JESUS did not condescend to explain to his enemy how he was the Son of God, and in what manner, as such, he was to act. In an insulting, taunting manner Satan referred to the present weakness, and the unfavorable appearance of Christ in contrast with his own strength, and glory. He taunted Christ that he was a poor representative of the angels, much less of their exalted Commander, the acknowledged King, in the royal courts. His present appearance indicated that he was forsaken of God and man. He said if Christ was indeed the Son of God, the monarch of Heaven, he had power equal with God, and he could give him evidence by working a miracle, and changing the stone just at his feet into bread, and relieve his hunger. Satan promised that, if Christ would do this, he would at once yield his claims of superiorty, and that the contest between himself and Christ should there be forever ended.29
Christ did not appear to notice the reviling taunts of Satan. He was not provoked to give him proofs of his power. He meekly bore his insults without retaliation. The words spoken from Heaven at his baptism were very precious evidencing to him that his Father approved the steps he was taking in the plan of salvation as man's substitute and surety. The opening heavens, and descent of the heavenly dove, were assurances that his Father would unite his power in Heaven with that of his Son upon the earth, to rescue man from the control of Satan, and that God accepted the effort of Christ to link earth to Heaven, and finite man to the infinite.
These tokens, received from his Father, were inexpressibly precious to the Son of God through all his severe sufferings, and terrible conflict with the rebel chief. And while enduring the test of God in the wilderness, and through his entire ministry, he had nothing to do in convincing Satan of his own power, and of his being the Saviour of the world. Satan had sufficient evidence of his exalted station. His unwillingness to ascribe to Jesus the honor due to him, and manifest submission as a subordinate, ripened into rebellion against God, and shut him out of Heaven.
It was not any part of the mission of Christ to exercise his divine power for his own benefit, to relieve himself of suffering. This he had volunteered to take upon himself. He had condescended to take man's nature, and he was to suffer the inconveniences, and ills, and afflictions, of the human family. He was not to perform miracles upon his own account. He came to save others. The object of his mission was to bring blessings, and hope, and life, to the afflicted and oppressed. He was to bear the burdens and griefs of suffering humanity.
Although Christ was suffering the keenest pangs of hunger he withstood the temptations. He repulsed Satan with Scripture, the same he had given to Moses in the wilderness to repeat to rebellious Israel when their diet was restricted, and they were clamoring for fresh meats, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." In this declaration and also by his example, Christ would show man that hunger for temporal food was not the greatest calamity that could befall him. Satan flattered our first parents that eating of the fruit of the tree of which God had forbidden them would bring to them great good, and would ensure them against death, the very apposite of the truth which God had declared to them. "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." If Adam had been obedient he would have known neither want, sorrow, nor death.
If the people who lived before the flood had been obedient to the word of God, they would have been preserved, and would not have perished by the waters of the flood. If the Israelites had been obedient to the words of God, he would have bestowed upon them special blessings. But they fell in consequence of the indulgence of appetite and passion. They would not be obedient to the words of God. Indulgence of perverted appetite led them into numerous and grievous sins. If they had made the requirements of God their first consideration and their physical wants secondary, in submission to God's choice of proper food for them, not one of them would have fallen in the wilderness. They would have been established in the goodly land of Canaan a holy, healthy people, with not a feeble one in all their tribes.
The Saviour of the world became sin for the race. In becoming man's substitute, Christ did not manifest his power as the Son of God. He ranked himself among the sons of men. He was to bear the trial of temptation as a man, in man's behalf, under the most trying circumstances, and leave an example of faith and perfect trust in his heavenly Father. Christ knew that his Father would supply him food when it would gratify him to do so. He would not, in this severe ordeal, when hunger pressed him beyond measure, prematurely diminish one particle of the trial allotted to him, by exercising his divine power.
Fallen man, when brought into straightened places could not have the power to work miracles on his own behalf, to save himself from pain or anguish, or to give himself victory over his enemies. It was the purpose of God to test and prove the race, and give them an opportunity to develop character by bringing them frequently into trying positions to test their faith and confidence in his love and power. The life of Christ was a perfect pattern. He was ever, by his example and teachings, learning man that God was his dependence, and that in God should be his faith and firm trust.
Christ knew that Satan was a liar from the beginning, and it required strong self-control to listen to the propositions of this insulting deceiver, and not instantly rebuke his bold assumptions. Satan was expecting that the Son of God would, in his extreme weakness and agony of spirit, give him an opportunity to obtain advantage over him by provoking him to engage in controversy with him. He designed to pervert the words of Christ and claim advantage, and call to his aid his fallen angels to use their utmost power to prevail against and overcome him.
The Saviour of the world had no controversy with Satan, who was expelled from heaven, because he was no longer worthy of a place there. He who could influence the angels of God against their Supreme Ruler, and against his Son, their loved commander, and enlist their sympathy for himself, was capable of any deception. Four thousand years he had been warring against the government of God, and had lost none of his skill or power to tempt and deceive.
Because man fallen could not overcome Satan with his human strength. Christ came from the royal courts of heaven to help him with his human and divine strength combined. Christ knew that Adam in Eden with his superior advantages might have withstood the temptations of Satan and conquered him. He also knew that it was not possible for man, out of Eden, separated from the light and love of God since the fall, to resist the temptations of Satan in his own strength. In order to bring hope to man, and save him from complete ruin, he humbled himself to take man's nature, that with his divine power combined with the human, he might reach man where he is. He obtains for the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that strength which it is impossible for them to gain for themselves, that in his name they may overcome the temptations of Satan.
The exalted Son of God in assuming humanity draws himself near to man by standing as the sinner's substitute. He identifies himself with the sufferings and afflictions of men. He was tempted in all points as man is tempted that he might know how to succor those who should be tempted. Christ overcame on the sinner's behalf.
Jacob, in the night vision, saw earth connected with Heaven by a ladder reaching to the throne of God. He saw the angels of God, clothed with garments of heavenly brightness, passing down from Heaven and up to Heaven upon this shining ladder. The bottom of this ladder rested upon the earth, while the top of it reached to the highest Heavens, and rested upon the throne of Jehovah. The brightness from the throne of God beamed down upon this ladder, and reflected a light of inexpressible glory upon the earth.
This ladder represented Christ who had opened the communication between earth and Heaven. In Christ's humiliation he descended to the very depth of human woe in sympathy and pity for fallen man, which was represented to Jacob by one end of the ladder resting upon the earth, while the top of the ladder, reaching unto Heaven, represents the divine power of Christ, grasping the Infinite, and thus linking earth to Heaven, and finite man to the infinite God. Through Christ the communication is opened between God and man. Angels may pass to and fro from Heaven to earth with messages of love to fallen man, and to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation. It is through Christ alone that the heavenly messengers minister to men.
Adam and Eve in Eden were placed under most favorable circumstances. It was their privilege to hold communion with God and angels. They were without the condemnation of sin. The light of God and angels was with them, and around them. The Author of their existence was their teacher. But they fell beneath the power and temptations of the artful foe. Four thousand years had Satan been at work against the government of God, and he had obtained strength and experience from determined practice. Fallen men had not the advantages of Adam in Eden. They had been separating from God for four thousand years. The wisdom to understand, and power to resist the temptations of Satan had become less and less, until Satan seemed to reign triumphant in the earth. Appetite and passion, the love of the world, and presumptuous sins were the great branches of evil out of which every species of crime, violence, and corruption grew.
Satan was defeated in his object to overcome Christ upon the point of appetite. And here in the wilderness Christ achieved a victory in behalf of the race upon the point of appetite, making it possible for man, in all future time in his name to overcome the strength of appetite on his own behalf. Satan was not willing to cease his efforts until he had tried every means to obtain victory over the world's Redeemer. He knew that with himself all was at stake, whether he, or Christ, should be victor in the contest. And in order to awe Christ with his superior strength he carried him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and continued to beset him with temptations.
He again demanded of Christ that if he was indeed the Son of God to give him evidence by casting himself from the dizzy hight upon which he had placed him. He urged Christ to show his confidence in the preserving care of his Father by casting himself down from the temple. In Satan's first temptation upon the point of appetite, he had tried to insinuate doubts in regard to God's love and care for him as his Son, by presenting his surroundings and his hunger as an evidence that he was not in favor with God. He was unsuccessful in this. He next tried to take advantage of the faith and perfect trust Christ had shown in his heavenly Father, to urge him to presumption. "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Jesus promptly answered, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
The sin of presumption lies close beside the virtue of perfect faith, and confidence in God. Satan flattered himself that he could take advantage of the humanity of Christ, to urge him over the line of trust to presumption. Upon this point many souls are wrecked. Satan tried to deceive Christ through flattery. He admitted that he was right in the wilderness in his faith and confidence that God was his Father, under the most trying circumstances. He then urged Christ to give him one more proof of his entire dependence upon God, one more evidence of his faith that he was the Son of God, by casting himself from the temple. He told Christ that if he was indeed the Son of God he had nothing to fear, for angels were at hand to uphold him. Satan gave evidence that he understood the Scriptures by the use he made of them.
The Redeemer of the world wavered not from his integrity and showed that he had perfect faith in his Father's promised care. He would not put the faithfulness and love of his Father to a needless trial, although he was in the hands of an enemy, and placed in a position of extreme difficulty and peril. He would not, at Satan's suggestion, tempt God by presumptuously experimenting on his providence. Satan had brought in scripture, which seemed appropriate for the occasion, hoping to accomplish his designs by making the application to our Saviour at this special time.
Christ knew that God could indeed bear him up if he had required him to throw himself from the temple. But to do this unbidden, and to experiment upon his Father's protecting care and love, because dared by Satan to do so would not show his strength of faith. Satan was well aware that if Christ could be prevailed upon, unbidden by his Father, to fling himself from the temple to prove his claim to his heavenly Father's protecting care, he would in the very act show the weakness of his human nature.
Christ came off victor in the second temptation. He manifested perfect confidence and trust in his Father during his severe conflict with the powerful foe. Our Redeemer, in the victory here gained, has left man a perfect pattern, showing him that his only safety is in firm trust and unwavering confidence in God in all trials and perils. He refused to presume upon the mercy of his Father by placing himself in peril that would make it necessary for his heavenly Father to display his power to save him from danger. This would be forcing providence on his own account; and he would not then leave for his people a perfect example of faith and firm trust in God.
Satan's object in tempting Christ was to lead him to daring presumption, and to show human weakness that would not make him a perfect pattern for his people. Satan thought that should Christ fail to bear the test of his temptations there could be no redemption for the race, and his power over them would be complete. (Continued)
Low School Episcopalians.
The Episcopal conventions of both Pennsylvania and Virginia, recently in session, have passed resolutions strongly hostile to Ritualism, by large majorities. The Virginia diocese is one of the strongest of the Low Church dioceses, and the convention in that State has broken ground in favor of revision, by instructing their delegates to the General Convention to inquire whether the office for the institution of ministers is in the Prayer Book legally; and to ask the Convention, if this office is not legally in the Prayer Book to abolish it.
Impartiality in Disputes
Engage not hastily, as a party, in a difference between others, but reserve thyself impartial and unengaged, that thou mayest moderate between them.
Our Mission.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
WE firmly believe that as a people we have a definite mission to fulfill, a special message to proclaim to this generation. No other people are engaged in this work; hence we feel great responsibility.
There are many worthy objects of labor in which we would love to engage. But to do this, and thus spend our time, our limited means, and our energies, on those objects which have the sympathy and support of the Christian world, we must neglect our God-given mission for which no others will care.
Upon the subjects of faith, repentance, conversion, free salvation, and the other cardinal doctrines of Christianity, we are in harmony with the Protestant world. But the battle upon these questions has been fought, and these doctrines now are not disputed. They only have to be stated to be assented to. Hence, there is no necessity for much time and labor to be spent upon these subjects.
Besides, the people can hear about these in the churches any time; while the special truths which we are teaching are as generally neglected by all the religious teachers of the day. The prophecies are almost wholly neglected; God's law is down-trodden; and the world is not warned of the soon coming day of wrath. A special preparation is needed to prepare the people of God to stand in the day of trouble. In the providence of God we have the light upon these subjects. We feel the burden of our message, and God is pressing us out to give the warning, to sound the alarm.
This is our mission; this our field of labor. Shall we leave it destitute and go into other fields already well supplied with laborers? Paul had the right view of such matters when he said, "I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. This was the message laid upon him to proclaim to the world. He would not be drawn aside from this to engage in and other enterprise, however important it might be. The whole energy of his soul was given to this one theme, a crucified Redeemer.
Paul was a man of broad views, and there were many enterprises in which he might have engaged with much profit to humanity. But he passed them all by and concentrated all his energies upon the one special mission which God had laid upon him. So must we if we hope to succeed.
Our missionaries are not numerous; our means are limited and our time is very short; while a whole world with its teeming millions is before us to be warned of the near coming of the Lord. Should our ministers, as they enter new fields at great expense, preach upon every subject which might benefit humanity, they would soon exhaust their means and their strength, their work would be confined to a few villages, and we would lose sight of our special work. The principles of our message when received into the heart, lead to the strictest temperence, to benevolence, to faith, to repentance, and to all the Christian virtues.
If God has given us a message, he will hold us responsible to see that it is proclaimed. If he has called others to a different work, let them attend to that. These are some of our reasons for concentrating our efforts upon our specific work. We appeal to the friends of this cause not to let their means or efforts be diverted into other channels. Let us keep to our work and put forth our united strength to push it forward. It needs and deserves our sympathy, thought and means. When we have consecrated these to the work laid upon us, then may we hope to succeed in the name of God. D. M. CANRIGHT. Oakland, Cal.
Progress.
By John Norton Loughborough
SINCE my last report I see further signs of progress in the cause on this coast. June 28th, in Oakland, Bro. Canright baptised seven more. July 1st, I was present in San Jose, at the opening of the tent meeting there by brethren Cornell and Canright. They had a good audience with good interest. I learn by letters since received, that there is an increase of interest at San Jose.
I held meetings in Oakland from July 2d to 5th, which closed this tent meeting. Sabbath, July 4th, we had a most excellent meeting, well attended. Comparing the status of matters now with last 4th of July, shows that some progress has been made here. July 4th, 1873, sister Willis, formerly of the Santa Rosa church, was a lone Sabbath keeper in Oakland. Now she can look around here and see about fifty who are obeying the truth.
In our meeting on Sunday, the 5th inst., means to the amount of $162.50 was raised for fitting up a hall for meetings, on the corner of Broadway and Twelfth streets. There was also pledged $643 per year, Systematic Benevolence, for the spread of truth in this State. I remain here another week to be with them in the opening of the hall, and then go with this tent to some new place.
By letter just received from Bro. Van Horn, I learn that some are coming out on the truth about every week in Walla Walla, and that the way is opening finely for building a Seventh-day Adventist meeting house there.
A brother also writes me from Santa Rosa, that four there, heads of families, have lately embraced the truth from reading tracts. So the truth is steadily moving on. Let us work in the vineyard with our ability, our influence and our means; doing with our might what our hands find to do. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Turkey in Asia.
By John Norton Loughborough
As Turkey in Asia is becoming a point of interest in connection with the affairs of the eastern world, I call attention to the following statement respecting it, found in Goodrich’s History of all Nations. Vol. I. page 350.
"This extensive territory embraces that portion of the world most renowned in history. Within its limits are included the scenes of the creation and fall of man; of the deluge, as far as given in the Bible; of the rise and progress of the Jewish nation; and of the crucifixion of our Saviour. Here were Assyria and Babylonia—the first great empires of antiquity. Here were Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, and Sardis, and Troy, and Palmyra; here still are Jerusalem and Damascus, Antioch and Smyrna. Here are Arrarat and Lebanon, the Jordan and the Euphrates, the Dead sea and the sea of Galilee.
Here are scenes which have witnessed the presence of Semiramis and Cyrus, of Abraham and Melchisedec, of David and Solomon, of Paul and Peter, and James and John. Here, too, Cambyses, Darisus, Alexander, Seleucus, Pompey, Omar, Saladin, and Tamerlane, have marched at the head of their armies, and performed exploits which still echo in the pages of history. Yet famous as these regions are in the early annals of mankind, there is hardly any portion of the globe more unblest in its present condition than this."
THE first of these articles was taken from the Christian Union of January 1, 1870, and is written by John M. Stearns, counselor at law. The second article, entitled, "Where did Moses Get that Law?" we find without any clue to the author's name. But these two articles are richly worth the thoughtful perusal of all candid people. We commend this little tract to the attention of all who wish to understand the character of God’s perfect law.
THE DECALOGUE AS A LEGAL SYSTEM.
What is usually termed the ten commandments, or the decalogue, is a complete system of law and government. But though written by the finger of God on the tables at Sinai, it was not for the first time enacted then and there. It had antecedents and authority from the creation, more or less distinctly noted in the sacred narrative.
Allegiance of man to God was the law of Eden; and paying homage to other beings than the Deity was rebuked and punished. The crime of Cain was a profane use of the forms of worship, while envy of his brother, and covetousness of his fortune, induced the crime of murder; and lying and falsehood were brought in to conceal this crime. At least four of the distinct commands of the decalogue were violated by Cain, and such violations directly or incidentally appear in the Sacred Record.
The institution of marriage was established by God in Eden, was respected by the antediluvian patriarchs, and the violation of this law is noted as a chief sin of the victims swept away by the flood. They were exceedingly wicked, and took wives of all that they chose, and God determined their destruction.
Noah and his wife were saved from the waters of the flood. And God said to him, "Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." His sons, also, respected the primitive institution of marriage. They had each one wife, as St. Peter tells us that Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house, wherein eight souls were saved from the flood.—Even the name and person of God carried with them the idea of his character and government. "Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him;" that is, he obeyed God in his conduct and life.
The right of property—as sacred to its possessor as the person by whose labor, industry, and care, it was accumulated and preserved—is recognized as early as the days of Cain and Abel. Abel’s offering was the firstling of his flock. If the rights of property were thus sacred, the commandment against theft had even then force and authority. Abraham, and Lot, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, accumulated estates.
Idolatry became a characteristic of the age of Nimrod. The recent destruction by the flood had taught men the force of divine authority. This sentiment of respect for government above man was sought to be appropriated by this mighty hunter of the East, to sustain his personal and despotic authority. So he caused a vast and high tower to be erected in the plains of Shinar, designing that the tower of Babel should stand, in the place of God, to protect the people against a future flood. Thus the followers of Nimrod, constituting a primitive nation, established idolatry as an incident of national power, until God, offended with their impiety, confounded their language, and vindicated what he afterward wrote as the second commandment of his law.
The Sabbath, as instituted by the example of God in creation, was still a subsisting institution in the days of Moses. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," showed that this sacred institution subsisted as a religious tradition of by-gone ages.
That honor to parents, as enforced in the fifth commandment, was not a new idea, is evident from the entire domestic history of the patriarchs. Witness the respect shown to Noah by his two more worthy sons; the deference of Isaac, in the matter of his marriage, to the wishes of his father; the burial of Abraham and Isaac by their respective children; the care and sustenance of Jacob by Joseph his son; the dying scene of this distinguished patriarch; his funeral obsequies, and the funeral march to a distant and foreign land, to the cave of Machpelah, where his mortal form was placed beside the dust of his father. All these testify how the fifth commandment thus controlled God's chosen servants.
These ten simple commandments had been the subsisting laws by which God had sought to govern the human race for twenty-five hundred years before their special consecration and enactment amidst the fires and thunderings of Sinai.
They were, in fact, the rescripts and digest of God’s moral law. Taking these two tables as a whole, they embrace the most complete and perfect system of law that the world has ever known. No virtue known to the moral world herein fails of approval and commendation; and no vice or crime of which man was ever guilty escapes condemnation. These laws are definite and precise in their requirements, and still universal in their application.
The law libraries of the world, with their mixed dialects, and ancient lore, and mammonth tomes, innumerable reports, and multitudinous variety of discussions by men of judicial acumen and giant learning, do not give us one idea of crime or virtue, right or wrong, of the propensities or delinquencies of human life, beyond what is embodied in these sacred tables. Notwithstanding the ridicule sought to be thrown on a resolution of one of the early Legislatures of Connecticut, that God's law should be the law of the colony until special laws should be enacted by the government, or to that effect, it is believed that few cases arise claiming adjudication from our courts of law that would not be better determined by a careful respect to the commands of the decalogue. These simple aphorisms, so to speak, throw a searching light on the incidents and character of crime, and afford the safest criterion to discriminate between the false and the true. Virtue and purity of life have a standard for their justification against false charges and un-toward appearances.
This decalogue, as a whole, is one of the most convincing proofs of divine revelation and the divine government. Human wisdom and human learning are entirely inadequate to the production of so perfect a system of law and government; so definite and yet so universal; so brief, and yet so comprehensive!
WHERE DID MOSES GET THAT LAW?
An infidel, wishing to examine into the truth of the Christian religion, inquired of an elder of the Presbyterian church as follows:
"What books, sir, would you advise me to read?"
"The Bible," said the elder.
"I believe you do not understand me," resumed the unbeliever, in his turn; "I wish to investigate the truth of the Bible."
"I would advise you, sir," repeated the elder, "to read the Bible." And, he continued, "I will give you my reasons: Most infidels are very ignorant of the Scriptures. Now to reason on any subject with correctness, we must understand what it is about which we reason. In the next place, I consider the internal evidence of the truth of the Scriptures stronger than the external."
"And where shall I begin?" inquired the unbeliever.
"At the New Testament?" "No," said the elder; "at the beginning—at Genesis."
One evening, the elder called and found the unbeliever at his house or office, walking the room, with a dejected look, his mind apparently absorbed in thought. He continued, not noticing that any one had come in, busily to trace and retrace his steps. The elder at length spoke: "You seem, sir," said he, "to be in a brown study. What are you thinking?" "I have been reading," replied the infidel, "the moral law." "Well, what do you think of it?" asked the elder. "I will tell you what I used to think," answered the infidel. "I supposed that Moses was the leader of a horde of banditti; that having a strong mind, he acquired great influence over a superstitious people; and that on Mount Sinai, he played off some sort of fire-works, to the amazement of his ignorant followers, who imagined, in their mingled fear and superstition, that the exhibition was supernatural."
"But what do you think now?" interposed the elder.
"I have been looking," answered the infidel, "into the nature of that law. I have been trying to see whether I can add anything to it, so as to make it better. Sir, I cannot. It is perfect."
"The first commandment," continued he, "directs us to make the Creator the object of our supreme love and reverence. That is right. If he be supreme Benefactor, we ought to treat him, and none other, as such. The second forbids idolatry. That certainly is right. The third forbids profaneness. The fourth fixes a time for religious worship. If there is a God, he ought surely to be worshiped. It is suitable that there should be an outward homage, significant of our inward regard. If God be worshiped, it is proper that some time be set apart for that purpose, when all may worship him harmoniously and without interruption. One day in seven is certainly not too much, and I do not know that it is too little. The fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from the family relations. Injuries to our neighbor are direct breaches of the law of nature. They are also, in fact, the rescripts and digest of God’s moral law. Taking these two tables as a whole, they embrace the most complete and perfect system of law that the world has ever known. No virtue known to the moral world herein fails of approval and commendation; and no vice or crime of which man was ever guilty escapes condemnation. These laws are definite and precise in their requirements, and still universal in their application."
A Black Congressman Presides
THE House of Representatives at Washington has at last been presided over by a liberated slave. Joseph H. Rainey, an emancipated negro, actually occupied the speaker’s chair during the last session, and presided with such ability as to excite the admiration of the entire house. No such honor was ever before conferred upon a colored man in this country.
Piety and Peace
Piety and peace go hand in hand; but piety and discord have no connection: where the latter prevails it destroys the former.
The Divine Origin of the Moral Law
bor are then classified by the moral law. They are divided into offenses against life, chastity, property, and character. And,” said he, applying a legal idea with legal acuteness, “I notice that the greatest offense in each class is expressly forbidden. Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder; to chastity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, perjury. Now the greatest offense must include the less of the same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; adultery, every injury to purity; and so of the rest. And the moral code is closed and perfected by a command forbidding every improper desire in regard to our neighbor.
“I have been thinking,” he proceeded, “where did Moses get that law? I have read history: the Egyptians and the adjacent nations were idolaters; so were the Greeks and Romans; and the wisest and best Greeks or Romans never gave a code of morals like this. Where did Moses get this law, which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived at a period comparatively barbarous; but he has given a law, in which the learning and sagacity of all subsequent time can detect no flaw. Where did he get it? He could not have soared so far above his age, as to have devised it himself. I am satisfied where he obtained it. It came down from Heaven. I am convinced of the truth of the religion of the Bible.”
Two Kinds of Preaching.
IN speaking of a recent visit of an English minister to this country, Zion's Herald remarks:
“The fascination which draws hearers to the lips of this earnest minister, is the positive personal faith with which he utters truth, the evident conviction which he exhibits that his hearers vitally need the grace he urges upon them, and the always apparent singleness of object in all his pulpit exercises. His manner, without the slightest appearance of cant, his prayers, his themes, his whole bearing awaken the conviction in the minds of his hearers that he is a true ambassador of Christ, and has a divine message to deliver. He does not often thrill his audiences, or awaken their surprise at his power, or carry them away with a temporary gust of emotion; but he excites searching thought, stirring convictions, earnest prayers and resolves, and freely descending tears. The presence of the Holy Spirit is manifestly with the Word.
“Theological professors and students heard him. It is to be hoped that the lesson will not be forgotten. This is the kind of preaching needed in this nineteenth century in the city of Boston. Nothing but the gospel, as a divine provision for the forgiveness, renewal, inspiration and salvation of man, the vital and indispensable requirement of every soul, can meet the spiritual wants of the most wretched and the most polished of our community. Christ, after all, draws effectually, and not his ministers. ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’
“The other Sabbath a respected young minister filled a pulpit, where perhaps, eight hundred people listened to him. There are only fifty-two Sabbaths in the year—a very small portion of the time to be devoted to an earnest consideration of eternal realities, in this beguiling world. Somebody is probably always requiring direct and earnest religious counsel, in view of imminent temptation, coming sickness, or the approach of death. Our younger brother stood before such a congregation—the ambassador of God to man—and simply read a well composed essay upon friendship! As an article for a magazine, a contribution for a religious newspaper, or a literary lecture, this was all right enough. The young speaker made a pleasant impression as to manner and intellectual ability; but this is not preaching, and his theme is not the gospel! Little progress in the work of converting men, or spreading holiness throughout the land, will follow such preaching as this. Even if the topic is made more pertinent, and the intellectual power is more obvious, barrenness will be upon the pulpit, and worldliness and spiritual weakness in the pews, unless the commissioned teachers of religion sink everything beside into the one object of presenting the revealed grace of God as the only, and effectual, and indispensable cure of sin, and comfort of the really redeemed sinner.
“Would not many ministers be a little surprised, if, after one of their discourses, an unconverted man should linger behind the retiring congregation to inquire with undisguised emotion, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ ” — The Christian.
The Truth Is Immortal
The Truth is immortal; the sword cannot pierce it, fire cannot consume it, prisons cannot incarcerate it, famine cannot starve it.