Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 6, 1881
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
AN UNWISE MARRIAGE.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE divine promise to Manoah was in due time fulfilled in the birth of a son, upon whom the name of Samson was bestowed. By the command of the angel no razor was to come upon the child's head, he being consecrated to God as a Nazarite, from his birth. As the boy grew up, it became evident that he possessed extraordinary physical strength. This was not, however, as Samson and his parents well knew, dependent upon his well-knit sinews, but upon his condition as a Nazarite, of which his unshorn hair was a symbol.
Had Samson as faithfully obeyed the divine command as his parents had done, his would have been a nobler and happier destiny. But he became corrupted by association with idolaters. The inheritance of the tribe of Dan, to which Manoah's family belonged, was adjacent to the country of the Philistines. Indeed, the little town of Zorah, which was Samson's early home, was in close proximity to the dwelling-places of this alien race, and in his youth he came to mingle with them on friendly terms. Thus intimacies sprung up, whose evil influences darkened his whole life.
A young woman dwelling in the Philistine town of Timnah so engaged Samson's affections that he determined to make her his wife. In those days marriages were arranged by the parents. Hence Samson requested his father and mother to secure for him this daughter of the Philistines. Manoah and his wife sought to dissuade the young man from his purpose. They warned him of the danger of forming an alliance with idolaters, and besought him to seek a wife among his own people. But arguments and entreaties were alike in vain. His only answer was, "she pleaseth me well." Seeing his determination, the parents decided that the Lord might design thus to accomplish his purposes; hence they yielded to Samson's wishes, and the marriage was consummated.
Thus at the time above all others when he should have maintained entire consecration to the will of God, just as he was entering upon the stage of manhood, the period when he must execute his divine mission,—at this critical point in his life history, Samson yielded to the tempter, and by an unwise marriage placed himself in alliance with the enemies of God. This important step was not carefully considered. Samson did not ask himself whether he could better glorify God when united with the object of his fancy, or whether he was placing himself in a position where he could not fulfill the purpose to be accomplished by his life. To all who seek first to honor him, God has promised wisdom; but there is no promise to those who desire only to please themselves.
The Lord has in his word plainly instructed his people not to unite themselves with those who have not his love and fear before them. Such companions will seldom be satisfied with the love and respect which are justly theirs. They will constantly seek to gain from the God-fearing wife or husband some favor which shall involve a disregard of the divine requirements. To a godly man, and to the church with which he is connected, a worldly wife or a worldly friend is as a spy in the camp, who will watch every opportunity to betray the servant of Christ, and expose him to the enemy's attacks.
Satan is constantly seeking to strengthen his power over the people of God by inducing them to enter into alliance with the hosts of darkness. And to accomplish this he endeavors to arouse unsanctified passions in the heart which is naturally prone to evil. It is not safe for Christians to imitate the example of the ungodly, or to yield to their influence. The wisest counsels of the wicked are not to be relied upon. If accepted, they may bring trouble and sorrow upon the child of God. The Lord would not have his people take ungodly persons into their confidence. The apostle Paul exhorts us "to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." "For what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?"
At his marriage feast Samson was brought into familiar association with those who despised the God of Israel. Whoever voluntarily enters into such relations will feel it necessary to conform, to some degree, to the habits and customs of his companions. The time thus spent with vain and trifling persons is worse than wasted. Thoughts are entertained, words spoken, that weaken the citadel of the soul.
The wife, to obtain whom Samson had transgressed the command of God, proved treacherous to her husband ere the close of the marriage feast, and at last was put to death by the very class whose threats had caused her perfidy. Samson had already given evidence of his prodigious strength, by slaying, single-handed, a young lion, and by killing thirty of the men of Askelon. Now, moved to anger at the barbarous murder of his wife, he attacked the Philistines, "and smote them with great slaughter." Then, wishing a safe retreat from the Philistines, and fearing to trust his own countrymen, he withdrew to a strong rock called Elam, in the tribe of Judah.
To this place he was pursued by a large body of Philistines, whose presence excited great alarm among the inhabitants of Judah. When they learned that the sole object of the invasion was to take Samson captive, they basely agreed to deliver him up to his enemies. In so doing they hoped to secure the favor of the Philistines, and thus lighten their own oppression. Accordingly three thousand men of Judah went up to take the mighty warrior. But even at such odds they dared to make the attempt only because they felt assured that he would not harm his own people. Samson consented to be bound and delivered to the Philistines, but first exacted from the men of Judah a promise not to fall upon him themselves, and thus compel him to destroy them. He permitted them to bind him with two new ropes, and to take him down to the Philistines.
He was led into the camp of his enemies amid demonstrations of great joy. But while their shouts were waking the echoes of the hills, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Samson. He burst asunder the strong new cords as if they had been flax burned in the fire. Then seizing the first weapon at hand, which though only the jawbone of an ass, was rendered more effective than sword or spear, he smote the Philistines on every side, until they fled in terror, leaving a thousand of their number dead upon the field.
Had the Israelites been prepared to unite with Samson, and follow up the victory gained, they might at this time have freed themselves from the power of the Philistines. But they had become weak and discouraged. They had basely neglected the work which God had commanded them to perform with diligence, thoroughness, and valor; not only failing to dispossess the heathen, but uniting with them in their degrading practices, tolerating their cruelty, and, so long as it was not directed against themselves, even countenancing their injustice. When at last the tyrant power was triumphant, Israel submitted to the degradation which they might have escaped, had they only obeyed God. Even when the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, they would frequently desert the one chosen to set things in order, and would unite with their bitterest oppressors.
If those who acknowledge God would but obey his voice, how much suffering might be spared them. God's eye is fixed upon every individual, and every one must render an account to him for all they do, and for what they permit themselves to be. Wherever we are, in storehouse and work-shop, in all our business, every day in the week, and every hour in the day, his eye scrutinizes all our works, his ear listens to our every word. In the deepest solitude every act and word of our lives has still one witness,—the infinite God. When we are true to the high destiny which he has marked out for us, we become co-laborers with him. If our responsibility be fully and heartily accepted and faithfully discharged, it will secure for us the joyful commendation by the Majesty of Heaven, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Thousands of Israelites witnessed Samson's defeat of the Philistines, yet no voice was raised in triumph, till the hero, elated at his marvelous success, celebrated his own victory. But he praised himself, instead of ascribing the glory to God. No sooner had he ceased than he was reminded of his weakness by a most intense and painful thirst. He had become exhausted by his prodigious labors, and no means of supplying his need was at hand. He began to feel his utter dependence upon God, and to be convinced that he had not triumphed by his own power, but in the strength of the Omnipotent One.
He then gave God the praise for his deliverance, and offered an earnest prayer for relief from his present suffering. The Lord hearkened to his petition and opened for him a spring of water. In token of his gratitude Samson called the name of the place En-hakkore, or "the well of him that cried."
After this victory the Israelites made Samson judge over them, and he ruled Israel for twenty years.
Mid the tumult and noise around me
I can feel a rest and a calm;
For while men are toiling and delving,
All nature is singing a psalm.
And the voice of nature seems clearer
Than the din and mirth to my ears;
And my heart gives thanks for the Sabbath,
And the God of the Sabbath reveres.
For worship is due the Creator,
And sweet to the toiler is rest;
And the day set apart by Jehovah,
Is surely the day that is best.
O heavens of infinite grandeur !
So beauteous by day and by night!
Ye speak of the Being who formed you
By excellent wisdom and might!
And rivers so ceaselessly flowing,
Ye speak of the peace that may be
In obedient hearts of adorers,
With joy like the waves of the sea.
Think, ye who would follow the Master
With loving devotion and awe,
If he did in precept or action
Make void any part of the law.
Oakland, Cal.
The Shadows from Ourselves
It is narrated of the great sculptor, Michael Angelo, that when at work, he wore over his forehead, fastened on his artist's cap, a lighted candle, in order that no shadow from himself might fall on his work. It was a beautiful custom, and spoke a more eloquent lesson than he knew; for the shadows that fall on our work—how often they fall from ourselves.
THE HEBREW "TABAL."
By J. B. Tombes
It is a matter that closely concerns the subject I am treating, that the Hebrew language is not wanting in specific terms to denote the various applications of water or other fluid as to mode; the same circumstance holds true in the Greek language, as we shall yet see. Now it is noticeable in the "Analytical Concordance" that, when the English word sprinkle, for example, is referred to its corresponding Hebrew synonym, the proper word is at once given, viz., zaraq, or nazah, and so as it respects other words designating different applications of water; but when it comes to render the English term dip into its Hebrew synonym, tabal is accepted, but, then, ("O tempora, O mores!") the Concordance immediately retracts, and gives to the Hebrew term the meaning of "moisten or besprinkle!" So it appears that the English term dip has no equivalent or synonym in the Hebrew language! Dr. Young is forced, by the sacred text to refer the English word dip to the Hebrew tabal, as there is no other word, indeed, to which he can properly refer it, as an equivalent, in the Hebrew. But then the text itself settles the matter.
The fact is the "Analytical Concordance" counts on Pedobaptist support, and the ingenious compiler has no idea of forfeiting that support. But Dr. Young and his clients will comfort themselves, as I have before stated, in the use of the Latin tingo, employed by several eminent lexicographers in rendering the Hebrew tabal, e. g., Buxtorf, Parkhurst, Gesenius in his "Thesaurus," and others. So also, as I have said, the learned Tertullian (second century), and Jerome. But by all these authors, as I have previously shown, tingo is used in the exclusive sense of immersion—Latin, immergo.
As this is a point, Mr. Editor, of much interest, I wish to illustrate still further. In the Latin Vulgate, with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and also German of Luther (tetraglotten), with an English translation, we have here the Hebrew tabal (used about sixteen times) rendered by the Greek bapto et baptizo; by the Latin tingo; by the German taufen; by the English dip. Again, the Latin Bible of Jerome renders always the Hebrew nazah (sprinkle) by aspergere, as also Buxtorf does. See Lev. 4:6, 7. "And the priest shall dip (tabal) intinxerit, his finger, in ("into") the blood, and sprinkle (nazah) sparget." It will be seen that tabal and nazah are rendered here by tingo and spargo (sprinkle). Luther renders the same by tunken (dip) and sprengen (sprinkle). See Gen. 37:31, (Vulgate), "tinxerunt tunicam ejus in sanguine," dipped his coat in blood, rendered in German by tunkten (dipped). 2 Kings 9:33, Hebrew nazah is rendered in Vulgate by aspergere (sprinkle). Isaiah 63:3, nazah (sprinkled) is rendered by aspergere. Exodus 29:21, "asperges (nazah) Aaron et vestes," thou shalt sprinkle Aaron and his garments. Thus Jerome in his Latin Version (fourth century) always renders tabal by tingo in the sense only of immerse. All lexicographers agree in this. We might quote Parkhurst, who defines tabal as follows: "to dip, immerse, plunge; (2), to tinge (tingo) or dye with a certain color, which is usually performed by dipping (Eze. 23:15). So the Seventy, parabapta, baptai—Vulgate, tinctus (dipped)." I copy direct from Parkhurst's Lexicon. The celebrated lexicographer, Furst, who has been referred to as sustaining a different meaning of tabal, defines, after using the generic terms benetzen and begiessen, tabal by tauchen and eintauchen. He quotes to illustrate, Lev. 14:51; 1 Sam. 14:27; Job 9:31. Furst, in his Bible use of tabal, always renders it by dip. (German, tauchen). He also admits the prepositional regimen (before explained) as necessitating the one only Bible meaning of tabal, viz., to dip or immerse. Dr. Young should have consulted the Hebrew lexicographer, Dr. Furst, before he rendered tabal by sprinkle! This Hebraist, Furst, stands very high with Pedobaptists. But on the Bible meaning of the Hebrew tabal he is positive, and decides against them.
I will now refer directly to the terms, frequently occurring in the Hebrew Bible, which express different acts as applied to fluids. We have nazah, to wet by small quantities of fluid easily thrown upon the solid; zaraq, to throw upon, either solid or fluid, so that the thing thrown becomes active, and the thing thrown at is passive; ra hhats, to wash the body or its parts; kabas, to wash clothes; yatsaq to pour upon as liquids; tabayiu, to sink, intrans., to be sunk; tabal, to dip—eintauchen. In the Septuagint version we have the corresponding Greek terms of the above Hebrew words, viz: For nazah, we have the Greek rhantizo, to sprinkle; so it respects zaraq (raino); for ra hhats, we have the Greek louo, to wash or bathe the body; for kabas, we have pluno, to wash garments; tabayiu is rendered by (Ps. 69:14) empago, "that I may not sink;" for tabal, we have bapto, or its derivative, baptizo. These renderings into Greek, by the learned interpreters, settle the matter of the one only meaning of baptizo, viz., to dip, or immerse, and beyond the shade of a doubt it is rendered, in the New Testament, as the one only synonym of the Hebrew tabal. The evidences gained from the Septuagint are unanswerable. The author of the "Analytical Concordance" certainly has never compared the versions of the Seventy with the Hebrew—how could he, and then render tabal to sprinkle, and baptizo to consecrate!
It is here in place to speak of the Septuagint version as authority. In the first place, the interpreters themselves were men of eminent learning. They were well versed both in Hebrew and Greek, and as Hebraists they were peculiarly adapted to the work of translating Hebrew into Greek. They were convoked by royal authority for the expressed purpose of rendering the Hebrew Bible into the current Greek. (See Josephus' Antiquities, XII., c. 2.) It was accepted and used by all Jews, who understood the Greek—even Talmudists mention it favorably. The learned Jew, Philo, Greek writer on moral philosophy, and of noble family (first century), says that the Septuagint was a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures; he fully accepted it as a reliable version. The fathers of the Greek Church always quote from it. Aquila, Origen (see his "Hexapla"), Synachus, Theodotion, and others—all follow the Septuagint in translating tabal by the Greek baptizo, to dip. Again, there are eighty-eight verbal quotations in the New Testament that agree with the Septuagint; sixty-four more borrowed from it, with some variations; thirty-seven that adopt the same meaning; sixteen that differ from the Septuagint, that they may agree better with the Hebrew. (See Horne's Introd., vol. 1, p. 563.) From the above facts the authority of the Greek version of the Seventy is indisputable.
Can anything, then, be better proven or demonstrated than that the Hebrew tabal, especially in its Bible use, means only to dip or immerse? Irrespective, even, of the authority of the Seventy, it is proven by the best evidences of scholarship, and during a period of over twenty centuries, that baptizo (to dip, to immerse) is the one only specific equivalent of tabal; while the Hebrew term itself is shown, by the plainest principles of interpretation, philology, and syntactical construction, to denote immersion only. In this connection, it should be stated that the New Testament writings everywhere accord with the renderings referred to, of the Septuagint. The act of dipping is invariably expressed by bapto, or its derivative, baptizo. The act of sprinkling is rendered by rhantizo, to sprinkle. To pour, by cheo. To wash the body is expressed by louo. Nipto is used to express the washing of parts of the body, and pluno (Rev. 7:14) expresses the act of washing clothes or garments. What a combination of evidence, within the sphere, too, of Bible proofs, accumulate as our subject is fairly investigated. As it respects the sacred rite, God's word accepts the one only mode as Gospel baptism.
As a matter of interest, and which adds no little to what proofs I have already adduced, I wish to state that I have before me, on my desk, a Hebrew New Testament, "published for the London Society, at the Operative Institution," etc., London. The edition displays much learning. It was evidently published in the interests of Christianity and scholarship. The translation is admirable, so far as I can judge. I have looked through it carefully, and studiously, and find, as it respects the subject we are treating, that the Septuagint method and renderings are followed, i. e., the corresponding words in the Greek and Hebrew are scholarly arranged. In every instance where baptizo or bapto occur in the Greek New Testament, the rendering into the Hebrew is by tabal; there is no exception in the entire book. So also as it respects the Greek rhantizo, it is rendered by the Hebrew zaraq, to sprinkle. The Greek louo (Latin, lavo, English, wash) is rendered by ra hhats, to wash the body or bathe. The Greek cheo and ekcheo are expressed by the Hebrew shapak, to pour, to pour out; so used also often in the Hebrew Bible. How will our Pedobaptist scholarship account for these renderings in our Hebrew New Testament? Only as it can account for the like renderings of the Seventy. I wonder how Dr. Young would account for these renderings? He says tabal means "to moisten, to besprinkle," but all the evidences I have accumulated condemn him.
Much has been said in favor of the "Analytical Concordance," and on the whole it deserves much praise; but it has serious defects, and so egregious an assumption in the rendering of the Hebrew word tabal cannot be endorsed without earnest and scholarly rebuke.—J. B. Tombes, in Herald of Truth.
Exaggerating Our Troubles
By Rev. C. H. Spurgeon
wonderful afflictions, and they are altogether quite equal to Job and Jeremiah rolled into one. Never did any persons undergo sufferings comparable to theirs. You cannot sit down by their side to comfort them, but they will tell you at once that you do not know anything about the great deeps whereon they are doing business; you are only knee-deep in the waters of trouble, while all God’s waves and billows have gone over them. I meet with some who are almost impossibly afflicted; their tribulations exceed that which is common to man, and that which is uncommon too; but this may be accounted for by the large organ of imagination with which they are endowed. By using this imagination to paint their spectacles, they are soon able to see all manner of dreadful visions, and they talk accordingly. That is the way of our unbelief; it will talk at random about trials and troubles. God does not love his children to talk in that fashion. The lips that speak truth are his delight; and if our unbelief will not speak truth—and it very seldom does, perhaps never does—then it is a great pity that it cannot hold its tongue. May I ask if any friend here has been exaggerating his trouble? Is there any sister here who is fretting out of all reason—making a great deal of what may be much, but is not everything? Then stand rebuked at this hour. Your cup is not all gall. Your bread is not all turned to ashes. All your comforts have not fled; many a mercy is left you. Come, come, friend, we are not quite cut off from before the Lord; let us leave off exaggeration, lest we be guilty of falsehood.
The utterances of unbelief dishonor God. “I am cut off,” says David, “from before thine eyes.” He does, as it were, blame the Lord. Before thy very eyes I have suffered this; thou hast so forsaken me and given me over to the enemy, that I am cut off from before thine eyes. Why dost thou not deliver me? He spoke in his haste, as if God, at the very least, had been forgetful, even if he had not been untender and unfaithful. “I am cut off from before thine eyes.” It would greatly dishonor God if he did suffer one that could say, “In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust,” to be cut off from before his eyes. It would be contrary to his promise; for he has said that he will not suffer the righteous to perish. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry;” there never was a godly man cut off from God yet, and there never shall be till time shall be no more. All the attributes of God forbid the destruction of a soul that is resting on the Almighty arm; and yet the unbelieving heart declares that such a destruction has taken place in its own case. Oh, wondrous unbelief, to think the Lord to be so unrighteous as to forget our work of faith and labor of love, to forget his children, to cast away his own, his covenanted ones, with whom he has entered into solemn league by oath, saying, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” He puts his promise very strongly in that passage, using many negatives in the original tongue. “I will not, not, not—never, never leave. I will not, not forsake thee;” many times over negating the idea that he could possibly forsake one of his own.—Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
By Editor
THE following letter we copy from the Sabbath Recorder. It breathes the genuine Christian spirit which we have found in Bro. Clarke and his associates in labor, in our brief acquaintance with them. The remark in the last paragraph contains a truth which we have been pressing upon the attention of the people for over a quarter of a century. Bro. Huffman said to us, speaking of the opposition which some of his brethren manifested to making the Sabbath question so prominent: "If you want to make a man an earnest advocate of the Sabbath, send him out to work with a tent!" We have watched the tent labors of Brn. Rogers and Clarke with much interest, and with prayers for their success and prosperity:—
At the close of my labors in Elmira, my wife and two little ones joined me, and we proceeded to make a few visits in Steuben and Allegany counties. Before returning home, however, we found it convenient to spend part of a day at the Seventh-day Adventist camp-meeting, held in Belknap's Grove, two and a half miles from Hornellsville. A train runs up and back for every service, ten cents being the fare for a "round trip."
The first person we recognized was Bro. Welcome Stillman, of Rome, N. Y., a former schoolmate in DeRuyter Institute. Bro. S. and his wife kindly captured us, and made our stay most pleasant by introducing us to his Adventist brethren, and otherwise showing us marked favor. The table they set for us in their nice tent would do honor to any hotel.
At the entrance to the grove was a tent where the baggage of visitors was well cared for, free of charge, a sign to that effect being placed in front.
We counted fifty-five tents, all occupied by families in attendance, many of them well carpeted and tastefully decorated, also warmed with stoves during the cool evenings. Occupying a prominent place on the grounds was the tent where books and tracts, Bibles and Bible helps (not all from their own publishing houses either) were sold at reasonably low prices. A tent was also arranged for the sole use of committees. The large tent for preaching services was about one hundred feet long and fifty wide. Over the platform, in large ornamental letters, was a motto: "Blessed are they that do his commandments," under which sentence was placed, "Can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
As we entered the tent, Eld. D. M. Canright commenced his sermon from Matt. 26: 51, 52. We have no room or time for comments, but will say that it was a most earnest and excellent appeal in behalf of the love of Christ; and as we sat enjoying the feast, we felt ourselves drawing nearer to the Saviour, and making a resolution to be more faithful in the Master's service, and to love the souls of dying men. Surely the gospel of Christ was faithfully preached there, notwithstanding the adverse opinions of some of my Seventh-day Baptist brethren. I do earnestly hope, and almost believe, the time will soon come when most fraternal relations will exist between us as truth loving-people, and that all of error in both will be plainly seen and removed, while the precious truth will form a standard around which we can all rally. God speed the day. The tent and grounds were well lighted, and good order was maintained. The audiences led by Mrs. D. M. Canright, organist, furnished good music.
Among the leading ones at this meeting I noticed R. F. Cottrell, Joel Saunders, D. F. Fero, M. C. Wilcox, and others whose names are familiar to some of your readers.
We regretted very much our having to leave without hearing other speakers and getting a better understanding of the doctrines of our Adventist brethren. We have no desire to put our fingers into our ears and run from them, for we believe they love the truth, and with us are willing to search for it, no matter where it is found. I have no sympathy with the effort to keep us from having a better understanding with each other, and do hope the custom of sending delegates, when convenient, will be revived. All this is said without the fear of being led into errors, or of being called by that awful and most dreaded name, "Advent!"
I found many who felt a deep interest in our tent work, and many were the "God speeds" for Bro. Rogers and myself in that most interesting and profitable labor.
I am glad we are getting down to solid work, and the belief that it is our duty to spread the knowledge of this much loved truth, whether the people heed and obey or not. As Prof. Allen said in his sermon at the funeral of our beloved and lamented father in Israel, N. V. Hull, "'The soldier has no business with results,' . . . accept a thus saith the Lord, as a marching order to be unhesitatingly obeyed, uncaring results." Let us look to our "marching orders," found in Isaiah 58: 1; 1 Tim. 6: 12; 2 Tim. 4: 1, 2.
In the Recorder of the 8th inst., Bro. Main said: "When the importance of any truth or duty seems to be disregarded, it is necessary to make it particularly prominent in order that the attention of the people may be directed to it." As truth is of more importance than that respecting the law of God, and as no truth and duty is so neglected and despised as Sabbath truth and the duty of observing it, it becomes necessary to make it very prominent, and call the attention of the people to it.—H. D. Clarke, Leonardsville, N. Y., Sept. 16, 1881.
The Teller and Hearer of Slander
It is most certain that ill tongues would be silent, if ill ears were not open; and hence it was an apposite saying of the ancients, that the teller and the hearer of slander should both be hanged—the one by the tongue, and the other by the ears.—Robert South.
BLINDNESS OF PREJUDICE.
By M. W. HOWARD
IN a leisure moment. I took up a child's Sunday-school book. Opening it at random, I read a few pages where first I opened. By a strange coincident, I found the portion read to be a gratuitous fling at the doctrine of Adventism, striking back, in a story, to the disappointment of the tenth day of the seventh month. Doubtless the writer, who thus lugged in the incident, thought himself doing a praiseworthy act in erecting this beacon against so fanciful a theory.
The hook on which he hung his argument, or rather negation, for it was only a negation, was that passage in Nahum, claimed to be prophetic of the chariots of our day—the cars upon our railroads. He made his victim cite the passage, item by item, making his illustration as he cited, till, in turn, he chose to refute; which he fancied he successfully did, by simply referring to the fact, that Nahum announced it, "The burden of Nineveh," a very ancient city, destroyed thousands of years ago. Then quoting chap. 3:2, as a complete extinguisher to his opponent, since he was not (by his—the writer's—showing) quite ready to understand "the noise of a whip, the prancing of horses," and the "jumping of chariots." So I thought I would turn to the passage and refresh my own memory, and was led to feel that there had been a jumping at conclusions, as well as of "jumping of chariots."
As I read the concluding verse of the first chapter, I recalled how often and how confidently the words are quoted, "Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of them that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace," singling out a part of a verse, from an entire book, applying it to the present dispensation, making the bringers of good tidings the preachers of the gospel in our day. And as the author was for standing upon consistency, I felt like planting myself upon the same ground, and holding to immediate connections, since he had shown himself ready to draw inferences from connections separated by several verses, and portioned into other chapters. So I turned to Ps. 2:8: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," which is so often triumphantly quoted in proof of a pet theory—the conversion of the world—but always with profound silence as regards the 9th verse, "Thou shalt dash them in pieces with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel," a silence that seems sacrilegious, to one of intelligent understanding of the true Bible teaching upon the subject.
Turning, then, to that passage which is so persistently quoted, "A nation shall be born in a day," I recall how thoroughly I once discomfited a Bible student, who had for very many years been a minister in an orthodox (?) church, by causing him to read the verse, after he had triumphantly misquoted that pet clause; for he could not fail to see that it affirmed just the contrary of what he had cited it to prove. As a dodge, he was quite sure that "that was not the only place where it was spoken of."
It is easy to attach odium to a name, easy to raise a dust and sarcastically pick an exposition to pieces, easy for
"A shrug of scorn to do a mischief
That a life-time can't undo."
But, till a better explanation appears, I go with my discomfited Adventist, since the passage in Nahum is too graphic a description to be lightly set aside. And if those opposing could disarm themselves of prejudice, they must see that the fanciful expositions predominate on their side,—expositions developing facts in the outworking of our world's history, are continually putting to fault by exposing their fallacy. And besides, they, more than others, sustain their theory by picked texts, and even by isolated clauses from many of these texts. M. W. HOWARD.
The Proper Enjoyment of Blessings
By Hannah More
Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas it was its continuance, which should have taught us its value. There are three requisitions to the proper enjoyment of earthly blessings—a thankful reflection on the goodness of the Giver, a deep sense of our unworthiness, a recollection of the uncertainty of long possessing them. The first should make us grateful, the second humble, and the third moderate.—Hannah More.
A Crown of Glory
"WHEN the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory, that fadeth not away."