Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 6, 1880
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
GIVING OF THE LAW.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
On the morning of the third day all the children of Israel obeyed the command of God through Moses and drew near the mount with fear and solemnity. Awful and grand was the place of God's sanctuary, holy and elevated the pulpit from which he was about to deliver his memorable sermon. The principles of the law of God did not originate at Sinai; but by a long, degrading servitude in Egypt they had become confused in the minds of all Israel. The Lord had now brought them out into this place, grand with solitude, that he might more clearly impress upon their minds the nature of his requirements by speaking his law with an audible voice.
They were here to receive the most wonderful revelation ever made by God to man. The cloud which rested upon the mount, enveloping the Father and the Son and the retinue of holy angels, became more black and dense. Soon from its thick darkness came vivid flashes of lightning, followed by deep, hoarse peals of thunder which echoed and re-echoed among the mountains, causing the most careless to tremble. Then followed a period of solemn painful silence. The flashes of light sent forth from the cloud revealing the solemn scenery with wonderful brilliancy, left the cloud denser and more fearfully dark in contrast with the bright shining of his power. The mountain shook to its very foundation beneath the tread of the Divine Majesty.
Moses was then called up, and charged once more to go down and see that the bounds were in order, and the sanctity of the mountain observed, after which he and Aaron were to go upward toward the summit. Then the Lord in awful grandeur, speaks his law from Sinai, that the people may believe. He accompanies the giving of his law with sublime exhibitions of his authority, that they may know that he is the only true and living God. Moses was not permitted to enter within the cloud of glory, but only to draw nigh, and enter the thick darkness which surrounded it, thus standing between the people and the Lord.
After God had given them such evidences of his power, he tells them who he is: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." The same God who exalted his power among the Egyptians, now speaks his law:—
"Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made Heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
"Thou shalt not kill.
"Thou shalt not commit adultery.
"Thou shalt not steal.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
The first and second commandments spoken by Jehovah are precepts against idolatry. This sin if practiced, would lead men to great lengths in rebellion, and would result in the offering of human sacrifices. God would guard against the least approach to such abominations. The first four commandments were given to show men their duty to God; the last six, to show the duty of man to his fellow-man.
The fourth commandment is the connecting link between the great God and man. All who should observe the Sabbath would signify by such observance that they were worshipers of the living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Thus the Sabbath was to be a sign between God and his people as long as he should have a people upon the earth to serve him.
When the congregation of Israel beheld the terrific manifestations of God's presence at Sinai, they shrank away from the mountain in fear and awe. They felt indeed that God was there. When Moses and Aaron descended, they were greeted by the multitude with the cry, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." The leader answered, "Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." The people, however, remained at a distance, gazing in terror upon the stupendous scene, while Moses again "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."
Again the Lord seeks to guard his people against idolatry by commanding Moses to say unto them, "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." They were in danger of imitating the example of the Egyptians, and making to themselves images to represent God. The Lord then continued to lay down certain rules which should govern them and the blessings which would be theirs if they obeyed. These are his words:
"Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries; for mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off." The angel who went before Israel was the Lord Jesus Christ. "Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee."
God would have his people understand that he alone should be the object of their worship; and when they should overcome the idolatrous nations around them, they should not preserve any of the images of their worship, but utterly destroy them. Many of these heathen deities were very costly, and of beautiful workmanship, which might tempt those who had witnessed idol worship, so common in Egypt, to regard these senseless objects with some degree of reverence. The Lord would have his people know that it was because of the idolatry of these nations, which had led them to every degree of wickedness, that he would use the Israelites as his instruments to punish them, and destroy their gods.
"I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, and Canaanite, and Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver the habitations of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee."
After Moses had received the judgments and also the promises from the Lord, and had written them for the people, he "came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do." Moses then wrote their solemn pledge in a book, and offered sacrifices unto God for the people. "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." Thus the people ratified their solemn pledge to the Lord to do all that he had said, and to be obedient.
OCCASION.
"SAY, who art thou, with more than mortal air,
Endowed by Heaven with gifts and graces rare,
Whom restless, winged feet still onward bear?"
"I am Occasion—known to few at best;
And since one foot upon a wheel I rest,
Constant my movements are—they cannot be repressed.
Not the swift eagle, in his swiftest flight,
Can equal me in speed. My wings are bright,
And man, who sees them waved, is dazzled by the sight.
My thick and flowing locks before me thrown,
Conceal my form—nor face, nor breast is shown,
That thus, as I approach, my coming be not known.
Behind my head no single lock of hair,
Invites the hand that fain would grasp it there;
But he who lets me pass, to seize me may despair."
"Whom, then, so close behind thee do I see?"
"Her name is Penitence; and Heaven's decree,
Hath made all those her prey who profit not by me.
And thou, O mortal, who dost so vainly ply
These curious questions; thou dost not descry,
That now thy time is lost—for I am passing by."
INCIDENTAL SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION.
The art of weaving spiritual instruction easily and naturally into the daily occurrences of life, is of incalculable value. Its acquisition is worth your most earnest, prayerful, and constant efforts. It was the remark of one of the sons of the venerated Dr. Scott, that the knowledge which he had found turn to most account in life, appeared to have been gathered up gradually and imperceptibly from the conversation that passed from day to day in the family.
THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By U. Smith
BY ELDER U. SMITH.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST.
But why should any one labor to prove that Christ changed the Sabbath? Whoever does this is performing a thankless task. The pope will not thank him; for if it is proved that Christ wrought this change, then the pope is robbed of his badge of authority and power. And no truly enlightened Protestant will thank him; for if he succeeds, he only shows that the papacy has not done the work which it was predicted that it should do, and so that the prophecy has failed, and the Scriptures are unreliable. The matter had better stand as the prophecy has placed it, and the claim which the pope unwittingly puts forth had better be granted. When a person is charged with any work, and that person steps forth and confesses that he has done the work, that is usually considered sufficient to settle the matter. So, when the prophecy affirms that a certain power shall change the law of God, and that very power in due time arises, does the work foretold, and then openly claims that he has done it, what need have we of further evidence?
The world should not forget that the great apostasy foretold by Paul has taken place; that the man of sin for long ages held almost a monopoly of Christian teaching in the world; that the mystery of iniquity has cast the darkness of its shadow and the errors of its doctrines over almost all Christendom; and out of this era of error and darkness and corruption, the theology of our day has come. Would it then be anything strange if there were yet some relics of popery to be discarded ere the reformation will be complete? A. Campbell (Baptism, p. 15), speaking of the different Protestant sects, says:—
"All of them retain in their bosom, in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances, various relics of popery. They are at best a reformation of popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands."
The nature of the change which the little horn has attempted to effect in the law of God is worthy of notice. With true Satanic instinct, he undertakes to change that commandment which, of all others, is the fundamental commandment of the law, the one which makes known who the lawgiver is, and contains his signature of royalty. The fourth commandment does this; no other one does. Four others, it is true, contain the word God, and three of them the word Lord, also. But who is this Lord God of whom they speak? Without the fourth commandment it is impossible to tell; for idolators of every grade apply these terms to the multitudinous objects of their adoration. With the fourth commandment to point out the Author of the decalogue, the claims of every false god are annulled at one stroke; for the God who here demands our worship is not any created being, but the One who created them all. The maker of the earth and sea, the sun and moon, and all the starry host, the upholder and governor of the universe, is the One who claims, and who, from his position, has a right to claim, our supreme regard in preference to every other object. The commandment which makes known these facts is therefore the very one we might suppose that power would undertake to change, which designed to exalt itself above God. God gave the Sabbath as a memorial of himself, a weekly reminder to the sons of men, of his work in creating the heavens and the earth, a great barrier against atheism and idolatry. It is the signature and seal of the law. This the papacy has torn from its place, and erected in its stead, on its own authority, another institution designed to serve another purpose.
This change of the fourth commandment must therefore be the change to which the prophecy points; and Sunday-keeping must be the mark of the beast! Some who have long been taught to regard this institution with reverence will perhaps start back with little less than feelings of horror at this conclusion. We have not space, nor is this perhaps the place, to enter into an extended argument on the Sabbath question, and an exposition of the origin and nature of the observance of the first day of the week. Let us submit this one proposition: If the seventh day is still the Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment; if the observance of the first day of the week has no foundation whatever in the Scriptures; if this observance has been brought in as a Christian institution and designedly put in place of the Sabbath of the decalogue, by that power which is symbolized by the beast, and placed there as a badge and token of its power to legislate for the church, is it not inevitably the mark of the beast? The answer must be in the affirmative. But all these hypotheses can easily be shown to be certainties. See History of the Sabbath, and other works on the subject, for sale at the SIGNS office. To these we can only refer the reader, in passing.
It will be said again, Then all Sunday-keepers have the mark of the beast; then all the good of past ages who kept this day had the mark of the beast; then Luther, Whitefield, the Wesleys, and all who have done a good and noble work of reformation, had the mark of the beast; then all the blessings that have been poured upon the reformed churches have been poured upon those who had the mark of the beast. We answer, No! And we are sorry to say that some professedly religious teachers, though many times corrected, persist in misrepresenting us on this point. We have never so held; we have never so taught. Our premises lead to no such conclusions. Give ear: The mark and worship of the beast are enforced by the two-horned beast. The receiving of the mark of the beast is a specific act which the two-horned beast is to cause to be done. The third message of Rev. 14, is a warning mercifully sent out in advance to prepare the people for the coming danger. There can therefore be no worship of the beast, nor reception of his mark, such as is contemplated in the prophecy, till it is enforced by the two-horned beast. We have seen that intention was essential to the change which the papacy has made in the law of God, to constitute it the mark of that power. So intention is necessary in the adoption of that change to make it on the part of any individual the reception of that mark. In other words, a person must adopt the change, knowing it to be the work of the beast, and receive it on the authority of that power, in opposition to the requirement of God.
But how with those referred to above who have kept Sunday in the past, and the majority of those who are keeping it to-day? Do they keep it as an institution of the papacy? No. Have they decided between this and the Sabbath of the Lord, understanding the claims of each? No. On what ground have they kept it, and do they keep it? They suppose they are keeping a commandment of God. Have such the mark of the beast? By no means. Their course is attributable to an error unwittingly received from the church of Rome, not to an act of worship rendered to it.
But how is it to be? The church which is to be prepared for the second coming of Christ must be entirely free from papal errors and corruptions. A reform must hence be made on the Sabbath question. The third angel proclaims the commandments of God, leading men to the true in the place of the counterfeit. The dragon is stirred, and so controls the wicked governments of the earth that all authority of human power shall be exerted to enforce the claims of the man of sin. Then the issue is fairly before the people. On one hand, they are required to keep the true Sabbath; on the other, a counterfeit. For refusing to keep the true, the message denounces the unmingled wrath of God; for refusing the false, earthly governments threaten them with persecution and death. With this issue before the people, what does he do who yields to the human requirement? He virtually says to God, I know your claims, but I will not yield to them. I know that the power I am required to worship is anti-Christian; but I yield to save my life. I renounce your allegiance, and bow to the usurper. The beast is henceforth the object of my adoration; under his banner, in opposition to your authority, I henceforth array myself; to him, in defiance of your claims, I henceforth yield the obedience of my heart and life.
Such is the spirit which will actuate the hearts of the beast-worshipers; a spirit which insults the God of the universe to his face, and is prevented only by lack of power from overthrowing his government and annihilating his throne. Is it any wonder that Jehovah denounces against so Heaven-daring a course the most terrible threatening that his word contains?
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
We have now found what, according to the prophecy, is to constitute the image which the two-horned beast is to cause to be made, and the mark which it will attempt to enforce. The movement which is to fulfill this portion of the prophecy is to be looked for in the popular churches of our land. First, a union must be effected between these churches, with some degree of coalition also between these bodies and the beast power, or Roman Catholicism; and, secondly, steps must be taken to bring the law of the land to the support of the Sunday Sabbath. These movements the prophecy calls for. And the line of argument leading to these conclusions is so direct and well-defined that there is no avoiding them. They are a clear and logical sequence from the promises given us.
When first the application of Rev. 13 : 11–17 to the United States was made, over twenty-two years ago, these positions respecting a union of the churches and a grand Sunday movement were taken. But at that time, no sign appeared above or beneath, at home or abroad, no token was seen, no indication existed, that such an issue would ever be made. But there was the prophecy, and that must stand. The United States government had given abundant evidence, by its location, the time of its rise, the manner of its rise, and its apparent character, that it was the power symbolized by the two-horned beast. There could be no mistake in the conclusion that it was the very nation intended by that symbol. This being so, it must take the course, and perform the acts, foretold. But here were predictions which could be fulfilled by nothing less than the movement above named respecting Church and State, and the enforcement of the papal Sabbath as a mark of the beast.
To take the position at that time that this government was to pursue such a policy and engage in such a work, without any apparent probability in its favor, was no small act of faith. On the other hand, to deny or ignore it, while admitting the application of the symbol to this government, would be in accordance with neither Scripture nor logic. The only course for the humble, confiding student of prophecy to pursue in such cases, is to take the light as it is given, and believe the prophecy in all its parts. So the stand was boldly taken; and open proclamation has been made from that day to this, that such a work would be seen in these United States. With every review of the argument, new features of strength have been discovered in the application; and amid a storm of scornful incredulity, we have watched the progress of events, and awaited the hour of fulfillment.
Meanwhile, spiritualism has astonished the world with its terrible progress, and shown itself to be the wonder-working element which was to exist in connection with this power. This has mightily strengthened the force of the application. And now, within a few years past, what have we further seen? No less than the commencement of that very movement respecting the formation of the image and the enactment of Sunday laws, which is to complete the prophecy, and close the scene.
(To be Continued.)
A Shortest Creed
A SKEPTICAL young man one day conversing with the celebrated Dr. Parr, observed, that he would believe nothing which he could not understand. "Then, young man, your creed will be the shortest of any man's I know."
Using God’s Good Gifts
Because Luther said that the Christian was not made for the sake of the sacrament, but the sacrament instituted for the sake of the Christian, it does not follow that, in Luther's opinion, the Christian stands in no need of the sacrament. Nor did Christ, when he declared that the Sabbath was made for man, blot out the Sabbath from the week, or abrogate its observance. Nevertheless, some people profess to be unable to see any distinction between that which is given them to use, and that which they need not use at all. Because air was made for animals, and not animals for air, they might conclude that breathing is a quite unnecessary employment. Thus he who refuses to benefit by God's good gifts, from the greatest to the smallest, is doubly unfortunate in that he not only misses the present blessing, but puts himself into a perverse condition which is likely to drag him farther and farther downward. Instead of asking what he may do, he ought rather to open his eyes to see what he must do.
THE BEATITUDES OF OUR LORD.
By Dr. Joseph Parker
In Christ's idea of a blessed life I find a marvellous union of the divine and the human. Some of the beatitudes look up right away into heaven, others of them look down into all the relations of earth and time. In other words, some of the beatitudes are intensely theological, and others are intensely moral and social. Thus in the beatitudes we have a complete representation of the religion which Jesus Christ came to establish and expound, a religion combining the theological with the moral, the doctrinal with the practical, the God and the neighbor; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.
What is our religion? Theological only, or moral? Have we magnificent doctrine, and do we pay our debts? Have we splendid intellectual conceptions of the metaphysical constitution of the universe, and do we forgive our enemies? Are we orthodox in all spiritual conception, and do we feed the hungry and clothe the naked? In Christ's religion earth and heaven go together, and there is not a flower that blooms on the green earth that does not owe its beauty to the sun.
In Christ's conception of the blessed life I find many persons mentioned that I did not expect to find referred to, and I find many persons omitted that I expected would have been first spoken of. Let me take the beatitudes as a picture of heaven. Who is in heaven? Blessed are the mighty, for they are in heaven; blessed are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of glory; blessed are the famous, for theirs are the trumpets of eternity; blessed are the noble, for the angels are their servants. Why, that is not the text. Who is in heaven? The poor in spirit, they that mourn, the meek, they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace-makers. Then, then, perhaps we may be there. Not many mighty, not many-noble, not many learned, not many brilliant are called. Then perhaps we may be there. Woman, mother, sister, obscure person, unknown life—you may be there. Who cares to seek such flowers as these? Give me the flowers that flame like fires, and I will call these a worthy garland. Who cares to turn their heads to look back to seek such modest beauty? God does. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
In Christ's conception of the blessed life I find that goodness and reward always go together. Goodness is indeed its own reward. The flower brings its own odor, the light brings its own revelations. The goodness is the reward, the prayer is the answer. There are persons who say, "You have prayed the prayer, have you got the reply?" Certainly, while we are yet speaking. You do not understand this mystery; you thought there would be a telegram or a man with a four-square letter at your door, saying, "Here is the answer." Whatsoever things ye pray for, believe that ye have them, and have them you certainly will. This blessedness, therefore, comes with the condition specified. The poor in spirit has the kingdom of heaven already, has it of divine gift and divine right. Sometimes we enter into this high experience right fully, we know what it means without any preacher telling us in so many words. There are times when the heart is just alive with heaven. There are seasons when we could crowns despise rather than give up the high rapture or the sweet tenderness of soul which ennobles us. You have been in those occasional moods, and therefore I need not further explain or refer to them. If you have not been caught up into that third heaven, I might speak until the night turn into the morning, and you would not catch a tone of this sacred truth.
In Christ's conception of the blessed life I find that even the enemy himself is made a contributor. "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Why, he shows us how flowers grow in the night time, how the wilderness may rejoice and blossom as the rose, how the black devil with sharp teeth and eyes of fire is the servant of the good man, and waits upon him and ministers to his joy. O that we might enter into this meaning, then all things would be ours, life, death, hight, depth—our servants would be a multitude, and in that multitude would be found the angels of God.
Now unto which verse can I come? Let each man ask for himself. I am not all these eight—which is my little wicket-gate, through which I pass into God's reward? Let me see what choice of gates there is—the poor in spirit, they that mourn, the meek, they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace-makers, the persecuted. Let each scholar ask, "Which is my gate?" There is only one gate that I see here that I ever have any hope of getting in at. I think, perhaps, through that gate I might go. "Blessed are they that hunger." If I cannot get through that gate, I fear all the others are shut.
But there is a gate for all of us—which is yours, my brother? Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, for he that seeketh findeth, and to every one that knocketh it shall be opened. And yet methinks that all the gates somehow interfold, and that if we get through one we shall seem to have gone through all. This is a mystery known only to the heart of the elect.—Dr. Joseph Parker.
DANCING.
The Sunday School Times says a great many good things, but we have seen none more just or seasonable than this: "Fashion fairly justifies a great many social customs, habits of living, and changes in dress; but fashion can never justify that which is in itself indecent or immoral. There are certain claims of propriety and purity which are paramount to every demand of popular favor. . . . No social approval can make what are called 'round dances' otherwise than an impurity—whatever may be thought of dancing generally. Nor can the ballet, or other popular form of obscene theatrical performance, be made else than repellant to a pure mind by the sanction of fashionable spectators. Fashion can neither abrogate the moral law, nor lower the standard of true purity."—Christian Statesman.
Bishop Coxe, of New York, says: "The gross, debasing waltz would not be tolerated for another year if Christian mothers in our communion would only set their faces against it, and remove their daughters from its contaminations, and their sons from that contempt of womanhood and womanly modesty, which it begets. Alas! that women professing to follow Christ and godliness should not rally for the honor of their sex, and drive these shameless dances from society."
Mrs. Gen. W. T. Sherman writes thus:—
"The advocates of these dances have had their own way long enough, sneering upon and ridiculing those who quietly decline to participate, openly and constantly insinuating that they are evil minded, impudently quoting, as their only weapon, the maxim 'Honi soit qui mal y pense,'—and then throwing themselves into the arms of men, to prove their own purity of mind." The same lady has since written another letter in which she says she has noticed "the wail of the wounded and the guilty" since her first denunciation of the amusement, and adds: "It is not expected that young girls, who are unconscious of evil in the beginning, should reflect long enough to summon up moral courage to resist the allurements of the dance, unless with the encouragement and support of their parents. To the honor of pure maidenhood be it said, however, that there are young girls who decline from instinctive delicacy, even when their parents would have them join the throng who dance down the broad road of worldly pleasure."
George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, has this to say of round-dances: "We saw at a private ball a few young men looking upon the dance very soberly; and upon inquiry learned that they were engaged to certain ladies of the corps de ballet. Nor did we wonder that the spectacle of a young woman whirling in a decollete state, and in the embrace of a warm young man, around a heated room, induced a little sobriety on the lover's face, if not sadness in his heart."
The following expression of opinion is from a member of the Board of Police Commissioners for the city of Cincinnati:—
"Mr. Carson, a member of that Board, recently received a letter from some one asking the police to suppress the ballet-dancers. Mr. Carson said he was in favor of suppressing these shows, but he had carefully weighed the matter, and he was not quite sure now whether the reform should not begin higher up—whether before this dancing in the variety theaters was forbidden it were not better first to suppress round-dances and low-necked dresses in society parlors. He agreed with Mrs. Sherman in saying that the round-dance was the most demoralizing kind of entertainment, and he wanted people to understand that, before they undertook to dictate to the police commissioner respecting ballet-dancing, they ought first to do away with round dancing and low-necked dresses in their own parlor—they ought first to learn the wrong of copying Paris fashions, Cora Pearl dresses, and men-milliners. If they try to mimic Paris society, what can they expect but that the theaters will copy Parisian models? Yet people allow the embraces of the waltz, and low-necked dresses, and then want the ballet girls arrested."
The Rev. A. B. Leonard, pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal church, of Dayton, Ohio, recently read a paper before the Ministerial Association of that city, which was afterwards published at the request and with the endorsement of fifteen other pastors, who desired in this way publicly to express their judgment, and utter their testimony.
He said:—
"The motions and movements of the waltz cannot be described without giving offense to true modesty while the positions of the bodies of the dancers cannot but brush virtue's glow from the cheek of purity.
"To a young man who was passionately fond of dancing I once put the question: Did you ever swing a young lady in the dance for one half hour without arousing a passion in your nature that you would have been ashamed to have made known? Instead of answering he blushed and turned his back, thus admitting the fact which the question implied. Many a pure girl has been in the arms of a lecherous villain, and swung in the dance until all her physical and moral energies have been relaxed, after which in a secluded place, she has surrendered her person, virtue and happiness to her destroyer.
"But the evils of the modern dance do not stop with the ruin of unmarried women. They go further, and separate, in not a few instances, husband and wives, and turn Eden homes into perditions of wretchedness and sorrow. A writer has recently said: 'The dancing hall is the nursery of the divorce court, the training-shop of prostitution, the graduating school of infamy.' It is a fact which cannot be successfully denied that in what is known as fashionable society, the dance occasions a large percentage of the divorce cases that occur—perhaps larger than any other social influence."
It will be observed that these opinions are not from a set of "puritanical bigots." They are from a popular Sabbath-school paper, from a bishop of the Episcopal church, from the editor of Harpers Magazine, from the wife of the General of the United States Army, from the police comissioners of Cincinnati, and from sixteen pastors of the city of Dayton, Ohio. What is the duty of Christians in view of testimony like this? We have no hesitation in saying that it is the duty of all Christians to shun dancing as they would the plague. Let the world dance if it will, but let the bride of Christ keep herself from this poluting and deadly pleasure.—Christian Cynosure.
A Challenge
A CHALLENGE by a father was answered by his son at one of Mr. J. B. Gough's lectures in Pennsylvania. At the close of the lecture a gentleman rose and was announced as Judge of the Quarter Sessions. He said, "Ladies and gentlemen, before the audience is dismissed I wish to say a few words in defense of myself and the class I represent. Now, it is very hard to have it said that I set a bad example. Now, I am a moderate drinker; a respectable moderate drinker. Who dare say anything against me? Who ever saw me the worse for drink? If young men followed my example they would be as I am, respectable and respected. I challenge the country to say whether my example is a bad one." A man in the audience, evidently under the influence of drink, here made a loud interruption. Some one said, "Put the man out," and a gentleman said, "No, let the man remain; he is the only son of the Judge—his only son has tried to follow his example, and there is the result. He is so drunk that he would disturb a respectable meeting."
DRUNKARDS' SLURRY. The only instance of pran
PRAYING TO SAINTS
The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment calling upon Abraham; and let it be remembered, that it was practiced only by a lost soul, and without success!