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Review and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 16.

HELPERS

Review and Herald

Apr 4, 1871

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 4, 1871

HELPERS

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELDER D. M. CANRIGHT.
TEXT: “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”—1 Cor. 12:28.
Our text brings to view the different gifts which God has placed in the church. God saw that it was necessary that there should be more than one or two kinds of gifts in the church. Every man has some talent, some ability, some place that he can fill well; but all have not the same. If we go into a large machine shop, where there are many hands at work, we shall find that each man has his especial part of the work to perform. One takes one part of the work, and another another part, according to their taste and ability. Thus all parts move on together.
So it is in the church of Christ. It is the great workshop in which there are many things to be done. It needs men of very diverse talents and gifts to fill all the places in the church. Hence Paul names several gifts which should be in the church. In verse 4, he says, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”
The Spirit of God does not lead every man to the same office in the church. We read in verse 7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” Does God bestow his Spirit upon any man? What is it for? Not simply to please him and make him happy, but to profit withal; that is, he who receives it should use it profitably in Christ’s church. Then Paul mentions a number of gifts which God has placed in the church: The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, and divers kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues; “but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will;” that is, as the Spirit of God wills. Then Paul uses a very beautiful illustration to show the necessity of the different gifts in the church. Verses 12–19. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. And the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?” Here is a perfect body. But notice how many and how diverse kinds of members it is composed of. The eye is a very important and honorable member; yet it would not do to have the whole body an eye. The hand is very useful, and its office is an honorable one; but yet it would not do to have the body all a hand. In order to have a perfect, useful, and efficient body, it needs not only eyes and hands, but also feet, toes, &c.; but because the foot is not the hand, shall it therefore refuse to work at all, unless it can be exalted to that high position? No; it works on quietly and continually in the humble position where God has placed it.
So in the church of Christ; some offices are more humble than others, yet equally indispensable. Apostles are needed to have a general oversight of the work, the care of the whole church. 2 Cor. 11:28.
Prophets may be called the eyes of the church. They foresee and warn the church of coming danger. Evangelists are necessary that they may go out into new places, and carry the truth into new fields.
But that portion of my text to which I wish to call especial attention, comes under the term, “HELPS,” or helpers. These are neither apostles, nor prophets, nor evangelists; and not necessarily even teachers; for the apostle names all those in addition to these helps. If we carefully read the Bible, especially the New Testament, we shall find these helpers frequently referred to. A helper is one who assists another in a subordinate position. Generals and captains in armies have their helpers, those who assist them in their affairs, and make things as easy and convenient for them as may be.
In Rom. 16:3, Paul says, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus.” Priscilla and Aquila belonged to this class of helpers in Christ. Let us carefully notice their history, and we shall learn what kind of helpers they were, as recorded in Acts 18:1–4. “After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome); and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought; for by their occupation they were tent-makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.”
When Paul came to Corinth, Priscilla and Aquila took him to their house. It will be noticed that they owned a house. Rom. 16:5, “Likewise greet the church that is in their house.” Hence they were not of the poor class who gave themselves to the work of the Lord, simply to make a living. When Paul left Corinth to go into Syria, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him. At Ephesus there was a great work to be done. The brethren needed help, yet Paul could not stay with them; so he left this noble couple there to assist them, counsel them, and teach them the way carefully. Acts 18:18–20. When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not. He did not leave them there to preach or exhort, but simply to counsel, to advise, and prayerfully instruct, the young disciples in the work of the Lord. Whilst they were there, Apollos, an eloquent and zealous man, came there to preach, knowing only a part of the work, the baptism of John. Verse 27. “And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue; whom when Priscilla and Aquila had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” This man they took to their house, and prayerfully taught him the way of the Lord more perfectly. From this circumstance, we can form an idea of the nature of their work. They were neither apostles, prophets, nor preachers; but they had given their lives to the cause of God to occupy the humble office of helpers. They went from house to house and from church to church, privately counseling, advising, and instructing, the young disciples, babes in Christ. Their office was a hard, self-denying, laborious one. They could not see any very great fruits of it. But patiently and quietly they labored on doing what they could. Paul has spoken of them often and always very highly. Rom. 16:3–5. “Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house.” They gave their lives to help Paul. What a noble testimony he bears of them; and not only he, but all the churches of the Gentiles were indebted to them.
Such helpers are most earnestly demanded in this work just now. The field is opening, opening everywhere. The harvest is ripening, but the laborers, where are they? A few ministers are scattered here and there, over the wide field, giving the light to others. Often alone and unassisted, they go out into new fields to toil and labor and bear the whole burden of everything, with no one to assist, counsel, or encourage them, without any one to lighten their burdens in the least.
Often a good interest is started, a little company of from a dozen to fifty, is brought out with a few days’ labor. But is the work done then? Oh! no; it is just commenced. Now these babes in Christ need nourishing, feeding with milk, need thoroughly instructing in all points of the truth. Not only do they need preaching, but they need a living example before them in their midst. Very generally the minister is so pressed with work that after a stay of three or four weeks, or as soon as they are decided to keep the Sabbath, he has to leave them. They know but little about the truth, are unacquainted with our system, and know but little about our doctrine. All their instruction, all their habits, have been in a very different direction. They come together for their prayer-meeting, Bible-class, or Sabbath-school; but who among them is prepared to be their leader, to teach and properly instruct them? It is not possible that there should be one who is properly qualified to do it. They are all babes, and need some tender, nursing father and mother to feed them.
Now had we some faithful helpers in Christ, like Priscilla and Aquila, to come right in here and live the truth before them, take the lead in their prayer-meetings, help them in their Sabbath-schools, visit from house to house, encourage them, and lead them to the Lord, what great good might be accomplished. How different would be the history of many of these little societies from what it now is. Oh! that the Spirit of God would come upon our brethren and sisters, and give them a burden of this work. Souls are perishing, starving, dying, for the very help that they might have, were all the gifts properly brought out in the church. Here is a work in which many might engage who have but humble talents. They need not preach, nor even exhort; but go with the Spirit of God and a tender heart, and quietly lead these souls till they are able to walk alone.
Where are our missionaries? Where is the missionary spirit? Are there not those among us who can devote their lives to this holy work? I am satisfied that there are scores among us who might fill these places with profit to the cause of Christ; who are now leading selfish and almost useless lives. Their excuse is, that they cannot do anything. But let the Spirit of God come upon them, let them feel the importance of this work, the shortness of time, the worth of precious souls; let them get their hearts full of love and tenderness and sympathy; then let them go out with humbleness, and take Christ with them, and they will find that they can do something.
Where are the young men and women who have enough of the missionary spirit to devote themselves to this work? Are there no strong men and women among us, or fathers and mothers, who can for the Lord’s sake leave their homes, and like Aquila and Priscilla, go forth and labor in a humble way as helpers in the cause of Christ? If ministers have to sacrifice all for the work, why not others do the same? Time is very short, and souls are perishing.
Here is a testimony from the Lord, which ought to move our souls to action. Ps. 126:5, 6: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” If we only had the spirit to do this, and felt the burden of it, the Lord would soon open the way for us to work.
Not only are laborers needed in this department of the work; but also in many places there are burdens to be borne, which are now thrown upon God’s ministers which ought not to be carried by them. God’s faithful ministers are so few that they ought to give all their time to prayer and ministry of the word. This question once came up in the apostles’ time. Read the record of it, and consider whether similar action is not necessary now. Acts 6:1–4: “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” How reasonable and proper was this action! Says the apostle, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word; but they on their part should look out honest men to see to the business, to serve tables, and relieve those whom God had called to preach the word.
We find this was constantly practised by all the early ministers. Whenever they went, they always had helpers with them to lighten their burdens, to hold up their hands, and do the serving of tables. Is this not just as right and necessary now as then? Have we no such gifts among us? I cannot believe that this is so.
The trouble is, those who are qualified to be helpers in the cause are so tied up with worldly affairs, with their own business; they have such a talent for making money and conducting their worldly affairs that they cannot think of leaving this and giving these talents of business to the Lord. Those who have hardly ability to provide for their own household, and who make poor work in managing their own affairs, are ready to give up all any day and give themselves to the work of the Lord. But they are not the ones who are wanted. It wants men and women who can do something and make their mark anywhere. Such men God can use. I am satisfied that there are scores of these men that ought to be in the work of the Lord, who now are at work on their farms and in their shops. Will not the time soon come when God will move out these men to consecrate themselves to God?
When God has had a special work to do, he has always raised up more or less of this class to be helpers in doing it. Moses had his helpers in Caleb and Joshua. Elisha left his twelve yoke of oxen, and all his worldly interest, to follow Elijah, and ministered unto him. 1 Kings 19:19–21. When Elisha became exalted to be a prophet, God gave him Gehazi as a helper. Jeremiah had a faithful Baruch as an earnest helper in the Lord. Jer. 36:4–8. Many women gave their lives to minister unto Christ during his preaching. Matt. 27:55. John Mark went with Paul and Barnabas as their helper. Acts 12:25; 13:5. Paul generally had several of these helpers with him, to send on any business here or there that he had to perform. Acts 19:22.
Read the sixteenth chapter of Romans, and notice how common a thing it was to have helpers in Christ, and how many faithful men and women of this class God raised up to them. Not only men, but women gave themselves to this work of traveling from church to church, not as preachers or lecturers, or even teachers, so far as the record appears; but simply to have an oversight and care of the business of the church. Rom. 16:1–6, 9, 12. “I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she hath been a succorer of many and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which labored much in the Lord.”
It appears that those helpers were chosen by the church for this purpose. 2 Cor. 8:19: “And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind.” At this time it seems to us that the cause needs these kind of helpers more than any other.

SABBATH HOURS.

Thy precious hours, blest Sabbath day, On rapid wings are passing by, And little do we mortals reck Their bearing on eternity.
Our Sabbath days are golden links In what were else life's rusty chain, And bind us to that Sabbath day Where is no sorrow, care, nor pain.
How oft in Zion, we at ease, Are startled by the Sabbath bell, And fain would hide, like Eden's pair, When on their ears God's accents fell.
For silvery sounding Sabbath chimes Call us to give a strict account Of weekly sins, or grievous lapse, Since last we climbed the sacred mount.
In soft prismatic tints they glow, These moral rainbows in life's sky; God's “covenant sure”—our foretastes sweet Of blessedness laid up on high.
Oh! when earth's ministries are o'er, And funeral bell for us shall toll, How sweet to dwell where evermore In Sabbath rest the years shall roll!
—N. Y. Observer.

The Earlier the Easier.

An old man one day took a child upon his knee, and talked to him about Jesus, and told him to seek the Saviour now, and pray to him, and love him. The child knew that the old man was not himself a Christian, and felt surprised. Then he looked up into the old man's face, and said: "But why do you not seek God?"
The old man was affected by the question, and replied: "Ah! my dear child, I neglected to do so when I was young, and now my heart is so hard I fear I shall never be able."

The Fruit of Thought.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON once said to an intimate friend: “Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies just in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I make, the people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.”

God Sees Everything

God sees everything—this is consoling to the upright.

The Times of the Restitution of All Things.

By Dr. Cumming

Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the times of restitution of all things. Acts 3 : 19, 21.
TIMES OF REFRESHING is the translation of the Greek word, ἀναψύξις, which means coolness after heat, rest or recreation.
Sin has heated the air, scorched the soil, and weakened the springs of the energy and health and happiness of mankind. The change predicted, when it comes, will be as dew on the tender grass, as health to the sick, life to the dead, and freedom to the slave.
The source of all is not in earth or of man, but God; it is from the presence of the Lord. “In his presence is fullness of joy.”
“Times of restitution of all things.” The Greek word for restitution is προκαταστασις, a word that means the restoration of anything to its former condition.
Disorganization more or less is the condition of all creation. Re-organization is its destiny. The accomplishment of this destiny is recorded in the programme of its fulfillment in Isa. 11, and 65: 17.
Do the words in Acts, “the times of the restitution of all things,” teach what is called universalism, or the final restoration of all men, angels, and animate as well as inanimate nature?
There are three great passages which are alleged by some to prove this issue. Let us investigate impartially their meaning. The first is 2 Cor. 5 : 18, 19, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” This passage clearly portrays God’s aspect toward us. It does not teach that wrath has been turned into love, but that, consistently with justice, holiness, and truth, God can pour down on guilty men the full current of his mercy and love. It teaches that it is now possible for the great Lawgiver to deal with us in mercy, and yet justly; to pardon the guilty, and yet not connive at sin; to save us not over the ruins of his law, but in perfect harmony with the most rigid exactions. God’s love now lights wherever man opens his heart to receive it. God’s mercy pardons all who will receive pardon. Sin, the obstructing element, is put away, and Christ, the uniting and mediatorial one, has taken its place. But the determining limit of the action of this mercy is found in the words, “in Christ,” “God in Christ,” “found in Christ,” “no condemnation to those in Christ.” There only must the sinner stand and pray. There only, and nowhere else, does the divine absolution fall. That alone is the area which salvation covers. The second passage is in Col. 1 : 19, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in Heaven.” This stretches away from the cross to its future results. In the first passage it was “to reconcile.” In this it is literally translated, “to reconcile back again,” that is, to restore and re-establish what has gone wrong. But whatever the grandeur or the extent of this restoration in the future, it is also limited by the area of it, “in Christ,” “through the blood of his cross.” Out of Christ is no restoration. In him is the recovery of all that fell. In him all is sunshine. Out of him is “blackness and darkness forever.”
The third passage often quoted is Eph. 1 : 9–11, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”
These glorious results lie in the future, and constitute an aggregate of issues the most magnificent. But in all these passages “in Christ” and “by Christ” are repeated with a frequency and fullness, alike designed and significant. To look for refreshment or restitution of anything that is fallen, or of any one who has sinned, save in Christ, is hopeless. There is indeed a “without” (Rev. 21 : 8; 22 : 15), and it is implied in the “within.” But none are excluded who do not exclude themselves. All will be saved who are savable. All who will be saved God will save. So rich and comprehensive and available is this salvation, that one does not wonder at the words of the apostle, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” A sinner preaching to sinners, I refuse to fling broadcast denunciations of everlasting misery. I infinitely prefer, what inspiration dwells upon, to proclaim salvation wide as the sun and lasting as our mundane economy. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
What may we expect will be included in this restitution? The will of man, now discordant, will be brought back into harmony with God’s. What is now prayer, “Thy will be done,” will then be an accomplished fact, “Thy will is done.” Our affections will be rebaptized. They will be the priesthood of Heaven, in harmony with God, and in unity among themselves. There will be the happy reunion of all that loved the Lord and one another in him. Satan shall be dispossessed of his spoils, and cast out into the lake that burneth with fire. The Saviour will rise on his people like the sun. All nature will attain its palingenesia, and “every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea,” we shall hear saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.”
Blessed hope! the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our great God and Saviour, will inaugurate a kingdom that shall have no end.
The earth we now live on, will not, as the popular notion teaches, be annihilated or dissolved in vapor, or dissipated into space, and the whole of its people—its redeemed people—transported into another and a more enduring realm.
All must admit, as we have shown, that some great change has passed upon our globe. It is impossible to believe that the Author of the beautiful, the holy, the happy, made our world such as it now is—groaning and travailing in pain, yearning to be delivered, till its sighs reach to the Heavens, and its sorrows and its sufferings provoke to pity and the compassion of angels. Surely, surely, sickness, with its wasting influence; sorrow, with its gnawing griefs in the heart; death, with its horrible disorganization, never were in the original inventory, when God made this world, and pronounced it very good. Neither sorrow, nor sickness, nor death, can bear the impress or wear the signature of that God who is love, and who delights in the happiness and the joy of his people. What is the cause of all these? Sin alone. But sin is not the creature of God. God did not make sin, nor is he in any respect the author of it; and any theology that makes God the author of sin is to be abhorred altogether. Sin is a post-creation incident, introduced after man was made in the image, and radiant with the beauty and glory of Him that made him; and ever since sin intruded, we find its consequences follow—namely, sickness, traveling into the most sheltered, and sequestered, and sunny home; sorrow breaking hearts that long have been bounding; tears wept by eyes that have never wept in life before; death in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the food we eat—death in ceaseless action everywhere. The warmest heart that beats must one day grow cold; the most beautiful form that adorns the home or captivates the world, must one day crumble into dust, and signify, if not say, to corruption, “Thou art my mother,” and to the worm, “Thou art my sister.” These things surely were not originally made or originally meant. There is evidence in man’s physique alone that he was made and meant to be immortal in his body, as well as in his soul. And whatever be the cause, explain it as you please by philosophy and science, it is now fact that 70 is not in every instance reached, that eighty is still more rare, and that on the incidental patriarch, as if a link between the patriarchs that were, and the fleeting and fast dying creatures that now are, survives and numbers from his birth 100 years. But we are not left in perplexity. The same Bible that gives the story of an Eden in which all scenes are beauty, all sounds music, and all sensations bliss, tells us also the reason of our present abnormal state and the story of the disaster that introduced death and all our woe; and oh, happy hope! it tells us also that the apostasy of man shall not have everlasting consequences, but that the world will terminate its weeping day with a Paradise more beautiful, more bright, infinitely more lasting than the Paradise with which the world began. This is the only solution that has stood every test, and bears on its face the clearest signature of God. The salvation of the soul is the greatest problem, and the first to find its explanation in the Bible, for “what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” but it tells us also of the resurrection of the body, this mortal putting on immortality, this corruptible, incorruptibility, death swallowed up in victory, which the regeneration and restoration of the earth shall follow in the enjoyment of a redeemed and a rejoicing universe. Nature fell with man, nature’s lord sharing in its degradation and ruin, and nature will be raised and enthroned when her lord and representative is raised a partaker in His restoration also; and the rise, it tells us, will be vastly more glorious than the fall; the restitution more magnificent than the original; for where sin has abounded in havoc, destruction, and ruin, grace will abound much more in restoration, regeneration, and everlasting life.
The popular notion is, and it is a very common one, that the earth is to be annihilated, and its redeemed inhabitants to be transported to a distant and beautiful orb. Many good Christians have written that there is something in matter itself intrinsically so corrupt, depraved, and vile, that its annihilation is the only means of getting rid of the inseparable corruption that lies at its core. I do not believe it. When Adam was in perfect holiness and harmony with the law of his Creator, he was a man, with a pulse at his wrist, and a beat at his heart, and hunger and satiety, just as I am. When Eve was made, her form was more beautiful than that of any of her daughters since, no doubt radiant with a physical and moral beauty to which the loveliest that live are but distant approximations; yet she was made of matter, she was flesh and blood; “a spirit hath not flesh and bones,” as she had; and yet she was holy. And they lived in the garden—that little spot taken in from the earth, and in which man still tries, in some things successfully, to reproduce the lost glories of Paradise; they ate of its fruit, they drank of its streams, they listened to the songs of its birds, they gazed upon its beautiful flowers; and yet, and why not? they were perfectly holy. Therefore man’s body has been pure and perfect once, just as man’s soul was holy once; and we are led from the teaching of the apostles in the New Testament to infer that man’s body will be made at least as pure and perfect as it was before. In matter there is nothing essentially polluted and irrecoverably unclean. Is there anything sinful in a beautiful flower? Is there anything necessarily corrupt in the splendid evening star that glistens like a glorious diamond upon the brow of night? Is there anything corrupt in a brilliant and sparkling diamond, in the precious stone, the ruby, or the amethyst? Nothing. These things are perfectly pure already. The only two material things that seem to me to survive as memorials of Paradise are two—the precious diamond and the beautiful rose. These look to me like lingering remains that tell mankind, the one of the fragrance and the beauty, the other of the everlasting splendor of the Paradise that once was. But there is nothing in these inextinguishably corrupt, impure, or unholy. And if matter was once holy, why should not matter be capable of being holy again? Yet the popular notion is that the world is so bad that there is no hope for it; it is to be cast out; it is useless, and the only way to have a pure earth is to annihilate the existing one. In fact, the great poet that represents English popular feeling sanctions this idea:
“The great globe itself, Yea, all that it inherits, shall dissolve, And like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wrack behind.”
It may be poetry, but it is not true; it may be very beautifully expressed, but it is not scriptural. The earth will not be so dissolved that it will not leave a wrack behind.
It would seem to me that if this earth is not restored, or is to be forsaken, it would be unjust. The brutes of the earth, the fishes of the sea, the birds of the air, creation itself, fell with and by man, and share in his degradation and his shame. Does it not seem to be an act of justice that the unconscious, irresponsible creation, on which was inflicted the shame and degradation of the responsible, but guilty, lord at the head of it, when he is restored, should be restored also; when he is redeemed, and re-instated in his forfeited royalty, that creation, which fell with him, should rise and reign with him in glory? Man dragged creation after him in ruin; will creation feel nothing of man’s restoration?
God’s great process in his work of elevation in the history of the world, has not been, for six thousand years, the creation of something new, substituting it for the old, but the evolution out of the old of that which is beautiful, and perfect, and pure. When he makes a man a Christian, what is called a new man, he does not extinguish the man, and substitute for the extinct man another man, but he inspires and makes the old man a new man. The identity of the subject remains; the moral transformation is so great that the old man ceases to be called so, and is called a new creature in Christ Jesus. In the providential arrangements for man’s being, the processes that take place are the evolution of beauty out of deformity—glory out of decay. A seed is cast into the earth; it rots, and out of its corruption springs the stem that bears the bread that feeds a world. The seed is thrown into the earth, and that seed comes out of the soil a fragrant and a beautiful flower. The contrast between an exquisite flower, with its beautifully penciled tints and its rich fragrance, and the seed from which it springs, or the root which sustains it, is not comparison, it is absolute contrast. Such is God’s way—out of the evil educing good; out of corruption bringing incorruption; out of mortality, immortality; out of degradation, elevation; out of deformity, beauty, and splendor, and glory. —Dr. Cumming.

Strange Blindness.

The Baptists of New York City have lately shown great folly in accepting, virtually, a bribe from the Romanists in the form of several valuable lots on which to erect a Baptist benevolent institution. Many good men, and most of the Baptist papers outside of New York, have protested against the movement. The following, from the Examiner and Chronicle, will fairly illustrate the case:—
“One of our respected brethren wrote us early last week:
“I really hope New York Baptists are not about to abandon one of the most cherished principles of the Baptists, by accepting the grant of land from the city. We are the farthest from Rome of all Christians. If she can subsidize us, she has gained a great point. I am very sure that if the Baptist Home accepts that gift, it will never be a home of peace; for there are thousands of Baptists who will protest against it till it is cast out from us.”
“But suppose God should suddenly usher in ‘the good time coming,’ when kings are to be ‘nursing fathers,’ and queens ‘nursing mothers,’ to the triumphant and everywhere honored church. What a time we should have of it, according to what our excellent brother says, with the conscientious people, who would be shocked at the thought of receiving nourishment from such quarters. Instead of hailing it as a proof that the millennium HAD COME, and that civil governments had at last been molded by the spirit of vital Christianity, we might have long arguments to prove that, as Paul would not be nursed by Nero, or John Bunyan by the Charleses, Isaiah’s kings and queens could be nothing else than the same old ‘Cæsar’ over again; and that the less a spiritual church had to do with this sort of ‘nursing’ the better. But isn’t it just possible that Christianity is now giving us a foretaste of what is coming, when Isaiah’s ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ are to reign? And is it worth while to quarrel with the foreshadowings of the sublime consummation?”
Just think of it. The millennium coming by way of New York City officials; New York aldermen “nursing fathers,” in the true Israel of God! “Foreshadowings of the sublime consummation.” If trees are known by their fruits, the “foreshadowings” tell of a very different thing. Outside of those directly interested, there is no difficulty in seeing that the whole thing is a plot to entrap the most radical wing (so called) of Protestants, and spike the guns which are justly turned against the growing tendency toward a union of church and State. It is an artful, and thus far successful, scheme for the promotion of Romish rule in America.—Sabbath Recorder.
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