Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 20.

OUR FAITH AND HOPE;

Review and Herald

May 3, 1870

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 3, 1870

OUR FAITH AND HOPE;

By James White

Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We Do.
NUMBER TWENTY-TWO—THE SECOND MESSAGE.
BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.
“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
This angel is spoken of as the second, because the one following it is, in the language of inspiration itself, called the third. In commenting upon language so highly symbolic, the first point is to determine the meaning of the symbol introduced.
1. What, then, is the Babylon of this message? It is here simply called “that great city.” But it is elsewhere spoken of in the book of Revelation in a manner which cannot fail to lead to a correct solution of this question. In Rev. 17: 18, this same city is called a woman. “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Now a woman is always, in the Scriptures, when used as a symbol, taken to represent religious bodies, the true church being represented by a virtuous woman, as in chapter 12, and the false by a corrupt woman, as in the text before us, and many other places. Babylon is something distinct from the civil powers of the earth; for with her the kings of the earth form unlawful connections. It is the place where the people of God as a body are; for they are at a certain time called away from her communion. These considerations show that we are not to look to any literal city for the Babylon of the Apocalypse, nor to any civil powers, but to ecclesiastical or church organizations. Is, then, any particular church, to the exclusion of all others, designated by the term, Babylon? It would not be consistent to suppose this; for (1.) The term Babylon, from Babel, where God confounded the language of men, signifies mixture, confusion. In the sense in which we have shown it to be used in the book of Revelation, it must denote conflicting and discordant religious creeds and systems. But this would not be applicable to any one religious denomination, as each of these denominations is more or less a unit. (2.) The people of God who are called out of Babylon, are not, as a body, connected with any single denomination. Hence we must understand by the term all the false and corrupted systems of Christianity. That the Romish and Greek churches are included in these, few will be disposed to deny; while the Protestant churches, alas! more or less identified with war, for a long time the bulwark of American slavery, fatally conformed to the world, and guilty of the long catalogue of sins charged by Paul upon professed Christians in the last days, 2 Tim. 3: 1-5, must be reckoned as a member of the family. In this branch of the family we find that mixture and confusion in the multiplicity of sects and creeds which most fitly answers to the import of the term.
2. What is the fall of Babylon? Evidently a moral fall. In Rev. 18: 1-5, where a second and subsequent announcement of this event seems to be given, we read, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” That is, as the result of her fall, she had sunk to this deplorable condition. Having fallen, her iniquities rapidly increased, her sins reached unto Heaven, and God’s people are called out. Verses 4, 5. Hence this fall is a moral one. The absurdity of applying this to Rome, or any other literal city, where but few, if any of the people of God are, and out of which they could not be called after its fall or destruction, must be very apparent. The harmony of applying it to a religious body which can apostatize and become corrupt, and from which the people of God can be subsequently called out, is equally clear, and the necessity for such an application no less evident. No other is at all admissible.
The cause of the fall of Babylon is said to be because she “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Her fornication was her unlawful connection with the kings of the earth. The wine of this is that with which the church has intoxicated the nations of the earth. There is but one thing to which this can refer, and that is, false doctrine. This harlot, in consequence of her unlawful union with the powers of earth, has corrupted the pure truths of the Bible, and with the wine of her false doctrine has intoxicated the nations. As a few of the gross errors which she has caused the masses to receive as Bible truth, we mention the following: 1. That the soul is immortal. 2. That sprinkling and pouring are baptism. 3. That Sunday is the Sabbath. 4. That there are to be a thousand years of peace and prosperity to the church, in which the world will be converted, before the coming of the Lord. 5. That the saints’ inheritance is not the earth made new, but an immaterial, intangible, region beyond the bounds of time and space. 6. That the second advent is to be understood spiritually, and that it took place at the destruction of Jerusalem, or that it takes place at conversion or at death. 7. That it is right and scriptural to hold human beings in bondage; and 8. That it is of no consequence, if we may judge from their practice, to come out and be separate from the world. Most of these pernicious errors Protestant sects have drawn from the Romish mother; and others they have themselves originated, showing conclusively that they are but the daughters of the great apostasy.
We have seen that Babylon is composed of several divisions; and we know that the name of the whole is frequently applied to any one of its parts. Hence the name Babylon may be applied to any one of these divisions. Consequently when it is announced that Babylon is fallen, it is not necessary to understand that as a whole it experienced a moral change for the worse. It would be true if such change took place in any one of its great branches. The cry, Babylon is fallen, being given subsequent to the first message, is evidence that the fall took place at that time.
The truths connected with the proclamation of the first angel were calculated to correct many of the fundamental errors of Babylon, and open the way for the reception of the whole truth in place of her false doctrines. That these errors were honestly held by the different churches, is not to be questioned. But after light has been given to a person sufficient to enable him to discard an error, he becomes guilty for longer retaining it. So when Babylon, through the proclamation of the first message, was called upon to correct her errors, and redeem her influence over the people, and refused to do so, she then became guilty of willfully refusing the truth, and making the nations intoxicated with her false teaching. Just as the people of God when they are called out after her fall, become guilty by longer retaining their connection with her. Hence the proclamation of the fall of Babylon comes in after the first message, stating the consequence of her rejection of that message. That message has already been located in the present generation; and Rev. 18 shows that Babylon’s fall must take place in the last days, as it is just previous to her final destruction. But as we look over apostate Christendom, we see that the Romish and Greek churches are no more corrupt, either in doctrine or practice, than they have been for ages past. No marked change for the worse has taken place in those bodies within the present generation, nor is there scarcely room for them to become worse than they have already for centuries been. We therefore look to the religious bodies composing the great Protestant family for the fulfillment of the announcement made in the second message, especially in our own country, where the first message was more definitely proclaimed. The inquiry now arises, has there been any moral declension in these bodies within the generation now living? Did any such change take place with them about the time of the first message, and have they since been filling up their cup of iniquity, as represented in Rev. 18? If so, we have the place for an unmistakable application of the second message.
But that we may not seem to judge these denominations ourselves, as we might be accused of not rendering impartial judgment, we will let their own members speak, and on their testimony will let the questionrest. To show that we are not alone in ranking the popular Protestant sects as a part of Babylon, we offer the following. If they themselves claim it, we are not disposed to dispute it.
Mr. William Kinkade, in his “Bible Doctrine,” p. 294, says:
“I also think Christ has a true church on earth, but its members are scattered among the various denominations, and are all more or less under the influence of Mystery Babylon and her daughters.”
Mr. Hopkins, in a treatise on the millennium, says:
“There is no reason to consider the antichristian spirit and practices confined to that which is now called the Church of Rome. The Protestant churches have much of antichrist in them, and are far from being wholly reformed from her corruptions and wickedness.”
Mr. Simpson, in his “Plea for Religion,” says:
“For though the Pope and Church of Rome is at the head of the grand 1260 years’ delusion, yet all other churches, of whatever denomination, whether established or tolerated, which partake of the same spirit, or have instituted doctrines or ceremonies inimical to the pure and unadulterated gospel of Christ, shall sooner or later share in the fate of that immense fabric of human ordinances; and that Protestant churches should imitate the Church of Rome, in this worst part of its conduct, can never be sufficiently bewailed.”
Alexander Campbell says:
“The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the Church of Rome.”
Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church:
“If she be a mother, who are the daughters? It must be the corrupt, national, established churches that came out of her.” Dow’s Life, p. 542.
In the Religious Encyclopedia (Art. Antichrist), we read:
“The writer of the book of Revelation tells us he heard a voice from Heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.’ If such persons are to be found in the ‘mother of harlots,’ with much less hesitation may it be inferred that they are connected with her unchaste daughters, those national churches which are founded upon what are called Protestant principles.”
In the spring and summer of 1844, a distinct message was proclaimed, setting forth the fallen condition of the churches, which resulted in calling from them fifty thousand believers in the immediate coming of Christ. And the testimonies from the very churches they had left could but convince them that they had entertained correct views of the fallen state of the churches, and had done the will of God in separating from them.
The Christian Palladium for May 15, 1844, speaks in the following mournful strains: “In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blast from the icebergs of the north—settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak; that lukewarmness, division, anarchy and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion.”
The Religious Telescope of 1844, uses the following language: “We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly the church should awake and search into the cause of this affliction; for an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to mind how ‘few and far between’ cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, ‘Has God forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?’”
These testimonies only are offered out of much of like import that might be quoted, as they are specimens of the whole. But it may be said that our views of the moral fall and spiritual death of the churches are shown to be incorrect by the great revivals of 1858. Of the fruit of these revivals let the leading Congregational and Baptist papers of Boston bear testimony. Says the Congregationalist for November 19, 1858:
“The revival piety of our churches is not such that one can confidently infer, from its mere existence, its legitimate, practical fruits. It ought, for example, to be as certain, after such a shower of grace, that the treasuries of our benevolent societies would be filled, as it is after a plentiful rain, that the streams will swell in their channels. But the managers of our societies are bewailing the feebleness of the sympathy and aid of the churches.”
“There is another and sadder illustration of the same general truth. The Watchman and Reflector recently stated that there had never been among the Baptists so lamentable a spread of church dissension as prevails at present. And the sad fact is mentioned that this sin infects the very churches which shared most largely in the late revival. And the still more melancholy fact is added, that these alienations date back their origin, in most cases, to the very midst of that scene of awakening. Even a glance at the weekly journals of our own denomination, will evince that the evil is by no means confined to the Baptists. Our own columns have, perhaps, never borne so humiliating a record of contentions, and ecclesiastical litigation as during the last few months.”
A Presbyterian pastor, of Belfast, Ireland, uses the following language respecting the recent revivals in this country: “The determination to crush all ministers who say a word against their national sin [slavery], the determination to suffocate and suppress the plain teachings of Scripture, can be persisted in and carried out at the very time these New York Christians are expecting the religious world to hail their revivals. Until the wretchedly-degraded churches of America do the work of God in their own land, they have no spiritual vitality to communicate to others; their revivals are in the religious world what their flaunted cries of liberty, intermingled with the groans of the slave, are in the political.”—New York Independent, December, 1859.
During the time of the great Irish revival of the year 1859 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church of Ireland, held its session in Belfast. Says the Belfast News-Letter of September 30: “Here in this venerable body of ministers and elders, we find two ministers openly giving each other the lie, and the whole General Assembly turned into a scene of confusion bordering upon a riot.”
These sad facts need no comment. In Ireland the ministers of the gospel are unable to meet in General Assembly without a riot among themselves; in America prayers for the enslaved were not allowed in the revival meetings. No wonder that the fruit of genuine piety is difficult to be found.
How unlike what God designed that his people should be, has this great city become! The church of Christ was to be the light of the world, a city set upon a hill, which could not be hid. Matt. 5:14-16. But instead of this, his professed people have united with the world and joined affinity with it. This unlawful union of the church and the world (James 4:4,) has resulted in her rejection by God; for how can the God of truth and holiness recognize as his people, those who in addition to their departure from their Lord, have rejected with scorn the tidings of his speedy coming?
The following extract is from an address before the Theological School, Cambridge, Mass.:
“I think no man can go with his thoughts about him into one of our churches without feeling that what hold the public worship had on men is gone or going. It has lost its grasp on the affections of the good, and the fear of the bad. It is already beginning to indicate character and religion to withdraw from religious meetings. I have heard a devout person, who prized the Sabbath, say in bitterness of heart, ‘On Sunday it seems wicked to go to church.’ And the motive that holds the best there is now only a hope, and a waiting.”
Prof. S. C. Bartlett, of Chicago, in the New York Independent, says:
“Religion now is in a different position from Methodism then. To a certain extent it is a very reputable thing. Christianity is, in our day, something of a success. Men ‘speak well’ of it. Ex-presidents and statesmen have been willing to round off their career with a recognition of its claims. And the popularity of religion tends vastly to increase the number of those who would secure its benefits without squarely meeting its duties. The church courts the world and the world caresses the church. The line of separation between the godly and the irreligious fades out into a kind of penumbra, and zealous men on both sides are toiling to obliterate all difference between their modes of action and enjoyment.”
For further testimony from their own lips respecting the state of the churches, their covetousness, pride in church buildings, operatic singing in their worship, their religious gambling, their endorsement of dancing, their zeal for worldly pleasure, and their pride and fashion, we refer the reader to the work entitled “The Three Messages,” for sale at the Review Office, Battle Creek, Mich.

COMING OF CHRIST.

By L. D. Santee

Soon will the day appear in solemn splendor, When Christ in clouds to judge the world shall come; Strict to reward, a sentence just he'll render Of life and peace, or else a fiery doom.
The world is full of chances and of changes, Love's joyous bridal and the burial wail. Tempest and calm the ocean deep exchanges; The cry of pain is borne on every gale.
Louder, still louder, roars the awful thunder, Destruction follows in the tempest's wake, Creation stands aghast in fear and wonder, While at Jehovah's voice the earth shall shake.
Hasten, O Lord, thy pure and glorious kingdom; Signs all portend thy coming draweth nigh, And thy redeemed—with joy shall angels bring them To that blest city far above the sky.
L. D. SANTEE. Dixon, Mo.

Prophetic Voices About America.

(Concluded.)
Governor Pownall, an English statesman, in 1780, while the Revolution was still in progress, “openly announced, not only that independence was inevitable, but that the new nation, ‘founded in nature and built up in truth,’ would continually expand; that its population would increase and multiply; that a civilizing activity beyond what Europe could ever know would animate it; and that its commercial and naval power would be found in every quarter of the globe. All this he set forth at length with argument and illustration, and he called his prophetic words ‘the stating of the simple fact so little understood in the Old World.’ Treated at first as ‘unintelligible speculation’ and as ‘unfashionable,’ the truth he announced was neglected where it was not rejected, but generally rejected as inadmissible, and the author, according to his own language, ‘was called by the wise men of the British Cabinet a Wild Man, unfit to be employed.’ But these writings are a better title now than any office.”
Again he foretells our future thus:
“North America is become a new primary planet in the system of the world, which, while it takes its own course, must have effect on the orbit of every other planet, and shift the common centre of gravity of the whole system of the European world. North America is de facto an independent power, which has taken its equal station with other powers, and must be so de jure. . . . The independence of America is fixed as fate. She is mistress of her own future, knows that she is so, and will actuate that power which she feels she hath, so as to establish her own system and to change the system of Europe.”
Giving expression to the same conviction in another form he says:
“North America has advanced, and is every day advancing, to growth of state, with a steady and continually accelerating motion, of which there never has yet been any example in Europe.” “It is a vitality, liable to many disorders, many dangerous diseases; but it is young and strong, and will struggle, by the vigor of internal healing principles of life, against those evils, and surmount them. Its strength will grow with its years.”
Again he announces:
“That the new state will be ‘an active naval power,’ exercising a peculiar influence on commerce, and, through commerce, on the political system of the Old World,—becoming the arbitress of commerce, and, perhaps, the mediatrix of peace.”
In a letter to Franklin Feb. 28, 1783, he says:
“My old friend,—I write this to congratulate you on the establishment of your country as a free and sovereign power, taking its equal station amongst the powers of the world. I congratulate you in particular, as chosen by Providence to be a principal instrument in this great Revolution,—a Revolution that has stronger marks of divine interposition, superseding the ordinary course of human affairs, than any other event which this world has experienced.”
As Franklin was about to embark for the United States, he again wrote from Lausanne, July 3, 1785:
“Adieu, my dear friend. You are going to a New World, formed to exhibit a scene which the Old World never yet saw.”
David Hartley, another friend of America in England, writes concerning the United States May 15, 1777:
“At sea, which has hitherto been our prerogative element,they rise against us at a stupendous rate; and if we cannot return to our old mutual hospitalities towards each other, a very few years will show us a most formidable hostile marine, ready to join hands with any of our enemies.”
Count d’Aranda, one of the first of Spanish Statesmen, and diplomats, in 1783, thus wrote of this Republic:
“This Federal Republic is born a pygmy, so to speak. It required the support and the forces of two powers as great as Spain and France in order to attain independence. A day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these countries.”
After introducing other witnesses whose testimony is not especially to our purpose, Mr. Sumner concludes his article with an able summary, from which we quote a few paragraphs:
“Such are some of the prophetic voices about America, differing in character and importance, but all having one augury, and opening one vista, illimitable in extent and vastness. Farewell to the idea of Montesquieu, that a republic can exist only in a small territory.”
“Ancient prophecy foretold another world beyond the ocean, which in the mind of Christopher Columbus was nothing less than the Orient with its inexhaustible treasures. Then came the succession of prophets, who discerned the future of this continent, beginning with that rare genius, Sir Thomas Browne, who, in the reign of Charles II., while the settlements were in their infancy, predicted their growth in power and civilization; and then that rarest character, Bishop Berkeley, who, in the reign of George I., while the settlements were still feeble and undeveloped, heralded a Western empire as ‘Time’s noblest offspring.’”
“These voices are general. Others more precise followed. Turgot, the philosopher and minister, saw in youth, with the vision of genius, that all colonies must at their maturity drop from the parent stem, like ripe fruit. John Adams, one of the chiefs of our own history, in a youth illumined as that of Turgot, saw the predominance of the Colonies in population and power followed by the transfer of empire to America; then the glory of independence and its joyous celebration by grateful generations; then the triumph of our language; and finally, the establishment of our republican institutions over all North America. Then came the Abbé Galiani, the Neapolitan Frenchman, who, writing from Naples while our struggle was still undecided, gayly predicts the total downfall of Europe, the transmigration to America, and the consummation of the greatest revolution of the globe by establishing the reign of America over Europe. There is also Adam Smith, the illustrious philosopher, who quietly carries the seat of government across the Atlantic. Meanwhile Pownall, once a Colonial Governor and then a member of Parliament, in successive works of great detail, foreshadows independence, naval supremacy, commercial prosperity, immigration from the Old World, and a new national life, destined to supersede the systems of Europe and arouse the ‘curses’ of royal ministers. Hartley, also a member of Parliament, and the British negotiator who signed the definitive treaty of Independence, bravely announces in Parliament that the New World is before the Colonists, and that liberty is theirs; and afterwards, as diplomatist, instructs his government that through the attraction of our public lands, immigration will be quickened beyond precedent and the national debt cease to be a burden. D’Aranda, the Spanish statesman and diplomatist, predicts to his king that the United States, though born a ‘pygmy,’ will soon be a ‘colossus,’ under whose influence Spain will lose all her American possessions except only Cuba and Porto Rico. Burns, the truthful poet, looks forward a hundred years, and beholds our people rejoicing in the centenary of their independence. Fox, the liberal statesman, foresees the increasing might and various relations of the United States, so that a blow aimed at them must have a rebound as destructive as itself. Canning, the brilliant orator, in a much-admired flight of eloquence, discerns the New World, with its republics just called into being, redressing the balance of the old. Cobden, whose fame will be second only to that of Adam Smith among all in this catalogue, calmly predicts the separation of Canada from the mother country by peaceable means. Alaman, the Mexican statesman and historian, announces that Mexico, which has already known so many successive races, will hereafter be ruled by yet another people, who will take the place of the present possessors; and with these prophetic words, he draws a pall over his country.”
“All these various voices, of different times and countries, mingle and intertwine in representing the great future of our Republic, which from small beginnings has already become great. It was at first only a grain of mustard seed; which is, indeed, the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

The Sabbath a Sign.

By I. Sanborn

Ex. 31: 13, 16, 17: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.”
1. We notice that the Israel here spoken of are a sanctified people, and therefore we conclude that God is referring to Israel under both covenants who like Abraham kept all God's commandments. Gen. 26: 6. They are also referred to by Paul in Heb. 8: 10-13: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; . . . for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.”
Be it remembered that those here spoken of are Israelites under the new covenant, or gospel. Acts 26: 6, 7; “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.”
These twelve tribes are again referred to by John in Rev. 7: 4-9: “And I heard the number of them that were sealed and there were sealed an hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” This we understand to be the second house of Israel. See Isa. 8: 14. “And he [Christ] shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, . . . and many among them, shall stumble and fall.” The first-covenant house fell over the doctrine of the first advent of Christ; the second-covenant house fell over the doctrine of the second advent of Christ. This clearly took place in 1844, when they rejected the doctrine of the Lord's speedy coming; and since that time Isa. 8: 16, 20, has been in process of fulfillment. Let us read: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Here we have a prophecy that is being daily fulfilled by the disciples of Jesus in receiving the ten commandments as a rule of action, and the Sabbath as a sign between them and the Lord.
But lest some may think that the Israel spoken of in Ex. 31 has reference only to the first-covenant Israel, please notice the following Scriptures: Jer. 31: 35: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name; if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.”
That the Israelitish nation of the first covenant did cease from being a literal nation more than eighteen hundred years ago, perhaps none will deny who believe the Bible. Then the Lord by Jeremiah must refer to the Israel spoken of by Paul in Acts 26: 7: “Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come;” which tribes are still a nation according to Peter. 1 Pet. 2: 9: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. These are the ones to whom James writes his epistle. James 1: 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”
In Rom. 9: 6-9, Paul says, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, in Isaac, shall thy seed be called.” That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
See also Gal. 3: 26, 29: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
This is the seed referred to in Jeremiah, there called, Israel. See Gen. 32: 26-29: “And he said, Let me go; for the day breaketh. And he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.”
And the Sabbath is a sign between God and Israel, or the true children of Israel, forever, even in the future state. Isa. 66: 22: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”
Here, dear reader, is the seed, those who are Christ's, and the name, which is Israel, and the Sabbath, which is God's sign, all perpetuated through the gospel age, and into the new earth where the twelve tribes will enter in through the gates into the city. May the Lord bless the reader and the writer, and help us to keep all his commandments, with the Sabbath, his sign, that we may enter through the pearly gates to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I. SANBORN.

Popular Amusements.

By Sol.

RECREATION is certainly proper, and often a duty. But the radical idea in this is the regaining of energies wasted by toil. When the purpose is to secure this result, there is generally but little danger of harm.
It is also true that diversions or amusements are not necessarily evil. This depends on their character, their tendencies, and their associations. God meant that children should engage in sports, and that which increases the flow of kindly, genial feelings, makes even old age interesting, and more perfect. It is not the purpose of Christianity to lessen geniality, or to make the world morose. The indiscriminate denunciation of everything which may be called a pastime certainly indicates ignorance of human nature, and is productive of harm.
But we fear there is an alarming demoralization of the churches on this subject. Nearly every form of diversion is indulged in, whatever may be its association or influence. Spirituality is thus eaten out, religious impulses are suppressed, the power of the church is weakened, and by its conformity to the world the line of demarkation is destroyed; and instead of its possessing an intense spirit of aggression, bearing down upon the kingdom of Satan, routing the forces of evil, its life is sickly, so as to require constant nursing, to prevent actual extinction.
We ask the Christian people of this age if they cannot show to the world that there is joy enough in the religion of Christ to lift them above such sources of pleasure. Has the divine Comforter lost his power to impart true enjoyment to the soul?
The question is often asked: “What shall be done for the entertainment of our children?” This should be merged in the broader question: “What shall be the culture of the household?” If parents would be companions for their children, bringing sunshine into their homes, by their own cheering, genial presence, regulating and animating the spirit of the household, the true conditions would be supplied for that culture which both entertains and ennobles. Nothing can be a substitute for this. No interdiction of sinful amusements, nor approval of amusements regarded as harmless, will meet the wants of the home circle. Fathers must take time from their business, and mothers from the gayety and dissipation of social life, to make homes attractive through the influence of their own loving and ennobling presence. This work cannot be done at arm’s length through any prescribed formula. Let the religion of the household be ardent and at the same time attractive, adapted to the buoyancy of childhood, as well as the sedateness of age.
In connection with wholesome restraints, parents must study to pleasantly lead their children in paths which are safe.—Sol.
Continue reading: Parleying with Temptation