p. 59 | Review and Herald, Vol. 15, No. 8. (1/12/1860)

Review and Herald

Jan 12, 1860

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 12, 1860

DAUBING WITH UNTEMPERED MORTAR.

By E. B. Saunders

A Word to the Clergy.

BY E. B. SAUNDERS.

You who profess to stand on the walls of Zion, tell us, Is danger near? or does the sun of prosperity beam forth with increasing splendor on this sin-cursed earth? What answer do you give when the anxious people cry, "Watchman, what of the night?" Do you allay their fears and soothe their anxious hearts by putting far away the evil day? or do you warn them of danger near, and seek to prepare them to stand in the evil time?

The station you occupy is most important. You should seek to know the will of your Commander, and to declare plainly the word of the Lord; but you have not done this. The pride of life and the vain show of this wicked world, have drawn your eyes away from the bright inheritance reserved in heaven for the faithful. Instead of being taught of the Lord and guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit, you have sought unto the wise ones of the earth; to schools where the word of the Lord is cut to a certain pattern, and your mind moulded to fit some creed, propped up by a few scraps of scripture, which perhaps are misapplied. You have studied the wisdom of men instead of that of God; you have drunk of the muddy stream instead of going to the clear sparkling fountain, the Bible. The sweet, simple truths of inspiration you dare not taste till they have passed through the channel of the world's approval, and till the meager supply that reaches you of the once sparkling waters has been fouled by the feet of those who have changed the truth of God into a lie.

You may be deceived, and you may deceive yourselves. In either case you may be enlightened by humbling yourselves before God, and searching his revealed will. Your condition in this respect will not excuse you when you stand before God; neither will it excuse those that have gone astray through your instrumentality. If you have blinded them, the sin, in a certain degree, lies at your door; but if you have put out their spiritual eyes, and then pretend to them that you have light, and can lead them, while you yourselves are blind, and you both fall into the ditch, who would not tremble at the fate that awaits you?

The prophets of God tell us with unerring certainty that we are in the "last days." And while the prophetic eye, and hand of inspiration are pointing to this generation as the one that is to receive the vials of wrath, and as the days when perilous times should come, dare you stand up and cry "Peace, peace, a thousand years of peace before the wrath of God will come?" Your very cry of peace shall witness against you; "for when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them."

It is your place to warn the people of danger, and help them get the shield and buckler that will enable them to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler," said the prophet of God. Have you wrapped "the truth" about the people so that they will be protected from the "noisome pestilence" in the day of the Lord? or have you sprinkled your people with the stream that issues from under the dragon's throne (Rome), and by so doing helped sustain the errors of that power which should "cast down the truth to the ground." Dan. viii, 12. God's holy law is "the truth" [Psa. xvi, 13; Jas. ii, 12. Psa. cxix, 142, 151]; and the remnant church, those that will be able to stand when the day of wrath shall come, are found keeping the commandments. Rev. xii, 17. For these the everlasting gates will be lifted up that they may enter in. Rev. xxii, 14. Isa. xxvi, 2.

The commandments of God will be a hedge to separate the saints from the wicked, and shield them in the day of the Lord. The wicked Papacy has made gaps in this hedge by removing the second commandment, and virtually destroying the fourth, by taking out the word "seventh." Prophets have foretold this blasphemous work of the Papacy, Dan. vii, 25; viii, 12; xi, 30. And now it devolves upon you as watchmen on the walls of Zion, as Protestants to "make up the hedge;" to restore the "breach." This you have partially done by restoring the second commandment, yet the work is far from being accomplished; the hedge is not yet made up, while you trample on the fourth commandment, and proclaim to the anxious world, safety.

It yet remains for you to restore the Sabbath in order to complete the work. Isa. lviii, 12, 13. If you will not perform this work, others will, and will have the exalted privilege of being called "The repairers of the breach." As individuals you can help do this, but as a body we do not expect it; for the prophetic eye has foreseen and pointed out the iniquity of these prophets as a body. "O Israel thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord." Eze. xiii, 4, 5. But such are not contented to see a gap in God's holy law; it would be too glaring; it would show too plainly the deep-rooted malice they bear to the law of God. Rom. vii, 7. But what have they done instead of going into the gaps and making up the hedge? Let the same prophet answer. "And one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." Eze. xiii, 10. Instead of making a hedge in the gap they have built up a wall; instead of replacing the Sabbath back in the breach, one (the man of sin) has built up a wall, Sunday keeping, and then looks calmly on and cries "Safety." The (false) prophets in the last days do not build up the wall. No, no; but they daub it with untempered mortar. In vain do they search the Bible for something to hide the deformity of the Papal wall; but as tempered mortar is not to be had, they eagerly plaster on the untempered, and try to smooth it over with the traditions of the fathers.

Though you do not literally go about to establish your own righteousness [Rom. x, 3], yet you approximate to this point, by seeking to establish your own rule of right as revised and improved by the "man of sin." You are not ignorant of God's rule of right, but you prefer your own. And with this rule you are trying to hedge in the world, while you look with indifference at the gap in which is built up the wall. In vain will you daub the wall for it will not protect you in the day of the wrath of God. This very breach, the Sabbath commandment, will be the very one by which the destroyer will enter. The vials of wrath will be poured out on those that receive the mark of the beast (papacy). Rev. xiv, 9–11; xvi, 2. Under the last vial the great hail will fall upon men. What then becomes of the wall and those that are now daubing it? Hear the answer. "Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall; there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. . . . Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar; and I will say unto you, The wall is no more neither they that daubed it." Eze. xiii, 11, 15. This prophecy cannot be laid upon the shoulders of the poor Jews; for it applies down near the "day of the Lord." It applies to the generation living when the plagues are poured out. It is a remarkable fact that the clergy of these days whenever they find a promise in the word of God, take it right home to themselves; but if they stumble over a curse the poor Jews or Jerusalem must bear the smart. It is no wonder that you stand amazed at the enormous loads you think are heaped upon them, and seek to comfort them by proclaiming the restoration of that downtrodden people to their ancient home, and see "visions of peace" for Jerusalem. Eze. xiii, 16.

It will be in vain to change the truth of God into a lie, and then proclaim safety to those who take refuge therein, "for the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies." Isa. xxviii, 17.

You may say the Sabbath is not necessary to make up the hedge; you may turn away thinking the subject of no importance, but the prophet has anticipated you. "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. xxii, 26. This is the same class that have daubed the wall with untempered mortar. See verse 28.

Though the prophetic denunciations are very cutting, it is better to be broken now than in the day of the wrath of God. It is much easier to preach the truth than an error; though you do not get as much filthy lucre, you will get those never-fading crowns, and will shine in the kingdom of God forever and ever. Dan. xii, 3. Take heed lest that come upon you which is spoken by the prophets, and you perish when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Eagle Harbor, N. Y.

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.

ANOTHER year is numbered with the past, With all its disappointments, hopes and fears, And in eternity's deep ocean vast, Immeasurable, lo! it disappears. To some it gladness brought—to others tears,— To some it rang a merry marriage bell,— To others death and shrouds and gloomy biers In ghastly march, to which the passing bell And funeral dirge the while kept time surpassing well.

The sage philosophers, with anxious brow, Which tells of study ardent, long and deep, As they dive into nature, seeking how She moves and is, and climb the slippery steep To proud pre-eminence, whilst still they keep The longing eye upon some distant star, As if they grudged the necessary sleep, Lest other hand should pluck from their tiar The spangle called renown, so sought for from afar!

Warrior and statesman, merchant, prince and king, With all their glory, craft and sovereignty, Which in their train so much vexation bring, In one short year have been by death set free, If the dark numbness of the grave might be Called liberation—where, in gloom profound, Unconscious they await the time when He Shall bid th' archangel his dread tocsin sound, Which shall awake from sleep the myriads underground!

Then shall the meek, who long have borne the cross, Unshrinking at and unabashed by scorn, And counted worldly gain as worthless dross, Awake to gladness on that glorious morn With all who from the gospel womb are born, To greet their Lord triumphant from the skies, So long expected by the few who mourn At his long tarrying—but now their eyes Behold the glorious Sun of Righteousness arise.

May we who by the mercy of our God Have been preserved to see another year, Be not ashamed to spread the truth abroad, Undaunted by that kind of slavish fear Which makes us dread the scorner's laugh and sneer; But boldly spread Emmanuel's banner free, That all may see and from our lips may hear The tidings of redemption, and that we May gather many souls to serve and worship thee. [J. F. C.—World's Crisis.]

SLIDING DOWN HILL

Is a very common amusement for boys in the winter when the sleighing is good, but when individuals, or states, or nations begin to slide down hill, in a moral sense the case is very different.

Every discerning person must have observed the down hill tendency of affairs in our government for the last thirty years; but at present this downward tendency is evidently being much accelerated as we approach the foot of the hill.

The growing feuds between freedom and slavery, and the internal dissensions and discontents, the distant mutterings of the volcano that wakes itself, even by those who desire to view only the brightest side of the picture, the frequent financial and social and civil and ecclesiastical and national disasters, the railroad accidents &c., are now beginning to be felt; and as railroad and other stocks are shifted about in the market for a trifle, and as the confidence in men and corporations is almost extinguished, thoughtful, political economists are looking about them for some remedy which they fondly but vainly imagine will be a means of radical reform.

In so doing they ignore the great principles of right and wrong, and the great magna charta of American liberty. Our bill of right is forgotten in the general alarm. Our constitutional rights, the most sacred of them, have already been trampled in the dust, and still they meditate further mischief, as will be seen by the following from the N. Y. Tribune. Truly we may ask, Whither are we drifting?

Jos. CLARKE.

THE Albany Argus has a candid and forcible leader on the use of money in elections, deprecating the extravagant length to which it is said to have been carried, and insisting on a radical reform. We heartily second the motion, and proceed to point out the steps through which we believe it may be attained. These are:

1. A constitutional provision making the exercise of the right of suffrage obligatory on every legal voter. At present, while every rowdy, loafer, drunkard, blackguard or gambler is certain to be found at the polls, and often to stay there all day, a large proportion of our quiet, thrifty, orderly, law abiding citizens absent themselves, or only come forward to vote at seasons of high political excitement, or when some candidate is running in whose success they take a special interest. This is wrong, unpatriotic, perilous. The right of suffrage is not a personal privilege, but a high public trust to be exercised for the good of the community. No elector has any more moral right to refuse or neglect to vote than he has to refuse to serve on juries or pay his taxes. A constitutional requirement that every elector shall vote, under penalty of a fine of $3 and an addic of ten per. cent. to his next tax bill, would go very far toward remedying the evil justly complained of. For we presume money is very rarely spent to buy over voters from one party to the other. It is mainly used, we believe, to bring out voters who would otherwise remain at home. Make voting obligatory and this fountain of electioneering expenditure would be dried up.

THE WORDS WE SPEAK.

Our words are imperishable. Like winged messengers they go forth, but never to be recalled—never to die. They have a mighty power for good or evil through all time; and before the great white throne they will be swift witnesses for or against us.

Within the massive walls of a gloomy building, a nobleman was undergoing inquisition as to certain acts of his previous life. He had been told that nothing he might say should be divulged or recorded, and he spoke freely. But soon behind the arras, his ear caught the sharp clicking sound of a pen which recorded every word he uttered; and by those words he was to be judged. Do we remember that there is an ear that catches every word we utter, no matter how lightly, how scoffingly, how secretly spoken? And by these words shall we one day be acquitted or condemned.

The words we speak have a mighty power; and there are words angels might covet to utter. There are words of comfort to the afflicted. There are sad hearts that need comfort everywhere; and there are words of blame and cold indifference, or feigned sympathy, that fall like lead upon the stricken spirit; and there are blessed heart-words of cheer which bear up the soul and enable it to look out from the dark night of its troubles and discern the silver lining of the gloomy cloud.

There are words of counsel to the young, to the tempted, the erring. Speak them earnestly, affectionately, and though the waves of circumstance may soon waft them away from your observation, yet such is God's husbandry, that if uttered in faith and with prayer, he will take care that on an earthly or heavenly shore the reaper shall rejoice that he was a sower.

There are kind words; how little they cost, how priceless they are! Harsh words beget harshness; and fretful words, like a certain little insect, sting us into a feverish impatience. But who can resist the charm of kind loving words? The heart expands beneath them as to the sunshine, and they make us happier and better.

It was said of the gifted Mrs. Fry, that she had a wise, kind word for all, and those kind words unlocked stony hearts as well as prison doors, and made her a blessed visitant to the criminal and the outcast.

Then there are cheerful words and why should we dole them out with such miserly care? They ought to form the atmosphere of our homes, and to be habitual in all our social intercourse. We have so many weaknesses, so many crosses, so much that is down-hill in life that the habit of thinking and speaking cheerfully is invaluable.

But there are other words against which we should pray, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." There are words of falsehood and deceit. They lurk in our expressions of civility, our professions of friendship, our transactions of business. How early do children, even, begin to weave a web of deceit,

and how carefully should those who train them watch against this sin, and by example and precept, teach them always and everywhere to speak the truth.

There are slanderous words—how mischievous they are! There are the words of the tale-bearers that breed suspicions and jealousies in neighborhoods, and between families. There are envious words and flattering words and faltering words which are no better. Then there is the long list of idle words, or by-words as they are called.

How many there are who shudder at an oath, who yet break the spirit of the third commandment, by constantly interlarding their conversation by expletives!

But there is another class of words to which we would gladly refer—they are the words of eternal life. Cornelius sent for Peter that he might speak words to him. What blessed words those were! Will they not be remembered with joy by both speaker and hearer throughout all eternity? As we pass along through the world, God will often let us speak a word for him; and if we seek his aid he will make it a word of power and comfort, a word in season to him that is weary.

"Speak gently; 'tis a little thing, Dropped in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, which it may bring, Eternally shall tell."—Bullard.

WOMAN'S PATIENCE.

It is pre-eminently in woman that this virtue of patience is exemplified, as indeed her sphere gives more occasion for the passive virtues than for active and noisy heroism. Often it is given to her to suffer, where it is given to man to toil; and too often does woman suffer without due sympathy from that sterner nature whose very toil she sweetens with her gentle assiduities. The noblest pages of heroism and martyrdom are unwritten, save in God's book of remembrance; for who could write the patience of a wife's devotion, of a mother's love, in seeking salvation for her house? Where there is one Miriam to lead the song of the exultant host, there are a thousand Marys living in obscurity, pondering in their hearts the promised redemption, and through ignominy, and disappointment, and delay, and sorrow piercing like a sword, still magnifying the Lord, and waiting for salvation, beside the cross and at the door of the sepulcher. Where there is one Deborah to arouse the tribes to battle with her war-chants, there are a thousand Hannahs, who, with silent but agonizing prayer, wait upon God, and who bring their Samuels to his altar as the sacrifice of love, and faith, and hope. The mother of the great Augustine, who for fifteen hundred years has so largely molded the creed of the church, the devout Monica, had in her own household the most bitter trials. Her husband, a proud and sensual Pagan, hating the cross, and hating her for having embraced the cross, would not only annoy her by all manner of heathen orgies in the house, but being a man of most violent temper, would turn upon her the fury of his passion. Especially did he seek to thwart her religious influence over their son. He brought up Augustine in pagan schools, and even allowed him in the vices of the times. But though all this Monica was so gentle, so kind, so meek, so patient, so faithful, that at length she softened the tiger to a lamb, and her husband before he died accepted the faith of Christ. But his evil example outlived him in his son; and Augustine, at twenty, beautiful in person, brilliant in intellect, had all the ungodly impulses of his father's fiery nature, strengthened by indulgence, and now left without restraint. But Monica had given him to God; she had scattered divine truth along his path from infancy upward; and clinging to the unfailing promises of grace, she followed him still with her patient love. One day she stood before her pastor, "the tears streaming down her careworn cheek," and besought him to use his influence to reclaim her son. "Wait," said the man of God, "wait patiently; the son of these tears cannot perish."

Now a popular teacher of rhetoric—Augustine leaves Carthage, which he had found a "caldron of unholy loves," to seek his fortune at Milan, the court of the empire. There, while winning applause as a rhetorician, he pursues the same godless and dissolute life amid the gayeties and dissipations of the capital. But his mother followed him across the sea and into strange lands; and for thirteen years of his manhood, she carries this great sorrow of an apostate son, waiting upon him in love, waiting upon God in faith, saying, "I will see him a Christian yet before I die." At length patience has its perfect work. Before she dies, Augustine lives. And as her star of hope, which had been the only light of his stormy seas, sinks to its peaceful rest, his sun arises to illumine the church of God from age to age.—Thompson's "Christian graces," pp. 123–126.

ONLY A TRIFLE.

“That is right,” said I to my friend Simpkins, the baker, as the sickly-looking widow of Harry Watkins went out of the shop door with a loaf of bread which he had given her—“that’s right, Simpkins; I am glad you are helping the poor creature, for she has had a hard time of it since Harry died, and her own health failed her.

“Hard enough, sir, hard enough; and I am glad to help her, though what I give her don’t cost much—only a trifle, sir!”

“How often does she come?”

“Only three times a week. I told her to come oftener, if she needed to, but she says three loaves are a plenty for her and her little one, with what she gets by sewing.”

“And have you any more such customers, Simpkins?”

“Only two or three, sir.”

“Only two or three! Why, it must make quite a tax upon your profits?”

“O no, not as much as you suppose; altogether it amounts to only a trifle.”

I could not but smile as my friend repeated these words; but after I left him I fell to thinking how much good he is doing with “only a trifle.” He supplies three or four families with the bread they eat from day to day; and though the actual cost for a year shows but a small sum of dollars and cents, the benefit conferred is by no means a small one. A sixpence to any man who has plenty to “eat and drink, and wherewithal to be clothed,” is nothing, but is something to one on the verge of starvation. And we know not how much good we are doing when we give “only a trifle,” to a good object.—Sel.

The Bright Side.

Look on the bright side. It is the right side. Times may be hard, but it will make them no easier to wear a gloomy and sad countenance. It is the sunshine and not the cloud that makes the flower. There is always that before or around us which should cheer and fill the heart with warmth. The sky is blue ten times where it is black once. You have troubles it may be; so have others. None are free from them. Perhaps it is as well that none should be. They give sinew and tone to life—fortitude and courage to man. That would be a dull sea, and the sailor would never get skill, where there was nothing to disturb the surface of the ocean. It is the duty of every one to extract all the happiness he can without and within him; and above all he should look on the bright side of things. What though things do look a little dark? The lane will turn, and the night will end in broad day. In the long run the great balance rights itself. What is ill becomes well—what is wrong right. Men are not made to hang down either head or lips, and those who do only show that they are departing from the paths of true common sense and right. There is more virtue in one sunbeam than a whole hemisphere of clouds and gloom. Therefore we repeat, look on the bright side of things. Cultivate what is warm and genial—not the cold and repulsive, the dark and morose.—Anon.

A FALSE BELIEF NO EXCUSE.

THE most common, and yet the most shallow of all excuses for a wrong course of life is, that it consists with the individual's belief. Many seem to thing that after a life of sin they shall, on this plea, be justified at the last day; and no appeals that are now made to their conscience in behalf of the truth or right, can be admitted; because, they tell us, they are of another persuasion. They really believe in Deism, Pantheism, Atheism, or in some thing else equally exclusive of all religious obligation, so they feel safe and justified in repelling every appeal to reason or conscience. They think, that if they should in the end be found in a mistake as to their particular belief, it will be all the same; for then it will be enough for them to plead, that they really believed what they did, and that their way seemed right to them.

The truth is, the tempter, in dealing with our understanding, always presents some seeming truth. His object is to color falsehood into a likeness to the truth, that he may deceive. The tempter's bait is always some apparent good. In every case the human will chooses in view of some apparent good. And never does one deliberately commit a sin, till he has made it seem to himself, that on the whole, it is best to do it any more than one adopts an error, till it seems to him to be true.

The fact therefore, that a man's understanding has been abused by a heart seduced to make that seem true which was even shockingly false, is no justification for wrong thinking or wrong doing. For one never sins till his reason so bends to some delusion as to make it seem good to sin. The whole art of Satan's temptations consists in making evil seem to be good. God denounces his woe on this very wickedness of making the false seeming out of which all sin and error comes. He says, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness.” For one to say that the evil seemed good, is only saying that his understanding joined with his will in the sin. The forbidden fruit seemed good to our mother Eve. Intoxicated by the false seeming,

“She plucked, she ate; Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe; That all was lost.”—Puritan Recorder.

A DAY OF HEAVEN UPON EARTH.

By Hamilton

O SABBATH!—needed for a world of innocence—without thee what would be a world of sin! There would be no pause for consideration, no check to passion, no remission of toil, no balm for care! He who had withheld thee, would have forsaken the earth! Without thee he had never given to us the Bible, the Gospel, the Spirit! We salute thee as thou comest to us in the name of the Lord—radiant in the sunshine of that dawn which broke over creation’s achieved work—marching downward in the track of time, a pillar of refreshing cloud and guiding flame, interweaving with all thy light new beams of discovery and promise, until thou standest forth more fair than when reflected in the dews and imbibed by the flowers of Eden—more awful than when the trumpet rang of thee in Sinai!

It is a day of heaven upon earth! Life's sweetest calm, poverty's birthright, labor's only rest! Nothing has such a hoard of antiquity in it! Nothing contains in it such a history! Nothing draws along with it such a glory! Nurse of virtue, seal of truth! The household's richest patrimony, the nation's noblest safeguard! The pledge of peace, the fountain of intelligence, the strength of law! The oracle of instruction, the ark of mercy! The parent of our manhood's spiritual greatness. The harbinger of our soul's sanctified perfection. The glory of religion, the watch-tower of immortality. The ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reacheth to heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it.—Hamilton

A Suggestion for Family Worship.

THERE is a family in this State in which the Scriptures have been read daily for more than a quarter of a century; and in this reading the children have been greatly interested, one after another, from the time they were old enough to speak. The father, to secure this interest and make the service pleasant to each child, has practiced pausing here and there in the chapter, and asking this or that child to repeat the last words or lines read, selecting the easiest words for the youngest child, and perhaps asking of an older child an exposition of a verse or phrase. In this way the constant attention of each child is secured, as neither the oldest nor the youngest is willing to lose a sentence, lest he should be called upon to repeat it, and not be able.—Examiner.

Don't be hasty.

1. BECAUSE you will be likely to treat quite lightly two very good friends of yours, Reason and Conscience, who will not have a chance to speak.

2. Because you will have to travel over the same ground in company with one sober Second Thought, who will be more likely to have with him a whip of scorpions than a bunch of flowers.

3. Because the words or actions involved in it are more likely than otherwise to be misunderstood, and therefore to be severely judged.

4. Because this is one way to please and give great advantage to a great enemy of yours, one powerful enough to be called the “Prince of the World,” and who has caught more people than can be counted, in this very trap.

5. Because such a fire may be kindled that it cannot be put out even by all the water a whole engine company can throw, with Second Thought for their captain.—Sel.

The Loving-Kindness of God

THE LOVING-KINDNESS OF GOD.—The loving-kindness of God—what a beautiful expression! How rich and consoling the thought contained in it! It is not mere good-will—not mere complacent friendship—not the mere neighborly kindness of human beings, although these are of high and precious account; it is the good-will, the friendship, the kindness of love—of the love of God, who is love itself. We know something of the loving-kindness of father and mother. We have been gently tended and nursed by this kindness: or, parents ourselves, we know full well the throbbing of parental affection. Deep, earnest, selfsacrificing is human love in many tender relations. We trust in it fervently, and without fear. Oh! if there were no human love in which we can trust, what a desolate place would this earth be! But the loving-kindness of God—of that great and incomprehensible Being who fills the universe with his presence, and before whose majesty the pillars of heaven tremble—what a loving-kindness that must be!—the kindness of infinite love wedded to infinite power! There is nothing that love can conceive of, or wish to do for its object, but is contained here, and rendered not only possible, but absolutely certain. —Sunday-school Times.

Truth and Persecution

By Martin Luther

Do not the Scriptures clearly show that they who persecute are generally in the wrong and they who suffer persecution in the right; that the majority has always been on the side of falsehood and the minority on the side of truth? It is the fate of truth to occasion an outcry.—Martin Luther.

Faith and Care

By Rev. M. Henry

IF we had more faith, we should have less care.

Rev. M. Henry.

God's Providence

By Adam

GOD'S PROVIDENCE.—He who sends the storm steers the vessel.—Adam.

SABBATICAL CATECHISM.

(Continued.)

QUESTION. Have we any mention of the Sabbath in the book of Numbers?

ANSWER. The Sabbath is mentioned but three times in Numbers; namely, chap. xv, 32; xxviii, 9, 10. The first instance is the mention of the man who was found picking up sticks. And it is recorded that they put him in ward, not knowing what should be done unto him: showing conclusively that the punishment inflicted on transgressors of the Sabbath under the former dispensation, was no part of the great Sabbath law, but a matter of subsequent enactment for that locality and that people. It was the same with the other commandments [see Leviticus xx, 1-10]; and those who unwittingly declare that if we now keep the seventh day Sabbath, we must stone the transgressor, to be consistent must carry out their theory on the other commandments which they admit to be binding, and the transgression of which under that dispensation was followed by the same penalty. The two latter references [chap. xxviii, 1, 10] contain the directions for the morning and evening sacrifices for the Sabbath which were to be twice as much as on other days. This shows that the directions, "Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day," Ex. xvi, 29, and "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitation upon the Sabbath day," Ex. xxxv, 3, had reference to actions of this kind which they would unnecessarily do for their own use; it shows us what is meant by "thy work" in the fourth commandment. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work," &c. The service of God is always excepted.

Ques. How many times is the Sabbath mentioned in Deuteronomy?

Ans. Only three times; in the 12th, 14th and 15th verses of chapter v.

Ques. Under what circumstances was the Sabbath here mentioned?

Ans. It was but a rehearsal by Moses just before his death of the principal events of the journey of Israel through the wilderness.

Ques. When was this?

Ans. Forty years after the giving of the law on mount Sinai.

Ques. To which place then should we look for the true intent of the Sabbath law, and the reasons upon which it is based? To the original promulgation of the law by the voice of God, or to this rehearsal by Moses forty years afterwards?

Ans. Most assuredly to its original promulgation from Sinai. It was not necessary that Moses should repeat the command as uttered by God and written with his finger on tables of stone; they had that with them in the ark. But he refers to their past bondage in the land of Egypt, and appeals to their gratitude as a powerful motive to obedience. As much as to say, God has brought you out of the land of Egypt, therefore, by the claims he has upon your gratitude, he commands you to keep the Sabbath. For the same reason he commanded them to be merciful to the fatherless and the widow. See chap. xxiv, 17, 18. Therefore those who appeal to Deut. v, as proof that the Sabbath was given to the Jews alone, and that simply because God had brought them out of the land of Egypt, find no ground for their assumption.

Ques. Is there any mention made of the Sabbath in Joshua? Ans. No. In Judges? No. In Ruth? No. In first and second Samuel? No. In first Kings? No. In second Kings?

Ans. The Sabbath is mentioned five times in 2 Kings; viz., chap. xi, 5, 7, 9; xvi, 18.

Ques. At what time was this first mention, the one recorded in chap. xi?

Ans. At the coronation of king Joash, B. C. 889.

Ques. How long a period then have we passed from Moses without a mention of the Sabbath?

Ans. Six hundred and seventy-seven years.

Ques. Is this the first mention of the Sabbath subsequent to Moses?

Ans. Yes, unless 1 Chron. ix, 32 be an exception; and even in this case, we have from Moses to David a period of about five hundred years without a mention of the Sabbath.

Ques. Following the example of our opponents, what position should we have to take on this point?

Ans. The position that the Sabbath was not known during this period, because not mentioned; just as they argue that it was not known from creation to Moses, because not mentioned during that time.

Ques. But might not our opponents say with reason that after having such an explicit account of the Sabbath in the last four books of Moses, there is no need of its being mentioned from that time to David?

Ans. Then in like manner we may say that after having such an explicit account of its institution in the garden of Eden [Gen. ii], there is no need of its mention from creation to Moses.

Ques. How many times is the Sabbath mentioned in Chronicles?

Ans. In 1 Chron. once; viz., ix, 32; and in 2 Chron. three times; in chap. xxiii, 4, 8, referring to the same event as in 2 Kings xi, 5, 7, 9.

Ques. Is the Sabbath found in the book of Ezra?

Ans. No.

Ques. How many times in the book of Nehemiah?

Ans. Thirteen times: once in chap. ix, twice in chap. x, and ten times in chap. xiii.

Ques. Which passage is particularly worthy of notice?

Ans. Chap. ix, 12, 14, as this is the testimony seized upon by our opponents to show that the Sabbath was not known previous to the arrival of the children of Israel at Sinai; which, they say, is proved by the expression, "Thou camest down upon mount Sinai, . . . and madest known to them thy holy Sabbath," &c.

Ques. What fact shows such a claim to be wholly erroneous?

Ans. The fact that the Sabbath was known to Israel one month before they reached Sinai, as recorded in the xviith of Exodus.

Ques. What then can be meant by the expression, "madest known?"

Ans. It must refer simply to the especial promulgation of the Sabbath with the other nine commandments by the voice of God.

Ques. Is not the Sabbath here associated with the statutes, precepts and ceremonies which were given by the hand of Moses, in such a manner as to prove it to be, like them, temporary and ceremonial in its nature?

Ans. It is not; for the Sabbath was not given by the hand of Moses, but was spoken by God directly to the people.

Ques. Is there any mention of the Sabbath in the books of Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song?

Ans. There is not.

Ques. How many times is it mentioned in the book of Isaiah?

Ans. Six times; three times in chap. lvi, twice in chap. lviii, and once in chap. lxvi.

Ques. What is the testimony concerning it in chap. lvi?

Ans. It is a prophecy of its restoration in the last days. In chap. iv, we have brought to view the gospel invitation. Chap. lvi brings us down to the close of that dispensation, when God's salvation is near to come; and that will come when Christ is revealed from heaven. See 1 Pet. i, 5. A blessing is pronounced upon those who lay hold upon the Sabbath at this time; also upon the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord; and the promise is that they shall be brought to his holy mountain and made joyful in his house of prayer.

Ques. Are we told in chap. lviii, that we shall be called repairers of the breach, and restorers of paths to dwell in, if we turn away our feet from trampling upon the Sabbath?

Ans. No; for the 13th verse goes with the 14th, and the promise is, that if we turn away our feet from the Sabbath, we shall delight ourselves in the Lord, and he will cause us to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed us with the heritage of our father Jacob. Chap. lxvi speaks of its perpetuation in the new earth.

Ques. Is the Sabbath mentioned in Jeremiah?

Ans. Only in chap. xvii, where it is alluded to seven times.

Ques. How many times more is it mentioned in the rest of the Old Testament?

Ans. Of the rest of the O. T. only the books of Ezekiel and Amos speak of it. It is found in Eze. xx, six times; xxii, twice; xxiii, once; xliv, once; xlvi, three times, and in Amos viii, once.

(To be Continued.)

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