We sometimes speak of S. D. Adventists as the only people who are keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Whereupon not a few, unwilling to be considered destitute of that characteristic, charge us with being exclusive, and claim a right to that distinctive appellation, equal with our own. But let us examine the ground of their claim. The expression occurs for the first and only time in Rev. 14. It is the announcement of the angel proclaiming the third message of that chapter. He says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Where? Here; pointing to the company who are brought out by, and are giving, the message here brought to view. The announcement of a special message is here made; and it is said of the ones brought out by the message, These are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Does not the language imply that no others except those who believe in the message, are keeping the faith of Jesus? Most clearly. But how is it with those who claim that they keep the faith of Jesus in distinction from ourselves? Do they believe in this message, that it is now being given? Not at all. It is either in the past or in the future, or is passed by as a thing utterly beyond the powers of man to understand; yet with an inconsistency utterly unaccountable, they claim to be keeping the faith of Jesus, which is brought to view only in that message, which is developed by it, and is a characteristic of only those who are proclaiming it; while they do not believe it is now going forth. Let no one claim to be keeping the faith of Jesus, unless he believes in the message with which it is connected.
A New Time—1871.
A WRITER in the Advent Christian Times of March 28, 1871, presents a labored article to show that the 1335 days commenced in 536, and consequently end this year, and that at their termination, we are to witness the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead. How the other prophetic periods and predictions would harmonize with this view, we are not told. We can imagine the holders of such views soliloquizing somewhat after this manner: “It would be desirable, to be sure, to have a theory which would harmonize with all the declarations of the prophecies; but if the position time compels us to take, will not do this, let us make the best show we can on one or two items, and let the rest pass.” The present theory has one redeeming feature: the time will be past before it can do much damage.
Acknowledging the Application.
We have been wont for some years past to apply (because too plain to be denied) the testimony of Paul in 2 Tim. 3:1–5, to the popular religionists of the present day. It appears from the Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat, of Feb. 7, 1871, that the preachers of that city acknowledge that Paul’s language too truly describes the present condition of the churches, or that an era is approaching, such as is foretold by the apostle. On Sunday a circular, entitled, “A Testimony,” signed by fifteen ministers, was distributed to fifteen congregations of the city. The Democrat says:—
The “Testimony” sets out by stating that the foregoing pastors are constrained to bear witness to what they “conceive to be a fact of our time: viz., That the prevailing standard of piety among the professed people of God is alarmingly low; that a tide of worldliness is setting in upon us, indicating the rapid approach of an era, such as is foretold by Paul in his second letter to Timothy, in the words, ‘In the last days perilous times shall come.’ ”
These conclusions are reached not by comparisons with former times, but by applying the tests found in the Scriptures. They instance as proof, “the spirit of lawlessness which prevails.” The circular then explains how this lawlessness (religious) is shown. Men have the name of religion, but they obey none of its injunctions. There is also a growing disposition to practice in religious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God. The tendency to adopt worldly amusements by professed Christians is further stated in evidence.
In conclusion, the pastors whose names are affixed to the “Testimony,” pledged themselves to resist this mystery of lawlessness which now affects the church. At the same time, they do not deny that many are found who live pure and piously, and these are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
We are glad that some are beginning to see, and call attention to, this state of things. And yet we think we can only expect, according to the Scriptures, that matters in this respect will continue to grow worse, till all those connected with the churches, who do lead pure and pious lives (and we are happy to believe there are many such) will see the hopelessness of the case, and free themselves entirely from a communion which can bring them no good, but only evil. Rev. 18:4.
To Correspondents.
J. D. HOUGH: Your letter was received too late for any action. Should be happy to hear further in relation to the matter.
E. M. N.: We think it is.
D. T. SHIREMAN: We have not the book.
J. MATTESON: Zedekiah was the last of the Jewish line of kings. After the captivity, the people were governed, first by high priests of the Jews, then by princes of Judea, and finally in the time of the Romans by kings of Judea.
N. P. STEARNS: In your examination of the beast, &c., bear in mind the fact that in the prophecies the same symbol is used at different times to denote different things. Thus, a horn is used generally to denote civil power; yet it is once, at least, used to denote ecclesiastical power, as in Dan. 7: 8, 24, 25. A beast generally symbolizes civil governments, yet in Rev. 13, the same symbol is used to denote an ecclesiastical organization. That the leopard beast of this chapter does denote an ecclesiastical power, is proved by the fact that it can be shown to be absolutely identical with the little horn of Dan. 7, and this horn all agree in applying to the papacy. In Rev. 17, the church is represented by a woman, and the beast upon which she sits is undoubtedly the civil power; but the beast to which the mark pertains is the leopard beast of Rev. 13; and if that beast represents the papacy, as we think is very evident, and you are satisfied as you say, that Sunday-keeping is an institution of Catholicism, it seems to us the conclusion is plain before you, to call that the mark in question.
How Changes of Times and Laws Take Place.
By R. F. Cottrell
A TRACT has fallen into my hands, entitled “The Lord’s Day Proved to be a Divine Institution,” published by the American Baptist Publication and S. S. Society. It promises to “show that the change from the seventh to the first day of the week was made on the authority of Christ and his apostles,” and that it “took place naturally, and almost necessarily, from the events attending the accomplishment of redemption.” It does not claim that Christ or the apostles left on record any direction for the change, but that the change was made “SILENTLY AND GRADUALLY” “by the force of circumstances and the TACIT influence of the apostles’ doctrine.” The writer admires the wisdom manifested “in the gradual and silent introduction of the change.” He says, “No controversy arises. The seventh-day Sabbath dies without a struggle, by the force of circumstances directed by an unfailing providence. What wisdom and consideration, then, appear in the conduct of the apostles! . . . . They issued no public decree. A non-essential matter, they were assured, would find its level. How great would have been the consternation of the Jewish believers, if their Sabbath, their golden day, the first of their commandments, the badge of their nation, the glory of their state as a church, had been openly impugned! Nor could the apostles have abolished it, so far as it was a political ordinance, interwoven with the civil policy of the Jewish people. They waited therefore. They left the Jewish Sabbath gradually to expire, and the Christian to succeed, without any express command, or any attempt at a violent and sudden transfer.”
Did it ever occur to the writer, and to our Baptist friends generally, that this was the very way that immersion was changed to sprinkling in the Christian church? that immersion gradually died out, and sprinkling gradually and silently succeeded, without any express command? Did they ever admire the wisdom of the apostles, manifested in their silence in regard to this change, and in that they “left matters to work,” as this writer expresses it—left immersion gradually to expire, and sprinkling to supersede it, without an express command? Do they not rather take this emphatic silence as evidence that no such change took place by divine authority? that sprinkling is only a human ordinance? Why will they not be consistent with themselves? why reject sprinkling, because Christ and his apostles do not teach it, while they accept of a change of the Sabbath of the moral law “SILENTLY AND GRADUALLY” introduced “by the force of circumstances”?
But the closing, crowning proposition of the writer’s cumulative argument is, that the blessing of God has confirmed the change of the day. He says, “If the primitive Christians were mistaken in supposing the change from the seventh to the first day of the week to have been of apostolic authority, then God has permitted this mistake to be confirmed, and to take root, by his especial blessing, and the continued operations of his grace, during the whole period of the Christian church. . . . The blessing of God, therefore, which has actually attended, and is actually attending, in such large and perpetual operations of grace, the Lord’s day, is in full accordance with every other species of proof, and crowns the whole argument.”
It is true that a vast majority of professed Christians at the present time keep Sunday instead of the original Sabbath, though there never has been a moment since Christ, that there have not been Christian witnesses to the primitive Sabbath. It is also true that immersionists are greatly in the minority on the subject of Baptism. Did it ever occur to Baptists that God had confirmed the change from immersion to sprinkling by his special blessing? Not at all. A sufficient reply to such an argument is the apostle’s prediction that the time would come that “they should turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned to fables.” Is there any other way of knowing the truth but by going back to that which is expressly revealed in the Bible?
R. F. COTTRELL.
Labor and Rest.
By A. S. Hutchins
“’Tis sweet to work for Jesus,
There’s resting by-and-by.”
In every generation, faithful servants of God have, by their devoted lives and ardent labors in his cause, borne an unimpeachable testimony to the truthfulness of the above sentiment.
Sustained by the soul-inspiring thought of saving souls, of glorifying God, and that there remaineth “a rest to the people of God,” thousands have worn out their precious lives in his delightful service, and fallen asleep with the sweetest assurance of awaking to life and immortality.
The millions of martyrs who have laid down their lives in the dismal dungeon, or upon the torturing rack, or the chopping block, or yielded them up at the burning stake, “not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection,” have left the most conclusive evidence that ’tis not only sweet to work for Jesus, but sweeter far to die for him than to lose communion with him and sacrifice the hope of rest in his kingdom. They were “faithful unto death,” and are now awaiting the promised “crown of life” (Rev. 2:10), of transcendent splendor, of surpassing brightness.
Some profitable reflections were recently awakened in my mind, mingled with reproofs of conscience for having been no more consecrated to my divine Master, and for manifesting so little interest in his work; on reading a little of the personal history of William Grimshaw, a devoutly pious minister of the gospel of the eighteenth century.
It is recorded of him, “So fully did he lay himself out to do good, that for fifteen or sixteen years together, he was accustomed, besides visiting the sick and performing other pastoral duties, to preach fifteen, twenty, and often thirty times a week. During all this time he was only once suspended from his labors by sickness; though he ventured upon the bleak mountains in all weathers. * He has often preached five times in a day, rarely less than three or four, and to do this would often travel forty or fifty miles. When pressed by his friends to spare himself, he would say, ‘Let me labor now; I shall have rest enough by-and-by. I cannot do enough for Christ who has done so much for me.’”
Rest enough by-and-by. Yes, rest from every pain and grief—rest beyond the reach of sorrow, beyond the power of Satan, away from death—rest with all the ransomed, blood-washed throng; with holy angels, with Christ our dear Saviour, and the Father who gave him to die for us.
In view of this, can we not cheerfully take up every cross, endure every trial, patiently bear every reproach for the Master? I think I hear an affirmative response from the “worn and weary” pilgrim. Then press on. God loves you. His dear Son prayed for you on the dark and doleful night of his betrayal, and holy angels love to minister unto you. Redemption is near.
“The prize is straight before thee,
There’s resting by-and-by.”
A. S. HUTCHINS.
Practical Maxims
If a man is dissipated, his fortune will probably soon be so too.
It is only those who have done nothing who fancy they can do everything.
Terrible Results from Believing in the Literal Destruction of Sinners.
By John Matteson
The following is from a learned treatise called “Life and Death Eternal,” by S. C. Bartlett, D. D., Professor in Chicago Theological Seminary, Page 353. Trying to show the grossness of our theory on this point, and what terrible fruits it will produce, he says:—
“Why should they who talk of a literal grinding to powder and burning to ashes, and recognize no other soul or spirit than the life of the body, stop short of a kind of Mohammedan paradise? Why are they not in a state of readiness to receive a heavenly city of literal gold and precious stones, with streams and trees and luscious fruits, and feasting with Abraham, and drinking wine with the Saviour in his kingdom?”
Indeed we are trying to get ready to receive this heavenly city, and we believe also that Jesus is preparing mansions there, wherein he will receive us. John 14:2. Was it Mohammed or Christ who taught of the golden city with its precious stones, the river of life, and the tree of life yielding twelve manner of fruits? Rev. 21 and 22. Who promised to his disciples that they should drink the new wine with him in his Father’s kingdom? Matt. 26:29. Who has introduced the doctrine that in the new earth God’s people shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them? Isa. 65:17, 21. Who made Adam “very good,” placed him in the garden of Eden, and told him to freely eat of the trees, the tree of life not excepted? Gen. 2:16. Was not Christ himself a literal person with flesh and bones, who could eat and drink after his resurrection, when he possessed a glorified, spiritual body, and had become a quickening spirit? Luke 24:39–43. (Verse 37, the word rendered spirit is pneuma in Greenfield, but the reading adopted into the text by Griesbach is phantasma: apparition, specter, ghost.) 1 Cor. 15:45. And shall not we be made like him at his appearing, and see him as he is? 1 John 3:2.
Indeed, the popular theory is too fanciful for the doctrine of Christ, and the doctrine of Christ appears gross to those who do not believe it, but who accept the speculations of heathen philosophers as an interpretation of the Bible on these points. Has not God made the spirit, as well as the body? And was not the body of Adam just as good as his spirit? And if in our fallen state one part should be counted more sinful than another, is it not the spirit or mind from which the evil desires proceed?
But the Scriptures do not teach that one part of man is more responsible than another. The whole man is responsible. 2 Cor. 5:10. And the body can and must be made just as holy as the spirit. Rom. 12:1; 1 Thess. 5:23.
But did not Grecian and Roman philosophers, and afterward Catholic monks cherish and advocate the idea that the body alone is gross, and the seat of all that is fleshly or sinful, and that the spirit emancipated from the body would be free from all this grossness? And has not this same leaven worked into the popular theology of our day, and caused its adherents to consider everything which is literal or in bodily form as gross and absurd, while it leaves them rejoicing in shadows of exceedingly thin and very immaterial substance?
After the reverend doctor has made a meaningless thrust about “free-love,” he proceeds: “Accordingly, we learn that already this influence is unfolding itself. A writer in the Independent of Aug. 10, 1865 (Rev. Marcellus Church, D. D.), informs us that he has encountered the doctrine in this gross form, except the free-love element. In a remote settlement of the West (in the State of Michigan), he found a body of men who hold that the wicked are annihilated, their bodies being literally burnt up in the fires of the final conflagration, and becoming ashes under the feet of the righteous. They have gone backward so far in their Judaizing and materializing, as to take Saturday for the sacred day. Their religion is ‘wholly materialistic,’ and ‘Heaven is reduced to a scene of material delights. These people have their camp-meetings, continuing them for days or weeks; and the fervor with which they sing, pray, exhort, and preach, about the trees, brooks, animals, and various delectations of their material Heaven, and of the conflagration and resurrection with which it is to be introduced, is most inspiring and seductive to an imaginative auditory.’”
Here is at least some testimony in our favor even from our opponents. JOHN MATTESON.
Whitefield on Christ’s Crucifixion
WHITEFIELD, preaching to a crowd that had assembled to witness an execution, observing that some turned their heads aside and wept, exclaimed: “Those tears are precious, and will be held in remembrance. How different it was when the Saviour of mankind was extended on the cross! The Jews, instead of sympathizing in his sorrows, triumphed in them. They reviled him with bitter expressions, with words more bitter than the gall and vinegar which they handed him to drink. Not one, of all that witnessed his pains, turned his head aside, even in the last pang. Yes, my friends, there was one. “That glorious luminary”—pointing to the sun—“veiled his brightness, and traveled on his course in tenfold night.”
He that Reapeth Receiveth Wages.
By R. F. Cottrell
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” John. 4:35, 36.
This text may have a general application to all times in which men have labored in the cause of human salvation. Since sin entered into the world, and the great plan of redemption was laid, there has ever been reaping to do, and all the gatherers with Christ will receive their wages. But at the first advent, a sort of reckoning time with the Jewish people came, and hence, in a peculiar sense, the fields were ready for the harvest. And at the present time, as the final Judgment is pending, the demand for labor in the harvest was never more urgent.
But men are apt to make good resolves for some future time. Some four months hence, they intend to enter the field. But the work is all ready, the fields are white.
The reaper receives wages. Who are the reapers? Every one, minister or others, who is instrumental in the work of saving men. All may have a share in the work, and consequently a share in the wages. But what are the wages? Are they one thousand, three thousand, five, ten, or twenty thousand dollars a year? By no means. They that covet a great salary and get it, “have their reward.” Such was not the wages of apostles and martyrs. Yet they will have their reward.
But what will be the wages? The next clause explains it; they gather “fruit unto life eternal.” They will see the souls they have been instrumental in bringing to eternal life safe with themselves in the kingdom of God. As it will be the Saviour’s joy to see of “the travail of his soul,” to see the redeemed by his blood in everlasting life; so the reapers in the harvest will see of the fruit of their labors, and “enter into the joy” of their Lord. And thus shall “he that soweth,” the Lord Jesus Christ, and “he that reapeth,” his faithful servants, “rejoice together.”
Reader, do you not want a share in the wages? a part in the general joy, when the Sower and the reaper shall rejoice together? The fields are white already for the harvest. Enter into the work. Do not say, there are yet four months. You may be too late. Go to work, and you shall receive your wages. As we would have a part, when the harvest is brought home with rejoicing, let us at once enter into the work, that we may bring some sheaves with us—gather some fruit to eternal life. There is no doubt about the wages, if the work is only done. Now is the time to work. R. F. COTTRELL.
Use of Sorrow.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
The other day I was feeling very sad and gloomy over my infirmities, errors, and sins, and what I was suffering in consequence of them. My heart almost murmured at it. Why must I suffer thus? Why has God allowed such trials and sorrows to come upon me? What good can it possibly accomplish for myself or for any one else?
With these reflections in my mind, my eye rested upon the following scripture: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Cor. 1:3, 4.
Here was a new thought. We are here to help each other. All around us, on every side, there are aching hearts, sorrowing hearts, desolate hearts, disappointed plans, blasted hopes, men and women encompassed with infirmities, with weaknesses, and with errors, repenting, halting, doubting, fearing, and hoping. Oh! my soul, who can help all these? Certainly not that person who has never experienced any of these things. How could such an one sympathize with these poor souls? It would be impossible. No, I see now that adversity and trouble are necessary to prepare us, to soften our hearts, to ripen us up, and make us able to comfort others. This is what Paul seems to mean—“God” says he “comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” All of us, but especially the ministers and those who labor with him, need just this preparation. Paul cries out, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” Rom. 9:2. My case can not be worse than that. How many thousands of sorrowing hearts have found sweet consolation in the Psalms. These Psalms were poured forth from a heart filled with anguish. The flower must be crushed to yield its sweetest fragrance.
Dear friend, are you suffering and grieving over it? Do you question God’s providence? If you will but patiently trust him you will yet see that God only meant it for good, to fit you for the work he has for you. The language of the heart is, “O my soul, hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.” D. M. CANRIGHT.
Orthodoxy and Rationalism
IN Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland, and other countries of Europe, the conflict between orthodoxy and rationalism continues to rage fiercely in associations and in theological literature.
HE presents a wretched specimen of religion who labors more to convert Christian men to his own sectarian views than sinners to Christ.
Significant Items.
By F. A. Buzzell
The ESSEX (Mass.) South Conference at Danvers Center, May 18, 1870, passed a special protest against the desecration of the Sabbath, (Sunday) by railroad and steamboat corporations, in running special trains and boats on that day, as a grief and disturbance to all (?) Christian people, and a glaring offense to the law of the Sabbath day.” (?)
The “N. E. Sabbath Association,” for the purpose of maintaining the observance of Sunday, we presume, has struck out on the “war path,” ready for action, with a list of officers, who can boast in possessing “Gov.,” “Hon.,” “Rev.,” and “D. D.,” as affixes and prefixes. So far as our knowledge extends, these are men who do business when they attempt it.
Of their doings, more anon.
“Father Hecker,” in a recent lecture at Detroit, said, “Catholicism rules New York by 50,000 majority, and the question is not now will the Catholics ever rule America? but how soon?”
THE SACRED INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE BECOMING A FARCE.
Five hundred couples divorced in Connecticut in 1870; and for the same year there were one hundred and sixty-two cases in Rhode Island, one to every marriage.
The poor old pope has no prop in Spain. “It is worthy of note, says the Independent, “that the letter of the king Amadeus of Spain, to the pope, contains no word of fealty or temporal submission. It does not even recognize the pope as a sovereign.”
A PROTESTANT CHURCH ON ROMAN SOIL.
“A Presbyterian church was opened in Rome, Jan. 8, said to be the first Protestant church ever built on Roman soil. The church is occupied by the Free Church of Scotland.”—Independent.
A negro minstrel performance has been given in a Kansas town, to procure a communion service for a church.—Boston Herald.
There are many churches of the present period that seem only anxious to meet their dues at the bank of Heaven, and to raise the necessary funds, who are borrowing largely at the bank of the devil. We deem the above extract, if true, a good illustration of this kind of borrowing; and also the many “fairs,” “levees,” &c., in which gambling is carried on; where the “children of the wicked one” are enticed by promises of “sweet-meats,” or a “splendid chance” to give to the Lord, who by the practical appearance of the thing, has but few friends, and little money. We think the devil is a shrewd “financier,” and if he loans money to pay the debts of stingy professors, he will have it back with greater interest than ever was exacted by a Chatham street Jew broker.
But more than this, we very much doubt if the bank of Heaven endorses any such paper as that presented with the signature of his satanic majesty. If not wholly repudiated, we think it will suffer a terrible discount.
BLASPHEMY. AN INSCRIPTION AT THE FETES
IN ROME, APRIL, 1870.
“People, prostrate yourselves in the Vatican, to my Vicar on earth. Whom I have preserved in danger. He is the corner stone of my church. The refuge of the oppressed (?). The support of the poor. The shield of civilization and the faith.”—N. Y. Tribune.
BONDAGE OF THE PULPIT.
Mr. Wilkinson, in the February Scribner, says of city pastors, “Rich churches do not want a really independent ministry—they will not abide it. They are fond of majestic figure-heads in the pulpits. They love to see decorous lay-figures in their drawing-rooms. They find it convenient to have some one at call who can intone an unexceptionable grace at a public dinner, and they are all the better pleased if he can wind a short flight of religio-convivial eloquence after the cloth is removed. They will do everything in their power to make such a convention imposing. But he must consent to remain a convenience. Bold, uncompromising rebuke of their sins which they have decided upon the whole to practice, or to indulge—they will have none of it.”
In further alluding to the bondage of the pulpit, Mr. Wilkinson says, “The Christian man that will not bear rebuke, and be better for rebuke, is no Christian man.” Truthful words indeed—in perfect harmony with the words of Jesus. Rev. 3:19.
A SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE.
“At a recent ‘spiritual circle’ in Tremont, Me., a young woman had her dead lover ‘called up,’ who said he must be married, and a justice being near, the ceremony was performed. ‘The spiritual, or spirited bride,’ now claims the property of the deceased.”—Boston Herald.
If litigation in this case ensues, where will it end? F. A. BUZZELL.
The Lawyer’s Will
A LAWYER being sick made his will and testament, and gave all his property and tools to madmen. Being asked the reason of so doing, he said: “From such I got it, and to such I return it.”
LITTLE local noises deaden the loudest distant ones; so it is that this world shuts out, as it does, from the ears of men the voice of Almighty God.
Memphis, Mich.
By H. S. Gurney
BRO. LAMSON has been with us Sabbath and first-day to very good acceptance. The church is revived and encouraged. A good impression is made. Bro. L. thinks it will be best to bestow more labors here after filling our appointment in a new place now in view. We hope to keep humble that the hearts of the people may melt before the all-important truths we handle. H. S. GURNEY.
Swords and Ploughshares.
By J. Buffum
In an editorial article in the Independent of Feb. 6, 1871, entitled “The Alexander,” occurs the following remark: “The multiplication of wars and fighting, indeed, of these latter days, would seem to favor rather the belief of the followers of the late Mr. Miller, that the end of the world is at hand.” It is somewhat encouraging to those who expect the speedy coming of their Lord, to find that any who have so persistently insisted on the world’s conversion are beginning to see that the signs are not favorable to their theory. Many of us remember that some twenty-five or more years ago a “World’s Convention,” so called, was held in Exeter Hall, London, and was attended by many of the evangelical doctors of divinity and other clergy of this and other countries. Many were present from the United States; more from Great Britain; and some from other parts of Europe. I think it was continued three days or more. Many of the sermons preached, addresses made, and essays read, were published and extensively read. The burden of these sermons, addresses, &c., so far as I can recollect, was that the millennium (meaning thereby the conversion of the world) was at hand; that the time predicted by Isaiah (chap. 2:4), when “the people” or nations should “beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” when nation should “not lift up sword against nation, neither learn war any more,” was at hand. This was the view of the great convention; this was their understanding and application of prophecy and the signs of the times. Certain it is, that subsequent events, as time has passed, have shown that they were mistaken in their expectations, and even at that time a few Bible students thought them mistaken. One of the greatest civil wars the world has ever known has taken place since then—to say nothing of the numerous smaller ones which have occurred in various parts of the world; while the Franco-Prussian war (hardly yet ended), and the present condition of the nations of the earth (even as acknowledged by the Independent in the article above quoted from) do not warrant us to look immediately for the time of peace, so fondly anticipated by the Exeter divines—at least not in the way they expected; yet I have never seen or heard of any acknowledgment of mistake, on the part of those who took part in that convention.
A superficial view of the prediction in the second chapter of Isaiah, may seem to favor the idea advanced; but a more careful reading of the prophecy will show what is meant. This prophet says: “In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains. . . . And many people shall go and say,” &c., and a part of what they shall say is, that “the nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”—the very things “many people” did say at Exeter Hall Convention, and which “many people” have said and preached ever since we could remember, i. e., a time of peace—the world’s conversion is approaching. Is not Isaiah a true prophet? Has not his prediction of what “many people” should “say in the last days” been fulfilled in our hearing?
Now, in contrast to what the “many people” should say “in the last days,” let us see what the prophets have recorded as the Lord’s utterances upon the same subject; viz., the nations and their “swords and ploughshares.” The prophet Joel, who was contemporary with Isaiah, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, says: “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [that is, to us, for we are Gentiles]: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen [Gentiles], and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; and the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.”
It is worthy of notice, that in both these chapters, viz., the 2d of Isaiah and the 3d of Joel, the prophets speak of the last day, the terrible “shaking” of the earth, and the coming of the Lord to judgment. It is well to read these portions of Scripture together, and see how different God’s purposes are as made known unto us by Joel, from the sayings of the “many people in the last days,” as made known unto us by Isaiah.
How much we need the admonition of our Heavenly Father with which this second chapter of Isaiah closes, “Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils.”—J. BUFFUM, in Advent Herald.
WEARY
By M. E. Williams
I am weary, very weary, cares of life do press me sore;
And I long for yon bright Heaven, where dark sorrow comes no more.
Heavenly Father, lead me gently through this dark and dreary wild;
Guide me safely on my journey; save, oh! save thine erring child.
I am weary, oh! so weary; must I keep this thorny road?
I am trembling, slipping, sinking; must I bear this heavy load?
Jesus, Saviour, Friend of sinners, lend me now thy helping hand;
Keep me, hold me, never leave me till I reach the better land.
Hush, my child, thy sad complaining; greater far my load than thine;
When on Calvary's cross forsaken, was not greater sorrow mine?
If the thorns thy feet are piercing, thorns once pierced my holy brow;
Patience, patience with thy burdens; I will help thee bear them now.
Precious Saviour, if thou'lt help me, then indeed the cross is light;
And the cloud a silver lining has, though seeming dark as night.
And though thorny is the pathway, thou wilt surely ease their smart.
Oh! how sweet to suffer with thee when I have thee in my heart.
Then, though weary, heavy laden, I'll press on the narrow way;
This the way is, there's no other leading to eternal day.
Welcome crosses, care, and sorrow, for His sake who died for me,
I will wait the glad to-morrow, if I may his glory see.
M. E. WILLIAMS.
Erie Co., N. Y.
I. SANBORN
By I. SANBORN
Wisconsin.
Since my last report, I have spent about fifteen days in the village of Dover, Iowa Co., Wis., where a Bro. Joslin, professing to be a Seventh-day Adventist minister, and an exponent of the faith of Seventh-day Adventists, had just closed a discussion with a Methodist minister on the subject of the immortality of the soul. By their rough, unchristian conduct toward each other, and toward those of an opposite faith from that which they professed to represent, they had so thoroughly prejudiced the minds of the people that I could get but very few to hear me.
But some may say, Why did you go there? I answer, Because I was sent for by a Sabbath-keeper who lived in that place, and because Bro. Joslin himself wanted me to go and see what a great work he had done. Having seen it, I sincerely pray that he may never do another of the same kind; because the prejudice caused by the unskillful management of that discussion can never be allayed.
With the blessing of God, I did the best I could for those who did come out to hear; and some of them are now keeping the Sabbath as the result.
From Dover, I went to Arena, four miles west of Dover, and continued meeting in a pleasant hall, owned by a Seventh-day Adventist. I spoke to attentive congregations six times, and would have continued longer, but circumstances in my family made it necessary for me to close my meetings and return home for a short time.
Notwithstanding my short stay at Arena, quite a number are convinced that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord; and I think some of them will keep it even if they hear no more preaching. Although the nights were dark, and the weather unfavorable, our congregations were respectively large and very attentive. We hope to be able to visit the people there again before a great while, if the Lord will. In this report I wish to say to the Brethren in Vernon and La Crosse Cos., and those also at Dell Prairie, that I will visit them just as soon as I possibly can. And I will try and give due notice of the time in the REVIEW.
I. SANBORN
A Reminder.
By Julia S. Olive
We are all alone; not a Sabbath-keeper near us; no church of believers to attend. I wonder if all who have the privilege of Christian associates and church privileges prize them as they should do. O brethren and sisters, see to it that you strive to help, and comfort, and admonish, one another. Think of those who must spend their Sabbaths all alone; no one to lead or join them in prayer or hymns of praise, with all the professed Christians around them looking upon them as poor, misguided, narrow-minded fanatics, and their own children mortified, and ashamed, and displeased because the Sabbath is not popular. Then prize your privileges, and “be at peace among yourselves.”
JULIA S. OLIVE.
Preach by Example.
By H. S. Zoller
There is no more effectual way for us to labor in our Master's vineyard, than to live out the principles of pure and undefiled religion. In this way, when the work of the Lord is so great and the laborers so few, each one of us can preach the truth by a steadfast adherence to the principles of the law and the gospel.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. These two commandments comprise the law and the gospel.
Are we firm and unwavering supporters of this grand system of religion, which has come down to us from Heaven? If so, we shall teach it by every act and word and look; we shall demonstrate its power as we move in our families, amid cares and storms and sorrows. We shall exemplify it by patience and kindness and charity, “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1:11. H. S. ZOLLER.