Review and Herald, Vol. 19, No. 3. (12/17/1861)

Review and Herald

Dec 17, 1861

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 17, 1861

History of the Sabbath.

By John Nevins Andrews

THE SABBATH COMMITTED TO THE HEBREWS.

(Continued.) WE are now to trace the history of divine truth for many ages in almost exclusive connection with the family of Abraham. That we may vindicate the truth from the reproach of pertaining only to the Hebrews—a reproach often urged against the Sabbath—and justify the dealings of God with mankind in leaving to their own ways the apostate nations, let us carefully examine the Bible for the reasons which directed divine providence in the choice of Abraham's family as the depositaries of divine truth.

The antediluvian world had been highly favored of God. The period of life extended to each generation was twelve-fold that of the present age of man. For almost one thousand years, Adam, who had conversed with God in Paradise, had been with them. Before the death of Adam, Enoch began his holy walk of three hundred years, and then he was translated that he should not see death. This testimony to the piety of Enoch was a powerful testimony to the antediluvians in behalf of truth and righteousness. Moreover the Spirit of God strove with mankind; but the perversity of man triumphed over all the gracious restraints of the Holy Spirit. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and that continually." Even the sons of God joined in the general apostasy. At last a single family was all that remained of the worshipers of the Most High. Gen. ii-vi; Heb. xi, 4-7; 1 Pet. iii, 20; 2 Pet. ii, 5.

Then came the deluge sweeping the world of its guilty inhabitants with the lesson of destruction. Gen. vii; Matt. xxiv, 37-39; Luke xvii, 26, 27; 2 Pet. iii, 5, 6. So terrible a display of divine justice might well be thought sufficient to restrain impiety for ages. Surely the family of Noah could not soon forget this awful lesson. But alas, revolt and apostasy speedily followed and men turned from God to the worship of idols. Against the divine mandate separating the human family into nations [Deut. xxxii, 7, 8; Acts xvii, 26], mankind united in one great act of rebellion in the plain of Shinar. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Then God confounded them in their impiety and scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth. Gen. xi, 1-9; Josephus' Antiquities, Book I, chap. iv. This took place in the days of Peleg who was born about one hundred years after the flood. Gen. x, 25, compared with xi, 10-16; Antiquities, Book I, chap. vi, sec. 4. Men did not like to retain God in their knowledge; wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind, and suffered them to change the truth of God into a lie, and to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. Such was the origin of idolatry and of the apostasy of the Gentiles. Rom. i, 18-32; Acts xiv, 16, 17; xvii, 29, 30.

In the midst of this wide-spread apostasy one man was found whose heart was faithful with God. Abraham was chosen from an idolatrous family, as the depositary of divine truth, the father of the faithful, the heir of the world and the friend of God. Gen. xii, 1-3; Josh. xxiv, 2, 3, 14; Neh. ix, 7, 8; Rom. iv, 13-17; 2 Chron. xx, 7; Isa. xli, 8; James ii, 23. When the worshipers of God were found alone in the family of Noah, God gave up the rest of mankind to perish in the flood. Now that the worshipers of God are again reduced almost to a single family, God gives up the idolatrous nations to their own ways, and takes the family of Abraham as his peculiar heritage. "For I know him," said God, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment." Gen. xviii, 19. That they might preserve in the earth the knowledge of divine truth and the memory and worship of the Most High, they were to be a people walled off from all mankind, and dwelling in a land of their own. That they might thus be separated from the heathen around, God gave to Abraham the rite of circumcision, and afterward to his posterity the whole ceremonial law. Gen. xvii, 9-14; xxxiv, 14; Acts x, 28; xi, 2, 3; Eph. ii, 12-19; Num. xxiii, 9; Deut. xxxiii, 27, 28. But they could not possess the land designed for them until the iniquity of the Amorites, its inhabitants, was full, that they should be thrust out before them. The horror of great darkness, and the smoking furnace seen by Abraham in vision, foreshadowed the iron furnace and the bitter servitude of Egypt. The family of Abraham must go down thither. Brief prosperity and long and terrible oppression follow. Gen. xv; Ex. i-v; Deut. iv, 20.

At length the power of the oppressor is broken, and the people of God are delivered. The expiration of four hundred and thirty years from the promise to Abraham marks the hour of deliverance to his posterity. Ex. xii, 29-42; Gal. iii, 17. The nation of Israel is brought forth from Egypt as God's peculiar treasure, that he may give them his Sabbath, and his law, and himself. The psalmist testifies that God "brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness, and gave them the lands of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws." And the Most High says, "I am the Lord which hallow you, that brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to be your God." Ps. cv, 43-45; Lev. xx2, 32, 33; Num. xv, 41. Not that the commandments of God, his Sabbath and himself, had no prior existence, nor that the people were ignorant of the true God and his law; for the Sabbath was appointed to a holy use before the fall of man; and the commandments of God, his statutes and his laws, were kept by Abraham; and the Israelites themselves, when some of them had violated the Sabbath, were reproved by the question, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" Gen. ii, 2, 3; xxvi, 5; Ex. xvi, 4, 27, 28; xviii, 16. And as to the Most High the psalmist exclaims, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Ps. xc, 2. But there must be a formal public espousal of the people by God, and of his law and Sabbath and himself by the people. Ex. xix, 3-8; xxiv, 4-8; Jer. iii, 14 compared with last clause of Jer. xxxi, 32. But neither the Sabbath, nor the law, nor the great Law-giver, by their connection with the Hebrews, became Jewish. The Law-giver indeed became the God of Israel [Ex. xx, 2; xxiv, 10], and what Gentile shall refuse him adoration for that reason? but the Sabbath still remained the Sabbath of the Lord [Ex. xx, 10; Deut. v, 14; Neh. ix, 14], and the law continued to be the law of the Most High.

In the month following their passage through the Red Sea the Hebrews came into the wilderness of Sin. It is at this point in his narrative that Moses for the second time mentions the sanctified rest-day of the Creator. The people murmured for bread:

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as that which they gather daily. . . . I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna; for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank; and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating; and when the sun waxed hot it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, †To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." Ex. xvi .

This narrative shows, 1. That God had a law and commandments prior to the giving of the manna. 2. That God in giving his people bread from heaven designed to prove them respecting his law. 3. That in this law was the holy Sabbath; for the test relative to walking in the law pertained directly to the Sabbath; and when God said, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" it was the Sabbath which they had violated. 4. That in proving the people respecting this existing law, Moses gave no new precept respecting the Sabbath, but remained silent relative to the preparation for the Sabbath until after the people of their own accord had gathered a double portion on the sixth day. 5. That by this act the people proved not only that they were not ignorant of the Sabbath, but that they were disposed to observe it . 6. That the reckoning of the week, traces of which appear through the patriarchal age [Gen. vii, 7, 10; viii, 10, 12; xxix, 27, 28; l, 10; Ex. vii, 25; Job ii, 10], had been rightly kept, for the people knew when the sixth day had arrived. 7. That had there been any doubt existing on that point, the fall of the manna on the six days, the withholding of it on the seventh, and the preservation of that needed for the Sabbath over that day, must have settled that point incontrovertibly . 8. That there was no act of instituting the Sabbath in the wilderness of Sin; for God did not then make it his rest-day, nor did he then bless and sanctify the day. On the contrary, the record shows that the seventh day was already the sanctified rest-day of the Lord . 9. That the obligation to observe the Sabbath existed and was known before the fall of the manna. For the language used implies the existence of such an obligation, but does not contain a new enactment until after some of the people had violated the Sabbath. Thus God says to Moses, "On the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in," but he does not speak of the seventh. And on the sixth day Moses says, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord," but he does not command them to observe it. On the seventh day he says that it is the Sabbath, and that they should find no manna in the field. "Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." But in all this there is no precept given, yet the existence of such a precept is plainly implied. 10. That when some of the people violated the Sabbath they were reproved in language which plainly implies a previous transgression of this precept. "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws." 11. And that this rebuke of the Law-giver restrained for the time the transgression of the people.

As a special trust God committed the Sabbath to the Hebrews. It was now given them, not now made for them. It was made for man at the close of the first week of time; but all other nations having turned from the Creator to the worship of idols, it is given to the Hebrew people. Nor does this prove that all the Hebrews had hitherto disregarded it. For Christ uses the same language respecting circumcision. Thus he says: "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers." John vii, 22. Yet God had enjoined that ordinance upon Abraham and his family four hundred years previous, and it had been retained by them .

The language, "the Lord hath given you the Sabbath," implies a solemn act of committing a treasure to their trust. How was this done? No act of instituting the Sabbath took place. No precept enjoining its observance was given until some of the people violated it, when it was given in the form of a reproof; which evinced a previous obligation, and that they were transgressing an existing law. And this view is certainly strengthened by the fact that no explanation of the institution was given to the people; a fact which indicates that some knowledge of the Sabbath was already in their possession.

But how then did God give them the Sabbath? He did this, first, by delivering them from the abject bondage of Egypt, where they were a nation of slaves. And second, by providing them food in such a manner as to impose the strongest obligation to keep the Sabbath. Forty years did he give them bread from heaven, sending it for six days, and withholding it on the seventh, and preserving food for them over the Sabbath. Thus was the Sabbath especially entrusted to them.

As a gift to the Hebrews, the Creator's great memorial became a sign between God and themselves. "I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." As a sign, its object is stated to be, to make known the true God; and we are told why it was such a sign. "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Eze. xx, 12; Ex. xxxi, 17. The institution itself signified that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Its observance by the people signified that the Creator was their God. How full of meaning was this sign!

The Sabbath was a sign between God and the children of Israel, because they alone were the worshipers of the Creator. All other nations had turned from him to "the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth." Jer. x, 10-12. For this reason the memorial of the great Creator was committed to the Hebrews, and it became a sign between the Most High and themselves. Thus was the Sabbath a golden link uniting the Creator and his worshipers.

COMFORT IN AFFLICTION.

By L. E. Millne

My dearest Saviour, must I go Through deepest scenes of pain and wo? O, blessed Saviour, be my stay, And guide me on my rugged way.

When friends forsake and I despair, Father in heaven, hear thou my prayer; O, leave me not, lest I should stray From this most glorious heavenly way.

But guide me, O my Saviour, Friend, Till Christ shall come, e'en to the end. O then, on wings of faith and love, I'll rise with thee to heaven above.

I'll clasp my Saviour to my breast, And in his loving arms find rest. I'll vie with angels while I sing, Of thee, my Saviour, Friend, and King.

I'll strike my harp, the strains prolong, For Jesus, Jesus, is my song; He saved me from a burning hell, And brought me safe with him to dwell. L. E. Millne.

Family Duties and Spiritual Things

Those who neglect their families, under pretense of attending to spiritual things, are guilty of transgression.

Evidences of Christianity.

By Moses Hull

BY MOSES HULL.

CHAPTER I.

(Continued.)

PAUL, in his letter to the citizens of Rome, described the civilized heathen to whom we refer, as professing to be wise, yet becoming fools, as changing the glory of God into an image like man, and birds and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. He states that they have been given up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies, that they change the truth of God into a lie, and worship the creature instead of the Creator; that they have been given up to vile affections, to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; that they are full of envy, murder, deceit, &c. Please read chap. i, entire. It presents a dark picture, but every word of it can be proved by secular history, and infidel historians have represented it in the same light. It seems that God will have them bear testimony to the state of the world without a revelation. Paul represents them as being "full of envy, murder, deceit," &c. David Hume has borne testimony to the truthfulness of Paul's statement in the following language:

"Who can read the accounts of the amphitheatrical entertainments without horror? Or who is surprised that the emperors should treat the people in the same way the people treated their inferiors? One's humanity is apt to renew the barbarous wish of Caligula, that the people had but one neck. A man could almost be pleased, by a single blow to put an end to such a race of monsters."—Note to Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations.

Again the same writer says, "The horrid practice of poisoning was so common, that during part of a season a prætor punished capitally for this crime alone, three thousand persons in a part of Italy, and found information of this nature still multiplying upon him. So depraved in their private life were that people whom we so much admire."—Essay on Politics.

Gibbon, another infidel, has some testimony to the same fact. He says, "Such was the unhappy condition even of Roman emperors, that whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same; almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder."

The eloquent M'Ilvaine says, "Suicide was not only extensively practiced, but advocated as right, and commended as virtuous. Seneca plead for it. Cicero was its advocate. Brutus and Cassius, with many others, both defended and practiced it. Cato is praised by Plutarch for having been his own murderer. These, in their days, were among the lights of the heathen world. What then must have been the awful deeds of darkness among the more ignorant populace."—Evidences, p. 370.

We cannot leave Paul's testimony without having it corroborated still further. Paul says they are "without natural affection." Nothing can more glaringly exhibit the entire absence of natural affection, than the cruel custom of parents murdering their own children, and turning their superannuated slaves out to starve or freeze to death; or throwing them into the fish pond for food for their fish. Yet these customs were practiced by the most enlightened heathens of Paul's day. Certainly they needed one to "teach them how to behave toward God and toward man." Smith says, "The exposition, that is, the murder of new-born infants, was an allowed practice in most all the states of Greece and Rome: even among the polite and civilized Athenians, the abandoning of one's child to hunger or to wild beasts, was regarded without blame or censure."—Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Hume says, "This practice was very common, and is not spoken of by any author of those times with the horror it deserves, or scarcely even with disapprobation. Plutarch, the humane, good-natured Plutarch, mentions it as a merit in Attalus, king of Pergamos, that he murdered, or if you will, exposed all his own children, in order to leave his crown to the son of his brother Eumenus. It was Solon, the most celebrated of the sages of Greece, that gave parents permission by law to kill their children."—Populousness of Ancient Nations.

Mr. Campbell sums up this testimony as follows: "Rome had one hundred and seventeen opinions about the summum bonum in its Augustan age: the Grecian States had almost as many gods as soldiers, and a wit once said, 'It is more easy to find a god than a man at Athens.' But not only did the multiplication of gods and goddesses, exhibit the fooleries of the readers of the volume of nature, but the infamous character they gave their gods, and the crimes they laid to their charge. Their gods were monsters of cruelty, lewdness, and profligacy. The morality learned from this volume was as various and as imperfect as its theology. Human sacrifices were offered upon their altars: their temples were places of prostitution; fornication and drunkenness formed the religious worship of Venus and Bacchus. Plutarch, in some particular instances, recommended as a virtue that which, in many places, was a common usage; viz., to expose infants to death by cold and hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. The Grecian sages gave parents permission to kill their children—and suicide was recommended as a virtue. So teaches the volume of nature."—Debate with Owen, p. 63.

Reflect on the state of morality when such was the prevailing inhumanity of parents. Public sentiment regarded this as innocent. Philosophers supported it by argument. Plato and Aristotle thought that it should be encouraged by the magistrates; and so it was, insomuch that the blood of infants stained the Roman empire from one end to the other.

M'Ilvaine says, "Such was the power of a father by the Roman law, that his adult children might be sent to the mines, sold into slavery, or destroyed at his will. His daughter could be compelled, at his discretion, to forsake a husband whom he himself had approved, while his wife could be dismissed at pleasure, and for certain crimes, some of them of a very trivial nature, she might be put to death. The authority of a father was that of a despot; the subjection of his family was that of slaves."—Evidences, pp. 371, 372.

One item more and we are done with Paul's language. He states that they were given up to "vile affections," "covetous," &c.

They were not only covetous, but actually departed from all decency. We forbear naming the low crimes which were sanctioned by the Grecian and Roman laws. A certain historian, in speaking of the youth of Cicero's time, says, "Luxury, avarice and pride enslaved them; they wantoned in rapine and prodigality; undervalued their own, and coveted what belonged to others; trampled on modesty, friendship, and continence; confounded things divine and human, and threw off all manner of consideration and restraint." "Men and women laid aside all regard to chastity."—Sallust.

Many more historical facts might be given to show that those who were destitute of the Bible were also destitute of morality; but as this chapter has already been extended longer than it was intended, I will not pursue this chain of evidence further.

Mr. Patterson sums up the evidence on this point in the following language:

"The precepts of even the wisest men, and the laws of the best regulated states, commanded or approved of vice. In Babylon prostitution was compulsory on every female. The Carthaginian law required human sacrifices. When Agarthocles besieged Carthage, two hundred children of the most noble families were murdered by the command of the senate, and three hundred citizens voluntarily sacrificed themselves to Saturn. The laws of Sparta required theft, and the murder of unhealthy children. Those of ancient Rome allowed parents the power of killing their children if they pleased. At Athens, the capital of heathen literature and philosophy, it was enacted 'that infants which appeared to be maimed should be either killed or exposed.'"—Fables of Infidelity, p. 75.

Reader, I only boast of the plainness of the subject when I say that the necessity for a revelation from God has been proved. Now let me ask, What boon, what honor, what reward have our opponents to offer to those who embrace their denials of the need of a revelation? When infidels would turn us away from the Bible, to what would they convert us? And when they get us converted, what reward do they offer us? What hope do they present? Echo responds, What? Infidels must answer, None! No reward, no hope, no heaven, no immortality, no prospect before us except that of an eternal sleep.

Campbell says of infidels, "They promise to him that disbelieves the founder of the Christian religion; to him that neglects and disdains the salvation of the gospel; to him who tramples under foot the blood of the new institution, and insults the Spirit of favor; to him who traduces Moses, Daniel, and Job; to him who vilifies Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and John; to him who devotes his soul to the lusts of the flesh; who disdains heaven; who defies his appetite; who degrades himself to a mere animal, and eulogizes philosophy; to this man they promise eternal sleep, an everlasting death. This is the faith, the hope, the joy for which they labor with so much zeal, and care, and pain."—Debate with Owen, p. 17.

Reader, may you and I be found "contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints."

What Is Your Life?

"For what is your life?" James iv., 14.

LIFE is but a vapor, soon gone. It is but a tale, soon told. It is like the swift ship, it soon sails by. And yet how much depends on life, on one life! In life we sow; after death we reap. In life we plant; after death we gather the fruits. Now, if ever, our hearts must be changed. Now, if ever, our sins must be pardoned. Now, if ever, our natures must be sanctified and made meet for heaven. During life, mercy reigns. During life, the gospel invites us to come to Jesus and be saved. During life, God waits to be gracious, and is willing to show mercy unto us. But, as life is so brief and so uncertain, and as eternity is so solemn, and may be so near, it becomes us to seize the present moment, and at once make our calling and election sure. If on any point we should seek certainty, and be determined never to rest satisfied without it, it should be on this—the salvation of the soul. We ought not to eat with pleasure, or sleep with comfort, except we know that we are saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation. If the thread of life should suddenly break, if the lamp of life should be unexpectedly extinguished, and if our souls are not saved, how fearful would be the consequences! Let us then make sure work for eternity, and give all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Certainty may be obtained. Pardon may be enjoyed. The witness of the Spirit may be acquired. You may be sealed unto the day of redemption. Then trifle not, delay not, but at once seek, and seek until you obtain, the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

"Man cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." Job xiv, 2.

Religion and True Happiness

There is no religion in making yourself miserable; God loves to make poor sinners happy: in the Old Testament, he bids you delight yourself in the Lord, and promises you the desires of your heart. In the New, he says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway."

SOBRIETY IN PREACHERS.

By Editor

THE article from Bro. Cornell in last week's Review, entitled, Preachers Should be Sober, is excellent. The texts quoted, the extracts, and the facts stated, are all to the point. Such articles should have a strong influence upon our preachers. We design to profit by it. May God help.

There is a strong temptation before the mirthful preacher to indulge in that clownish style of preaching which will produce a smile in his audience. The taste of the more vain and chaffy portion of the present generation calls for such preaching. And this taste is created by the popular style of the public speaking of the day. Political orators love to be cheered, therefore aim at fun. At Rochester, N. Y., flaming handbills were out, stating that the "Rev. Henry Ward Beecher would speak at Corinthian Hall," on some moral subject, on a certain evening. We attended with the expectation of hearing a rich, dignified lecture, delivered with that gravity becoming a minister of Jesus. The speaker eloquently said many good things; but the principal labor of his giant mind seemed to be to produce laughter by his clownish wit, by which he kept three thousand people cheering, stamping, and laughing, much of the time for more than an hour. Such men form the relish for clownish speaking, and the majority are not pleased with a grave, common sense style. Smaller men seek to please the people, and are sometimes strongly tempted to be smart also, and make themselves appear superlatively silly in trying to ape their superiors in point of fun.

There is such a thing as a fitness in things. On a funeral occasion we expect to hear a funeral hymn, and not a thanksgiving anthem. We expect the political speaker will indulge in wit, and call out laughter and cheering. But such things can not be fitting to the solemn position and duties of the minister of Jesus. Take the prophets for an example. Where is the record that they indulged in clownish wit? When did Christ and his first ministers excite laughter in their audiences? Never, never. The gospel, in point of dignity and purity of sound words, is as much above the reckless waggerty of those ministers who would extort a silly grin from those whose heads are softer than their hearts, as the heavens are above the earth.

But teachers of the third message above all should be solemn, and sound in speech. Read their message in Rev. xiv, 9-12, the most dreadful and awfully solemn that can be found in the book of God. It is the closing message, and brings us to the day of wrath and the revelation of Christ from heaven. This message is to ripen the harvest of the earth. The destinies of men hang upon the decisions they make in regard to it, and the decision of many depends upon the manner in which the message is presented. The messenger stands between the living and the dead. He is mouth for God, the ambassador for Christ. He beseeches the people in Christ's stead. O, his awfully solemn and responsible position! He is to watch for souls as one that must give account. What an account the jesting, trifling minister will have to give. Wherein he fails to have his words and deportment in harmony with his solemn message, and his responsible position and work, so far he mars the holy work of God. Does the messenger indulge in odd and jesting expressions in the sacred desk, or in the social circle? his followers will catch such a spirit sooner than any other. And those who have not so much self-command as their leader, will excel him in mixing foolish waggerty with their religion. You may see such persons greet each other as fellow-travelers to the kingdom; but their coarse, rough manners, and their odd, clownish language, more resemble the greetings of horse-jockeys or hardy sailors, than the greetings of the meek followers of the Man of sorrows. Such men, including their minister, who tolerate such a spirit, need first to be civilized, then christianized, before they can understand the spirit and the duties of the present time. Such persons, and such ministers, are a living curse to the cause of God. They are Satan's choicest agents to disgust the unbelieving, and wound and discourage true believers. God's people should not give the least countenance to men who have so little of Jesus and the spirit of the truth in them as to indulge in trifling and jesting while preaching; no, not so much as to remain in the congregation.

We admit that in debates and reviews a successful contrast of truth and error will sometimes produce a smile. All good men will, however, be guarded here. But it is this reaching out, and going out of the way to say something witty, or falling into a waggish style of cheap, flat drollery, which is a high crime in the sight of heaven, and a disgust to all good and sensible men. A witty clown will be respected as such by those who like that kind of men; but let him keep out of the pulpit till he is converted, and God answers somebody's prayers in giving him a sound mind.

NORTHERN TOUR.

WHEN we gave our appointments for Northern Michigan we expected to enjoy good sleighing. But the morning we were to leave for a trip of fifty-three miles that day by stage, the driver exchanged runners for wheels, and drove up to our door with an old mud wagon. The road was very rough, and we were seven hours getting twenty-seven miles. Here we met Bro. Gerould with a wagon to take us twenty-six miles more that night. After resting fifteen minutes we got aboard; but we were so loaded down with our heavy trunks that Bro. Gerould decided to go a-foot. We had no time to stop and rest, or get meals, so drove on, refreshing as well as possible upon dried beef and bread. We were exceedingly tired as night set in; but how could we complain while Bro. G. was walking or running by our side, or occasionally springing upon the trunks to ride down hill. In this way we pursued our journey till 10 o'clock at night, when we reached the hospitable home of Bro. and sister G.. We had been out fourteen hours without resting, and probably Bro. G. had run eight or ten miles of the last twenty-six. It was a question who was most to be pitted, we who had suffered the unaccustomed shaking in the old stage, and had finished out the fifty-three miles in the wagon, or Bro. G. on foot, or the good horse who in tugging his heavy load fell twice in ascending icy hills.

The next morning, however, all could move about, and seemed quite comfortable, excepting Mrs. W.

The meeting was held Sabbath and first-day, Dec. 7 and 8. We gave two discourses each day. On Sabbath the discourses were practical and close, such as were needed to open the eyes of the self-deceived, and clear away tobacco, tea, coffee, &c. On first-day we spoke twice to a crowded house, and never had better attention. Mrs. W. was able to attend only once each day, and in much feebleness, but with good effect, gave her testimony.

The brethren in Caledonia and Gaines have been much scattered, yet have held on to the truth. And amidst the confusion of the last six months, three have taken hold of the Sabbath. They had a little premature organizing, which had made the condition of things still worse. The scattered ones had all held on to the present truth under most discouraging circumstances, showing their honest desire to be right, and the care the Lord had for them. They needed instruction, patient, yet faithful. Tuesday evening we appointed a meeting for all the Sabbath-keepers in that region, and although it was cloudy and dark, and extremely muddy, there was a general attendance, even from seven miles distant. We tried to instruct the brethren for about forty minutes; then Mrs. W. addressed them affectionately, pointedly, and in great power, for about the same length of time. Then about twenty-five arose, one after another, and spoke in a spirit of confession. It was one of the most powerful meetings we have attended for several years. It held till 10 o'clock. We were then about an hour and a half passing through the mud three miles to our stopping-place, where we got to rest about midnight. Next morning we went to Grand Rapids, twelve miles, from thence by cars and wagon we reached this place about 8 o'clock last evening. To-day we are sharing the hospitalities and the good society of Bro. McPherson and family, and feel refreshed to enter upon our meetings in this place.

This short sketch of our Northern tour thus far will give some idea of our sorrows and joys, hardships and blessings. God lives and reigns, brethren, let us go forward and trust in him, and if we wear out before the war is over, he will raise up others to fight the battles through.

Wright, Ottawa Co., Mich., Dec. 12, 1861.

Continue reading: FAITHFULNESS IN MEETING