Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 15, 1859
COME TO JESUS.
"WHY SHOULD I COME?" YOU ARE A SINNER, COME FOR PARDON.
Perhaps you do not feel you are a sinner. At least you think you are no worse than others, but better than many. You are no drunkard, thief, adulterer, but keep the Sabbath, read the Bible, and attend the house of God. But have you indeed obeyed all the commandments? Never broken any of them? Always been true, chaste, sober, honest, forgiving, kind? Never indulged in pride, malice, anger, deceit, or lust? God requires purity of heart as well as of outward conduct, and he knows all our thoughts. Have you then never cherished the thought of sin in your heart, though you have feared outwardly to commit it? Besides, the first and chief command is to love the Lord our God with all our mind and strength. Have you always done this; always been thankful for his mercies; always carefully
read his word in order to obey it; always tried to please him, loved to pray to him, taken delight in his day, his people, his worship; always striven to be "holy as he is holy," to make known his truth, to induce others to love him, and endeavored in all things to glorify him? If you have always done this, you have still only just done your duty, and have nothing to boast of. But you have not done it. Conscience tells you so. You know you have sinned thousands of times. You know you have sought your own pleasure, have not been prompted by a desire to please God. You have lived for yourself; you have sought man's approval, but God has not been in all your thoughts. The Bible tells us, "If a man say he hath no sin he deceiveth himself. There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." O, my fellow sinner is it not true of thee, "The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified?" You are a sinner. Guilt, enormous guilt, hangs upon you. In God's book all your sins are written down. You cannot get rid of them. Were you to labor for thousands of years you could not atone for the past. All you could do would only be your duty. Paying to-day's debt still leaves yesterday's where it was. And were you to give all you possess, or suffer torture and death, it would not take away sin. The past cannot be recalled. But there is forgiveness, free, full, eternal, for the guilty. Jesus has pardon for thee, sinner, purchased with his own blood. Come for it. Come to Jesus Christ for it.
FOR PEACE OF CONSCIENCE COME.
"There is no peace saith my God to the wicked." Some sinners seem to be at peace, but it is only by refusing to think. They will not consider. But such thoughtlessness is not worthy to be called peace. It is like a man in a sinking ship, who will not examine what is the danger; or like a tradesman who fancies all is not going on well, but will not look into his accounts lest his mind should be disturbed. So the sinner fancies something is wrong, and fearing to be made unhappy he banishes reflection about God and his soul. Yet every sinner thinks sometimes, and then he must be wretched. When death visits a neighbor's house, or enters his own, or threatens himself, and at many other times the thought will come, "God is angry; my soul is in danger; I am not fit to die." And how must such a thought damp his pleasure and disturb his repose.
No you cannot be at peace till you have obtained pardon. You may try all the pleasures of the world in turn; you may seek to drown thought by plunging deeper and deeper into sin but you cannot be happy. But when we come to Jesus all our sins are at once forgiven. We still think of them with sorrow, but we need no more think of them with terror. God says to us, "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more." He blots out "all trespasses." He "casts them behind his back—into the depths of the sea." They will not be mentioned at the judgment-day. "He will abundantly pardon." He now regards us with love. We need not be afraid of him. He invites us to trust him as a kind friend. Instead of hiding from him as Adam did, we may hide in him as David did, saying, "Thou art my hiding-place." O what a happy change! I am a sinner still, but a sinner pardoned, reconciled,
saved. And whatever dreadful things conscience may tell me, Jesus says "thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace." Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Poor sinner, you and peace have long been strangers. Worldly pleasure is not peace; and nothing can give it while you and God are enemies, and your sins hang heavily on your soul. Come then to Jesus. He both makes and gives peace. Seek pardon through him, and you will soon know what is meant by the peace of God which passeth all understanding."
FOR A NEW HEART—COME.
"Ye must be born again," said Christ to Nicodemus. There must be a great change in our thoughts and feelings respecting God, before we are able to serve him on earth and enjoy him in heaven. Sin has estranged our minds from God so that we do not desire him and love him. True religion is not pleasant to us. This is being "carnally minded, which is death." To love the things which sin makes distasteful, is a great change like coming to life. It is called the new birth or regeneration. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Unconverted sinner, how can you expect to enter heaven? You would not be happy there. A swallow enjoys the air and a cow the meadows, but a fish would soon languish there and die. There must be adaptation. Music charms those alone who have an ear for it; books are no treat to those who dislike reading; and society is only pleasant when it is congenial. A clown would not feel at ease at court; the ignorant cannot enjoy the company of the learned, the profligate do not love the society of the virtuous; and just so the ungodly cannot take pleasure in religion. Is not the Sabbath to you a dull day, the Bible a dry book, religious conversation unpleasant, prayer a task, and the company of the pious irksome? But heaven is all Sabbath, all worship, all holiness—its inhabitants all righteous, and their talk and actions all have reference to God. Heaven is happy because it is holy, and because God is there. But if you do not love holiness and God, it would not be a happy place for you. You would wander about, a miserable solitary thing, damping the enjoyment you could not share, and polluting the temple in which you alone would be unable to worship. Therefore, unless born again you never will enter. You cannot, I know, change your own heart, but the Spirit of God can. And Jesus died to obtain for us the gift of the Spirit. And this gift is freely bestowed on all who sincerely apply to the Saviour for it. O then earnestly pray for the Spirit of God, that you may be born again. Come to Jesus with the petition of David, "Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me." And for your encouragement think, of the gracious assurance of Christ. "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
FOR THE PRIVILEGES AND JOYS OF ADOPTION—COME.
Persons of wealth sometimes take the children of the poor, and train them as their own; this26is called adoption. And thus God describes his treatment of those who come to Jesus. "Ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty." "We have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father." We are permitted in prayer, to address God as "Our Father which art in heaven." He loves these adopted children with more than an earthly parent's affection. He teaches, watches over, comforts, feeds, protects them. Sorrows are his kind chastisements, intended for their benefit. "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." In all their trials he consoles them. "Like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." Sickness, poverty, bereavement, all their troubles are overruled for their advantage. "All things work together for good to them that love God." "They shall not want any good thing." "No weapon formed against them shall prosper." In every difficulty and danger their Father is at their side. "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." They may tell their Father all their wants. "In everything make known your requests unto God." His ear is ever open to their cry, and his hand ever outstretched to do them good. As a father he provides for them an inheritance; but, unlike those of earth, it is "incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away." O what happiness to be a child of God; to feel that "God is my Father! He loves me, pities, pardons, keeps me. I am safe from all evil. Wicked men and wicked spirits cannot harm me. God is my refuge, ever near; and he never slumbers, never is weary, never forgets, and will never change. He says 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love.' He will be always near me while on my journey here, and at last will take me to dwell with him in his palace forever. What earthly greatness can equal this? Reader would you be a child of God? You may if you come to Jesus; for 'as many as received,' came to 'him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.'
THAT YOU MAY ENTER HEAVEN—COME.
As there is a place of punishment for the wicked so there is a heaven of glory for all who come to Jesus. God, in his great love to sinners, sent his Son not only to deliver them from hell, but to make them happy and glorious with him forever. How delightful is the description the Bible gives of heaven. We are told that sickness sorrow and death never enter there; that cares, fears, and anxieties are never felt there; that poverty, privation, unkindness and disappointment are never known there. The body that will rise from the grave will be "incorruptible," and will never experience, pain, weariness or decay. Old age will, never enfeeble for there will be perpetual youth; and death will never snatch away those we love for death itself will be destroyed. What is still better, there will be no more sin, but all hearts will be full of holy love to God, and to one another. Every one will rejoice in the society and happiness of every one else, and God himself will dwell among them. All the good men of former ages will be there—the martyrs and apostles and prophets. There, too, we shall meet with angels and archangels; and more than all, we shall behold Jesus in his glorified human body—we shall see his face, and ever be with the Lord. To show how glorious heaven is, it is compared to a place of rest after labor; to a father's house, a happy home. "They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore." The best joys of earth are soon gone. Riches fly, health decays, friends depart, death is written on all things. But the joys of heaven are forever, and forever, and forever. Reader, this heaven may be thine. Jesus keeps
the door, but he has opened it wide for all sinners to enter. If you will not come to Jesus you cannot enter heaven; for he is the door, the only door. But he invites you to come. Yes however guilty and vile you are heaven may and certainly will be yours if you come to Jesus. "To you is the word of this salvation sent." O then, for heavenly bliss come to Jesus.—Am. Tract.
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.
PRAY when the morning dawns,
And at the close of day,
Kneel humbly at the throne of God,
And there in secret pray.
If earth hath filled thy heart
With cares and worldly strife,
Remember 'tis a fearful thing,
To lead a prayerless life.
For bitter tears must flow,
And sins must be forgiven,
And prayers of deep contrition breathed,
Ere thou canst enter heaven.
Has life to thee been all
A bright unclouded day?
Then lift thy heart in gratitude,
To God, the giver, pray.
And humbly bow thy head
In dark and gloomy hours,
When life is drear and adverse clouds
Around thy pathway lower;
When earthly hopes are crushed,
And idols shattered lie,
Bend low before the God of love,
And breathe thy mournful sigh.
Prone is thy erring heart
From duty's path to stray,
Frail is the strength of mortal man,
And therefore thou must pray.
Yet come in holy fear,
Hush every worldly thought,
On to the shrine of purity,
Be earthly passions brought.
And prayer shall keep thee safe
From dark temptation's power,
And guide thy heart unerringly,
Through many a dangerous hour.
EDUCATION.
By Jos. Clarke
THAT they may teach their children. Deut. iv, 10. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deut. vi, 7 and xi 19.
A fearful responsibility lies upon parents and guardians, a responsibility which can by no means be shifted nor evaded. The plea of inability, want of time, forgetfulness, and other pleas, will all be swept away before the unerring word of the Lord.
If a parent is obliged to be absent for a time he is obliged to leave his charge in such hands, as will see that their duties are performed (to the best of his ability), and when he returns he will resume his own duty where he left off if he would be a faithful steward over his Lord's property. But the excuse must be a very good one indeed which would excuse the parent from being present with his children, and leaving them in the care of others, or in any way neglecting to oversee and personally inspect their conduct.
This is evidently the meaning of the passage, that children are expected to be under the immediate inspection of one or both parents at all times, and every opportunity is to be embraced to instruct them in the way of the Lord.
When the child rises at morn, or lies down at night, when he walks by the way, or sits quietly at the family hearth, his parent's eye is supposed to be upon him in parental watchfulness and love, and at all these times is instruction to be conveyed to his pliant mind, dropping like the sunshine or the dew upon the flowers and causing his mental powers to be developed under a system of religious training, which if sanctified by the spirit of God, would result in the formation of a character pleasing in the sight of God.
A parent occupies a place, a relationship to his child next to God. For several of the first years of the life of the child, he is seemingly at the mercy of his parents. His life, his health, his bent of mind, his first impressions of God and of truth, he learns at his parent's knee; he waits his parent's nod, and all the hell he knows is his parent's frown; all the heaven he knows is his parent's smile. Oh ye parents, would you, could you all realize your tremendous responsibility as you travel on in life with your little ones around you, how much their present and future happiness rests upon you, how much their eternal well being and immortality depends upon your instruction and example, how and with what earnestness would you pray and labor!
You are busy perhaps, too busy, to think of giving instructions so constant as is here enjoined; but I ask, Are you too busy to eat, to sleep, to dress, to cook; too busy to plant and sow, too busy to reap or plough? and is not the command here imperative as either? You forget perhaps. Do you forget to breathe? What would you do if God should forget to send your heart's blood through your system at every pulse? What if he should forget to keep the world in motion? forget to send us sunshine and rain? forget! can a mother forget her sucking child? and can a parent forget to cultivate the mind of his child? can a parent forget to instruct his own flesh and blood in the way of righteousness? Can a parent lie in dumb, sluggish forgetfulness, while the mind of his darling child is a garden full of noxious weeds, a garden of thistles and thorns? Can a parent lie quiet and easy, while his child grows up into life a dull stupid ignorant servant of sin, and yet flatter himself that he is a christian? I would not give anything for the hope of one who can thus neglect the education of the precious ones entrusted to his care.
This world is no place for ease; it is Satan's field of death, and he who would serve another master, must be a worker, a soldier, selfdenying and intrepid; and he who faints at the sight of war may as well lay down his arms. He who dreads work may as well desert the field at once or make up his mind to take hold in good earnest and do every duty, however humble and laborious and constant. Duty once taken in hand, the cross once upon the shoulders, is lightened by the hand of mercy, and sustained by heavenly power, and becomes when habitually performed and taken up, a buoy, a source of purest enjoyment, a light, a barrier to ward off temptation, a means of enduring happiness.
But says one, I have no skill in such things. I ask if skill was ever attained without practice? Have you brought up a family of children and not yet attained any skill in teaching them the way of the Lord? But let us see how it can be done.
A parent or teacher should first know that to tell a child that he must love his Bible, or must love God, without giving a reason why, will meet with but little success in teaching. A child reasons by short concise methods; remember this, and respect his intellect, and teach him with systematic reasoning, plain and to the point, and he will reciprocate. You wish him to be saved, to be changed in heart, to be renewed, sanctified; now begin with the alphabet.
First what is sin? Here a full explanation is needed, and much instruction on the commandments, interspersed with remarks about the goodness, justice and mercy of God, with a care that each term is understood; and if interest flags, the beauties of heaven, of the new earth may win; and it is better often to speak of these things, than to weary with long lectures. But system must be observed or the subject will be confused in his mind.
Here is the main point to establish well in his mind, the unbending justice, the unsoiled purity of God. Without this sense of God's character, the child cannot by any means appreciate his mercy and benevolence.
When the child has learned the true distinction between right and wrong, and its true bearings, he has learned the alphabet of holiness, he has learned what many a D. D. has yet to become acquainted with. This knowledge is necessary to the existence of that moral sense which he must have before he can in any degree appreciate the truths of the Bible.
Having the best evidence that he knows what sin is he must be made conscious of its existence in himself. Is his conscience tender? Does sin and disobedience to God give him pain? Let him be candid, and get his real feelings. Do you find him stupid? Now is the time to show him kindly his danger, the awful doom of the wicked, and the reward of the righteous. Advise him to pray for a heart to feel, for a tender heart like the heart of Josiah whose heart was tender towards God and towards his law. Teach him how good men and women have hated sin, and advise him to pray for this tenderness of conscience. Does he manifest by tears and acts that his heart is melted? Now follow it up by showing him that to stop here is death; this is only conviction; he must repent and be converted (turned about). Show him what it is to turn about, turn away from sin.
Next he must not only be tender at heart repent and be converted, but he must be sanctified. This he must believe that God will do for him, in answer to the prayer of faith and his constant endeavor. Keep the system, the plan in your mind, and instil it by short lessons and easy gradations into the mind of your child. Work, oh work! Make your child obedient. Are you well? then you have no excuse. Are you sick? you can call him to your bedside and teach him the alphabet of right ere you die.
Jos. CLARKE.
THE DUTY OF REPROOF.
WE have recently met with an obituary, the writer of which seems to have got entirely out of the stereotyped common place of such performances. Describing the subject of his notice just as he was, he gives currency to some traits of character which are alike rare and worthy of commendation. One of these is thus mentioned:
“He was a bold reprover of infidelity, and of profanity, especially that which seemed to be intended as an insult to God and religion. He would reprove any man of his acquaintance, let his position be ever so prominent, who was in the habit of ridiculing religion even in a public hotel where he said such conversation was abusive to all the travellers who had been brought up in Christian morals.”
Would that there were more such! Few duties of the Christian profession are so generally neglected, even by sincere and earnest men as that of reproof. Private expostulation with a wrong doer is unfrequent, while public rebuke of public sins is still more rare. And yet it is in reality not difficult to perform. The reprover has the conscience of the offender on his side; he has the general sense of the community, the claims of propriety, and the demands of duty all with him. What he needs is “meekness of wisdom,” a mild but firm representation of the wrong done, and a sense of dependence on God for strength to perform the duty, and grace to make it effectual.
Profanity and abuse and ridicule of religion, are sins so gross and inexcusable, so painful to all devout and well bred persons, so opposed to all decency, so injurious to the young and thoughtless, and so gratuitous in themselves, that no Christian should ever hesitate a moment in reminding the transgressor of his sin, and his exposure to Divine wrath. “Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.” “He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favor than he that flattereth with his tongue.”—Christian Inteligencer.
FEELING IN RELIGION.
By Morning Star
SOME persons are unnecessarily afraid of feeling in religion. But if feeling is lawful in any thing, why not in religion? God has made us not only capable of feeling, but so that we cannot possibly avoid it. Every fact and principle which enters the mind in the common current of human life, the facts that are pleasing, and those that are not so, are always followed by more or less feeling. The world is full of feeling. The multitudes that crowd the busy mart, the active and indolent, at home and abroad, the prosperous and unprosperous, the rich and the poor, the well and the sick, those surrounded by friends, and those pressed by enemies, are all full of feeling. If we could ascend some clairvoyant mount, and look into the secret chambers of the world's souls, we should observe everywhere at all times a perpetual surging of feeling, like the ceaseless tide, agitation and commotion of old ocean.—Then these feelings are constantly changing.—In no two moments are the feelings of humanity exactly the same; sometimes they are stronger, then weaker, now a little more sunshine and gladness, then midnight gathers, and sorrow increases; this changeless change distinguishes the world's feelings, and the feelings of individuals.
This feeling is a tremendous force among men, like the steam of the engine, constantly pressing upon the will, adding immensely to its force and persistency, and often firing up the intelligence to mighty feats. When a man's feelings are joyful, it sheds a cheerful light over all the scenes of life; but when they are depressed and sad, sunshine is changed to shade, and hope to fear. Since feeling is such a force in man's nature, since every man in the secular, social and every other relation of life, is constantly inspired by feeling, why should not the Christian feel? why should he not indulge this powerful ally to his will, and his intelligence, and allow his soul to be the theater of religious emotions, joyous and sorrowful? Is there not as much occasion for feeling in regard to matters so vast, so glorious, so full of hope to the soul, that involve the felicity of the spirit forever and ever, as in worldly affairs? If it is proper to feel when prosperity crowns our labors, when friends are true and kind, when honors cluster on our brow, surely we may feel when God is our Father, when our sins are forgiven, when we have a good hope through grace, when immortality becomes our sure inheritance. Yes, we may feel, our emotions may spring up joyously, our love grow warm and fervent, and hope burst out in ecstatic transports.
But we should always recollect that Christian feelings always have a Christian cause. Those feelings which are not produced by an intelligent apprehension of the gospel, which do not spring from knowledge of the truth, and faith in it, though they may be very nearly like Christian feelings, are nevertheless spurious, counterfeit, and ought to be condemned. And there is a vast amount of such feeling abroad in the church. There is a spiritual formalism, a machine feeling, a mesmeric excitement, animal emotion, without any intelligent basis, and this is often mistaken for Christian feeling. When a man has an intelligent acquaintance with the scheme of salvation, he may well rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
We believe that there is far too little Christian feeling in the church. We are too cold, too joyless, too deficient in zeal; and we ought to take measures to increase our feelings. This can be done in a legitimate way. Become more familiar with the facts and promises of the gospel. Let the word of God dwell richly in us. As this knowledge increases, our joys will increase, our feelings of interest, zeal, and love will increase. As the merchant is made glad by the news of large gains; and the politician by news of large majorities; so let the Christian fire up his feelings by filling his soul with the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel. By this means we shall cultivate pure, strong, elevating, blissful feelings, that will shed a sacred a divine influence all through the soul.—Morning Star.
JESTING WITH SCRIPTURE.
THERE is a practice which is fearfully common even among the professors of religion, and from which, alas! ministers of the Gospel are not always free, which cannot be too severely condemned, as offensive to God, and injurious to the best interests of man. We allude to the practice of connecting ludicrous anecdotes with passages of Scripture. We know by sad experience, and we appeal to the experience of others for the confirmation of the remark, that so lively is the impression which is often produced on the mind by the association of something grotesque with certain texts of the Bible, that such passages can hardly be read in the most serious moments without bringing up to the mind some idea which it requires a strong effort to prevent from producing a smile. This is one abuse of sacred things not less displeasing to God than under the Old Testament it would have been to desecrate from a holy to a common use, the sacred implements of the temple, the holy anointing oil, or the hallowed fire of the altar. If to put new wine into old bottles, or to sew a new patch on an old garment be unwise, incongruous, how much more so to prostitute the sacred words of inspiration to point a jest for the amusement of the social circle! To do so, in the presence of the young is peculiarly injudicious. Here the maxim of the Roman satirist is especially applicable; Maxima debetur puero reverentia. Jeremy Taylor forcibly remarks on this subject:
“Some men used to read Scripture on their knees and many with their heads uncovered, and all good men with fear and trembling, with reverence and grave attention. For all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is fit for instruction, for reproof, for exhortation for doctrine, not for jesting; but he that makes that use of it had better part with his eyes in jest, and give his heart to make a tennis-ball; and that I may speak the worst thing in the world of it, it is as like the material part of the sin against the Holy Ghost, as jeering of a man is to abusing him; and no man can use it but he that wants wit and manners as much as he wants of religion.”—Sel.
LACK OF REVERENCE IN THE YOUNG
—Rev. A. Smith, commissioner of public schools in Ohio, in a recent report, makes some forcible remarks upon the want of good manners shown by the youth of the present day in their conduct towards the aged. After alluding to the deference and respect which the youth of former days were taught to extend to their superiors in age and wisdom, he says:
“But where in all our land, does this good old practice now prevail? Who does not know that bows and courtesies on the part of our boys and girls are obsolete? It has been remarked ‘that there are thousands of boys in this great country, not one of whom has ever made a bow unless when he had occasion to dodge a snow-ball, a brick-bat, or a bowlder.’
Some eight or ten winters since ex-Governor Everett of Massachusetts, with the late Amos Lawrence was in a sleigh, riding into Boston. As they approached a school-house a score of young boys rushed into the street to enjoy their afternoon recess. Said the Governor to his friend, ‘Let us observe whether these boys make obeisance to us as we were taught fifty years ago.’ At the same time he expressed the fear that habits of civility were less practiced than formerly. As they passed the school-house all question and doubt upon the subject received a speedy, if not satisfactory settlement, for each one of those twenty juvenile New Englanders did his best at snowballing the wayfaring dignitaries.”
Remarkable Conversion.
WhEN Oliver Cromwell entered upon the command of the Parliament's arms against Charles 1st, he ordered that every soldier should carry a Bible in his pocket. Among the rest there was a wild, wicked young fellow, who ran away from his apprenticeship in London for the sake of plunder and dissipation. Being one day ordered out on a skirmishing expedition, or to attack some fortress, he returned to his quarters in the evening without hurt. When he was going to bed, pulling his Bible out of his pocket, he observed a bullet-hole in it, the depth of which he traced till he found the bullet had stopped at Eccl. xi. 9: ‘Rejoice; oh young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk thou in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.’ The words were sent home to his heart by the Divine Spirit, so that he became a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived in London many years after the civil wars were ended.
ADVANCE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
By Leighton
It is the happiness of a Christian, until he attain perfection, to be advancing toward it; to be daily refining from sin, and growing richer and stronger in the graces that make up a Christian, a new creature; to reach a higher degree of patience, and meekness, and humility; to have the heart more weaned from earth, and fixed on heaven.—Leighton.
Reading the Bible
READING THE BIBLE.—I will answer for it, the longer you read the Bible, the more you will like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter; and the more you get into the spirit of it, the more you will get into the Spirit of Christ.—Romain.
Tasso on Forgiveness
TASSO replied to the proposition that he should take vengeance on a man who had injured him, “I do not wish to deprive him either of his goods, his honor, or his life. I only wish to deprive him of his ill-will.”
SPIRITUAL MEANING.
By James White
"For, unless there underlies the letter of the Bible a spiritual meaning, they are true without doubt."
So says S. S. Griswold of the Sabbath Recorder, after calling certain sentiments recently advocated in that paper, "annihilationism, destructionism, millerism, and material paradiseism."
Bro. Griswold is a Baptist. And why? Because the plain letter of the Bible teaches immersion. He does not search for a hidden meaning of those scriptures which plainly express immersion. But others do, as may be seen by the following, copied from the St. Louis Observer, by the Independent.
"BURIAL WITH CHRIST.—Buried with Christ, wherein ye are risen through the faith of God's operation. But when are we buried with Christ? When crucified with him. When are we crucified with him? When the old man is put off, and the new man put on. When is this done? When our life is hid with Christ in God. Then are we planted in the likeness of his death, and raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus. This is not dipping the body under water. It is the baptism of the Spirit, by which we die to sin, and rise to the life hid with Christ in God. Plunging the body under water is in no sense a burial with Christ."
"Buried with Christ by baptism." "Planted together in the likeness of his death." Rom. vi. "And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." Acts viii. These expressions are a sample of the Bible on baptism, which every Baptist takes as full authority, without stopping to look for a spiritual meaning underlying the letter.
Again, Bro. G. is a Seventh-Day Baptist. And why? Because the plain letter of the Bible enjoins the observance of the Sabbath. Here he receives the Bible as it reads. But there are those who transgress the letter of the Sabbath law every week, who at the same time say they keep the spirit of the fourth commandment. J. B. Cook, a no-Sabbath Adventist at Rochester, N. Y., would often preach against the Sabbath, and labor to show it abolished, and represent Sabbath-keepers as fallen from grace, and at the same time said in a private conversation with Sabbath-keepers, "Ah! I love the sweet spirit of the Sabbath!"
It is no uncommon thing to find men so far bewildered in a spiritual meaning of the Bible as to talk gravely of keeping the Sabbath in a spiritual manner in their hearts, while they transgress the letter of the Sabbath law. Should Bro. G. admit a spiritual meaning of the Sabbath law, underlying the plain letter, which might differ somewhat from the letter, how soon would his feet begin to slide from the Sabbath of Jehovah.
Bro. G. mentions in his catalogue of isms, "material paradiseism," which he admits is sustained by the letter of the Bible. We suppose he refers to the doctrine of the kingdom of God on the earth made new. We will give a sample of the plain letter of the Bible on this subject.
2 Pet. iii, 3–7. "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
"Nevertheless we, according to his promise [Isa. lxv, 17], look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
It will be seen in the apostle's doctrine, that the identical earth which was overflowed by the waters of the flood, is reserved unto fire. Once God washed the earth from its pollution by the waters of the flood. Next time he will purify it by fire from sin, sinners, and the curse, and there will appear a new earth, as pure as Eden in her primeval glory, and as material as the earth before the flood, or as the earth is now.
True, the prophet has written, "Behold I create new heavens and a new earth." It is also true that when David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," he did not want his heart taken out, and a new, clean one made and put in its place. He only wanted the old one cleansed. So with the earth. God will cleanse the old earth from the curse, from sin and sinners, and make it new.
But how shall the spiritual meaning of Peter's testimony on the subject be expressed? We know not how to express it, unless we supply the word spiritual as follows:
2 Pet. iii, 5–7, 13. "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the [spiritual] heavens were of old, and the [spiritual] earth standing [spiritually] out of the [spiritual] water and in the [spiritual] water, whereby the [spiritual] world that then was, being [spiritually] overflowed with [spiritual] water, perished [spiritually].
"But the [spiritual] heavens and the [spiritual] earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto [spiritual] fire, against the [spiritual] day of [spiritual] judgment, and [spiritual] perdition of ungodly [spiritual] men.
"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for [spiritually] new [spiritual] heavens, and a [spiritually] new [spiritual] earth, wherein dwelleth [spiritual] righteousness."
But when we leave the letter of the Bible and adopt a "spiritual meaning" in its place, we at once step out into the broad field of fancy and fanaticism, where there may be as many spiritual interpretations, differing with each other, as there are spiritual interpreters.
If such plain Bible as the above from Peter's epistle, does not mean just what it says, then who can tell what it does mean? If the Bible does not mean what it says, then it ceases to be a revelation, until God gives us another book to tell us what this one means.