Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 8, 1856
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ADVENTISM.
(Continued.)
CAMP-MEETING ERA.
WHILE the meetings were progressing in New York, the friends in Boston determined on a general rally in that city during anniversary week. Accordingly, the Melodeon was secured for the occasion, and our meetings began under the most auspicious circumstances. Adventism had never seen a brighter day. The attendance was large throughout the entire meeting. Although the interests of the week were great, yet none had a larger share of attention than the Advent Anniversary Conference. During that week, among the various other interests which came up for discussion, was the question of holding a camp-meeting or camp-meetings during the ensuing Summer. This was thought, by many, a great undertaking. What, a little handful of Adventists hold a camp-meeting! Why, they are hardly able to hold a house-meeting, much less a camp-meeting! However, there was sufficient faith and zeal in the meeting, to say "TRY." Arrangements were accordingly made by the appointment of a camp-meeting committee, to carry the plan into effect. It was determined to make a most vigorous effort during the Summer, for the spread of this great light. For we then thought it doubtful whether we ever should reach another anniversary week, in time.
Immediately after the anniversary meetings were over, the writer started for Canada East, to fulfill an engagement in Stanstead. He left Boston on Monday morning, and arrived at Stanstead, and began his meeting on Wednesday. The interest steadily increased from the beginning, and before two weeks were passed, the country, for thirty or forty miles around, was awake to the subject of the Lord's coming. Immense concourses assembled, both in Canada and in Derby, Vermont, where a course of lectures was given. Such was the interest to hear, and the awakening among the people, that it was determined at once to hold a camp-meeting in Canada. In accordance with this determination, a place was selected, the ground prepared, and the meeting held in the township of Hadley, Canada East. Such was the good effect of this first meeting, that the people of Bolton wished one to be held in their town. This was begun the next week after the Hadley meeting closed, and ended on the third of July. During that month's labor, as near as could be estimated, five or six hundred souls were converted to God.
The last week in June, the first Advent camp-meeting held in the States, commenced in East Kingston, New Hampshire, where an immense multitude assembled to hear the word of the kingdom, and worship the God of Abraham. Thus, instead of one Advent camp-meeting during the season, which the unbelief of some thought could hardly be carried through, within one month of the determination to "try" three such meetings had actually been successful. Besides these camp-meetings, there were immense gatherings of the people all through the northern part of Vermont and New Hampshire, and onward through the State of Maine. It was a movement which shook the nation.
THE GREAT TENT.
While these operations were going forward, the plan was started for constructing a large tent sufficient to accommodate four thousand persons, with which to go into the cities where no house was open for lectures. This proposition was at once received by the people, and Brother Himes, with the help of other friends, undertook the work. Such a tent was completed and pitched in Concord, New Hampshire, in the latter part of July. The excitement produced by such a movement was still greater than that occasioned by the Advent camp-meetings.
The tent was next pitched in Albany, New York. Then in Springfield, and Salem, Massachusetts, and Benson, Vermont. And finally, for the last time in the season, in Newark, New Jersey. In all these places the word took effect and produced the greatest and most beneficial results. Besides the great tent meetings and numerous courses of lectures, there were held some six or eight camp-meetings, in New England, during the Summer and Fall. The work spread with a power unparalleled in the history of religious excitements. And had it been the object of Adventists to form a sect, never was there a more favorable opportunity to carry all before them, given to any people. But higher and holier objects were in their vision;—the saving of sinners from death, and the obtaining a preparation for the coming of the Lord, were the objects of their highest ambition.
During the season, Brother C. Fitch made a visit to Oberlin Institute, where he proclaimed the doctrine of the Lord's coming to the students, as well as faculty of the institution, and in various other places in Ohio. While on this tour, the Lord wonderfully blest his labors, and gave him favor in the sight of the people. It was arranged for him to remove his family into that region of country, to spend the Winter, and lecture in Cleveland and vicinity. This movement awakened an interest in that part of the country, which has been increasing to the present time.
OPERATIONS DURING THE WINTER OF 1842-3.
After the close of the Newark camp or tent-meeting, the cold weather set in and rendered it impracticable longer to continue these public out-door meetings, and the laborers began to arrange for a winter's campaign. Brother Himes, together with Brother Miller and others, returned to New York, and commenced a course of lectures in the church, corner of Catharine and Madison Streets, where Brother Storrs had been laboring with great success for a number of weeks. The interest still continued to increase beyond all expectation. An invitation was also given for a course of lectures in the Methodist Protestant Church, in Anthony Street, under the pastoral care of Brother E. Jacobs. This invitation was accepted by Brother A. Hale, and attended with a great blessing. Brother Jacobs, and many of his church, embraced the doctrine, and began immediately to proclaim it with power.
THE "MIDNIGHT CRY" COMMENCED.
Such was the interest in New York City, that it was determined, by Brother J. V. Himes, to commence a daily Advent paper, and publish it at least for four weeks, in which the principle arguments sustaining our views were to be embodied and given to the public in a cheap and popular form. The paper was commenced in the latter part of November, 1842, entitled "The Midnight Cry." It was principally under the editorial supervision of our beloved and faithful brother, N. Southard. The twenty-four numbers were published, and ten thousand copies of each number circulated. Most of these were gratuitously distributed through the post offices at the expense of the publisher. Of course, such a distribution could not fail to awaken an interest throughout the country of the most salutary character. Thousands were enlightened and instructed, and embraced the doctrine, who never heard a lecture on the subject. The "Cry" has been continued as a weekly paper up to the present time, and has each successive week been extending its sphere of usefulness, and cheering the hearts of thousands of lonely pilgrims in every part of the land.
After the Newark tent-meeting, the writer made another visit to Philadelphia, where he, in connection with Brother A. Hale, who soon joined him, through the influence of Brother J. W. Dyer and wife, found an open door and access to the people. After a short time, however, the churches were all closed against us, and we were obliged to open a separate meeting or give up the enterprise. The friends interested in the cause came forward and secured a place for our meetings, which we commenced in the latter part of December, 1842, under the most encouraging circumstances.
The beginning of January brought with it openings in the country, which were accepted; and the Lord blessed the labor to the good of many precious souls. The labors of Brother Hale, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and vicinity, during the month of January, 1843, will be remembered by the people of that part of the country while thought or being last.
In January, 1843, a tract was prepared, containing an outline of the whole subject, and translated into the German language; some thousands of which have been circulated among the German population of the country. In February, 1843, Brother Miller and Brother Himes visited Philadelphia, and gave a course of lectures, with very great effect. The city was convulsed throughout with the influence of the26lectures. Saints rejoiced, the wicked trembled, backsliders quaked, and the word of the Lord ran and was glorified. It is doubtful whether Mr. Miller ever gave a course of lectures with greater effect than at that time. It placed the cause on a permanent foundation in the city, and prepared the way for extending it into the South and West. A book-room was opened in the city early in January, and a small penny paper, the Philadelphia Alarm, was issued. Thirteen numbers of it were published, about four thousand copies per number.
About the same time, two brethren started on a southern tour; they proceeded as far as Richmond, Virginia, but finding it impracticable to do anything there, they returned to Philadelphia; where one of them, Brother E. Hale Jr., determined on returning again as far as the District of Columbia, in connection with the writer, and make another trial there. We were accompanied by brethren T. Drake, J. J. Porter. We succeeded in obtaining a hearing in the Methodist Protestant Church, at the Navy Yard, in Washington. The Lord blest the word, and souls were saved. Brother Porter, after leaving Washington, made yet another effort to go into Virginia, which also failed. Indeed, it seemed as though some fatal spell had fastened on the South, that it could not be approached. The writer, in connection with E. Hale, Jr., left Washington on the 5th of March, for the West, and proceeded as far as Pittsburg. The Lord opened the way in that city, so that, in the course of a week, there was a very general inquiry awakened on the subject, and a number of churches were opened for lectures. So also, in the vicinity around the city. Indeed, the whole West seemed ripe and ready for harvest. Letters written from Pittsburgh, and published in the Midnight Cry, soon aroused the friends at the East, and a number of lecturers immediately started for that field of labor. The Advent banner was unfurled in Cincinnati, and from thence the light has been spreading all over the western and southern country.
Returning from Pittsburgh, about the middle of March, the Philadelphia Alarm was discontinued, or rather merged in the Trumpet of Alarm, a paper containing the diagrams of the visions of Daniel and John, and a connected view of the Advent doctrine, gotten up for the express purpose of circulating in the West and South. From twenty-five to thirty thousand copies of it have been circulated.
While these things were going on at the West, the Lord was still at work in the East. By his gracious Providence, those beloved brethren N. N. Whiting, J. B. Cook, and F. G. Brown, were brought into the faith and began to proclaim it aloud. The effect of it was electrical. Very many, who had previously looked upon the subject as beneath their notice, began to feel that it was possible, after all, that there might be something in it. This induced examination of the evidence, and that again produced conviction of the truth of the doctrine.
In a manner too rapid to record, the Advent cause went forward during that Winter. I am aware that history loses more than half its interest from the absence of its details; but such are the limits to which this sketch must be confined, it is impossible to enter into the minutia of the thing. All that can be done, will be to record the outlines of the story.
Then, again, Brother Fitch's mission in Ohio resulted in the establishment of a Second Advent paper in Cleveland, which has proved an instrument of great good to the cause in that section of the country.
Brethren H. B. Skinner and L. Caldwell, who spent the Winter in Canada East, also commenced a paper there, devoted to the cause. But I must hasten to record the crisis.
THE CRISIS—ITS EFFECT.
All the calculations of prophetic time were understood to end in 1843. What time, in that year, was a matter of uncertainty. Some supposed one point of time, some another. It was Mr. Miller's opinion that the 70 weeks ended with the crucifixion, in A. D. 33; consequently, the whole time would end with its anniversary, in 1843. But he was not satisfied as to the exactness of the calculation, and hence, from the outset, expressed himself "about 1843." The writer well recollects a conversation he had with Mr. Miller on the subject in 1839, when he remarked,
that he was not of the opinion that it would transpire in the Spring of 1843; he thought our faith would be tried; and added, I shall claim the whole Jewish year, until March 21st, 1844, for my time. It is due to Brother Miller to make this statement, because it has been said so frequently that he has changed the time. It is not so. True, he never publicly defined what he called 1843, until the Winter of the year commenced, and so many fixed on its earlier parts as the terminus, that it became necessary to do so, in order to clear himself of their positions and responsibilities.
FEBRUARY—THE TAKING OF ROME.
The earliest date fixed upon by any of the Adventists as a probable time for the Lord's coming, was February 10th, forty-five years from the time the French army took Rome, in 1798. The next point, and the one which was thought the most probable, was the 15th of February, the anniversary of the abolition of the papal government, and the erection of the Roman Republic. Viewing this to be the termination of the 1290 days of Daniel xii, 11, they believed 45 years more would terminate the 1335 days of verse 12.
Accordingly, expectation with many was on tip-toe, fully believing that the great day of the Lord would then break upon the world. Nor were such anticipations entirely without reason. The event which had marked that day, forty-five years previously, was of such a character as to warrant such an expectation. So far from condemning those who thus looked and expected the coming of the Lord, they are rather to be commended. Better, far better, to expect him, and be disappointed a thousand times, than to have him come in an unexpected and unprepared moment. Twas greatly wise, therefore, to expect and be prepared for the event, at the earliest possible point, where there was a probability of the ending of the periods.
Those periods came and passed with no unusual occurrence. As soon as they had gone by, a flood of scoffing, reviling and persecution burst forth, not from the infidel world, so much, but from the professed friends of the Saviour; the most idle and foolish stories of ascension ropes, and going out into the grave-yards to watch, going to the tops of the houses, &c., &c.; these were repeated again and again, both from pulpit and press, until the public were, many of them at least, almost persuaded to believe them true.
How, or where they originated, except in wilful falsehood, we cannot devise. Some of the reports of that character, we happen to know, originated with professed ministers of the gospel, who gave date and place, where there was not a word of truth in the whole story. Others must have originated in a similar way.
The effect of this disappointment on the believers in the Lord's coming, instead of shaking their confidence in the truth of the Bible, or the doctrine of Christ's speedy appearing, rather settled them in the belief, and rendered them less effervescent, but more confirmed and disposed patiently to watch. Few, if any, were so much shaken by the passing of that time, as to go back and give up the doctrine.
SECOND POINT—THE FOURTEENTH OF APRIL.
The 15th of February past, the next epoch which presented itself as a leading point of time, was the Passover, the season of the year in which the crucifixion took place. This was looked upon by many as being a strongly marked era,—1. Because it was on that occasion God delivered his people from Egypt, 430 years from Abraham's sojourn. 2. Because on that feast our blessed Saviour was crucified, and, as many believed, ended the 70 weeks of Daniel ix, 24. Hence, they argued, the 2300 days must terminate when the same feast arrives in 1843, and the Saviour will come.
"And why," it is asked, "was not that reasoning sound, if your premises are correct, viz., that the 70 weeks are the first 490 years of the 2300?"
The answer is,—1. It has never been proved that the crucifixion of Christ just finished the 70 weeks. On the contrary, Daniel ix, 27, gives us a strong intimation, nay, more than an intimation, a strong assertion, that in the midst of the week, within its limits, he should cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. And the last event of the 70 weeks, as enumerated in verse 24, was the anointing of the "Most Holy," or the "Holy of Holies," or the "Sanctum Sanctorum." Not that which was on earth, made with hands, but the true tabernacle, heaven itself, into which Christ, our High Priest, is for us entered. Christ was to do in the true tabernacle, in heaven, what Moses and Aaron did in the pattern. See Hebrews vi, vii, viii, ix. And Exodus xxx, 22-30. Also Leviticus viii, 10-15. The anointing of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle on earth, immediately preceded the presentation of the sin-offering before the mercy-seat. Of course, Christ, our High Priest, must go within the vail before he could fulfill the type. This he did not do before his ascension.
2. It has not been proved that the cleansing of the Sanctuary, which was to take place at the end of the 2300 days, was the coming of Christ, or the purification of the earth. The marginal reading is, "then shall the sanctuary be JUSTIFIED." And this term should always be kept in mind, and is the true word; perfectly harmonizing with the whole tenor of Scripture. But this subject will be discussed in another work, and does not belong to this place. It will be sufficient to say, here, that facts, which have been in a course of fulfillment since last May, have afforded good evidence that the calculation of the 2300 days was correct, assuming the ascension of our Lord as the end of the 70 weeks.
The 14th of April was a point of time anticipated with the deepest solicitude by many. They had the fullest confidence that it would not pass without bringing the expected crisis. When it passed away, however, instead of sinking down in discouragement, the friends of the cause held fast their integrity, as a general thing, and continued to carry on the work with greater zeal than ever. Others looked forward to the season of the Ascension or Feast of Pentecost as being the most likely time for the Advent; and they, too, were disappointed. At this juncture, the enemies of Adventism supposed there would be a very general giving up of the faith. But in this they were as greatly disappointed as the Adventists were in not seeing the Saviour in his glory.
The month of May came and brought with it the celebration of the great religious, moral and philanthropic anniversaries, in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Among the rest of the hosts, appeared the Adventists. These anniversaries were fully attended both by lecturers and friends of the cause generally. The occasions were of deep interest, and gave a new impulse to the work.
The momentary reaction which resulted from the passing away of the month of May, was counterbalanced, and the brethren started on their summer tours with new zeal and courage. The door was everywhere open before them, so that, notwithstanding the laborers were greatly multiplied, yet one-half the calls for light could not be met and supplied.
As the Summer opened, preparations were made for tabernacle and camp-meetings. East, West, and North, they were appointed and held; most of which were attended with the special blessing of God on the people, and greatly extended the knowledge of the Advent views. Nor did the presentation of the subject lose any of its power from the fact of the disappointment in respect to time. The same anxiety to hear on the subject, which has characterized the doctrine from its beginning, marked it still. Not only in places where it had gained a foot-hold, but in new places where it had never been proclaimed, the greatest anxiety to hear was manifested.
Brother Himes undertook the task of again sustaining the great tent, and going with it into western New York. This he, in connection with other brethren, carried through. Up to that time, no permanent interest had been created in that part of the country. But from the holding of the tent-meetings in Rochester and Buffalo, the subject took a strong hold on the community through that region of country, and has been steadily going forward ever since.27From Buffalo, the tent was taken to Cincinnati, Ohio, and a full exposition of the Advent doctrines given to the people. Several courses of lectures, however, had been previously delivered in that city, and the people were thus prepared to improve the privilege of the tent-lectures. There had also been several camp-meetings in the vicinity of the city; so that a great interest prevailed in the country to obtain light on the subject.
In connection with each of the tent-meetings, an Advent paper was published, in which the main points of the Advent doctrine were given to the people, with great effect.
Another attempt was made, in the Spring and Summer, to carry the doctrine more fully into the South, by brethren Storrs and Brown. The former went to Norfolk, Virginia, in the month of May, but could get no hearing at all. The latter visited Washington city, Richmond, Virginia, and Norfolk, in June and July. In the first and last named places he gained a hearing; but at Richmond no opportunity presented itself for a lecture. But little interest, however, was awakened at that time; and Brother Brown's health failing him, he was obliged to abandon the enterprise. Another effort was made by two brethren from Philadelphia, in the lower part of Delaware and eastern shore of Maryland, with good success.
As the autumnal equinox approached, the expectations of many were raised, that the Lord would come at the season of the Feast of Tabernacles. But that occasion passed by with no particular change; so that some took occasion to say, "every vision faileth, the days are prolonged." But the steadfastness of the faith of such as were looking for the Lord, showed that they had not believed the doctrine without investigation. They had made up their minds that the history of the world, (as one brother expressed it) was not to turn round and go back again. They well understood that the prophetic history is filled up. There cannot be a long delay before the everlasting kingdom of God will come. Few, very few, were discouraged by the passing away of time.
We have not space for a full account of the numerous incidents which marked the labors of the Summer and Autumn of 1843. But it must be recorded, to the praise of God's glorious grace, that the work of the Lord went steadily forward, bearing down all opposition, from whatever source.
We were deprived, during the entire Spring and Summer of the labors of our beloved Brother Miller, who was confined to his house by a painful sickness, for a number of months. In the Fall of the year, as his health improved, he again commenced his arduous work: first making a tour through New England, and then into western New York. During the eight weeks which he spent in the latter tour, he preached eighty-five times, besides all the other duties which devolved upon him, incidental to such a journey. Never were his labors attended with better results, or received with greater pleasure than during that journey. "The good seed," "the word of the kingdom," still found good ground, into which it fell, took root, and brought forth fruit.
During this visit to the West, among other places, he visited Lockport, New York, the residence of Elder E. Galusha, so well known in the Baptist church in the United States. He had been for several months more or less exercised on the subject of the coming of the Lord, and had given it a very candid examination; but had never fully committed himself to it until Brother Miller's lectures in the church of which he had the pastoral charge. He, from that time, became a decided advocate of the doctrine, and has since devoted himself to its advocacy.
In the latter part of November, the writer, in connection with some friends, determined on another attempt to go into the South. We went to Baltimore, Maryland, and finding no place open to receive the message, the lecture-room of the Universalist church was rented for the purpose, and a course of lectures commenced. The attendance was small, and prejudice strong. After a few lectures there, the Odd Fellow's Hall was rented, lectures commenced, an interest excited, which continues to the present time. The effect of the success in Baltimore has been most salutary on the Southern States. The prejudice has greatly given way, and an open door into the South now presents itself. The late visits of brethren Chandler and Brewer into Virginia, North and South Carolina, show that there is a hearing ear, and that if time continues, the field will be one of importance as a scene of successful labor.
The labors and success of Brother J. R. Gates, in Western and Central Pennsylvania, are well known by the readers of the Midnight Cry. The Lord eminently owns his labors in that section of the country, in planting the Advent doctrine, and bringing sinners to Christ.
(To be Continued.)
CONVICTION BY THE LAW.
By Isaac Watts
Lord, how secure my conscience was,
And felt no inward dread!
I was alive without the law,
And thought my sins were dead.
My hopes of heaven were firm and bright,
But, since the precept came
With a convincing power and light,
I find how vile I am.
My guilt appeared but small before,
Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just, and pure,
Was thine eternal law.
Then felt my soul the heavy load;
My sins revived again;
I had provoked a dreadful God,
And all my hopes were slain.
I'm like a helpless captive, sold
Under the power of sin;
I cannot do the good I would,
Nor keep my conscience clean.
My God, I cry with every breath
For some kind power to save,
To break the yoke of sin and death,
And thus redeem the slave.
[WATTS.
FAMILY WORSHIP.
"For I know Abraham that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."—GENESIS XVIII, 19.
The most superficial reader of the word of God cannot fail to be struck with the numerous instances of Family Worship which are there recorded. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob furnish conspicuous examples of this pious duty; for, uniformly, when their arrival at any new place in the course of their wanderings is mentioned, it is said of each of them, "There builded he an altar and called upon the name of the Lord." Joshua also, we are informed, was not content to serve God himself, but his language, well worthy the imitation of every Christian, was, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And Job, the suffering yet patient Job, how careful was he in the exercise of the same solemn duty! He offered sacrifice and made supplication to God not merely in the company of his assembled children, but on those occasions also when they were met together in festivity by themselves, and when, as he reasonably apprehended, they might forget God in their mirth.
Instances, too, of the sad and fatal consequences of the neglect of family religion, are not wanting in scripture. The misery and ruin of Lot's family we have good reason to ascribe to this neglect. There is not a single act of social worship mentioned of him in the sacred narrative. We never read there of his building an altar and calling upon God; and from the subsequent conduct of his family we cannot but entertain the fear that their religious instruction had been utterly neglected.
We, again, behold in the family of Eli a lamentable instance of the danger of relaxing parental authority, and of failing to enforce religious discipline in the household. Although himself a pious man, he did not faithfully impress the same sentiments upon his wayward sons; and when "they made themselves vile in Israel, he restrained them not." The unhappy consequence was that the blessing of God never attended his family: his sons Hophni and Phinehas were slain in battle; his daughter-in-law died prematurely in her travail: and the aged Eli himself, broken-hearted with his complicated afflictions, "fell from his seat backward, and his neck brake and he died."
These are examples which the Scriptures furnish of the value and necessity of household religious instruction; but they contain precepts also enforcing the same duty. Thus speaks the Jewish legislator, "The commandments of the Lord which I teach thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."—Here then is inculcated a most diffusive piety;—an every day religion,—a subject which is to be suited to all occasions, so that our children and dependents may feel continually that this is the one grand object which is to fill the heart and govern the life.
And would God it were a subject which received the attention that is proportioned to its importance? Very different in that case would be the order and habits of society. Far less cause would there be to lament, what there is often so much reason to lament, the degeneracy of the times, the recklessness of principle and aversion to religious restraint, which, charitably as we may be inclined to judge, are too generally to be observed.
There may often be an affectation in referring to the comparative purity of former times, and declaiming against the degeneracy of the present day; but if we are to depend upon the accuracy of traditional and historic statements, we must confess, mortifying as the confession may prove, that there is some truth in the contrast. "Our fathers and they of the old time before us," have borne satisfactory testimony to the strictness of religious discipline in their days; and lead us to believe that the exception then was as uncommon as the rule is now, to be exact and faithful in the solemn and important duty of Family Worship.28
But how is the neglect of a duty so reasonable in itself, so strictly enjoined, and so essentially Christian, to be reconciled with the privileges or hopes of the Gospel?—or to speak more plainly, though not less correctly, in what is a Christian distinct from an unbeliever, if he does not manifest in his heart, in his house, in his community, that the love of God and the dissemination of his truth and kingdom is the principle which governs and animates his life?
Well may we ask, and wonder while we ask, what is the reason of this neglect? Can it be that any are not fully persuaded of the importance of the duty? Surely with the word of God in their hands, with the precepts which are given and which cannot be misinterpreted, as most strictly enjoining this duty, with the examples too which are furnished of the value of adhering to this ancient and excellent custom, and the deplorable instances which it records as the consequences of its neglect, none can any longer seriously cherish the opinion that it is not a useful, an important, a divinely-ordered duty.
But some, perhaps, are deterred from the strict performance of this religious practice by the fear of singularity, of bringing down upon themselves the epithets of sanctimonious, righteous-over-much, or even hypocritical!—It is, indeed, a serious misfortune that there should ever be a singularity in worshiping God according to his own commands, and in conformity with the example of holy men of old; and it is a yet greater misfortune that any should be found in the ranks of Christianity of an attachment so wavering and doubtful to the "Captain of their salvation," as to be repelled from what they acknowledge to be their duty by either scoffs, sneers, or ridicule. There are many in the world who glory in a singularity affecting the habits and fashions of mere worldly life, who can bear with sarcasm, and put up with ridicule, when it is merely the customs of every day life which are assailed, but their sensibility is too keenly awakened, and their moral courage fails, when their singularity in conscientiously serving God chances to be the subject of animadversion. But O, how criminal to stand aloof from a manifest duty because the thoughtless, the worldly-minded, or the profane, may affect to scorn the Christian's pious principles, and sneer at his devout example! Hear how the Son of God expresses himself in regard to these weak-hearted adherents of his cause: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels."
But do any plead that they have no time for these household exercises of religion? Is it that business, that pleasure, that the world, in short, has too strong a hold upon their affections to permit the needful attention to this important duty? Is it that engagements in the morning, and diversions in the evening will not allow the requisite time for this solemn, this religious, this necessary exercise? Surely there are none who could, in moments of thoughtfulness, venture to trifle, in that manner, with Almighty God;—none so indifferent to his favor, so regardless of his blessings, so insensible to their own everlasting welfare as to rank the service of the great Benefactor of the world amongst considerations comparatively so unimportant as these? Upon those who persist in such a course of thinking and acting, our Saviour himself pronounces the condemnation, "Verily ye have your reward:" like the rich man in the parable, they have "in their life time received their good things;" and as the wages of God's neglected service, and of the Gospel's derided duties, their portion in the life that is to come will be with unbelievers "in outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth."
We hear in the world, and witness around us, lamentable complaints of wayward and rebellious children, who, having no fear of God before their eyes, are "bringing down the gray hairs of their parents in sorrow to the grave." But let us ask ourselves, would these things so generally, or so grievously, happen, if the conduct of Abraham, as commended in the text, were the subject of universal imitation?—"I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment!" It is perfectly natural that it should happen—it would be extraordinary indeed if it did not happen,—that children and domestics who are brought up without any attention to religious principle; who never hear a prayer and perhaps never say a prayer; who are allowed to follow their own unchecked inclinations as to whether they will worship God or not; it is natural that they should turn out to be wayward, self-willed, and disobedient, unthankful children and discreditable members of society. If no check be imposed upon the natural evil propensities of the heart; if wholesome discipline be never interposed nor the vast extent of moral and religious responsibility be sedulously taught; innate depravity will so far master the affections and control the conduct as to lead to the subversion of all order and decorum and virtue.
This injunction, then, ought well to be studied and understood, Abraham "commanded his children and his household after him;" authority must be added to precept, where there is no spontaneous compliance. Those who are of years too tender to be fit judges of what is most conducive to their real welfare, it is the duty of parents sedulously to instruct and anxiously to guide.
We observe mankind to be generally careful enough about the instruction of their children in those things which merely concern their progress through life; they are, in general, anxiously taught those habits of business which will qualify them for securing to themselves independence and comfort in the world; and often those light and elegant accomplishments are added which serve to impart a further qualification for successful progress through the mazes of this mortal journey. Of these things I do not speak in terms of censure; but O how much greater pains, how much deeper anxiety should we bestow upon that portion of their education which is to qualify them for another world, which is to fit them for a heavenly society, which is to prepare them for answering in the presence of God this awful demand, "Give an account of thy stewardship!"
Trouble and trial are the lot of us all, and none are exempt from worldly adversity and from domestic afflictions. Happy those who have "brought up their children in the fear and nurture of the Lord!" When those beloved ones are snatched from them, they can be comforted by a remembrance that they "died in the Lord:" should they be called upon to leave their offspring fatherless in the world, they have left them, in a religious education, an inheritance "better than thousands of gold and silver."—Selected.