Review and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 13. (9/21/1876)

Review and Herald

Sep 21, 1876

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 21, 1876

ANOTHER SPEAR GONE INTO A PRUNING-HOOK.

As we have reached the time when popular religious teachers tell us the temporal millennium is being, or about to be, ushered in, when men should beat their spears into pruning-hooks, and learn war no more, we have a right to look around for some such movements among men, if this position is correct. We look abroad and see a terrible activity in the inventive powers of men in the direction indicated in the following paragraph. The nations seem to be panting for war, and the world to be ripe for revolution; and there is a call for such death-dealing weapons as is here described. Is this the way the spears are to be turned into pruning-hooks? If so, what must the millennium be? The San Francisco Chronicle speaks of the new gun as follows:—

“A TERRIBLE INSTRUMENT.”

“Friday afternoon, at the request of the Japanese Consul, Samro Takaki, the new gun patented by Leonard and De Vry, and christened ‘Peace Conservator,’ was exhibited at the Pacific Iron works. The prompt action of the instrument, delivering seventy shots in four seconds, and 1,050 in one minute, through an oak barricade, proves that it is one of the most terrible death-dealing inventions ever known. The machinery is simple, easily worked, requiring but few attendants, who are perfectly protected from their adversary’s bullets, and can be transported with much greater ease than an ordinary six-pounder. The bullets from this terrible machine will, it is claimed, diverge three hundred feet in one thousand yards—the distance claimed that it will effectually deliver shots. It can be easily worked by one person in any direction, or made to shoot almost solid. For narrow defiles it is proposed to be equal to three thousand infantry, and for combination on the battle field equal to three batteries of regular artillery.”

THE RECORD OF THE PAPACY.

The following record shows what the papacy has done. It is a long list of terrible outrages and insults against both earth and Heaven. These facts are well authenticated by history. Is it any wonder that this power should be pointed out, and the church warned against it, in the word of God? What a striking fulfillment of prophecy is here. Hear Daniel: “He shall wear out the saints of the Most High;” and Paul: “He shall exalt himself above all that is called God;” and John: “It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and overcome them.” But his day of triumph is about ended. The saints are to take the kingdom, and that soon. The writer says:—

It has insulted Heaven. It has oppressed earth. It has perverted the truth. It has trampled on kings. It has opposed liberty. It has inaugurated war. It has incited murder. It has sold “indulgences.” It has taken away the Bible. It has opposed education. It has gloried in the Inquisition. It has gloated over its Auto-da-fe. It has blasphemed the name of God. It has declared itself infallible. It has spoken great words against the Most High. It has worn out the saints of the Most High. It has sought to change times and laws. It has grasped political power. It has sought to overthrow republican governments. It has employed the dungeon, the halter, the rack, and the stake, in its war against the truth. It has used lying, assassination, and wholesale massacres in propagating its power and crushing its enemies. It is the sum of all religious villainies. It has cursed men while living, and tried to damn them when dead. Pope Julius put to death 200,000 Christian Protestants in seven years. The French Catholics massacred 100,000 Christians in three months. Roman Catholics killed fully 1,000,000 Waldenses. The Jesuits destroyed 900,000 persons in thirty years. Under the Catholic Duke of Alva 26,000 Protestants were executed by the hangman. Irish Catholics massacred 150,000 men, women, and children. It has placed upon record the awful day of St. Bartholomew. The whole number of persons massacred by the papacy is estimated at fifty millions, and the estimate is a low one.

This is the power that is fixing its fangs on our body politic; that is cursing our public schools, and relaxing no effort to wipe them out of existence; that is the sworn enemy of an open Bible, and of civil and religious liberty. This is the power that is creating cardinals in our midst; that is pouring out her money to bind our nation hand and foot. Do Protestants realize their danger? Are Americans on the watch? There is danger impending. Are we prepared to meet it?

WHAT ROME WOULD DO.

Some easy-going Protestants do not relish the harsh things that are sometimes said by the evangelical press, of the Romish church and Romish ecclesiastics. They fail to see that there is any danger to be apprehended to liberty, in any of its phases, from the possible predominance of Roman Catholicism in this country. Though the Romish church, in every land where it has ever been supreme, has blotted out freedom of conscience together with the right of private judgment, the liberty of speech, and the liberty of the press, they affect to believe that history will not repeat itself in this age of progress and in this land of freedom and intelligence. The tolerance of such Protestants is the offspring of their indifference.

Let such lukewarm Protestants ponder the following blunt avowal of what the Romish church would do in America if it had the opportunity. It is taken from the Shepherd of the Valley, published at St. Louis, under the immediate supervision of Archbishop Kendrick:—

“We confess that the Roman Catholic Church is intolerant—that is to say, that it uses all the means in its power for the extirpation of error and sin; but this intolerance is the logical and necessary consequence of its infallibility. She alone has the right to be intolerant, because she alone has the truth. The church tolerates heretics where she is obliged to do so, but she hates them mortally, and employs all her force to secure their annihilation. When the Catholics shall here be in possession of a considerable majority—which will certainly be the case by-and-by, although the time may be long deferred—then religious liberty will have come to an end in the Republic of the United States. Our enemies say this, and we believe with them. Our enemies know that we do not pretend to be better than our church, and in what concerns this her history is open to the eyes of all. They know, then, how the Roman church dealt with heretics in the Middle Ages, and how she deals with them to-day everywhere she has the power. We no more think of denying these historic facts than we do of blaming the saints of God and the princes of the church for what they have done or approved in these matters.”—Christian Intelligencer.

THE DAY IS AT HAND.

Dark over earth the night of doom is sweeping; Loud wail the winds, and ocean, evermore Wild with despair and agony of weeping, Billow on billow piles upon the shore.

What is this horror every heart possessing? What the sad thought which lurks in every soul, Vague and perplex'd, which neither hand caressing Nor soothing speech may lessen or control?

Surely a warning of some awful sorrow, Such as mankind have never felt before, Surely an earnest of that dread to-morrow, When in a moment time shall be no more!

Vainly has all the wisdom of the ages Wearied and spent itself in labored schemes, Seeking, through science or in nature's pages, The consummation of its idle dreams.

Dreams of a world no longer half-benighted, Dreams of humanity sublime and pure, In one great brotherhood at length united, Happy and peaceful, and from death secure.

Ah! they were beautiful, these hopes, and glorious Worthy of minds too subtle for a creed! Man o'er himself and over all victorious— That were a triumph and a boast indeed.

Is the world better, wiser for their teachings? Is there less sin or misery or crime? Or is it still the “foolishness of preaching” Strikes to the heart as in the olden time?

Hark to the answer, oft in vain repeated: “Only One hand o'er evil can prevail— Christ with the Father in the highest seated, Listen, oh, listen to Creation's wail!”

What! hear ye not above the strife of nations The rolling of His chariot wheels afar, Borne along space in measureless pulsations, Swifter than sunbeam or the light of star?

What! hear ye not a voice, a whisper saying (’Mid signs and wonders wrought in every land), “Be sober, O my children, watchful, praying; Night is far spent—the daylight is at hand!”

Yea; there are tokens not to be mistaken, Telling of Judgment ever drawing near; Time's last sands are in his hour-glass shaken, Trembling he sees the great white throne appear.

Lord, in that last dread hour of thy returning, Grant that we all at thy right hand may be Safe, while in flames a guilty world is burning, Within the shelter of Thy love and Thee. —Episcopal Recorder.

JEWISH STATISTICS.

The following from the N. Y. World, shows the large number of nationalities among which the Jews are scattered, and the wide extent of territory embraced in their dispersions. Yet they remain a distinct people. Who can account for this phenomenon except on the ground that the Bible, which predicted this strange fact, is the word of God? What other nation, looking the whole earth over, could have been rooted out of their native land, and scattered all over the earth, and yet for 1800 years have remained a distinct and separate people? Not one. A glance at history shows how they would, in a few generations, have been lost and swallowed up among the nationalities with which they mingled, as nation after nation has been. Yet the Jews are everywhere Jews to-day. They thus stand forth as witnesses to the day of the true Sabbath, and a monument of the fulfillment of God's word:—

“A pamphlet just issued contains some interesting statistics—estimates would perhaps be a better word—concerning the Jews. The author, the Rev. J. Miller, places their total number at 7,074,858, as follows: In Europe, 5,226,858; in Asia, 591,000; in Africa, 792,000; in America, 450,000; in the British colonies, 15,000. Russia contains a Jewish population of 2,647,036; Austria of 1,300,000; Germany of 512,171; Rumania of 255,000; Turkey of 200,000; France of 95,000; England of 70,000, of whom 30,000 are residents of London; Holland of 68,892, and Italy of 53,000. In Norway, Spain and Portugal the total Hebrew population is set down at less than 500.

“The Jewish race still preserves its remarkable vitality in Austrian Galicia, where there are now 500,000 Israelites, the increase during the semi-century from 1821 to 1870, according to the tables of Joseph Hain, has been 150 per cent., while the ordinary population has only increased during the same period twenty-five per cent. Mr. Miller places the Hebrew population of New York at 80,000 and that of Chicago at 30,000.”

LOOKING AFTER THE MORALS OF THE PEOPLE.

[I SEND the following article from the Owen County Journal, not so much for its practical bearing on the subject, as to show how the minds of the people are drifting, and how the way is being prepared for the mark of the beast to be enforced. D. H. OBERHOLTZER.]

This community has been considerably agitated for several days over the promulgation of an order by the Board of Trustees, closing all places of business on the Sabbath day [Sunday]. The order closes drug stores, meat shops, bakeries, livery stables, and, in fact, all places which have been accustomed to opening on Sunday for profit or the accommodation of customers.

There appears to be a division of sentiment as to the necessity for such an order at this time, or even of its propriety. Without undertaking to discuss the merits of the order we will say that, while we consider it the duty of every citizen to properly observe the Sabbath, there are circumstances surrounding many individuals which render a strict observance of the day a little inconvenient. Take, for instance, the day laborer who is engaged in secular employment the entire week. When he returns to his home on Saturday night, tired and worked down, he feels more like resting than he does like going to the store or grocery. But this order compels him to go or do without what may be necessary articles. We don't see where a little indulgence in this direction would desecrate the Sabbath or hurt the individual in the least.

We are in favor of unlimited freedom of the conscience, and decidedly opposed to any legislation after the spirit of the Connecticut Blue Laws. It is a little strange that our town Board should be so impressed that it is their duty to look after the morals of the people, when at the same time they can overlook many other necessary things which they might do, and which would be conducive to the health and comfort of the citizens. What has become of the fire ladder furore, that stock ordinance, that cleaning up ordinance, etc., which were enacted, paid for, and now remain as dead as a door nail? Such laws as these would be of practical benefit, and if the Board desires to earn its pay, here is the proper field to work in.

GOD'S COMMANDS REQUIRE PERFECT OBEDIENCE.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

When the Lord of glory left his station of high command to become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, accepting ignominy and death in order to deliver man from the consequence of his disobedience, he did not consult his own convenience or pleasure. Jesus died, not to save man in his sins, but from his sins. He is to leave the error of his ways, to follow the example of Christ, take up his cross and follow him, denying self, and obeying God at any cost.

Said Jesus, “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

If we are true servants of God there should be no question in our minds as to whether we should obey his commandments or seek our own temporal interests.

If the believers in the truth are not sustained by their faith in these comparatively peaceful days, what will uphold them when the grand test comes, and the decree goes forth against all those who will not worship the image of the beast, and receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands? This solemn period is not far off. Instead of becoming weak and irresolute, the people of God should be gathering strength and courage for the time of trouble.

Jesus, our great example, in his life and death, taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God's law might be preserved and yet man not utterly perish. Sin is the transgression of the law. If the sin of Adam brought such inexpressible wretchedness, requiring the sacrifice of God's dear Son, what will be the punishment of those who, seeing the light of truth, set at naught the fourth commandment of the Lord?

Circumstances will not justify any one in working upon the Sabbath for the sake of worldly profit. If God excuses one man, he may excuse all. But, says one, why may not a man who is poor work upon the Sabbath to earn means for a livelihood when he might by so doing be better able to support his family? Why may not other brethren, or all of us, keep the Sabbath only when it is convenient to do so? The voice from Sinai makes answer: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”

Listen to these solemn words of promise addressed to all: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

God will visit with judgments those who profess to serve him, yet really serve mammon. They who disregard the Lord's express injunction in order to advantage themselves, are heaping future woe upon themselves.

The people of God should inquire closely if they have not, like the Jews, made the temple of God a place of merchandise. Christ said, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Are not many of our people falling into the sin of sacrificing their religion for the sake of worldly gain; preserving a form of piety, yet giving all the mind to temporal pursuits? God's law must be considered first of all, and obeyed in spirit and in letter. If God's word, spoken in awful solemnity from the holy mountain, is lightly regarded, how will the testimonies of his Spirit be received? Minds that are so darkened as not to recognize the authority of the Lord's commandments given directly to man, can receive little good from a feeble instrument whom he has chosen to instruct his people.

Age does not excuse any from obeying the divine commands. Abraham was sorely tested in his old age. The words of the Lord seemed terrible and uncalled-for to the stricken old man; yet he never questioned their justice or hesitated in his obedience. He might have pleaded that he was old and feeble, and could not sacrifice the son who was the joy of his life. He might have reminded the Lord that this command conflicted with the promises that had been given in regard to this son. But the obedience of Abraham was without a murmur or reproach. His trust in God was implicit.

The faith of Abraham should be our example; yet how few will patiently endure a simple test of reproof of the sins which imperil their eternal welfare. How few receive reproof with humility, and profit by it. God's claim upon our faith, our services, our affections, should meet with a cheerful response. We are infinite debtors to the Lord, and should unhesitatingly comply with the least of his requirements. To be a commandment-breaker it is not necessary that we should trample upon the whole moral code. If one precept is disregarded, we are transgressors of the sacred law. And if we would be true commandment-keepers, we should strictly observe every requirement that God has enjoined upon us.

God allowed his own Son to be put to death in order to answer the penalty of the transgression of the law; then how will he deal with those who, in the face of all this evidence, dare venture upon the path of disobedience, having received the light of truth? Man has no right to question his convenience or wants in this matter. God will provide; he who fed Elijah by the brook, making a raven his messenger, will not suffer his faithful ones to want for food.

The Saviour asked his disciples who were pressed with poverty, why they were anxious and troubled in regard to what they should eat or how they should be clothed. Said he, “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” He pointed to the lovely flowers, formed and tinted by a divine hand, saying, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART I.

By A. C. Spicer

In Exodus (Continued).

It is believed that whoever reads the eighteenth chapter of Exodus carefully will be convinced that not only Moses and the Israelites, but also Jethro, the priest of Midian, was well instructed in the moral law and in the law of ordinances and sacrifices, before they were ever rehearsed from Mt. Sinai. In the brief history, there is left to us but a mere hint as to the character of Jethro; but verses 9–12 indicate that he was a believer in and a worshiper of God, and hoped in the promise of a Saviour, as he offered sacrifices to God—a burnt-offering—just in accord with the law of sacrifices as afterward given from Sinai; and then counseled Moses intelligently and wisely in respect to the administration of the “ordinances and law” of God to the people (verses 17–23), which counsel Moses accepted and God sanctioned. And here, in verse 21, a knowledge of the ninth commandment which we had not discovered in Genesis, as also of the tenth commandment, is clearly indicated. When we hear this Midian counsel the selection of “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” can it be doubted that he knew the commandments of the moral law?

Here, too, in verse 16, is evidence positively certain that there were statutes and laws of God by which Moses was guided in the government of the people before they reached Mt. Sinai, although there is no such record left us of the formal giving and codification of the laws, as there is afterward; for Moses speaks of them definitely, and declares that he makes the people “know the statutes of God and his laws.” Therefore, as we have so frequently seen heretofore, so here we see that the “statutes and laws” of God, moral and sacrificial, and also a knowledge thereof by the people, are older than the encampment of Israel at Horeb, and that a knowledge of the moral law and of the law of sacrifices for sin was general; also that the application of those laws was general and not exclusively to Israel, as were the later ordinances of circumcision, the passover, &c., and the laws thereof.

Passing to chapter 19, we find Israel encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, before the “mount of God.” It seems that God has chosen this people his special wards, that he may discipline them to faith and obedience; that he may preserve a people on earth by and through which he can accomplish his purpose to present to a sinful world a plan of redemption and an offer of eternal life; that he has led them into this wild, waste wilderness, into most absolute seclusion from other nations, after a miraculous deliverance, that he may more fully instruct them in faith and in his law and statutes, and especially that he may discipline them to obedience, that he may prepare them fully for the great mission to which he has called them as the special conservators of his law and will, and of true religion in the promised land to which he is conducting them; and that now is his opportunity. So with impressive solemnity, from amid the wild grandeur of the mountain, God calls unto Moses, and Moses ascends into the presence of Deity, when God proposes a renewal of his covenant of promise with his people Israel, preliminary to the re-announcement to them of his moral law, and a formal enunciation of the special statutes by which they are to be governed when they shall dwell in the promised land, and the special ordinances and ceremonies, with the laws thereof, by which they should be disciplined in faith and religious worship. Verses 3–6. In respect to this covenant we may notice,

1. God calls it his covenant—“my covenant”—and speaks of it as if already existing. This same characteristic was seen in Gen. 9:9, 11, 15; 17:2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 19.

2. The covenant is not a law, but a mutual agreement, or contract, between the parties thereto, containing mutual and reciprocal pledges by the one party to the other for their mutual and reciprocal benefit, upon specific conditions.

Condition. God puts it thus: “If ye will obey my voice indeed.” In Gen. 26:5, this obeying the voice of God is defined by God thus: “Kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Pledges. God promises upon this condition: “Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; . . . ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation;” and this promise must be understood to include and mean all that was promised to Abraham, as seen in Gen. 17.

The responsive promise of the people is: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do;” and now the mutual agreement is completed and the covenant is established.

3. The object of the covenant, as indicated in the condition and the promises by God, appears to have been the honor and glory of God and the well-being of man, to be effected by securing obedience to God’s commandments, statutes, and laws. Holiness of character is an essential condition for the attainment of eternal life, and this is to be developed by obedience to moral law, so the immediate, direct object of God’s covenant with man was to secure obedience to his moral law.

4. This covenant was universal, including all mankind. “Thou shalt be a father of many nations,” Gen. 17:4; “and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Chap. 22:18.

5. This was an “everlasting covenant” (17:7), a covenant of grace and salvation through a promised Saviour, by whose blood it was to be ratified or sealed.

6. This we understand to be the Abrahamic “covenant of promise,” which had been renewed to Isaac, then to Jacob, individually, and which was now renewed to all Israel collectively.

Now God and the people, having entered into this very solemn mutual and reciprocal agreement to do each for the other, God proposes to rehearse his moral law—that law which they have so solemnly promised to obey—in the hearing of all the people. The purpose of this rehearsal thus to the whole people by himself personally, God declares to be “that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever.” Verse 9. He would overcome their unbelief and unfaithfulness, give them every facility for knowing the law and every needed aid to keep it, and would suitably impress them with his estimate of its infinite, intrinsic value, by the most imposing, solemn, and awful demonstrations of the evidence of his presence and of his authority and guardianship. So the Lord bade Moses “sanctify” the people for the next two days; “for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.”

Attention is here called to the scriptural meaning of the word sanctify, as indicated in this chapter. It seems to be this: Teach them what to do and how to do it; give them a rule or law of action suitable to guide their conduct at that time and occasion and instruct them in it, so that they may please God and be harmless and innocent. “Set bounds about” the people by a law of moral action or deportment and thus sanctify them, as he was to “set bounds about the mountain,” sanctifying it by charging the people in respect to it. To be sanctified, then, is to be made holy by conformity to moral law, as holiness is character in conformity to moral law. Evidently it was in this sense that the word was used by Christ, as given in John 17:17, 19, and by Paul, in 1 Cor. 1:2, 30. Then it is conformity to the precepts and principles of the moral law that is to sanctify the heart.

The people having been thus instructed—thus sanctified—on the third day “the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai” amid demonstrations of the most impressive and awful grandeur—“thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud,” and fire, and smoke, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, the whole mountain quaking—and Moses brought forth the trembling people to meet God and hear his voice. “And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice,” and enunciated in the hearing of all the people, with a loud and audible voice, all the words of the moral law. Ex. 20:1–17; and when he had uttered these words of the ten commandments, “he added no more.” Deut. 5:22.

The first of these precepts is a protest against idolatry in general, and commands the worship of Deity.

The second deals with idolatry in detail.

The third commands respect to God and reverence to his name.

The fourth enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, which is the God-ordained conservator of all the virtues sought by commanding all the other precepts, and by the religion of the Bible.

The fifth inculcates parental and filial duty in the family relation, which is the basis of all human relations.

The sixth protects human life as God-given and inviolate.

The seventh enjoins chastity and purity of life.

The eighth protects individual property rights.

The ninth secures individual reputation and personal character.

The tenth is a general protest against all selfishness, for protection of individual interior character in personal consciousness.

But these essential principles of these now so imposingly and impressively enunciated ten precepts have every one of them been discovered as understood by the people, and their authority recognized, all along the history of the race from the origin of man down through these more than twenty-five hundred years, which are now here repeated and confirmed in language adapted to the times and circumstances of the people, in the hearing of all Israel, that all this great people may know that God had created them and all things seen, and may listen to him, believe, trust, and obey him. These ten precepts, including, in general terms, rules for all moral rectitude of life in all times and under all circumstances,

conditions, and relations of life, constitute the grand, universal, and unchangeable constitution of God’s moral government among men. The whole theocracy of revelation is based on these. Hence, most emphatically and impressively are these words now enforced upon the attention and consciences of the people, that they may listen and be instructed, and may believe, obey, and live. No method of instruction could possibly exceed this in directness, definiteness, or impressive, convincing, and commanding power.

Nevertheless, God in his infinite care for the instruction and welfare of the people, adopts still another and additional expedient. Now all Israel have solemnly covenanted with God to keep his law, as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, individually, and also, as I fully believe, Adam, Enoch, Noah, and others of the God-fearing patriarchs. And God means that they shall have every facility for knowing it and remembering it, that they may keep it and thus fulfill their covenant with him, as that holiness of character which can only be developed by heart-conformity to this law and which is essential to immortality, is the object and burden of all of God’s disciplinary providences. To this same end God means that a precise and definite knowledge of this law shall be handed down through all time and perpetuated forever. Hence, absolute security requires that a knowledge of these commandments shall no longer, as in the past, depend upon the hazards of verbal tradition. They must be prepared for preservation in the most permanent and enduring manner. They must be engraven, and that, too, on enduring stone, even by God himself, on tablets of his own furnishing. So the Lord said unto Moses, “Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” Ex. 24:12.

And further, God commanded Moses to have built a safe receptacle for the secure keeping of those tables of the law, and said, “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.” Ex. 25:16. And God did give to Moses two tables of stone, having the law “written thereon with the finger of God.” Ex. 31:18; Deut. 4:13; 9:10. Those tables of the law Moses received direct from God and bore them down from the mount in his hands. Ex. 32:15, 16. But amid his excitement at sight of the idolatry and prostitution of the people, he “cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.” Then God bade Moses: “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first;” promising: “And I will write upon these tables the words that were upon the first tables, which thou brakest.” Chap. 34:1. Moses obeyed this direction (verse 4), and God did “write upon them the ten commandments” (verse 28); and when the ark had been prepared as directed, Moses “put the testimony into the ark” for preservation and safe-keeping, as God commanded. Ex. 40:20; Deut. 10:5.

Behold! what distinguishing care God bestows upon these commandments and upon the tables containing them, engraven! Not so was any other document ever cared for. Verily, God does “magnify his law”! A. C. SPICER.

MADAM GUYON'S HYMN.

By Madam Guyon

[Written during her ten years' imprisonment in the Bastile.]

A little bird I am, Shut from the fields of air; And in my cage I sit and sing To Him who placed me there; Well pleased a prisoner to be, Because, my God, it pleases thee!

Naught have I else to do; I sing the whole day long, And He whom most I love to please Doth listen to my song; He caught and bound my wandering wing, But still he bends to hear me sing.

Thou hast an ear to hear, A heart to love and bless, And though my notes were e'er so rude, Thou wouldst not hear the less; Because thou knowest, as they fall, That love, sweet love, inspires them all.

My cage confines me round, Abroad I cannot fly; But though my wing is closely bound, My heart's at liberty: My prison walls cannot control The flight, the freedom of my soul.

Oh! it is good to soar These bolts and bars above, To Thee whose purpose I adore, Whose providence I love, And in thy mighty will to find The joy, the freedom of the mind!

THE CLAY IN THE HANDS OF THE POTTER.

By J. O. Corliss

A few days ago, I stepped into a pottery, and watched the workman as he molded different vessels; and while watching the process, the language of Paul came to my mind: “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?” Rom. 9:21.

I had often heard this text quoted to prove that God has power over all men as the potter has over the clay; and that as the potter makes one kind of vessel of one piece of clay, and another kind of a second piece, so God makes one man a Christian and another a sinner, at his will! It always seemed mysterious to me that God should commission men to preach the gospel to every creature in all the world (Mark 16:15), and command all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), and yet make a large proportion of men so that they could not possibly repent.

No doubt this seems as strange to the unbiased reader of the Bible as it did to me, yet an evening or two ago I heard an advocate of this doctrine say that Christ did not die for all the world—only for the elect! Certainly, such reasoning (?) must overlook some of the plainest declarations of Scripture, when Paul tells us that Christ died for all men. See 2 Cor. 5:15; Heb. 2:9.

But to return. I began to reason: Is there any aptness in the illustration? Certainly there must be, or the Spirit of God would never have dictated its use. Then the question occurred to me: Has the potter any power over the clay to make it into vessels of any kind while it remains in its natural state? No. In the first place it is taken from the bank and drawn to a mill, where it is ground and worked over until every lump is crushed, and every small stone taken out; when it is taken from the mill and worked over by hand, to insure the removal of all stones and lumps. Then the potter has power to make it into vessels of different kinds; but no vessel, whether of honor or dishonor, could be made from it until it had gone through this softening process.

Then we make the application: No man can hold a place in the service of God, either high or low, without first being fitted for it to some degree by the softening and subduing influence of the Spirit of God. It does not require any of this process to make a sinner. A man can be a sinner in his natural condition. Hence we conclude that the vessel unto dishonor does not represent a sinner, but rather one who holds a subordinate position in the service of God. The potter never exercises any power over the clay in the bank while it remains in its natural or crude state; so the individual who will not submit to the process of refinement, but chooses rather to remain in his natural condition, God exercises no power over, but lets him alone. But every one who will yield himself to obey God’s law places himself in the hands of God, and the process of refining commences. Where a rash, uneven temper existed, a gentle, smooth one will appear; and where faults were once prominent, virtues will shine. In fact, a person can become, like the clay, so plastic that he will be molded just as God sees fit, and can fill any station in life that God desires he should. Yes; though in his natural state he may have appeared very rough and forbidding, yet by yielding himself fully into the hands of God, he may become a useful instrument in his hands to accomplish good in any station of life in which he may be placed.

J. O. CORLISS.

PREHISTORIC ART.

By Hastings

It is surprising to see upon what slender and sandy foundations learned men will proceed to base the most astounding conclusions. Readers are familiar with the notable story of the investigations of those learned savants who studied, theorized, and philosophized concerning the relics of an animal of some long-extinct species, found among the most ancient subterranean strata, and how at last they resolved themselves into the skeleton of a dead donkey which was tumbled into the shaft of a mine to save the trouble of burying him; and in a similar spirit of wonderful research certain old relics and remains are referred to as affording indubitable proof of the existence of extinct races whose customs and manners pertained exclusively to far-off ages; when in fact it may be found that these very primitive forms and relics have their place to-day among the actual scenes of common life. Dr. Arthur Mitchell, a British antiquary, in a course of lectures in Edinburgh, describes a number of ancient customs which still exist in the remoter districts of Scotland.

Dr. Mitchell found at one time a stone-breaker sitting on the roadside eating his dinner out of what seemed to be a sepulchral urn. Closer inspection proved the vessel to be a specimen of hand-made pottery which was in general use in that region. It was made by a woman from clay without especial preparation, shaped by the hand and burned in an open peat-fire, and its porosity corrected by a bowlful of milk being poured over it while still hot. No pottery of “the stone age” or modern savage life, was ruder than this; yet the house in which the woman lived who manufactured this vessel, contained cotton from Manchester, cutlery from Sheffield, pottery from Staffordshire, tea from China and sugar from the West Indies. She was shrewd, intelligent, and well-informed; yet it is possible that some wiseacre, digging on the site of her hut when it had gone to ruin, would find nothing except the pottery of her own rude manufacture, and would conclude that she belonged to a race which lived ages and ages ago, before any modern discoveries had been made, and would offer her old earthen pot in proof of the theory. These and many other palpable and well-authenticated facts should cause men to hesitate a little before they undertake to overturn all faith and hope for this world and the one to come by the alleged discovery of some old bone, or some tomahawk in which they claim to read a history which would doubtless astonish the persons who were familiar with the actual origin of relics upon which their theories are based.—Hastings.

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