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Review and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 24.

TIME OF REWARD

Review and Herald

Dec 14, 1876

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 14, 1876

TIME OF REWARD.

By G. V. Kilgore

BY G. V. KILGORE.
TEXT: “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:18.
This language must be applied to the time to which it refers. It refers to the time the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rev. 11:15–18. Daniel shows that Christ will receive these kingdoms after the investigative Judgment and immediately prior to the burning flames of the last great day. Dan. 7:8–14. Then it follows that the prophets and saints and all that have feared the name of God, will receive their reward at that time, and not before, for certainly they will not get it before Christ gives it to them. But popular theology teaches that men have been getting their reward for the last six thousand years. The righteous have all gone to the happy mansions above, and are there enjoying the full pleasures of their eternal home. The wicked have all passed into the hot chambers of hell; and there, amid the shrieks and yells of demons, they are writhing in torment.
According to this idea, Christ will be thousands of years behind time when he says, “Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” The popular idea is, that Christ has been separating the righteous and wicked ever since Cain died; that the wicked, as fast as they have died, have been cast into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; and that the righteous have been, taking their upward flight, at the same time, to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. But Jesus says these things shall take place “when the Son of man shall come.” “Oh! well,” says a clergyman, “the Son of man comes at death.” Think of it: “The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him,” when a persons dies! “No,” says another, “that cannot be: but men certainly do go to their reward at death, for most all the learned men teach so, and nearly all the world believe them.” Well, who knows best how things are managed after this life? Learned men, whose wisdom shall perish (Isa. 29:14), or God, who knows the end from the beginning? Men whose thoughts shall perish when they die (Ps. 146:4), who, when they are dead, “know not anything” (Eccl. 9:3–6), or Christ, who was dead and is alive forevermore, and who has the keys of hell and of death?
The word of God declares, that the wicked are reserved to the day of destruction; that they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath; that God knows how to “reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.” Job. 21:30; 2 Pet. 2:9. Learned men, with all their ingenuity, will never get their reward before Christ gives it to them.
All the Bible writers looked forward to the coming of Christ as the time of their reward. Enoch, prophesied saying, “Behold the Lord cometh, . . . to execute judgment upon all.” Job declared, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Not, that his immortal soul, at the day of his death, would go out of his flesh and see God—no, no; but at the latter day, when his Redeemer shall stand upon the earth—at the end of the thousand years, when, as Zechariah says, “the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,” &c. Zech. 14:4, 5. Paul, of the New Testament, expected his crown of righteousness at that day when all who love Christ’s appearing will get theirs. 2 Tim. 4:6–8. He taught that the gathering together of the saints unto Christ, would take place at the coming of Christ. 2 Thess. 2:1. Peter says, “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” These all agree with the last writer, John, whose language I quoted at the beginning: That the time of the reward of all people is at the last great day.
“Well then,” says one, “where are they before that day—between death and the resurrection?” Let Daniel and John answer: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Dan. 12:2. Speaking of the wicked, John says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [the grave, margin] delivered up the dead which were in them.” Rev. 20:13. Wherever they come from at the last day is where they have been. Daniel says they arise from the dust of the earth. John says they will come from the sea and the grave. This also shows that they have not been receiving their rewards before the resurrection; for they awake to them just then.
This is a harmonious doctrine, yet some say it is gloomy. Time to the unconscious dead is nothing. It is but a moment to a man from the time he dies till the resurrection, though thousands of years may pass. By this plan, God brings all to their reward at the same time, and not a minute is lost to any of them. But the prevalent theory of the present day has some men receiving thousands of years’ punishment more than others for the same deed. And it has the saints where the resurrection could never give them more pleasure than they already enjoy. But Paul argues that, if there be no resurrection, “then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished”—no reward if there be no resurrection. That is the doctrine of Christ. Luke 14:14. Glorious resurrection for the saints! Glad morn of eternity! Come, Lord, and come quickly.

THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART 1.

By A. C. Spicer

The Sabbath and the Ordinances of the Old Covenant.—Their Similarities and Dissimilarities.
THEN that circumcision of the heart which God demanded of man, and to secure which was the direct object of that covenant, was henceforth to be sought by all who would attain unto life until that life be found through Jesus Christ at the resurrection of the just. Then, also, that repentance, humiliation, faith, and obedience, required, and then specially re-enjoined and encouraged by such glorious promises, and by Abraham promised, must needs be taught, first to his posterity, to whom according to the flesh pertained the temporal, material promises, and then to all men to whom, in common with them, were offered the eternal rewards. Hence, according to the almost universal method of teaching by symbols in earlier times, that inward circumcision of the heart required, must have its outward symbol,—the internal and unseen must be represented by an external sign; that unseen effect on the character must be represented by that which could be seen in the physical. Therefore the circumcision of the flesh was instituted as an ordinance to represent by an external sign what was required and promised as an internal work. Gen. 17:9–14.
In giving it, God called it “a token of the covenant.” Paul (Rom. 4:11) calls it “the sign, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised,” &c. Outward circumcision of the flesh, then, was but a symbol, a token, a sign, of the inward work under faith, required in the heart, which might be “imputed” “for righteousness.” Verse 22. It signified consciousness of guilt, sorrow for sin and penitence therefor, humiliation, and entire submission to God, and a confession that death was deserved, not only, but that the natural seed was corrupted and sold under sin unto death, and could not inherit the promise of eternal life; and that those who would inherit that promise must crucify the flesh with the lusts thereof, die unto sin and the world, and be cleansed and purified. Hence it was, that Isaac, who was promised in the covenant, could not be accepted as representing the seed who might inherit the heavenly promises; but God says, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” That representative seed could be none less pure and holy than the Son of God. Isaac’s children might, indeed, inherit the temporal promises; but only Christ’s children can inherit the heavenly and eternal promises.
Then again as those covenant promises were of a two-fold nature, partly temporal and partly eternal, in part material and in part heavenly; and as circumcision was also two-fold, that of the inward sanctification of the heart, and that which was outward in the flesh; so, also, in harmony therewith, the sign or token of that covenant was two-fold, outward and inward. The inward sign was repentance, confession, humiliation, submission, faith, consecration and an obedient and holy life wrought out by the aid of the Holy Spirit in the heart. That was a perpetual token that the plan of redemption proposed by God was accepted in good faith, and that the covenantor cheerfully accepted all the duties it imposed, and by faith “put on Christ,” and by virtue of having become Christ’s accepted child, he had become one of Abraham’s seed and an heir of eternal life according to the covenant promise.
The outward sign or token was a circumcision of the flesh. That was a metaphorical symbol to indicate by an outward sign what was required within the heart. It meant a “crucifying of the flesh with the affections and lusts,”—a putting off the whole body and life of sin and a “putting on the new man.” It was an external “seal of the righteousness of faith,” and every time seen it was to remind the child of faith of the flesh mortification and heart sanctification demanded by God. Furthermore, while the inward circumcision of the heart, heart sanctification, was required as a sign of the acceptance of the covenant in respect primarily to the eternal rewards, and a condition upon which they were to be bestowed, on the other hand the external circumcision of the flesh was adopted as referring more especially to the secondary promises of the covenant—to the earthly rewards. Thus the outward circumcision in the flesh, which was primarily a visible symbol of the invisible, inward circumcision, was adopted as a token or sign of the covenant primarily in relation to the limited, temporal promises; and hence also it was restricted to the people who were entitled to inherit the temporal promises, and limited, as to time, to the time when the holy “seed should come to whom the promise of eternal possession was made” (the time when Christ should come), and by his blood, “shed for many for the remission of sins,” be able to “confirm that promise made unto the fathers,” and thus re-establish “the better covenant upon the better promises.” Heb. 8:6; Matt. 26:28; Gal. 3; Col. 2.
3. The second great event to be noticed here was the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. That event and the mercy of the Lord to the Israelites when he smote all of the first-born of the Egyptians, was memorialized by an annual festival called the “ordinance of the passover.” As noticed when reviewing Ex. 12, an analysis of that ordinance presents the following characteristics:
a. It was termed by God “the ordinance of the passover,” “the feast of unleavened bread.”
b. It was a commemorative festival. “This shall be unto you for a memorial.”
c. It was to continue throughout the generations of the children of Israel as a peculiar, national people.
d. It was restricted to the Israelites. “All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.” “A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.” “There shall no stranger eat thereof.”
e. It was, moreover, restricted to the male population of Israel. Ex. 24:23.
f. It was an annual, seven days’ feast.
g. That was not to be observed then, as it was not for forty-three years; but when they were established in the promised land.
Then, it was a special, memorial, festive, thanksgiving, annual ordinance of seven days’ duration restricted to the males of Israel and excluding all others; instituted to aid the Israelites to keep in remembrance that “with a strong hand the Lord had brought them out of Egypt,” and to recall annually the goodness of God to them, to the end that by these remembrances they might be “constrained” to love God and to “keep his commandments, his statutes, and his laws.” Although during that seven days’ festival, all usual “servile workwas forbidden, yet exclusive sabbath rest was not required.”
4. Two other annual, national, festival ordinances were instituted by God for Israel in connection with the giving of the national civil statutes as recorded in Ex. 23:4–19. The first was the “feast of harvest,”—“of the first-fruits of wheat harvest;” the second, “the feast of ingathering at the end of the year.” These possessed no memorial character, and were only of one day’s duration each, but were simply national, annual, thanksgiving ordinances. They were occasions for annually giving thanks to God for his goodness and mercy to them in supplying their temporal wants and blessing and prospering them. In other respects their characteristics were like that of the passover, and hence they were restrictive, exclusive, and limited, just as was it.
Then as these three annual festivals were but national ordinances, they were limited to the period of the distinct nationality of the Israelites, and ceased by limitation when the Israelites ceased to be a distinct nation. The fact that they were ecclesiastical as well as civil ordinances did not and could not extend them into the Christian dispensation, did not entail them upon the reorganized church under Christ. In fact those three festival ordinances, together with circumcision, constituted the base of that “middle wall of partition” between Jews and Gentiles, which Paul declared was “broken down” by Christ, so “making both [Jews and Gentiles] one.” Of that wall, circumcision was the head corner stone while the three festival ordinances helped to constitute the foundation, and it was built up afterwards of a multitude of meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances, with their law of carnal commandments, called “the handwriting of ordinances,” “imposed on them until the time of reformation.”
Those were appropriately called a “middle wall of partition” by Paul, and were properly said to be “against us and contrary to us,” because they were restricted to the Israelites, and excluded all other peoples from the privileges of their ecclesiastical organization. They were right in themselves, and adapted to the times and purposes for which they were constituted as means of instruction in faith and discipline to obedience. They were the “school master” to teach faith until Christ should come. But when he came, our Teacher, they were no longer needed or applicable, and hence that rudimental teacher was discharged,—“abolished in Christ’s flesh,”—“nailed to the cross,”—as it was termed. But what was then so dismissed was the “law of carnal commandments” “contained in ordinances,” which were a “shadow of things to come,” and which were “added” (to the precepts of the law of holiness) “because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made”; i. e., Christ.
Therefore to acknowledge obligation to keep the Sabbath as appointed in Eden as an institution of holiness, and to recognize the moral law as still binding on man, both of which were fundamental and existed before transgression, and as such are recognized (as still binding) in the New Testament as emphatically as in the Old, does not imply obligation to keep those “carnal ordinances” and “law of carnal commandments” which have been “blotted out.” No more does it than acknowledging obligation to obey the law of marriage, the law of chastity, the commandment against theft or murder or perjury, implies obligation to be circumcised and to keep all those other carnal ordinances and the law of types and ritual ceremonies of the past dispensation. Observe the contrast:—
1. The Sabbath was instituted in Eden, and it was there sanctified to man before his transgression. So was the moral law, the fourth precept of which commands the observance of the Sabbath, and regulates man’s conduct in respect to it. Both the Sabbath and the moral law, then, were adapted to a condition, and provided for a religion, of holiness.
2. Those carnal ordinances were instituted, circumcision 2166 years, and the passover and the other two annual festivals with their regulating laws, 2513 years, after the transgression and sin of the race. And these were adapted to a condition only, of depravity by sin; and they and their regulating law were constituted as temporary aids to instruction in faith, to help lift fallen man up from his low estate and lead in faith and hope to a better life till a better and perfect instructor should come and lift him up to a higher life in purer, clearer light, and imparting divine strength, enable him to walk heavenward by the light of the noonday “Sun of Righteousness.”
3. The Sabbath and the principles of the moral law were universal in their character, being applicable to all men in all times and under all conditions and circumstances of life, and providing for all general obligations, and commanding all general duties, protecting all virtues, and forbidding all vices. Hence they were unrestricted in their application, unlimited as to time; and, being founded in the nature and relations of moral beings and in the need of man, they were irrepealable. At and from the day the Sabbath was given to man, all were, and have been, required to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” without distinction as to seasons or places and without restriction as to sex, nationality, age, or condition.
4. On the other hand, those ordinances and their regulating laws, were special, restricted to the Israelites and to the male sex in Canaan, and limited, as “shadows,” to the incarnation and death of Christ.
5. The Sabbath was given as a memorial institution to commemorate the work of creating the heavens and the earth and all created things and the rest of God from that work, and was designed to stand forth before the world as such memorial monument, upon which all men in all times and places might read, as it comes around in the weekly cycle, “There is a God, and but one living and true, and that is he who created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is and rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had created and made, wherefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it;” and thus by its recurrence, recalling every one of those facts, commands the heart’s love back to God, rebukes idolatry, and constrains from all men exclusive honor and homage to the Creator of all.
6. Those ordinances were adopted as merely educating and disciplining expedients, restricted to one exclusive people, and to a period of only about 1500 years.
7. Again, those ordinances and statutes and ceremonial laws served their temporary purpose until Christ came, when at his crucifixion they were no longer needed or applicable, and all, ecclesiastically considered, expired with him upon the cross. The civil statutes became inoperative soon thereafter when that people ceased to exercise the functions of civil government. But had the Sabbath accomplished its purposes and ceased to be needed by man? Verily, no. Nor shall it so long as there is a God to be remembered and worshiped, and a mortal who owes such homage and needs the hallowing influence of its suggestive and reminding character and of its sanctifying opportunities and appointments.
Nor has the moral law accomplished its purposes and ceased to be needed,—nor will it ever, so long as there are moral intelligences to be subject to the government of God.
A. C. SPICER.

THE KING'S HIGHWAY.

By Lorenzo D. Grosvenor

My God, my God, what joy is mine, What joy to feel thy holy power. By light which does from Zion shine, My golden dial tells the hour. A gloomy night has passed and gone, My eyes behold the light of day, I hear a voice, “Arise, move on, Fear not, it is the King's highway.”
Awake, my soul! thy God adore, Whose hand hath formed all things anew; The ways of life thine eyes explore; He hath preserved thee hitherto. Lord, bid thine angels with me go— Those watchful guards by night and day; For when with them, I surely know That I am in the King's highway,
The way which leads to that abode Where joys eternal roll and roll. Yet there are foes along the road, Apollyons who would slay my soul. But with the sword of truth divine, I never can for danger stay; A glorious victory is mine, My conquest in the King's highway.
Though I be driven to the wall, And praying friends almost despair; Nay, though to some I seem to fall, I know that God has heard my prayer. I thank thee that my course is laid Where Beulah's plains her charms display, And that thy engineer has made O'er Pisgah's mount the King's highway.
From hence I view the shining shore. To me the vision is so clear My heart, my tongue, my voice adore. That still small voice 'tis joy to hear. Behold, he saith, the shining ones Shall be thy guide by night and day; Nor less than thee, ere time is done, Shall millions bless the King's highway.
—Lorenzo D. Grosvenor.

THE MOWING MACHINE WHICH WORKED ON SUNDAYS.

Few men, women, or children, would unblushingly acknowledge that they are prone to tell lies. A lie has an ugly look; it is a disgrace; it is a cowardly and sinful thing; and this every one agrees in. But there are numerous kinds of lies; and some of these touch us all more nearly than we are ready at first sight to believe.
“A lie which is wholly a lie can be met with and fought outright; But a lie which is partly the truth is a harder matter to fight.”
So the poet Tennyson says; and his opinion ought to be worth something. And it is of a lie which was partly the truth that I'm going to speak now.
Our village is, like many other villages in the northern counties of England, out-growing its name. Much smaller places are called “towns” in the south; with sessions-houses, and country banks, and sundry other glories. But our village is a village still, although its inhabitants number many thousands. Large factories are on its streets, and long rows of “villa residences” stand on its outskirts.
Our old parson died not long ago. He was a kindly man, who had long been ailing in body and failing in mind. He was unfit to do any work for years before he died; yet we missed him when he was gone, and many tears fell upon the churchyard grass the day he was buried.
The new parson is a contrast to him in every way. He has thick, black hair instead of the few lines of silver which were on dear old Mr. Langdon’s head. He has a clear ringing voice, and a brisk step, and he seems as if no work could tire him. He preaches in the streets on week-days; and he is always in the cottages, or in the lanes where the work-people loiter about after work-hours, speaking to all—to hardened drinking men, to weary women, to idle, thoughtless children—and bidding all come to the dear Saviour, who can alone make the sons of men happy and restful and satisfied.
Of course, many may find fault with him. Some think him meddling with the affairs of others. Some say he has “opinions.” Some dislike him, and are offended at his words. But it appears to me that if the apostles Peter and Paul themselves were with us now, they would be found fault with in just the same way.
The parson has his admirers too; and they are—some of them—as ill-judged and unwise as his enemies. They talk of him in terms of extravagant praise, and this only makes the other party more bitter against him.
Curiously enough, it was from one of the staunchest of his friends that this story about him took its rise, as follows. A family party were sitting round the tea-table discussing the events of a late call at the vicarage.
“How fond the vicar is of his garden, to be sure!” said one. “He came in all hot and flushed from digging and working there himself. I wonder he doesn’t keep a man-servant to attend to it, and to do other odd jobs. Mr. Langdon did.”
“Yes, but Mr. Langdon had private property, and this vicar has only his living,” said Mr. White, the father of the family.
“And he gives so much away,” added Mrs. White, in an admiring tone.
“If he does not keep a man he keeps a mowing machine. We saw it at work; didn’t we, Mary?” said the eldest of the young people, turning to her sister.
Mary looked puzzled.
“Don’t you remember it, Mary? It was at work on the little strip of lawn at the side-door. Don’t you remember?”
“Ah, yes;” and Mary laughed as she replied, “of course I remember. A large mowing machine too; and would you believe it, mamma?—it works on Sundays!”
“Nonsense, Mary,” said Mr. White. “Don’t say such a silly thing.”
“But it is true, papa,” said Mary, laughing still; and her sister agreed with her.
“That I will never believe,” declared Mrs. White. “However fond the vicar may be of his garden and his flowers, he would never break the Sabbath in such a way as that; he is far too sincere and too good a man!”
How it got about the parish nobody ever could tell, but certainly a few days after this little conversation at the White’s tea-table, all the world of our village was talking of the vicar’s mowing machine that was kept going on Sundays!
“I don’t blame him,” said Timothy Rye,the leader of much of the ruffianism of the place. “I don’t blame him. If he chooses to work on Sundays, why shouldn’t he? ’Tis a free country.”
“But I do blame him,” said John Bonner, Timothy’s chosen companion. “Why should he come preaching and jawing at us, making out that he is so good and we are so bad, when all the time he does exactly as we do, when the doors are locked and he thinks no one can see him? He’s a humbug, that’s about what he is!”
And so the talk went on. And the “fact” of the Sunday mowing told very heavily against the parson.
Little Johnnie Simms said he listened outside the vicarage gate on Sunday afternoon after service, and he could distinctly hear the whirring of the wheels of the machine; and Polly Simms, his cousin, said she could catch a glimpse of the vicar working away in his shirt-sleeves!
One Sabbath evening the parson was crossing the street to the church, and he paused by a knot of idle men who were leaning against the wall. “Come in, my friends,” he said, cheerfully, pointing at the open door of the building. “Come in! It is now, in the time of our health and strength, that we should remember our good Father in Heaven.”
No one answered him in words, but John Bonner burst into a scornful laugh as the parson moved away.
“What makes them so rude, I wonder?” said the vicar, half to himself and half to the clerk who walked beside him. He sighed heavily as he spoke; for it was very discouraging to him to meet with such conduct from men for whose souls he toiled and prayed.
He expected no answer, but the clerk said hesitatingly, “Please, sir, I think a great deal of it is owing to that mowing machine!”
“That what?” said the vicar, stopping short in his astonishment.
“Your mowing machine, sir,” the clerk replied, in a firmer tone; for he had heard and believed in the parson’s Sabbath-breaking, and it “riled him to hear him attempt to throw dust in his eyes,” as he said afterwards.
The vicar shook his head. “I don’t understand you,” he said; “but it is service time now. Come to me this evening and explain.”
But there was nothing to explain, the clerk thought. The people were surprised at the parson’s talking so much about keeping holy the Sunday while he broke it himself for the sake of his garden. That was all the clerk could tell; and it didn’t want much explanation.
“But I haven’t such a thing as a mowing machine belonging to me!” said the vicar. “And as for working in my garden on Sundays, why, I have no time to pull up half a dozen weeds on that day, even if I wished to do so, and that you know yourself, Jacobs.”
The clerk looked grave. It wasn’t for him to judge, he said; and then he began to put away the books, and leave the vestry in order.
The vicar was perfectly perplexed. He made inquiries, but no one could or would tell him more than the clerk had done. At last somebody said, “It was certain that the parson had a mowing machine, for Johnnie Simms had heard it, and the Misses White had seen it.”
A light broke over the vicar’s mind. “The Misses White!” he cried. “Oh, I remember now!”
If no one could tell how the story got about the village, no one could tell either how the explanation of it all was made public. The vicar never took the trouble to contradict one word besides that first contradiction which he had given to the clerk.
But somehow it soon became known to everybody that the whole thing was a joke between Miss White and her sister. They had called at the vicarage and seen a little red calf cropping the grass on the lawn; a poor little sick calf of Farmer Golding’s, which the parson had taken in to let it eat his short, sweet grass. Its small hoofs did the lawn no harm, and as it munched away the parson had smilingly said to Miss White that it was his “mowing machine.”
This was the cause of the whole scandal. This was what had kept the gossips busy in every street of our village. I had helped them. I say it with shame, that I too had wondered and speculated about our vicar’s conduct.
Oh, I will try not to be a “gossip” after the olden fashion! I will not be like those who “spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell or hear some new thing.” I will pray David’s prayer: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips!”
And if people repeat some unkind, ill-natured “fact” about my neighbors, I will remember the story of our new parson’s mowing machine.—Tract Magazine.

POLITICS

By Joseph Clarke

Politics is a term referring to the management of public affairs, in towns, cities, and nations; and it does not necessarily limit itself to the conduct of elections and the low, corrupt administration of senates and courts of justice.
Daniel, in the court of Babylon, and in the presence of the Medo-Persian monarchs, was a politician, or more properly a statesman, of the first class, whom no rewards could swerve, nor threats intimidate. Peter and John publicly announced their position on a question which the powers of their day had made a political one; and most of the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament were brought in contact with the politics of the times in which they lived, because the governments of those times attempted to legislate upon moral questions, and legalized and enforced principles and forms of religious worship, with pains and penalties for non-conforming to such laws and religious regulations.
In the low, common use of the term “politics,” Christians have little to do with it, as the common mission of a modern politician embraces in its scope a large share of corruption and intrigue; but in the higher use of the term, the best men of the world, from Noah down to the sturdy reformers of our own time, Luther and Wickliffe of the sixteenth, and others of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth, centuries, have been forced by God’s wise arrangements to wrestle manfully for the right in courts, in senates, and in councils.
See Luther in the Diet at Worms confronting the highest and proudest of the world’s mighty men, both ecclesiastical and political; and now, when moral and religious principles are discussed, if the government attempts to decide the matter for the people, it becomes the duty of every good man to do all in his power to check the advance of the political power upon the proper domain of the church. It is the duty of all to love God; but will it help the matter for the government to enact a law to this effect? All Christians believe in baptism; but shall the government point out the mode of baptism, and say just how the ordinance shall be administered?
Christians generally keep one day in the week holy; but how will it work for the government to specify the day, and say which shall be kept holy? Shall it say that the first day or the seventh shall be so observed? Would not the State be out of its sphere in so doing? and are the men who usually sit in legislative halls competent to decide upon such affairs?
The moment a government makes laws on religious subjects, that moment it assumes a power which it has no right to act upon. We speak here of such points as above quoted. Of course, it is in the province of the government to protect its citizens against crime and oppression. It is not to be an oppressor, nor cause others to be so. It should protect the weak against the strong in matters of justice; but when it legalizes particular forms of religion, and seeks to be a guide for the church in holy things, it becomes a blind leader of the blind, and both will fall into the ditch.
It has been the ruin of earthly governments to undertake this task, as the pages of history do abundantly testify. With the past before them, the European kingdoms are fast rushing into the same maelstrom which engulfed their predecessors; and the American republic bids fair to fall into the same pit, and in like manner.
But shall Christians meddle with politics? In one sense we say, no; in another sense we say, yes. As long as the State does not oppress the people, nor mislead them, the Christian can go on in the even tenor of his way, and no warning cry is called for; but when false systems of religion are legalized, then a Luther arises with his hosts of helpers, to clear the path and make a way for truth to pass in her dignity and beauty.
When oppression fills a continent with man-hunters and man-stealers, and dots the ocean with piratical slave-ships, crowded with miserable victims whose groans fill Heaven, then God raises up a Wilberforce to stem the flood of crime and woe; and the consequence we see in the fact, that the most powerful navy in the world becomes at once the ally of the weak and defenseless, and the slave trade is outlawed by the greatest nations upon the earth.
God has not set his church here in this dark world to be a dark, clumsy thing, the foot-ball of every wicked tyrant. No; her Hezekiah’s triumph in spite of the proud, boasting Sennacheribs; and her Davids get the victory over the Hanuns who seek her dishonor. The governments of earth cannot transform God’s people into hounds to pursue the oppressed as they flee from servitude. Religious toleration and political freedom are the boons God delights to confer upon the people he loves; and when they walk in the light, no power can long restrain the freedom of the people, and the freedom of the press. God’s people are free to stand up in defence of freedom and of right. He likes to see them outspoken as possible, with prudence, in behalf of the truth, and in defense of the oppressed.
Politics! Shall we meddle with politics? No, if we must mingle in the noisy crowd, and shout the praises of the poor, puny man who is to be raised to the pinnacle of power. No, if we must give currency to the many-voiced, slanderous reports, which fill the political atmosphere with clouds and mists. But we may deposit a ballot quietly in the box in behalf of freedom, and as quietly give a reason therefor. We may vigorously and heartily denounce the extravagance and crime so openly and unblushingly manifested in high political circles. We may speak as Paul did of the superstition and bigotry of the present so-called enlightened age.
Surely, to be a politician in a low sense is not to be a Christian; but to mingle in politics as did the prophets of ancient times, to tell the people that a sin is hidden beneath a ballot, which strengthens the oppressor, is no crime.
JOSEPH CLARKE.

Work as Both Necessity and Blessing

WORK is both a necessity and a blessing. “He that will not work, neither shall he eat.” Physically he ought not to; spiritually, he cannot.

I WANT TO BE THERE.

By Smith Sharp

I have heard of a glorious land where a people will live whose sins have been forgiven them; and I want to see that land and live with its inhabitants.
I have heard of the society of that country, and I think it will be good, and I want to enjoy it. The people that live there are redeemed beings. They are a chosen company, composed of the really good from each generation. Holy men of old that walked with God will be there. Adam can tell us of the temptation and fall, and of his feelings when he first heard the story of redemption. Moses can tell us of the forty-years’ journey in the wilderness, and of his view of the promised land.
I want to be there to see the angels and hear them talk and sing and tell of their visits to us here when we were discouraged and ready to fall. I want to walk with them on the street that leads by the throne of God, and along the river of life. I want to be there to behold the majesty of the King of that country, and to see the glory that he had before he left it to come down to this fallen world. I want to be there to see him when he looks at the redeemed company; and I want to hear him when he says, I behold the travail of my soul and am satisfied, and to see him as he shows the redeemed the glories of that land and says, These rich glories are yours to enjoy forever.
I want to be there to join with the angels and redeemed in adoring Him who has done so much for me. I want to be there to spend an endless life to the glory of Him who has forgiven my iniquities and washed me with his blood. I want to be with that great company that will say, “Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.” Oh! I must be there.
SMITH SHARP.
Continue reading: IS IT OUT OF GOD’S WAY?