Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1880
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
THE PASSOVER.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE Lord gave Moses special directions for the children of Israel, in regard to what they must do to preserve themselves and their families from the fearful plague that he was about to send upon the Egyptians. Moses was also to give his people instructions in regard to their leaving Egypt. On that night, so terrible to the Egyptians, and so glorious to the people of God, the solemn ordinance of the passover was instituted. By the divine command, each family, alone or in connection with others, was to slay a lamb or a goat "without blemish," and with a bunch of hyssop sprinkle its blood on "the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post" of their houses, as a token, that the destroying angel, coming at midnight, might not enter that dwelling. They were to eat the flesh roasted, with bitter herbs, at night, as Moses said, "with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's passover." This name was given in memory of the angel's passing by their dwellings; and such a feast was to be observed as a memorial by the people of Israel in all future generations.
Leaven works secretly, and is a fit emblem of hypocrisy and deceit. And on this occasion the children of Israel were to abstain from leavened bread that their minds might be impressed with the fact that God requires truth and sincerity in his worship. The bitter herbs represented their long and bitter servitude in Egypt, also the bondage of sin. It was not enough to simply slay the lamb, and sprinkle its blood upon the door posts, but it was to be eaten, thus representing the close union which must exist between Christ and his followers.
A work was required of the children of Israel, to prove them, and to show their faith in the great deliverance which God had been bringing about for them. In order to escape the terrible judgment about to fall upon Egypt, the token of blood must be seen upon their houses. And they were required to separate themselves and their children from the Egyptians, and gather them into their own houses; for if any of the Israelites were found in the dwellings of the Egyptians, they would fall by the hand of the destroying angel. They were also directed to keep the feast of the passover for an ordinance, that when their children should inquire what such service meant, they should relate to them their wonderful preservation in Egypt: That when the destroying angel went forth in the night to slay the first-born of man, and the first-born of beast, he passed over their houses, and not one of the Hebrews that had the token of blood upon their door-posts was slain.
The people bowed their heads and worshiped, grateful for this remarkable memorial given to preserve to their children the remembrance of God's care for his people. There were quite a number of the Egyptians who were led to acknowledge, by the manifestations of the signs and wonders shown in Egypt, that the gods whom they had worshiped were without knowledge, and had no power to save or to destroy, and that the God of the Hebrews was the only true God. They begged to be permitted to come to the houses of the Israelites with their families upon that fearful night when the angel of God should slay the first-born of the Egyptians. The Hebrews welcomed these believing Egyptians to their homes, and the latter pledged themselves henceforth to choose the God of Israel as their God, and to leave Egypt and go with the Israelites to worship the Lord.
The passover pointed backward to the deliverance of the children of Israel, and was also typical, pointing forward to Christ, the Lamb of God, slain for the redemption of fallen man. The blood sprinkled upon the door-posts prefigured the atoning blood of Christ, and also the continual dependence of sinful man upon the merits of that blood for safety from the power of Satan, and for final redemption. Christ ate the passover supper with his disciples just before his crucifixion, and the same night, instituted the ordinance of the Lord's supper, to be observed in commemoration of his death. Up to this time the passover had been observed to commemorate the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. But in its place he now left an ordinance to commemorate the events of his crucifixion. After partaking of the passover with his disciples, Christ arose from the table, and said unto them, "With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." He then performed the humiliating office of washing the feet of his disciples. Christ gave his followers the ordinance of washing feet for them to practice, which would teach them lessons of humility. He connected this ordinance with the supper. He designed that this should be a season of self-examination, that his people might have an opportunity to become acquainted with the true feelings of their own hearts toward God and one another. If pride existed in their hearts, how soon would it be discovered to the honestly erring ones, as they should engage in this humble duty. If selfishness or hatred existed, it would be more readily discovered as they engaged in this humble work. This ordinance was designed to result in mutual confessions, and to increase feelings of forbearance, forgiveness of each other's errors, and true love, preparatory to engaging in the solemn ordinance of commemorating the sufferings and death of Christ. He loved his disciples well enough to die for them. He exhorted them to love one another, as he had loved them.
The example of washing the feet of his disciples was given for the benefit of all who should believe in him. He required them to follow his example. This humble ordinance was designed not only to test their humility and faithfulness, but to keep fresh in their remembrance that the redemption of his people was purchased upon condition of humility and continual obedience on their part. "So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
Jesus then took his place again at the table, whereon were placed bread and unfermented wine, which arrangements had been made according to Christ's directions. He appeared very sorrowful. "And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also, the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." "Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Here our Saviour instituted the Lord's supper, to be often celebrated, to keep fresh in the memory of his followers the solemn scenes of his betrayal and crucifixion for the sins of the world. He would have his followers realize their continual dependence upon his blood for salvation. The broken bread was a symbol of Christ's broken body, given for the salvation of the world. The wine was a symbol of his blood, shed for the cleansing of the sins of all those who should come unto him for pardon, and receive him as their Saviour.
The salvation of men depends upon a continual application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord's supper was to be observed more frequently than the annual passover. This solemn ordinance commemorates a far greater event than the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. That deliverance was typical of the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of his own life for the final redemption of his people.
CAN I NOT TRUST?
I CANNOT see with my small human sight,
Why God should lead this way or that for me;
I only know he saith, "Child, follow me;"
But I can trust.
I know not what my path should be, at times
So straight and strangely barred before;
I only know God could keep wide the door.
But I can trust.
I cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;
But this I know, God watcheth all my path,
And I can trust.
I may not draw aside the mystic veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight;
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
But I can trust.
I have no power to look across the tide,
To know, while here, the land beyond the river;
But this I know, I shall be God's forever;
So I can trust.
SAVE ME, I PERISH.
By Thomas Guthrie
DURING a heavy storm off the coast of Spain, a dismantled merchantman was observed by a British frigate drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass were on her, and a canvas shelter, on a deck almost level with the sea, suggested the idea that there might be life on board. With all his faults, no man is more alive to humanity than the rough and hardy mariner; and so the order instantly sounds to put the ship about, and presently a boat puts off with instructions to bear down upon the wreck. Away after that drifting hulk go these gallant men through the swell of a roaring sea; they reach it; they shout, and now a strange object rolls out of that canvas screen against the lee shroud of a broken mast. Hauled into the boat, it proves to be the trunk of a man, bent head and knees together, so dried and shriveled as to be hardly felt within the ample clothes, and so light that a mere boy lifted it on board.
It is laid upon the deck; in horror and pity the crew gather around it; it shows signs of life; they draw nearer; it moves, and then mutters—mutters in a deep, sepulchral voice, "There is another man." Saved himself, the first use the saved one made of speech was to seek to save another. Oh! learn that blessed lesson. Be daily practicing it. And so long as, in our homes, among our friends, in this wreck of a world which is drifting down to ruin, there lives an unconverted one, there is "another man," let us go to that man and plead for Christ; and go to Christ and plead for that man, the cry, "Lord, save me, I perish," being changed into one as welcome to a Saviour's ear, "Lord, save them, they perish."
—Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D. D.
Obscurity, Popularity, and Trouble
OBSCURITY and comfort are frequently friends, but popularity and trouble generally go together.
THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY
By Uriah Smith
BY ELDER U. SMITH.
HE DOETH GREAT WONDERS.—CONTINUED.
MIRACLES are of two kinds, true and false, just as we have a true Christ and false christs, true prophets and false prophets, and true apostles and false apostles. By a false miracle, we mean not a pretended miracle, which is no miracle at all, but a real miracle, a supernatural performance, wrought in the interest of falsehood for the purpose of deceiving the people, or of proving a lie. The miracles performed by the two-horned beast of Rev. 13, are real miracles, but are wrought for the purpose of deception. The prophecy does not read that he deceived the people by means of the miracles which he claimed that he was able to perform, or which he pretended to do; but which he had power to do.
They, therefore, fall far short of the prophecy who suppose that the great wonders wrought by this power were fulfilled by Napoleon when he told the Mussulmans that he could command a fiery chariot to come down from Heaven, but never did it, or by the pretended miracles of the Romish church, which are only shams, mere tricks played off by ungodly and designing priests upon their ignorant and superstitious dupes.
Miracles, or wonders, such as are to be wrought by the two-horned beast, and withal, as we think, the very ones referred to in the prophecy, are mentioned by Paul in 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. Speaking of the second coming of Christ, he says, “Whose coming is after [kata, at the time of, 2 Tim. 4:1] the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” These are no slight-of-hand performances, but such a working of Satan as the world has never before seen. To work with all power and signs and lying wonders, is certainly to do a real and an astounding work, but one which is designed to prove a lie.
Again, the Saviour, predicting events to occur just before his second coming, says, “For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Here again, are wonders foretold, wrought for the purpose of deception, so powerful that, were it possible, even the very elect would be deceived by them.
Thus we have a series of prophecies setting forth the development, in the last days, of a wonder-working power, manifested to a startling and unprecedented degree, in the interests of falsehood and error. All refer to one and the same thing. The earthly government, with which it was to be especially connected, is that represented by the two-horned beast, or false prophet. The agency lying back of the outward manifestations was to be Satanic, the spirits of devils. The prophecy calls for such a work as this in our own country at the present time. Do we behold anything like it? Read the answer in the lamentation of the prophet: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Stand aghast, O Earth! Tremble, ye people, but be not deceived. The huge specter of evil confronts us, as the prophet declared. Satan is loosed. From the depth of Tartarus, myriads of demons swarm over the land. The prince of darkness manifests himself as never before, and, stealing a word from the vocabulary of Heaven to designate his work, he calls it—Spiritualism.
1. Does spiritualism, then, bear these marks of Satanic agency?
(1) The spirits which communicate claim to be the spirits of our departed friends. But the Bible, in the most explicit terms, assures us that the dead are wholly inactive and unconscious till the resurrection; that the dead know not anything; Eccl. 9:5; that every operation of the mind has ceased; Ps. 146:4; that every emotion of the heart is suspended; Eccl. 9:6; and that there is neither work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where they lie. Eccl. 9:10. Whatever intelligence, therefore, comes to us professing to be one of our dead friends, comes claiming to be what, from the word of God, we know he is not. But angels of God do not lie; therefore these are not the good angels. Spirits of devils will lie; this is their work; and these are the credentials which at the very outset they hand us.
(2) The doctrines which they teach are from the lowest and foulest depths of the pit of lies. They deny God. They deny Christ. They deny the atonement. They deny the Bible. They deny the existence of sin, and all distinction between right and wrong. They deny the sacredness of the marriage covenant; and, interspersing their utterances with the most horrid blasphemies against God and his Son, and everything that is lovely, and good, and pure, they give the freest license to every propensity to sin, and to every carnal and fleshly lust. Tell us not that these things, openly taught under the garb of religion, and backed up by supernatural sights and sounds, are anything less than Satan’s master-piece.
2. Spiritualism answers accurately to the prophecy in the exhibition of great signs and wonders. Among its many achievements these may be mentioned: Various articles have been transported from place to place by spirits alone. Beautiful music has been produced, independently of human agency, with and without the aid of visible instruments. Many well-attested cases of healing have been presented. Persons have been carried through the air by the spirits in the presence of many others. Tables have been suspended in the air with several persons upon them. And, finally, spirits have represented themselves in bodily form and talked with an audible voice. A writer in the Spiritual Clarion speaks as follows of the manner in which spiritualism has arisen, and the astounding progress it has made:—
“This revelation has been with a power, a might, that, if divested of its almost universal benevolence, had been a terror to the very soul; the hair of the very bravest had stood on end, and his chilled blood had crept back upon his heart at the sights and sounds of its inexplicable phenomena. It comes with foretokening, with warning. It has been, from the very first, its own best prophet, and step by step it has foretold the progress it would make. It comes, too, most triumphant. No faith before it ever took so victorious a stand in its infancy. It has swept like a hurricane of fire through the land, compelling faith from the baffled scoffer and the most determined doubter.”
3. Spiritualism answers to the prophecy in that it had its origin in our own country, thus connecting its wonders with the work of the two-horned beast. Commencing in Hydesville, N. Y., in the family of Mr. John D. Fox, in the latter part of March, 1848, it spread with incredible rapidity through all the States. The estimates of the number of spiritualists in this country at the present time, only thirty-two short years from its commencement, though differing somewhat from each other, are nevertheless such as to show that the progress of spiritualism has been without a parallel. Thus, Judge Edmonds puts the number at five or six millions (5,000,000 or 6,000,000); Hepworth Dixon, three millions (3,000,000); A. J. Davis, four millions, two hundred and thirty thousand (4,230,000); Warren Chase, eight millions (8,000,000); and the Roman Catholic Council at Baltimore, between ten and eleven millions (10,000,000 to 11,000,000). Of those who have become its devotees, Judge Edmonds said as long ago as 1853:—
“Besides the undistinguished multitude, there are many now of high standing and talent ranked among them—doctors, lawyers, and clergymen, in great numbers, a Protestant bishop, the learned and reverend president of a college, judges of our higher courts, members of Congress, foreign ambassadors, and ex-members of the United States Senate.”
This statement was written more than twenty-five years since; and from that time to this, the work of the spirits has been steadily progressing, and spreading among all classes of people.
And from this nation spiritualism has gone abroad into all the earth. Queen Victoria is almost an insane devotee of the new philosophy. The late Emperor and Empress of France, and the Emperor and Grand Dukes of Russia are all said to have sought to these spirits for knowledge. Thus it is working its way to the potentates of the earth, and is fast preparing to accomplish its real mission, which is, by deceiving the world with its miracles, to gather the nations to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
Here we pause. Let this work go on a little longer, as it has been going, and as it is still going, and what a scene is before us! Having seen so much fulfilled, we cannot now draw back and deny the remainder. And so we look for the onward march of this last great wonder-working deception, till that is accomplished which in the days of Elijah was a test between Jehovah and Baal, and fire is brought down from heaven to earth in the sight of men. Then will be the hour of the power of darkness, the hour of temptation that is coming upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Rev. 3:10. Then all will be swept from their anchorage by the strong current of delusion, except those whom it is not possible to deceive—the elect of God.
And still the world sleeps on, while Satan, with lightning fingers and hellish energy, weaves over them his last fatal snare. It is time some mighty move was made to waken the world and rouse the church to the dangers we are in. It is time every honest heart should learn that the only safeguard against the great deception, whose incipient and even well-advanced workings we already behold before our eyes, is to make the truths of God’s holy and immutable word our shield and buckler.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
The following vindication of the Old Testament is from a lecture delivered before the students of Yale College a few years since:—
The events, the interpretations, and the applications in government of the divine nature and attributes, in the Old Testament, have no parallel in the New Testament—not even in the Apocalypse. That supreme work of the divine nature which Christ came to interpret and to illustrate, and which must precede the believing of the Lord Jesus Christ, is delineated in the Old Testament scriptures as it is delineated nowhere else. All the elements of spiritual truth which are revealed respecting God in the New Testament have their first germinant form in the Old Testament.135
THE NEW TESTAMENT SEEN THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT.
I do not know where in the New Testament you can find any such dramatic and soul-shaking representations of God as were made to Moses; as were made to the prophet on the side of the mountain where he had fled; as were made in the later prophecies—for instance, those of Isaiah and Jeremiah; and as were made in the book of Job—the mightiest drama ever written, and one which leaves all other dramas poor and pulseless in the comparison. I know not where else you can find any such description of the glory, the largeness, the infinity, and the eternity of the divine nature, as is contained in the Old Testament. You certainly cannot find it in the Gospels. You can find it only to a slight degree, if at all, in the Epistles. The Apocalypse is pictorial, opalescent, and wonderful; but if you search you will find that most of its figures, and its sublimest scenes, are but reproductions from the Old Testament—that they were found in the Old Jewish Scriptures in one form or another before they were put into the drapery of that wonderful later book.
Every man, therefore, must go to the New Testament through the Old Testament, either really or virtually. That is if he reads and accepts the representations of the divine nature and government as they are found in the Old Testament, then he goes to the New Testament, really, through the Old, as through an open door, or as through an illuminated passage-way. And to one who goes to the New Testament thus, there is great power in Christ.
Gentleness in Him that delivered the law upon Sinai is gentleness indeed. There is nothing so gentle as the touch of one who is dying of exhaustion; but gentleness under such circumstance is weakness, and is nothing. There is nothing more common than the self-renunciation of a man who cannot help himself. There is nothing in the world so empty as virtue when a person does not care what he has done, and would just as lief have done one thing as another. Benevolence, where it is only absolute indifference to moral quality, is very easily understood, and is very cheap. But when God is represented, in the grandeur of his power, as one who is controlling the universe for the up-building of a future kingdom; as one who loves righteousness; as one who stands forever, saying, “I am patient with sin; I am long-suffering; I am full of kindness; and rather than man should suffer, I suffer;” as one in whom lenity and meekness are attributes of thunderous power, of universal unobstructed government, of sovereignity and majesty—then these elements have a meaning which could not have, standing simply and only by themselves.
Thus Jesus Christ sprouts out of the Old Testament; Messiah is a blossom of the God of the Old Hebrews; and you need to see the stem and the leaves as well as the mere blossom. The salient familiar traits of Christ do not receive illustration, and have not power with men, unless they are shown upon a back ground of the unknowable—that is, of God, in such transcendent condition, extent, and altitude, as passes knowledge.
REFLECTED LIGHT.
In view of the statement that everybody must virtually come to the New Testament through the Old, you may ask me, “Do you not believe that a Christianly bred child, a child that has received instruction in the New Testament alone, and has been taught what is right and what is wrong, what is virtuous and what is unvirtuous, is salvable, and may enter the kingdom of Heaven?” Undoubtedly I do; because, although the child is imperfectly educated, the Old Testament is not left out. It is in the mother.
We are to take into consideration the religion that is in nature. Reflected light is a thousand times more than direct light. Direct light is the most brilliant; but yet, in every forest, under every rock, behind every house, everywhere, there are gradations of reflected light.
Not only does the truth of God exist positively and directly in this world, but it is reflected in a thousand ways. There is a truth of God that comes out of laws; there is a truth of God that comes out of institutions; there is a truth of God that comes out of manners and customs in Christianly bred communities; there is a truth of God that comes out of men’s characters that have been incarnated and embalmed; and you get a secondary light of truth where you do not get the first downfall of the light of truth. And so a child may be educated to know Christ Jesus without having read a word of the Old Testament.
POWER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
Many parents do not dare to let their children go to the Old Testament. They say there are in it many things that shock the refinement of modern Christians, and that they do not want their children to see. There are, it is true, many things in the history of the race which are not agreeable. So there are many things in the growth of every child that are not agreeable, and we take him off in the nursery, and do not show him in the parlor; but they are necessary parts of life, though they do not belong to polite society. And there are parts of the Old Testament which do not belong to polite literature; but they belong to life, notwithstanding. Life has knots and twists in it which must be taken account of in a true delineation. Old Cromwell wanted to be painted with the wart on his face; and the Old Testament paints warts on the faces of its heroes.
Now, if parents are fastidious about the Old Testament, the consequence is that their children are weakened, unless they get its reflected light—and then they are not half so strong as they would otherwise be. I would rather take my child by the hand, and walk with him right straight through from Genesis to the last book of the Old Testament, and read every bit to him, unfolding and explaining it, than to have him deprived of the power which comes from familiarity with it—all the time keeping before his mind the thread of moral principle which runs through it; for there is not more certainly a spinal cord that runs down to the lumbar vertebræ than there is a magnificent idea of God running right through the Old Testament from beginning to end—of a God known, but unknowable; of a God righteous, and seeking to build up righteousness in his creatures; of a God administering reward and penalty; of a God inspiring love and fear. And having opened up the sweet encouragement and hope which are so abundantly to be found in the Old Testament, I would then open up the New Testament view of God’s interior disposition, as made manifest through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I beseech of you do not be ashamed of the Old Testament. If you are ashamed of it, God grant that you may suffer persecution, for I do not think a man ever suffered persecution, and fought the bravely against it, that he did not take refuge in the Old Testament. It came out of storms, and it is helpful to men who are in the midst of storms.
There is bone in it—bone that has flesh and skin on it, and that is clothed with beauty. It is a wilderness; there are some rudenesses in it, to be sure, but these rudenesses were unavoidable, and they were not without some use.
The Old Testament is wonderful in many ways—wonderful in its growths—wonderful in its visions—wonderful in its total effect. And it is indispensable as a back ground to the New Testament.
As mountains would be undesirable to live in, but as, nevertheless, they are fathers of all the streams that make the level plain sweet and beautiful, so the Old Testament, though it contains some things which are not attractive, is the source of those truths which run into the New Testament, and make it fertile.
"AT MIDNIGHT."
A short time since, I was spending the night with the family of a friend, in the absence of the husband and father. On waking near midnight, all was darkness and silence. The household were wrapped in quiet slumber. Suddenly there was a noise in the street, a rap at the door, and the father's voice was heard calling a member of the family by name. What a change came over the sleeping household! The quiet of the midnight slumbers gave place to the confused murmur of voices, hurrying steps, and hasty preparations to welcome the cold and weary traveler. But there was another circumstance which added greatly to the surprise and pleasure of the midnight arrival. The father brought with him a son and his family, who were now returning for the first time after an absence of several years.
As I listened to the happy voice of parents, children, and grandchildren, gathered once more around the parental fireside, I thought of another coming of "the Master of the house," perhaps "at midnight."
How much like a sleeping household will the mass of mankind be at that time! While a few will be awake, watching, listening for the faintest sound that betokens His approach, the multitude will be asleep. Some, perhaps, once had joyous anticipations of that event, but they have listened to the delusive words, "My Lord delayeth his coming;" and now they sleep on with the world, alike forgetful of the past, and regardless of the future. Alas, with what terrible suddenness, must the waking come! The care and rush of business, the whirl of pleasure, the pomp of worldly honor, the listless dreams of indolence, the devious ways of vice and crime, will alike prove powerless to hinder the hearing of that voice which shall rise above the crash and roar of dissolving elements; which shall reach with loving energy the darkest recesses of hades; which shall startle into life the sleepers on mossy beds far down among coral rocks and ocean caverns, and shall summon to their final doom the mightiest of the living and the dead.
But while the suddenness of the coming will be fearful to the many, it will be transcendently joyous to the few who are watching. The Beloved, so long absent, comes at last! The Presence, so often yearned for, is now beheld in all his glorious majesty and beauty. The hand whose unseen leading has been so long experienced, is now grasped with the fervor of immortal love. The eyes which have watched our welfare with sleepless vigilance, are now gazing into ours with unutterable compassion and affection—a compassion and affection whose best exponents are Gethsemane and Calvary.
And this beloved Friend will not come alone. However much the soul may be filled with his divine love, there are earthly loves, pure, tender, abiding. Some, thus loved, have been taken from us, leaving our hearts rent with anguish, and our lives desolate; but we have God's own word that "they shall come again from the land of the enemy." We sorrow not as those without hope, "for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Yes; as the waiting ones are caught up to meet their Lord with all the host of his angelic attendants, they will also meet the loved and lost of earth.
*Loving eyes shall on me shine,
Hands shall stretch to meet me,
Loving arms shall round me twine,
Loving voices greet me.*
But how different from the decaying bodies we laid away, upon which disease had done its work, are these radiant beings, vigorous with immortal life, beauteous with resurrection fashioning like unto Christ's glorious body—the same, but glorified. The same eyes that looked their last on us so lovingly, and then grew dim and sightless, shall then shine upon us with a new and fadeless luster. The hands which supported us in helplessness, which ministered to our wants or soothed our aching brows, and which at last we folded across the still breast, shall then be stretched to meet us with the grasp of an unchanging friendship, an undying love. The arms which twined about us in the purity of earthly affection, then loosed their hold and grew rigid in death, shall embrace us yet again. The voices so dear to us, which grew fainter and yet fainter until they were hushed forever on earth, shall greet us then, strong and melodious as those of angels, and shall join with ours in swelling the anthems of the redeemed. And this state of bliss unspeakable shall know no end. "So shall we ever be with the Lord."
Reader, will you be there? Will you share the blessedness of those servants whom their Lord when he cometh shall find watching?—The Christian.
POOR BARGAINS.
By Charles L. Boyd
"AND Esau said, Behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me! . . . And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way." Gen. 25: 32-34. We look upon this trade as being the hight of folly on the part of the poor youth who sold his birthright.
But what did Esau sell? 1. His father's chief blessing, and a special consecration to the Lord. 2. His share in his father's estate, which was twice as large as his brother's. 3. His right to succeed to the official dignities and privileges of his father. And what does he receive for this so great hereditary possessions? Simply one meal of victuals. A poor bargain. Are there any bargains of the same nature made in these days? What pay does the drunkard receive for his right of a standing in society, for his once happy home, and hope of an inheritance with the redeemed? What does one receive for indulging the cravings of a perverted appetite? Ask the poor dyspeptic? Esau was on the point of starvation, and inquired, "What profit shall this birthright do me?" and for it he received that which saved his life; although but a "morsel of pottage." Each of the above-named poor traders receives far less than did Esau.
For the wealth and honor promised by Balak, Balaam persistently sought to curse Israel. Contrary to the command of God, Saul saved some of the spoil of the Amalekites. In his sight it was too precious to be destroyed. Did this bargain pay? Says the prophet, "To obey is better than sacrifice." "The Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." Are there any at the present day who would have done so foolishly? Many are convinced that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that the commandment requires its observance. But it is unpopular. That trade must be given up if they obey God. What must be done? Many do as Saul did—disobey. But the same jealous God reigns now that reigned then. He requires a strict obedience to his just commandments. All are invited to come to Jesus; but one is so much taken up with his farm that he puts it off till an uncertain hereafter.
Many of our dear youth sell their birthright for the fashions and pleasures of this life. They do not mean to make this exchange, but grieve the Holy Spirit, and barter conscience, little by little, for what this world has to offer, it has so strong a hold upon them that they never break away.
Judas sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. He returned the money, confessed his crime, and in the depth of despair went and hanged himself. The young man turned sorrowfully from the Saviour when he offered him a treasure in Heaven in exchange for what he had of this world's goods. Oh! can men make such mistakes? May God help us to examine our standing and see where we are, and what kind of bargains we are making. "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul."
C. L. BOYD.
The Memory of Character
By Dr. Hall
It is said that the tiniest quantity of musk will fill the room with its odor for many months, and so the impression which a lovely character leaves on the mind and memory lasts for a lifetime (yea, is not lost through eternity), but "the memory of the wicked shall rot."—Dr. Hall.