesman and philosopher, Count Terenzio Mamiani? He is a Roman. He was one of the pope’s own trusty friends, one of his lay cabinet. He occupied a similar position as the colleague of Cavour. No living Italian writer stands more eminent in the esteem of his countrymen. His wisdom is reverenced in the Italian Senate, and he was the relatore, or chosen spokesman, of the special committee of that body, to which was lately referred the law of the Papal Guarantees; and he is, what is so rarely found among his peers, a sincere and devout Catholic. Such is the man who wrote to me on the 30th of October last, in a letter already published: ‘It is to be feared that all this [effort for reform] comes too late. Romanism has at last produced in Italy three deplorable results; and these are superstition in the lowest populace, indifference in the other classes, infidelity in the greater part of the thinkers and writers.’”

“‘In fact, Christianity is not generally looked upon, either by ecclesiastics within, or by the laity without the church of Italy, as a system of principles, governing the heart, the conscience, and the inner life, so much as a politico-social system, allied to a state of society which has passed away, when it was the right of the one to rule, and of the other to minister to their ambition. Indeed, I have the story from the best authority, that a veteran diplomatist, who had long been accredited to the Papal Court, said that of some eighty-three Cardinals whom he had personally known, perhaps three really believed in the divine origin of Christianity; and it is well known here that some of the most valued ecclesiastical officials of the Holy See are men, not only without any religious character whatever, but of such notoriously disgraceful moral character that they are not received in respectable Roman society.’”

POLITICAL CORRUPTION.

Says the Phrenological Journal for September:—

“‘It is certain that if earnest and powerful endeavors are not made to put the right men in the right places, and a higher and purer tone given to our political affairs, a sad condition will ere long overtake American society, a condition ripe for violent faction, revolution, anarchy. From which kind Heaven defend!’”

PLAIN PREACHING.

The following sentiment is worthy the attention of every minister who desires to affect his people for good. The simple truth, plainly told, is what does the work.

“BLUNT PREACHING.—I have tried to drive certain long brass-headed nails into a wall, but had never succeeded except in turning up their points, and rendering them useless. When a tradesman came, who understood his work, I noticed that he filed off all the points of the nails, the very points upon whose sharpness I had relied; and when he had quite blunted them, he drove them in as far as he pleased. With some consciences our fine points in preaching are worse than useless. Our keen distinctions and nice discriminations are thrown away on many; they need to be encountered with sheer force and blunt honesty. The truth must be hammered into them by main strength, and we know from whom to seek the needed power.”

SHALLOW WATERS.

Here is a good illustration of Christian character. See that Christian who is easily roiled and his spirits quickly stirred. His experience is shallow, with plenty of mud at the bottom. If it don’t come up now it will at the Judgment.

“Shallow waters are easily muddied. After a night of storm, the waters of the bay along the beach, stirred by the winds, are foul and black with the mire and dirt. But look beyond, out into the deep water; how blue and clear it is! The white caps on the surface show the violence of the wind, but the water is too deep for the storms that sweep its surface to stir up the earth at the bottom.

“So in Christian experience. A shallow experience is easily disturbed; the merest trifles becloud and darken the soul whose piety is superficial; while the most furious storm of life fails to darken or perturb the soul which has attained a deep experience of the things of God. The agitation may produce a sparkle on the surface, but in the calm depths of such a spirit reigns eternal tranquility, the peace of God that passeth all understanding.”—Newport Journal.

D. M. CANRIGHT.