Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 45. (11/25/1886)

Signs of the Times

Nov 25, 1886

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1886

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

The Sin of Covetousness.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Luke 16:9-12.

THE parable of the unjust steward was given to teach us a lesson in regard to our duty in temporal things. Every man is a steward of God. To each the Master has intrusted his means, and he says, “Occupy till I come.” A time is coming when he will require his own with usury. He will say to each of his stewards, “Give an account of thy stewardship.” But men often claim their means as their own. They seem to have no sense of the fact that the property they are using belongs to God, and that they must give him an account for the use they make of it.

Said the Saviour: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” By using our means to the glory of God here, we lay up a treasure in Heaven; and when earthly possessions are all gone, the faithful steward has Jesus, and angels for his friends, to receive him home to everlasting habitations.

“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” He that is faithful in his earthly possessions, which are least, making a judicious use of the means which God has intrusted to his care, will be faithful in every other respect. Every investment made in the cause of God will increase his love for it. He will not be the poorer in this world, and he will be “laying up in store” for himself “a good foundation against the time to come,” that he “may lay hold on eternal life.”

“He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” If he will not give of his means to support the warfare against the moral darkness that is flooding the world, he will be unfaithful in the things of God in every respect. He keeps his means from doing good in the cause of God, and often that which is committed to his trust is taken from him.

“If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” The Christian church, as a general rule, are disowning the claims of God upon them to give alms of the things which they possess; and the work of God can never advance as it should until the followers of Christ realize their duty in this respect. If they prove unfaithful in the management of their temporal affairs, God will never give them the true riches, the immortal inheritance.

“If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Jesus has purchased redemption for us. It is ours; but we are placed here on probation to see if we will prove worthy of eternal life. Our heavenly Father tests us by trusting us with earthly possessions. If we use these freely to advance his cause and to benefit our fellow-men, we shall prove good stewards, and shall gain the approbation of our Lord. But we “cannot serve God and mammon;” for “if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.”

The idea of stewardship should have a practical bearing upon all the people of God. The parable of the talents has not been fully understood, or it would bar out covetousness, which God calls idolatry. The talents do not represent merely the ability to preach and to instruct from the word of God. The parable also applies to the temporal means which God has intrusted to his people. Those who received the five and the two talents traded, and doubled that which was committed to their trust. The servant who received the one talent, went and hid it in the earth; and that is what many of God’s professed people are doing now. They claim that they have a right to do what they please with their possessions, and souls are not saved through the use they make of their Lord’s money. Practical benevolence would give spiritual life to thousands of nominal professors of religion who now mourn over their darkness. It would transform them from selfish, covetous worshipers of mammon, to earnest, faithful co-workers with Christ in the salvation of sinners.

The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. Jesus left the royal courts of Heaven, and became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. All who share the salvation purchased for them at such an infinite sacrifice by the Son of God, will follow the example of the True Pattern. Christ is the chief corner-stone, and we must build upon this foundation. Each must have a spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice.

Says Christ: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The very vital principle, the sap which flows through the vine nourishes the branches, that they may flourish and bear fruit. The life of Christ upon earth was unselfish; it was marked with humiliation and sacrifice. Is the servant greater than his Lord? Shall the world’s Redeemer practice self-denial and sacrifice on our account, and the members of Christ’s body practice self-indulgence?—No; self-denial is an essential principle of discipleship.

The people of God should act from principle. They should always have a suitable object in view, and should give, not to be seen of men, and to be praised for their liberality, but to glorify God and help their fellow-men. Sometimes the motive in giving is selfish. There are persons who make large donations to public enterprises or charities, while a poor brother may be suffering close by them, and they do nothing to relieve him. Little acts of kindness performed in secret for this needy brother would bind their hearts together, and would be noticed and rewarded in Heaven; for the true spirit of sacrifice is acceptable to God. “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”

When Jesus was upon earth, he rebuked those who gave to be seen of men. He said to his disciples: “When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets; that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward!” They received praise of men, and this was all the reward they would ever have. Their alms giving was done in a very public manner, and their generosity was proclaimed before the people. In this way they often gave large sums which had been extorted from the needy by oppressing the hireling in his wages and grinding the face of the poor. The case of the Pharisees is not unlike that of many at the present time, who suppose themselves in a state of spiritual prosperity, and flatter themselves that they are in favor with God, when he despises their selfishness.

The selfish, covetous heart will be tested. Every motive is known to God, and he suffers circumstances to arise that will develop character, and show them themselves. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” says the Saviour. The good deeds and generous works of the children of God are the most effectual preaching that the unbeliever has. He thinks that the Christian must have strong motives to lead him to deny self, and use his possessions for the good of others.

The principle of worldlings is to get all they can of the perishable things of this life. With them selfish love of gain is the ruling principle, and they cannot understand disinterested benevolence. There are thousands who are passing their lives in indulgence, and whose hearts are filled with repining. They are the victims of selfishness and discontent. Unhappiness is stamped upon their countenances, and behind them is a desert, because their lives are not

fruitful in good works. For the purest joy is not found in riches, nor where covetousness is always craving, but where contentment reigns, and where self-sacrificing love is the ruling principle.

The principle of the cross of Christ places all who believe under heavy obligations to deny self, to impart light to others, and to give of their means to extend the light. In proportion as the love of Christ fills our hearts and controls our lives, covetousness, selfishness, and love of ease, will be overcome, and it will be our pleasure to do the will of Him whose servants we claim to be. And our happiness will be proportionate to our unselfish works, prompted by divine love; for in the plan of salvation God has appointed the law of action and reaction, making the work of beneficence, in all its branches, twice blessed.

Basel, Switzerland.

PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING.

God never would send you the darkness If he felt you could bear the light; But you would not cling to his guiding hand If the way were always bright. And you would not care to walk by faith Could you always walk by sight.

'Tis true he has many an anguish For your sorrowful heart to bear, And many a cruel thorn-crown For your tired head to wear. He knows how few would reach Heaven at all If pain did not guide them there.

So he sends you the blinding darkness, And the furnace of seven-fold heat; 'Tis the only way, believe me, To keep you close to his feet, For 'tis always so easy to wander When our lives are glad and sweet.

Then nestle your hand in your Father's, And sing, if you can, as you go; Your song may cheer some one behind you Whose courage is sinking low. And well, if your lips do quiver, God will love you better so. —Sel.

Sanctification.—No. 3.

By A. S. Hutchins

THE second step in the work of sanctification, as prayed for by the apostle, is the sanctification of the soul. And we think we stand upon scriptural ground in the view that by the soul he means simply the life.

In defense of this position, we note the fact that the terms soul and life are used interchangeably in Matt. 10:28 and Luke 12:4. And furthermore, the original word from which these are translated is forty times rendered life in the New Testament.

It is not the profession, not the praying, not the talk, but the life by which men are judged. "For every tree is known by his own fruit."

"His preaching much, but more his practice, wrought A living sermon of the truths he taught."

The Christian life has its origin in the new birth. John 3:3-8. In its origin, its growth, its development, and maturity, God, and his Son, and the Holy Spirit have a part to act. These must mould the life, giving to it tone and vigor, rounding it out in glorious perfection, while the submissive voice of the Christian will be, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth;" otherwise the Master is not honored nor the soul saved.

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17. He is a new creature in that he has a new work to do, as well as coming into possession of new joys and a new hope; "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

To put off the old man, or to overcome inclinations and tendencies to sin, to put on the new man, or build up character, and to labor for the salvation of the souls of our fellow-men, is the great, the daily, work of the Christian.

Men will be judged according to their works, and will be rewarded according to their works. Rev. 20:12; 22:12. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Matt. 16:27.

The test of moral character, the rule of judgment, scrutinizing and impartial, will be the law of God, that embodiment of divine precepts touching our duty to God and man; proclaimed by God himself from the heights of the burning, quaking Sinai, and written with his finger upon tables of stone.

James introduces this law in his epistle, and exhorts: "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." Jas. 2:12. See also Eccl. 12:13, 14.

The formation and development of character to pass the solemn test of the Judgment, is the Christian's life-work. Working in harmony with the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and the law of God, his pathway brightens, his peace may be as a river, and his righteousness as the waves of the sea.

But as the artist, who, through untiring perseverance, has brought out in his magnificent workmanship, the fine, delicate, living expressions of the original, may, with a careless stroke of his brush, deface and ruin in a moment all the artistic beauty, which otherwise would have been the admiration of thousands, so the man of God may, while off from his watch, in his unguarded moments, by yielding to the solicitations of Satan, sacrifice his integrity, fall from his high, honorable, and holy standing, mantling his name and honor with shame and ignominy. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

The apostle not only saw the danger of others in this direction, but he saw his own, and here is where many fail. Says he, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Cor. 9:26, 27.

The third and concluding step in sanctification is the sanctification of the body. This, with its appetites, its propensities, and powers, must be kept under, brought in subjection, by the grace of God and a sanctified judgment, or there is danger ahead. Paul expresses no fear that his stripes, his being beaten with rods, being stoned, his perils by land or sea, among robbers, his own countrymen, or false brethren; or his hunger or thirst, or chains and imprisonments, would turn him from God, and he become a "castaway," but he knew if left to be controlled by the carnal propensities of the body he would reach the vortex of ruin, taking with him all his accumulated honor and dignity.

The same apostle in writing to his brethren, says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Rom. 6:12, 13.

And again, "As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." The physical powers given us by our Creator should be consecrated to him and devoted to his service as much as the mental powers. "For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."

To do this the divine command must be respected: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." A living sacrifice is not alive to-day and dead to-morrow. Such could not be holy and acceptable. The offering must be continued and devoted to Him whose we are.

In the sanctification of the body, physical purity must be recognized and observed. "Be clean, and change your garments," would be a golden text to be considered by such professed Christians as care but little for cleanliness and their personal appearance.

Again, the principles of Christian temperance and health reform are more than hinted at in the following injunction: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31. Here we are met in every-day life, met where multitudes fall and fail to overcome. Vitiated tastes, perverted and over-indulged appetites, overfed stomachs, weaken both the physical and mental powers, and leave the subject an easy prey for the enemy.

Take the person stupefied by tobacco, or thrown from the balance of nervous power by the use of tea and coffee, or strong drink, and how, oh, how does such an one "do all to the glory of God"? Take another who eats to surfeiting, who loads his system with unhealthful food and condiments, does he eat to the glory of God? Many people know but little of the rich, delicate taste there is to food, it is so filled with seasoning and condiments, all of which tend to irritate and unnecessarily tax the system. If men would learn "to eat to live," and not "live to eat," would aim to promote a sound mind in a sound body, God, by his Spirit, would dwell there as his temple, and the work of sanctification would be much more marked, and He who has said, "The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself," would be much more glorified.

May the writer and reader awake and put on strength, and be satisfied with nothing short of sanctification of the "whole spirit and soul and body."

"Let all my works in thee be wrought, And filled with thee be all my thought." A. S. HUTCHINS.

Christians and Christianity.

WE must distinguish Christian thoughts from the thoughts of Christians, and Christian deeds from the deeds of Christians; in short, we must discriminate between Christianity and Christians, because Christians are human and Christianity is divine. It is, in fact, because of this very distinction that Christianity often suffers in the minds of those who note the unworthiness of Christians. Every fall of a Christian is an indication of the elevation of Christianity; and every indication of that elevation is a reason for our endeavor to reach it. To say that a man does not practice what he preaches, is no necessary condemnation of his preaching, however much it condemns his practice.

A drunkard has the right to preach temperance from the standpoint of intemperance. A slave to tobacco is not necessarily insincere because he advises abstinence from his masterful habit. "I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching," says Portia; but while that may reflect on the twenty, it is no reflection on the teaching. And so, when a Christian is derelict, that dereliction is not a fruit of his Christianity, but of his want of it. The defection of Christians cannot legitimately condemn the church and Christianity; because Christianity and the church first condemned the defection. Yet when a church member or a minister turns out to be a defaulter, a blasphemer, an adulterer, the world often points its finger of scorn at the Christian profession; as if the culprit had learned the principles of deception from the pulpit, or had been instructed in defilement from the Sabbath-school chair or desk.

A shallower argument against the Christian profession than this it would be difficult to conceive. It is really the blaming of Christianity for another instance of the neglect of Christianity; it is charging a high ideal with the consequences of a low practice; it is criminating virtue because of the existence of vice. It is reproaching truth with the fact of falsehood. It is as if we were to reflect upon Jesus by pointing at Judas. The simple question at issue is, is the Christian standard high or low, good or evil? If it be high, live for it—no matter who falls; if it be good, practice it—no matter who falls. If it be in itself low and evil, say so squarely.—Sunday School Times.

Liberty Requires Self-Government

By Butler

Liberty, in the very nature of it, absolutely requires, and even supposes, that people be able to govern themselves in those respects in which they are free; otherwise their wickedness will be in proportion to their liberty, and this greatest of blessings will become a curse.

Confirming the Word.

By S. S. Times

How we all used to laugh over the story of the credulous old woman who doubted some of the more truthful stories of her returned sailor boy, but who was prompt to believe him when he told of the raising of a wheel of Pharaoh's chariot with his ship's anchor out of the Red Sea! It was such an obvious impossibility that one of those chariot wheels could have been preserved, even below the bottom of the sea, during thirty centuries and more, that the silliest man could join in the sneer of the accomplished scientist over the weak-minded woman's credulity.

Yet here stands the wide world in admiring interest, while the very bodies of the father and the grandfather of that Pharaoh whose host pursued Moses and the Hebrew multitude down into the bared bed of the Red Sea, are unrolled from the garments of the grave; and as men look into those faces, which struck terror to the hearts of the ancestors of Moses and Aaron, none question the identity of the recovered bodies without subjecting themselves to such sneers as were given to that old woman's reverent credulity.

No sooner had the unrolled mummy of Rameses II., the chief oppressor of the Hebrews, been put on exhibition in the museum at Boolaq, than the mummy of his father, Setee I., was also exposed to view there. Setee I. was probably the father of the princess who rescued the infant Moses from the Nile. He was a mighty conqueror in his day. He was also a predecessor of M. de Lesseps in opening the Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; and he began again the building of the Great Wall in front of that canal, which had fallen into ruins during the sway of the Shepherd kings.

No chariot wheels are found buried with these kings; but delicate linen cloths which wrapped their bodies are well preserved; and with some of the mummies of an approximate date there are even found intact the funeral garlands—the "flowers of the field" which are proverbially so frail and perishable. After all, was the old woman's belief so far inferior to that of the scientists? There are strange discoveries now making in the Bible lands; and every discovery is only an added confirmation of the historical accuracy of the Book of books.—S. S. Times.

The Necessaries of Life.

By Frank Hope

MR. WM. BOOTH, of the Salvation Army, has issued a circular calling for "a week of self-denial," as a means of raising funds to carry on the work of the Army. "To this appeal," he says, "there seems likely to be a generous response. All over the land our people are promising to give up, not luxuries merely, for they have few to sacrifice, but necessaries, such as animal food, tea, sugar, and the like." He asks others to unite with him in "this self-denying plan."

Taking these as the necessaries of life, we would like to ask what are the luxuries? The necessaries are "tea, sugar, and the like," how much does this include? Coffee, tobacco, and opium are similar to tea, where are we to draw the line?

But is tea necessary to life? Dr. A. E. Flint, of New York, speaking, in his treatise on the "Heart and Kidneys," of the use of tea and coffee, says:—

"The use of these common articles of consumption, however, is attended with dangers which, while very generally suspected, are not perfectly realized, except by the comparative few who have made them a study. . . . In fact, many obscure cases of kidney disease have been at last found to be dependent upon the use of tea and coffee without any secondary exciting cause. Their stimulating effect upon the heart, by causing it to work more vigorously, gives rise to hypertrophy, which is followed by inflammation of distant organs and by serious nervous disturbances."

Any article that is absolutely injurious to the human system can hardly be called a "necessary."

That animal food is not necessary to sustain life has been practically demonstrated over and over again. There are thousands of people to-day who subsist on a purely vegetable diet. The Hindoo and the Chinese coolie do their hard day's work on a diet that consists of nothing more than pure rice; the Scotch Hercules is to a great extent raised on oatmeal, and the hardy Roman soldiers fared on little more than coarse rye bread. With these facts in view, animal food cannot be consistently called a necessary.

In the light of these facts the Salvation Army's self-denying fast amounts to this, that the most devoted have for a week abstained from indulging in a few injurious luxuries; but what sort of a fast those had who did not go to this extreme, it is impossible to imagine.

FRANK HOPE.

THY SERVANT, LORD!

By Thomas H. Gill

Oh, not to fill the mouth of fame My longing soul is stirred; Oh, give me a diviner name! Call me thy servant, Lord!

Sweet title that delighteth me, Rank earnestly implored; Oh, what can reach the dignity Of thy true servants, Lord!

In life, in death, on earth, in Heaven, No other name for me! The same sweet style and title given Through all eternity. —Thomas H. Gill.

Literary Fops.

By T. De Witt Talmage

OH, it makes me sick to see these literary fops going along with a copy of Darwin under one arm, a case of transfixed grasshoppers and butterflies under the other arm, telling about the "survival of the fittest," and Huxley's protoplasm, and the nebular hypothesis!

The fact is that some naturalists, just as soon as they find out the difference between the feelers of a wasp and the horns of a beetle, begin to patronize the Almighty; while Agassiz, glorious Agassiz, who never made any pretension of being a Christian, puts both his feet on the doctrine of evolution and says: "I see that many of the naturalists of our day are adopting facts which do not bear observation or have not passed under observation." These men warring with each other—Darwin warring against Lamark, Wallace warring against Cope, even Herschel denouncing Ferguson—they do not agree about anything. They do not agree on embryology, do not agree on the gradation of the species.

What do they agree on? Herschel writes a whole chapter on the errors of astronomy. La Place declares that the moon was not put in the right place. He says if it had been put four times farther from the earth than it is now, there would be more harmony in the universe; but Lionville comes up just in time to prove that the moon was put in the right place. How many colors woven into the light? Seven, says Isaac Newton. Three, says David Brewster. How high is the aurora borealis? Two and a half miles, says Lias. How far is the sun from the earth? Seventy-six million miles, says Lacalle. Eighty-two million miles, says Humboldt. Ninety million miles, says Henderson. One hundred and four million miles, says Mayer. Only a little difference of twenty-eight million miles! All split up among themselves, not agreeing on anything.—T. De Witt Talmage.

Flee from Babylon.

IT is cheap and easy for people to walk through a museum of ancient armor and rusty weapons, and make jokes concerning the outworn artillery of their forefathers. But to those forefathers, those same weapons were the concomitants of bloody and tremendous struggles, in which trifling and wit were put far away. So it is easy for Tennyson, in a poem, to make fun of a preacher for "loud-mouthed anti-Babylonianisms," i. e., for thundering against the church of Rome. But if we turn to a greater poet than Lord Tennyson, and one who lived in a more solemn and more earnest age than this, we may find that he ends a magnificent sonnet, perhaps the most magnificent, by an anti-Babylonianism. That sonnet begins with a cry as if it were of the souls beneath the altar. Listen to John Milton:—

"Avenge, O God, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold." Yes, he begins it in that tone, and he ends it by a devout wish that the children "Early may fly the Babylonian woe."

And there was another man, who, by the grace of God, had enough substance in him to carve a hundred modern poets out of—Martin Luther by name; he exhorts us thus: "Whosoever then hath any fear of God, or love unto Christ and his true religion, let him fly quickly out of this Babylon, and let him tremble at the very name of the Papacy. For the impiety and abomination thereof is so horrible that no man is able to express it with words, neither can it be otherwise seen than with spiritual eyes only."—Watchman.

Influence.

By Presbyterian Observer

INFLUENCE is a talent that must not be wrapped up in a napkin. It is a power that must be felt. Neither should it be depreciated. Many may think themselves of but little account in the social scale and in the controlling activities of life. At best, they regard themselves as only negative characters. They cannot do great things like others. They cannot see any good that they are doing. One, however, knows not of how much use he is. He may be doing his greatest work, when, in his own estimation, he is seemingly doing the least. Words spoken under certain circumstances carry a weight that affects character and conduct, and bear fruit long after the speaker has gone to his grave. Deeds live; and the humblest services are often the most lasting. The father perpetuates himself in the son. A mother's impress upon her child is ineradicable. A sister's smile and kindness go to a brother's heart and restrain him from many a snare. A son's sympathy, affection, and assistance cheer and animate many a fond parent. "No one liveth unto himself, or dieth unto himself." We are all so bound together in society—so variously and intimately related, that each acts upon the other for good or for evil. Mysterious, all-permeating and controlling is influence! Happy are all who use it right and for human welfare!—Presbyterian Observer.

Christ Nearer Than You Think

By Christian Union

You may be nearer to Christ than you think. Those men who went stumbling along the road to Emmaus, weeping and mourning that their Christ was gone, poured into his very ear the tale of their bereavement. They told him of their trouble—that they had lost Christ; and there he was talking with them. In the midst of their deep grief there was their victory, and they did not know it. There is many a man in embarrassment, overwhelmed with care, who does not know what to do. It is the pressure of God's hand upon him for the purpose of betterment. It is God present in affairs; Christ near to him for the sake of winning him to himself.

The Ten Kingdoms in the Dark Ages.

(Continued.)

THE LOMBARDS.

IN A. D. 493, the Herulian kingdom of Italy was uprooted, and replaced by the kingdom of the Ostrogoths; in A. D. 533, September, to 534, the kingdom of the Vandals in Africa was annihilated, by the army of Justinian under Belisarius; and in A. D. 538, the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy was destroyed, also by Belisarius and the army of Justinian. But as these events are directly connected with the establishment of the Papacy, we reserve the history of them until we come to that of the Papacy, in Dan. 7: 24, 25.

We left the Lombards in possession of Noricum and Pannonia. "But the spirit of rapine soon tempted them beyond these ample limits; they wandered along the coast of the Hadriatic as far as Dyrrachium, and presumed, with familiar rudeness, to enter the towns and houses of their Roman allies, and to seize the captives who had escaped from their audacious hands. These acts of hostility, the sallies, as it might be pretended, of some loose adventurers, were disowned by the nation, and excused by the emperor [Justinian]; but the arms of the Lombards were more seriously engaged by a contest of thirty years [A. D. 536-566], which was terminated only by the extirpation of the Gepidæ."—Dec. and Fall, chap. 42, par. 2.

"The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. . . But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror of the Gepidæ turned his eye [A. D. 567] from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years had not elapsed since his subjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy; the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their memory; the report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin; and it is affirmed that he spoke to their senses by producing at the royal feast, the fairest and most exquisite fruits that grew spontaneously in the garden of the world.

"No sooner had he erected his standard, than the native strength of the Lombards was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia [the Avars]. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians; and the names of the Gepidæ, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians, may be distinctly traced in the provinces of Italy. Of the Saxons, the old allies of the Lombards, 20,000 warriors, with their wives and children, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery contributed to his success; but the accession or the absence of their members was not sensibly felt in the magnitude of his host. . . . The Lombards and their confederates were united by their common attachment to a chief who excelled in all the virtues and vices of a savage hero; and the vigilance of Alboin provided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended the march; their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that if they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions."

"Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin neither expected nor encountered a Roman army in the field. He ascended the Julian Alps, and looked down with contempt and desire on the fruitful plains to which his victory [A. D. 568-570] communicated the perpetual appellation of LOMBARDY. A faithful chieftain and a select band were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern Friuli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombards respected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the Trevisans; their slow and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the palace and city of Verona; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, was invested by the powers of Alboin five months after his departure from Pannonia. Terror preceded his march; he found everywhere, or he left, a dreary solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without a trial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or rocks, or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some fragments of the wealth, and delayed the moment of their servitude. . . . Along the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabitants was supported by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the power of escape; but from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome, the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a siege, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards.

"The submission of the people invited the barbarian to assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and the helpless Exarch [of Ravenna] was confined to the office of announcing to the Emperor Justin, the rapid and irretrievable loss of his provinces and cities. One city, which had been diligently fortified by the Goths, resisted the arms of a new invader, and while Italy was subdued by the flying detachments of the Lombards, the royal camp was fixed above three years before the western gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same courage which obtains the esteem of a civilized enemy, provoked the fury of a savage, and the impatient besieger had bound himself by a tremendous oath, that age, and sex, and dignity should be confounded in a general massacre. The aid of famine at length enabled him to execute his bloody vow; but as Alboin entered the gate, his horse stumbled, fell, and could not be raised from the ground. One of his attendants was prompted by compassion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of the wrath of Heaven; the conqueror paused and relented; he sheathed his sword, and peacefully reposing himself in the palace of Theodoric, proclaimed to the trembling multitude that they should live and obey. Delighted with the situation of a city which was endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the purchase, the prince of the Lombards disdained the ancient glories of Milan; and Pavia, during some ages, was respected as the capital of the kingdom of Italy."

"The victorious Autharis [A. D. 584-590] asserted his claim to the dominion of Italy. At the foot of the Rhætian Alps, he subdued the resistance, and rifled the hidden treasures, of a sequestered island in the lake of Comum. At the extreme point of Calabria, he touched with his spear a column on the sea-shore of Rhegium, proclaiming that ancient landmark to stand the immovable boundary of his kingdom."

With the exception of the possessions of the Exarchate of Ravenna, and some cities on the coast, "the remainder of Italy was possessed by the Lombards; and from Pavia, the royal seat, their kingdom was extended to the east, the north, and the west, as far as the confines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austrasia and Burgundy. In the language of modern geography, it is now represented by the Terra Firma of the Venetian republic, Tyrol, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast of Genoa, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, the grand duchy of Tuscany, and a large portion of the ecclesiastical state from Perugia to the Adriatic. The dukes and at length the princes of Beneventum, survived the monarchy, and propagated the name of the Lombards. From Capua to Tarentum, they reigned near five hundred years over the greatest part of the present [1776] kingdom of Naples."—Id., chap. 45, par. 5, 7, 14, 15.

So widespread was the Lombard rule that Lombardy "was indeed for a time the name for Italy itself," and from that time to this the history of the Lombards is but the history of Italy, and Lombardy is still "the name of the finest province" of that country, which, itself, might almost be called the key of history.

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