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Review and Herald, Vol. 25, No. 2.

Elijah the Prophet

Review and Herald

Dec 6, 1864

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 6, 1864

Elijah the Prophet.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

"BEHOLD, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Mal. iv, 5, 6.
Here is a promise, that before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and when he is about to smite the earth with a curse, the Lord will send Elijah the prophet to do a certain work in the earth. We do not suppose that Elijah himself will come personally, but that it will be a person, or persons, in similar circumstances, doing a like work, by like means.
Some may think that John the Baptist fulfilled all this prophecy, but I do not think so, for the following reasons: 1. John himself said that he was not Elijah. "And they asked him, What then, art thou? Elias (Elijah)? And he said, I am not." John i, 21. 2. When asked who he was, he said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias." John i, 23. The angel said of him, "He shall go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah." Luke i, 23. 3. Elijah was to come and prepare the people for the great day of the Lord. But that day did not come in the time of John the Baptist; therefore he did not do that work. 4. He had but few of the prominent characteristics of Elijah; therefore he could not, and did not, fully accomplish the prophecy of Mal. iv, 5, 6. So we must look for a more complete fulfillment of this scripture just before the coming of the great day of the Lord.
In order that we may know when this prophecy is fulfilled, it will be necessary for us to understand the character and work of Elijah.
1. By reading 1 Kings xviii, we learn that he lived at a time when all the people had turned away from the true God, and were breaking the first commandment by worshiping Baal. They acknowledged the authority of the commandment, but taught that Baal was the God whom it required them to worship. Chap. xviii, 21.
2. While those who taught the popular religion were four hundred and fifty men, Elijah only had the courage to advocate an unpopular religion, and worship God according to the commandment. Verse 22.
3. He tried to turn the people back to keeping the law of God which they had forsaken. Verses 18, 36-39.
4. For this he was accused of being a "troubler of Israel," one who makes divisions, and confusion in the community. Verses 17, 18.
5. And because he persisted in so doing, the authorities finally took it up, and sought to slay him; but the Lord delivered him. Chap. xix, 1-5.
6. In 1 Kings xvii, we read that he prophesied that there should be no rain for three years. This happened according to his word. In chap. xviii, 22, he said, "I only remain a prophet of the Lord." Hence, together with his other characteristics, Elijah was also a prophet.
7. After he had suffered, and done the will of God, in reproving and condemning an apostate church, the Lord translated him to Heaven without tasting death. 2 Kings ii, 11. Thus ended his mission.
Now, do the Scriptures teach that a class of people, occupying a like position, and doing a similar work, will come in the last days to prepare the way for the second advent? We think that they do, and that we have a pledge of it in our text, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," &c.
That that day is now at hand, we need not stop to argue. We now find a state of things similar to what existed in Elijah's time.
1. The professed church of God have departed from the Bible (2 Tim. iii, 1-5), and "have heaped to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they have turned away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables." 2 Tim. iv, 1-4. They recognize (generally) the authority of the ten commandments, the fourth of which says that the seventh day is the Sabbath and must be kept holy. But they say that the first day the Sabbath, and must be kept holy. Thus they virtually make void the commandment of God by their tradition. So it was in the time of Elijah, only then it was the first commandment, and now it is the fourth.
2. Those who teach this popular fable are indeed "four hundred and fifty men," while there is only once in a while one here and there who dares to lift up his voice against it, and keep all the commandments of God. Just so it was with Elijah.
3. These few who "tremble at the word of the Lord," and "have respect unto all his commandments," are trying to turn the people back to the law of God which they have forsaken. So did Elijah.
4. Because it breaks up old customs, and crosses the path of ease and pleasure, professors cry out that they are making disturbance in community, confusion in society, division in families, &c. This is the main argument against them. But so Ahab said to Elijah: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Mark the answer. "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." So it is to-day. A popular church proclaims these men of God to be "troublers of Israel," while the real "trouble" is in themselves, because they "have forsaken the commandments of the Lord" and will not return to them.
5. Already churchmen begin to threaten to enact laws and use force against these bigots (?) who work on the Christian (?) Sabbath. From Rev. xiii, 14-17, it is evident that they will ultimately carry these threats into execution. They did the same to Elijah.
6. Elijah was a prophet, and the promise says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet," &c. Hence, in fulfillment of this promise, there must come in the last days a class of people doing the work of Elijah, and having the gift of prophecy among them. But we have direct testimony on this point in Rev. xii, 17. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." We also offer this text as evidence on all the points that we have made before. Now notice, 1. Here is the woman representing the church. See verses 1-6. 2. The remnant are the last end; hence we have here a description of the last generation of the church, or those who are alive when the Lord comes. Now mark their peculiarities: 1. They are described as those "which keep the commandments of God," the fourth not excepted. 2. "And have the testimony of Jesus." In chap. xix, 10, the angel says to John, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Then, truly, the remnant church will be like Elijah in keeping all the commandments of God, and having the gift of prophecy. Compare 1 Kings xviii, 17, 18, 22, with Rev. xii, 17. Will our opponents please think on these points? But for this, the dragon makes war with them. Rev. xii, 17. So Jezebel sought Elijah's life for the same reason. 1 Kings xix, 1-5.
7. After warning a fallen church and a godless world of the wrath to come, the "remnant" will be translated without tasting death. 1 Thess. iv, 14-17. So was Elijah. This will complete their likeness to him.
In conclusion, we can but exclaim, What a striking and beautiful likeness there is between "Elijah the prophet," and the "remnant" who are now preparing for translation into God's everlasting kingdom!
D. M. CANRIGHT.
Battle Creek, Mich.

The Path that Leads to Heaven.

THINK'ST thou 'mid flowery fields it lies, The path thine eager spirit tries; Where faith and hope have striven? Think'st thou the skies are always clear, That love and joy are always near The path that leads to Heaven;
And sweetly, in that narrow way, Must dear ones greet thee day by day? Ah, no! by tempests driven, The storm-cloud hovers o'er thy path, Which seems to thee the way of wrath, The path that leads to Heaven.
And graves are there, and sighs and tears, And sickness with its train of fears, And hearts with anguish riven; And martyrs' blood and dying groans, And dark with woes the world disowns, The path that leads to Heaven.
Yes, 'tis the way, the way to God, The way by ancient worthies trod, Where they have fought and striven, The way Christ opened when he died; And shall we fear the path he tried— The path that leads to Heaven?
No, weary pilgrim, hasten on; The day of toil is almost gone: Yon western clouds are given, With gold and purple on their breast, As emblems of the morrow's rest— That calm, sweet rest in Heaven. M. A. W. C.—in Am. Messenger.

Dying to Self

We live by dying to ourselves, and die by living to ourselves.

Who are Universalists?

By M. W. Howard

With peculiar appropriateness it has been said, that "opinions have their affinities, as strong and irresistible almost, as the chemical elements; and we need only to look about us with an observant eye, to see constant illustrations of it. And no sentiment perhaps, has always found resonance or acquiescence from the heart of fallen, man, than that which the Arch-Deceiver, first in the ear of Eve
"Spoke through a reptile with a voice like man's, As now he speaks through man to reptile turned," "Thou shalt not surely die."
While in my youth, many years ago, I was returning from a funeral in company with one who had long been a disciple of Jesus. Silently we walked for some time, when my friend remarked sadly, "I have been thinking how much Elder S. lacked of preaching a Universalist funeral sermon!" I have often pondered upon that thought; as in maturer years I have observed how quietly a place of punishment is ignored, even by those who "knowing the terrors of the Lord" should "persuade men;" how quietly and coolly it is assumed that everybody is going to Heaven; that each deceased friend is going to be greeted by those gone before to the spirit land. How many, alas, ignoring altogether the resurrection, thus:
"Years have passed and that dear mother Long has mouldered 'neath the sod, And I trust her sainted spirit Revels in the home of God."
But little better is the following, though it recognizes the resurrection, where one, in speaking of our fallen brave ones buried at Atlanta, says without discrimination. "There they shall rest till the resurrection morn shall wake them to glory again."
Every one who is in the least observant, is well aware that this has come to be the common manner of speaking of the dead, even by those holding the doctrines of rewards and punishments as taught by the Bible. That it has "unawares crept in," we are willing to grant. It is pleasant to speak agreeable words, especially to sorrowing ones. And who has not learned in this world of ours, that whatever disturbs a man's self-complacency is received with disfavor, and so there is a strong temptation to reflect back the demands of those about us.
Paul in his day, found occasion to ask his brethren to "pray for him that he might speak boldly, as he ought to speak." Jeremiah and Micaiah in their time, each received definite instructions to pander to the common demand for "smooth things." With threatenings they came to Jeremiah, saying, "Prophesy no more in the name of the Lord, else thou die at our hand." But to Micaiah, they came not with bold defiance; but with obsequious blandishments, the messengers from the king say, "Behold the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent, let thy words therefore be like one of theirs and speak thou good." 2 Chron. xviii, 12. So now-a-days, the people have a sufficiently significant manner of evincing their preferences for pleasant theories, and not always have our teachers the moral courage of the prophet, who replied, "As the Lord liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak." Verse 13.
When Jesus, the Great Teacher was among men, so long as only "gracious words proceeded out of his mouth," multitudes flocked to hear him, and "his fame went through all the region round about, being glorified of all." Luke iv, 14. But when he began to intimate, that all were not gliding safely and surely to the haven of eternal rest, how quickly their praise is turned to malediction, and "filled with wrath, they rose up and thrust him out of the city." Verses 28, 29. Nor has human nature changed since then. Personal violence need not be feared; but demolish pleasant fancies, or let favorite theories be thwarted, and the lion-roar and tiger-growl is heard.
Would one religious teacher, regardless of the favor or frowns of man, adopt for themselves the rule of one eminent servant of God, to throw into every sermon he preached enough of the plan of salvation, that if one heard it having never before heard the gospel, and should never again hear another sermon, he would from that one, know how to come to God and be saved. Were this the custom, we need never fall back on our question, Who are Universalists? M. W. Howard.
Malone, N. Y.

HARMONY OF LAW AND GOSPEL

By M. E. Cornell

Interesting Extracts. No. 13.

BY ELD. M. E. CORNELL.

HARMONY OF LAW AND GOSPEL.

"Let us, for another thing, beware of despising the law of the ten commandments. Let us not suppose for a moment that it is set aside by the gospel, or that Christians have nothing to do with it. The coming of Christ did not alter the position of the ten commandments one hair's breadth. If anything, it exalted and raised their authority. Rom. iii, 31. The law of the ten commands is God's eternal measure of right and wrong. By it is the knowledge of sin. By it the Spirit shows men their need of Christ, and drives them to him. To it Christ refers his people as their rule and guide for holy living. In its right place it is just as important as \"the glorious gospel.\" It cannot save us. We cannot be justified by it. But never, never let us despise it. It is a symptom of an ignorant and unhealthy state of religion when the law is lightly esteemed. The true Christian delights in the law of God. Rom. vii, 22.—Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Matt. p. 38.

THE SABBATH.

"The plain truth is, that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath. He only freed it from incoherent interpretations, and purified it from man-made additions. He did not tear out of the decalogue the fourth commandment. He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had incrusted the day, and by which they had made it not a blessing but a burden. He left the fourth commandment where he found it, a part of the eternal law of God, of which no jot or title was ever to pass away. May we never forget this."—Id. p. 122.
On Matt. xxiv, 20, Ryle says: "We live in times when the obligation of the Sabbath upon Christians is frequently denied by good men. They tell us that it is no more binding on us than the ceremonial law. It is difficult to see how such a view can be reconciled with our Lord's words on this solemn occasion. He seems intentionally to mention the Sabbath when he is foretelling the final destruction of the temple and the Mosaic ceremonies, as if to mark the day with honor. He seems to hint that, although his people would be absolved from the yoke of sacrifices and ordinances, there would yet remain the keeping of the Sabbath for them."—Id. p. 319.
Dr. A. Barnes says: "There can be no permanent worship of God, and no permanent religion on earth, without a Sabbath; and hence it was, that while the observance of the feasts of tabernacles, and of the passover, and of the new moons, made a part of the ceremonial law, the law respecting the Sabbath was incorporated with the ten commandments as a moral and perpetual obligation."—Notes on Isaiah lxvi, 23.

PRUNING HOOKS.

"Hooks or long knives for trimming vines. The word here, however, means anything employed in reaping or mowing, a sickle, or a scythe."—Barnes' Notes on Isa. ii.
NOTE. "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." Joel iii, 10. I learn that in many places they have worked up the old fashioned steel plowshares into implements of war, and at Springfield, Mass., they have worked up several carloads of scythes, and several scythe establishments are now changed into manufactories of swords and sabers for war. Thus we have a fulfillment of this scripture.

The Right Kind of Religion.

By Gail Hamilton

THE religion that the world is dying for, is not a treasure, valued and cherished, indeed, but cherished under a glass case in the best room, carefully dusted, and visible only on days of high festival. We want a religion that is an atmosphere, wrapping us about, above, and below; going down into the lungs in deep-drawn inspiration, to purify and energize; filtering into the blood, to tint and quicken; spreading out in the skin, to protect and adorn; piercing noisome cellars, to dispel the noxious, death-dealing vapors; mounting into the parlors, and bedrooms, and kitchens, to keep them sweet and healthful; permeating and interpenetrating all things: a savor of life unto life.
We want a religion that softens the step, and tones the voice to melody, and fills the eye with sunshine, and checks the impatient exclamation and the harsh rebuke; a religion that is polite, deferential to superiors, courteous to inferiors, and considerate to friends; a religion that goes into the family, and keeps the husband from being spiteful when the dinner is late, and keeps the dinner from being late—keeps the wife from fretting when the husband tracks the newly-washed floor with his muddy boots, and makes the husband mindful of the scraper and the door-mat—keeps the mother patient when the baby is cross, and keeps the baby pleasant—amuses the children as well as instructs them—wins as well as governs—cares for the servants, besides paying them promptly—projects the honeymoon into the harvest-moon, and makes the happy home like the Eastern fig-tree, bearing in its bosom at once the beauty of the tender blossom and the glory of the ripened fruit; a religion that looks after the apprentice in the shop, and the clerk behind the counter, and the student in the office, with a fatherly care and a motherly love—setting the solitary in families, introducing them to pleasant and wholesome society, that their lonely feet may not be led into temptation, forgiving occasional lapses while striving to prevent them, and to supply, so far as may be, the place of the natural guardians by a vigilancethat attracts without annoying.
We want a religion that shall interpose continually between the ruts, and gullies, and rocks of the highway of life, and the sensitive souls that are traveling over them.
We want a religion that bears heavily, not only on the "exceeding sinfulness of sin," but on the exceeding rascality of lying and stealing—a religion that banishes short measures from the counters, small baskets from the stalls, pebbles from the cotton bags, clay from paper, sand from sugar, chicory from coffee, otter from butter, flour from cream of tartar, beet-juice from vinegar, alum from bread, strychnine from wine, water from milk-cans, and buttons from the contribution-box. The religion that is to save the world will not put all the big strawberries at the top, and all the bad ones at the bottom. It will sell raisins on stems, instead of stems without raisins. It will not offer more baskets of foreign wines than the vineyards ever produced bottles, and more barrels of Genesee flour than all the wheat-fields of New York grow and all her mills grind. It will not make one half of a pair of shoes of good leather, and the other of poor leather, so that the first shall redound to the maker's credit, and the second to his cash; nor, if the shoes have been promised on Thursday morning, will it let Thursday morning spin out till Saturday night. It will not put Jovin's stamp on Jenkin's kid gloves, nor make Paris bonnets in the back-room of a Boston milliner's shop; nor let a piece of velvet, that professes to measure twelve yards, come to an untimely end in the tenth; or a spool of sewing silk, that vouches for twenty yards, be nipped in the bud at fourteen and a half; nor the cotton thread spool break, to the yard-stick, fifty of the two hundred yards of promise that was given to the eye; nor yard-wide cloth measure less than thirty-six inches from selvage to selvage; nor all wool delaines and all linen handkerchiefs be amalgamated with clandestine cotton; nor water-proof cloaks be soaked through in an hour; nor coats made of old woolen rags pressed together be sold to an unsuspecting public for legal broadcloth. It does not put bricks at five dollars per thousand into chimneys which it contracted to build of seven-dollar materials; nor smuggle white pine into floors that have paid for hard pine; nor leave yawning cracks in closets where boards ought to join; nor daub ceilings that ought to be smoothly plastered; nor make window-blinds with slats that cannot stand the wind, and paint that cannot stand the sun, and fastenings that may be looked at, but are on no account to be touched. It does not send the little boy, who has come for the daily quart of milk, into the barnyard to see the calf, and seize the opportunity to skim off the cream; nor does it surround stale butter with fresh, and sell the whole for good; nor pass off the slack-baked bread upon the stable-boy; nor dust the pepper; nor "deacon" the apples. It does not put cotton gathering threads into the skirt, to succumb on the slightest provocation; nor content itself with fastening seams at the beginning and the end, trusting to Providence for the security of the intermediate stages.—Gail Hamilton.

Life's Struggles.

By E. W. Darling

LOVELY Jesus, blessed One, Chiefest of ten thousand joys, Thou my wayward soul didst gain, To a wise and noble choice. When in childhood days I turned From the world to follow thee, In thy sacred word I learned Thou didst ask my heart of me.
And my carnal nature sighed That my passions might be free; But the willing spirit cried, I will yield my heart to thee. Hard but short the struggle then, The decision quickly made, Great the victory I did gain, By thy blessing, and thy aid.
Yet in after life I found, Like a soldier of thy host I must fight to keep the ground, Or my victory would be lost. When a child I gave to thee All I had or hoped to have, Yet my life has not been free, Struggles come and trials grieve.
And I still keep yielding up, Though it wring like tears of blood, Some new idol, some new hope, On the altar of my God. Even now a blighting shade, O'er my spirit creeps apace; What I cherish most must fade, Leaving but a vacant place.
This thou dost require of me, Hardest struggle I have passed; But I know that it must be, I must yield it up at last. For there's naught of earth shall part, Though the tears of sadness flow, Me from thee, thee from my heart; This I purposed long ago.
I would not with fondness cling, But I wait for strength from thee, With a willing heart to bring, What thou dost require of me. Future trials not a few, Will in heavy measure come; But I hope to struggle through To the joy and rest of home. E. W. DARLING.

The Whole Creation Sigheth.

A sigh! you all know it well, this sigh of sadness, this sigh of expectation. Not a breast that has not heaved it; no lips from which it has not often risen to Heaven. We are ill at ease. All of us, whether we be happy or unhappy, have a burden to bear, the burden of human woes. There is no escape from our deep consciousness, intensified perhaps by the breathless hurry of our age,—that of the short duration of all earthly things. The best are soonest over, but all pass in exceeding haste, and we ourselves seem as though a mighty and restless wind were sweeping us away.
Formerly, tidings, whether good or bad, were slow of step; we hardly knew what was going on at the other side of the globe till a year after the event. If blood had been spilled, the earth had had time to drink it up; if tears had flowed, the sun had had time to dry them. The griefs that spoke to us from afar, left the heart comparatively unmoved. Things are changed now. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has bent its branches more within our reach, and each moment our greedy hands are raised to gather its fruit. And the result is not only an anxious restlessness, but a fund of bitter melancholy.
Formerly, the general tone was one of gaiety. The note that an attentive observer would have heard prevailing over all others, was a crystalline serene note, echoing from the cottage to the palace. The note that echoes over our earth in this present hour, in the village, town, or quiet country, is a wailing note, akin to tears,—an immense sigh.
As for me, from my heart there ever rises an unutterable groan. The world as it now is, does not satisfy me; still less do I satisfy myself. Creation suffers and laments with me. St. Paul expresses this mighty woe in one strong word,—"travaileth in pain." . . .
What is it that creation hopes for? For its deliverance. For what does it sigh? For its restoration. What does it wait for? For Jesus, the King! He will come again! This cry echoes throughout the Scriptures. He will come again. He who publishes liberty to the captives, and crushes death beneath His foot—He will come again. With Him will come purity, love, the era of perfect blessedness foretold by the prophets.
The messengers of the Lord in all times speak to us of a sanctified world, singing praises to God; we only know a sinful world, hurling complaints and blasphemies against Him. Happiness overflows the earth of which they speak. Our earth is the seat of desolation. They tell us of "times of refreshing;" our times are times of exhaustion. Peace, love, exceeding great joy here on earth, both with God and our fellow creatures; these are promised; and, behold, wars ravage, tears inundate our world; sorrow for the dead draws her dark veil round it; the angels as they pass it in their heavenward flight hear a murmur of plaintive cries, angry voices, and mad laughter, sadder still than tears. From age to age generations of believers have been laid in the grave, their faces turned to the east; and each, in dying, has left behind the sublime watchword, "Thy kingdom come!"
Yea, Lord, Thy kingdom come! Scoffers, indeed, may laugh. "Where is the promise of His coming?" they say. "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things have gone on as they were." We have nothing to answer, and nothing to ask, but simply, Thy kingdom come!
Thy kingdom come! It is at once a prayer and a pledge. He who told us thus to pray is He who will surely come. If hearts big with love, hands clasped,—if, with strong crying and tears, the whole earth were to raise this burning aspiration to the skies,—oh, I believe that the Lord would hear, I believe, indeed, that the Lord would come. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"—Gasparin's Heavenly Horizons.

"Am I my Brother's Keeper?"

By T. W. Brown

"Go, ye who deal out the drunkard's dram for paltry gain, go where night is the blackest, and poor weary hearts, are slowly breaking under their weight of woe, tell them you have joyous news. Tell them that, for all this bitter desolation, your palm is filled with gold. Tell the smitten victims of the household, that out of their mouths, off their backs, and from their blighted fields, you have gathered a harvest of gold. Tell the pale, wasting wife and mother that you have a paltry percentage of all that was noble in the husband or kind in the father in yellow gold. Tell the drunkard, as he dreams perchance that he can yet beat back the red billows which toss and consume him, that for his poor body's and soul's death you have gold. Stand at the threshold of the poorhouse and taunt the squalid, the deformed, and the idiotic, with the news that, out of their ruin, you gathered gold. Tell the murderer that you made him a murderer for gold. Stand by the new graves of the last twelve months in our land, and whisper to the fifty thousand sleepers—victims of your 'regulated' traffic—that you slew them for gold. Enter the vestibule of perdition, and with Bible in hand, read that no drunkard can inherit the kingdom of God, and as uncounted thousands charge you with their damnation, comfort them with the assurance that you did it for gold. Follow your slaughtered host to the judgment, and when He who called the first fratricide to account, shall call for your brother, answer that you slew him for gold.—T. W. Brown, on a death by delirium tremens."

The Christian Ministry

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.—The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions.

The Resurrection.

Some years ago a vase, closely sealed, was found in a mummy pit in Egypt, by the English traveler, Wilkinson, who sent it to the British museum. The librarian having unfortunately broken it, discovered in it a few peas—old, wrinkled, and as hard as a stone. The peas were planted carefully under a glass, on the 4th of June, 1844, and at the end of thirty days, those seeds were seen to spring up into new life. They had been buried, probably, about three thousand years ago, perhaps in the time of Moses, and had slept all that time apparently dead, yet still living in the dust of the tomb. — Gaussen.
WHAT this writer has told us about seeds, should remind us that God is just as able to raise our dead bodies from the grave, and give them new life. For why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? 'For our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself.' — Christian Witness.

Why Wesley’s Carriage Stopped

At one time, when Mr. John Wesley was traveling in Ireland, his carriage became fixed in the mire and the harness broke. While he and his companion were laboring to extricate it, a poor man passed in great distress. Mr. Wesley called to him and inquired the cause of his distress. He said that he had been unable, through misfortune, to pay his rent of twenty shillings, and his family were just being turned out of doors. "Is that all you need?" said Mr. Wesley, handing him ornamentation—"here go and be happy." Then, turning to his companion, he said, pleasantly, "You see now why our carriage stopped here in the mud."

Do not Read Them.

Books which dispute the meaning of God's word, shun them as you would the coil of a deadly serpent. Not long since, a friend brought me a book, with a request that I would read it. Thinking he would be displeased at a refusal, I half assented. It was ably written, the logic was clear, and the argument very plausible. I read for a while, interested in the startling views and questions proposed; but when the authority of the word of God was disputed, even set at nought, and human doctrine substituted, it was enough. I saw my danger, and closed the book, never again to be opened. How many souls, precious in the sight of God, have been launched into that broad way whose end is eternal death by infidel writers, seeking for their own popularity the overthrow of the gospel.

A Warlike World.

The Opinion Nationale of a recent date gives this dismal picture of the present belligerent condition of the world:
"If there be a dead calm in politics as well as business amongst us, it is not the same in all parts of the little planet we inhabit. Three-quarters of humanity, in fact, are living in the barbarous state of war.
"There is war in Poland.
"War in Algeria.
"War in Tunis.
"War in Mexico.
"War in the United States.
"War in Peru.
"War in New Zealand.
"War in China and Kachgar.
"War in Japan.
"War in Afghanistan.
"War in twenty countries in Africa.
"This is, unfortunately, enough to discourage the friends of universal peace; and who can say they will not meet with still greater disappointment next year? Italy, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the Slavonian population of Turkey, are not, it must be confessed, in the most pacific humor; and to those who study the general situation of our continent, it is quite evident that the general situation, instead of getting better goes on from day to day getting more and more complicated."

The Value of Good Advice

Jewels have value, but the price Can ne'er be found of good advice.

Hard Pressed for Dates.

The great period of 2300 days is beyond controversy the most important, if not the most prominent, prophetic period brought to view in the Scriptures. This period has been a source of infinite perplexity to those who have shut their eyes to the daylight of the 1844 movement, and are endeavoring to make their way through these speculative days of error in the light of the sparks of their own kindling. This period must by some means be adjusted. No Advent theory could so much as claim to be looked at, if so important an item as this was ignored, or even did not occupy a prominent place therein. Hence the scores of conjectures, and the incessant tinkering over this period since 1844. The subject is of course again in connection with the new-time movement of 1868. And what do you imagine, reader, is their starting-point this time, and the reasons they give for it? We will state it as recently advocated through the Voice of the West, by Wm. Sheldon, and argued at length by the editor of the World's Crisis, in a late issue of the latter sheet.
In the language of the Crisis it is stated thus: "As the 2300 days cover the entire length of the vision, till we arrive to the point where it may be said, 'the sanctuary' is 'cleansed,' it follows, of course, that the period dates from the first event in the vision. The vision begins with the work of 'the ram;' and his first and principal act is expressed in the following language: 'I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward,' &c.
Here, then, a point is found in the vision of Dan. viii, for the commencement of the 2300 days. Eld. Grant will argue that it was the subject of time which Daniel did not understand in his eighth chapter; that it was to explain this point that Gabriel was sent to him as recorded in chapter nine; that the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days, and that the two periods commence together. But here the matter ends; for Eld. G. holds that the sixty-two weeks, the seven weeks, &c., are no part of the seventy weeks, but different periods entirely. Hence Dan. ix contains no intimation of the commencement of the seventy weeks, and none, consequently, of the commencement of the 2300 days, for that is determined by the seventy weeks; and so it follows that Gabriel, after all, did not give to Daniel the information which he came to give, namely, concerning the 2300 days; and we are compelled, according to this theory, to fall back into the eighth chapter to find the starting-point for that period. This is a little bad, as it assumes that we are able to ascertain the point in question from premises on which Daniel could not, thus making us wiser than Daniel; and it is also rather hard on the angel Gabriel, by virtually representing that he utterly failed in the ninth chapter to give Daniel the information which he was sent to give him. And further, if all needed information is given in the eighth chapter, Gabriel, on his second visit, instead of introducing seventy weeks, and dropping them before giving either commencement or end, and then introducing three other periods that had nothing to do with the subject, should have told Daniel that he need not have been astonished at the vision, nor so void of understanding on the time; for he should know and understand that the days were to commence from the pushing of the ram west, north, and south. But the angel said no such thing, which is to us good presumptive evidence that the pushing of the ram has no connection with the commencement of the days.
But what does this new theory make out the pushing of the ram to be? Is it an act that took place at some specific point of time, so as to furnish a definite commencement for a great prophetic period? Yes, we are told, this pushing was against the children of the Lord, the Jews, scattered through the Persian empire, and took place when the decree went out at the instigation of Haman that all the Jews should perish in one day. Esth. iii, 13.
And the reason given for applying the pushing to this decree against the Jews, is because "it is not found that the Medo-Persian empire was ever 'pushing westward, northward, and southward' at any one time, so that no government could stand before it." But does the prophecy say that the pushing of the ram was all done at one time? We find no such idea there. Comic writers, to be sure, have indulged in the hyperbolical expression of a man's running seven ways at once; but we very much doubt whether the prophet saw the ram pushing three ways at once!
But let us read the prophecy, Dan. viii, 4: "I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will, and became great." If this language does not describe the march of a nation up to the hight of universal empire, there is none in the sacred record which does.
But suppose we try to apply this to the decree against the Jews, above referred to. At that time king Ahasuerus ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Esth. i, 1. We conclude there had already been some "pushing," on the part of the Medo-Persian empire, else those hundred and twenty-seven provinces extending as far westward as Ethiopia, would not have been brought under its jurisdiction. At this time the Jews were a company of trembling captives scattered through all the provinces of the empire. A decree goes forth for their destruction. Was this the pushing of the ram? Daniel represents as the result of that pushing that none could stand before him, none could deliver out of his hand, he did according to his will, and became great. How was it in case of the Jews? Ans. Through the exertions of Mordecai and Esther, the Jews were given permission to defend themselves. And when the day for the execution of the decree arrived, they did defend themselves, and instead of the Persians' accomplishing their desire upon the Jews, the Jews overcame them with a great triumph!
To get over this point, we are told that the king did do according to his "will;" that his will was reversed; and hence the triumph of the Jews over their Persian enemies was the ram doing according to his will! What a subterfuge is this! The laws of the Medes and Persians could not be "reversed." We are assured that they changed not. All that could be done was to let that decree stand, and issue a counter one, permitting the Jews to defend themselves. But the "will" of the empire still stood in the decree for their extermination. And when the day arrived, their enemies "hoped" to have power over them. Esth. ix, 1. But God wrought for the Jews. The fear of them fell upon the people. The fear of Mordecai so fell upon the rulers of the provinces, the lieutenants and deputies, that they helped the Jews, and they obtained a complete victory over their Persian enemies, slaying three hundred men at Shushan, the palace, and seventy and five thousand throughout the empire. Chap. ix, 2, 3, 15, 16. And this, according to the new theory, was in fulfillment of the prophecy that no one could stand before the ram! that no one could deliver out of his hand! This was his doing according to his will! and becoming great!! And this is the commencement of the 2300 days! and—perhaps Heaven knows what next! If anything can exceed the folly of such interpretation, we have yet to see it.
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