Review and Herald, Vol. 11, No. 14.
SABBATH CONTROVERSY IN ALLEGAN, MICHPage 1
SABBATH CONTROVERSY IN ALLEGAN, MICH.
THE subject of these remarks is an article which appeared in the Allegan Record, of Jan. 25th, on the inquiry, "What day is holy?" While we contended openly for the truth in Allegan, no man objected, but when we were gone, many were found to expose the so-called heresy. And this professed Watchman is among the opponents to the plain word of the Lord which declares "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." We ever supposed it to be the duty of a Watchman to preach the Lord's word. Not one text of Scripture however, is found in Watchman's article to sustain his Sunday Sabbath. This article is a fair sample of the course pursued by these Sunday men. If they had a plain precept for Sunday how eagerly would they grasp and present it before us, and what a lasting relief would they find from all their toil in striving to build up a rival to God's holy Sabbath. But as it stands, the Lord says "Seventh day" while they say First. Their great labor is to get the fact before the minds of the people, that Sunday was observed almost back to the days of the apostles, and this they will prove by history. If tracing a thing almost to the apostles makes it apostolic, then the Catholics would put the Pope's Tiara on the head of St. Peter. "Watchman" introduces his article with the following remarks: MESSRS. EDITORS: I am aware that the subject of this communication is a little one side from the general objects of your paper. But as all our political institutions recognize the First as the Sabbath, and as the efforts of certain zealots would subvert this order of things, and produce a very unpleasant state of things in the community, I sincerely hope you will find it consistent to insert this article. Yours truly,
Allegan, Mich., Jan. 13, 1858. What Day is Holy
By Watchman
MESSRS. EDITORS: Will you allow space for a few words in answer to this question? Intrinsically holiness never belongs to time, as it does not to a place or house. Is the place where thou standest holy? It is so because a holy Being is present. Is a house holy? It is so merely because it is used for holy employment. The timbers in the most sacred temple or church are no more holy in themselves than those in a store or factory. In like manner, days and hours and minutes have no intrinsic holiness. They are holy only because given to holy thoughts and acts. The scripture law in spirit sets apart every seventh day for holy uses, and the other six for labor. But no hour is named when the seventh day of rest shall begin. But had it fixed upon an hour, as at sundown, then there would be no uniformity except in the same longitude. He who lives in Jerusalem will begin his Sabbath just as the sun disappears beneath the western horizon, and the citizen of London will wait two hours and twenty minutes for his sun to set, and the citizen of New York seven hours and forty minutes, and the citizen of San Francisco ten hours and twenty minutes, and the Christians of Honolulu thirteen hours. A moment's reflection shows the impossibility of keeping, the world over, the same identical hours for sacred time. Never was such a thing designed, and no time was ever pronounced holy in itself. Who then does not see that this vast ado about the hour or day when we shall begin to rest and engage in holy employments, is far from having any vital importance? Since now there is almost a universal agreement in all Christian lands, that we will begin at midnight by the time in our longitude, on a certain day and keep a Sabbath of twenty-four hours, who expects to turn back the dial one whole day? Will legislatures, courts, and all systems of government be persuaded that they have made a fatal mistake and leaped one day beyond the divine will? Will Christians who conscientiously observe the Lord's day be driven back into the yoke of Jewish rites? It is a hopeless undertaking. And it surely is no favor to any peaceable community to be disturbed and vexed by raising in the minds of the ill informed conscientious scruples on this subject. The observance of the day of our Saviour's resurrection as a Christian Sabbath, and calling it Lord's day, began with the inspired apostles of Christ. If all christendom is now under a great mistake, it is one made by the apostles under the teachings of their Lord; and who will not feel safe to follow in their footsteps? After the resurrection of Jesus, he met his disciples and said "peace be unto you" several times on the first day of the week, and never as we can learn on the seventh. And in all the New Testament history afterwards we see no reason to suppose that Christians kept any day holy except the first. The Jews of course continued to observe the seventh, and even some converts to Christianity from among Jews observed the seventh day as a festival. But the Lord's day was universally kept by Christians. Mosheim says in his history, "In the first century, all Christians were unanimous in setting apart the first day of the week on which the Saviour arose from the dead for the solemn celebration of public worship." Prof. Stuart says, "The zealots of the law wished the Jewish Sabbath to be observed as well as the Lord's day." But he adds, "The early Christians, one and all of them held the first day of the week to be sacred." The apostle John says, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day" and about six years after his death Ignatius wrote thus: "Let us (Christians) no longer more sabbatize," that is keep the seventh day like Jews, "but let us keep the Lord's day." No fact in history is better established than that the day of Christ's resurrection began to be kept sacred by his apostles, with him in their midst, and from that time to the present there has been a wonderful agreement on this subject among all men of learning and candor. I will only add in the language of Ignatius who must have lived in the times of the apostle John, "Let every one that loves Christ, keep holy the Lord's day, the queen of days, the resurrection day, the highest of all days." REPLY.
By John Norton Loughborough
In your paper of Jan. 25th, I notice an article with the above heading, in which the writer, who styles himself, "Watchman," contends for Sunday as a holy day. As I am the principal individual who has in a course of sixteen lectures "disturbed" and "vexed" the community on the Sabbath question, and thus called down the frown of this professed Watchman to that extent that he gives us the name of "zealots," it is proper that I should make some remarks. The first position taken in the article is "Intrinsically, holiness never belongs to time." "Days and hours and minutes have no intrinsic holiness. They are holy only because given to holy thoughts and acts." Again he says, "The scripture law, in spirit sets apart every seventh day for holy uses, and the other six for labor." Here is a frank admission of what was claimed in the lectures, and of what the Watchman is contending against in his article, namely, the Scriptures show that the seventh day is106set apart for holy uses. The fourth commandment, Ex. xx, 11, states that God hallowed the seventh day. Gen. ii, 2, 3, shows when it was done, and how: "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Sanctify: to set apart for a sacred use." Webster. From this we see that the seventh day was set apart for a holy use from creation. And in pleading the claims of the fourth commandment, instead of striving to drive the people "back into the yoke of Jewish rites," as Watchman claims, we are contending for an institution which had its origin nearly 2500 years before the Jewish rites as he calls them were known. Our friend says, "A moments reflection shows the impossibility of keeping, the world over, the same identical hours for sacred time." Who said we must? We have not: we claimed in one of our discourses that the individual here attempting to keep the same hours that constitute the seventh day at Jerusalem, must keep part of the sixth day and part of the seventh. But the Watchman clears away his own fog on this point. He says: "There is almost a universal agreement in all Christian lands, that we will begin at midnight by the time in our longitude, on a certain day and keep a Sabbath of twenty-four hours." This he afterwards calls the first day of the week. We contend for the seventh. "And if there was a first the earth around,
As sure as rates, the seventh can be found." As we have claimed, the fourth commandment enforces in plain terms the seventh day. Christ showed in his teachings [Matt. v, 18.] that "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle" of the law (of which the fourth commandment formed a part) should not pass. From this and other testimonies, we see that the teachings of Jesus were to the effect that the fourth commandment was still binding. We next notice the Watchman's proof for Sunday-keeping. "The observance of the day of our Saviour's resurrection as a Christian Sabbath, and calling it Lord's day, began with the inspired apostles of Christ." I deny it, in as plain terms as Watchman has stated it. There is no record in the New Testament that the disciples ever had a religious meeting in the day time of the first day of the week, after the day of Pentecost. We find an evening meeting at Troas [Acts xx, 7.] but allowing the Bible mode of computing time, "The evening and the morning were the first day," this meeting was the same as on our Saturday night; and on the next morning, Paul and his brethren started on foot and by ship on a long journey. The Watchman says: "After the resurrection of Jesus, he met with his disciples and said 'peace be unto you' several times on the first day of the week, and never, as we can learn, on the seventh." Is this the best evidence for the change of the Sabbath? No command; but the Watchman is basing it all on example. It cannot be shown that Christ said, "Peace be unto you" only once on the first day of the week, and then, according to Mark xvi, 14, "they sat at meat." And in the morning of the same day, according to Luke xxiv, they came to the sepulchre to anoint the body of Jesus, an act they would not perform the previous day; but "they rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke xxiii, 56. The second time Jesus said "peace be unto you," was "after eight days," which would bring it as late as the second or third day of the week. If saying to the disciples, "Peace be unto you," made the first day of the week holy, it would make the second or third day equally as holy. Watchman's argument on this point proves too much, and so proves nothing. His next proof is from history. If his quotations from history are all correct, we will show that historians are at variance among themselves, and there is not such "a wonderful agreement on this subject among all men of learning and candor as he may have supposed. Socrates, A. D. 412, Book v, chap. 22, says, "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this."
Athanasius, A. D. 340, says: "We assemble on Saturday, not that we are infected with Judaism, but only to worship Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." Neander, in his history of the Christian religion and Church, page 168, says: "Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday, very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath. The festival of Sunday like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect—far from them and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century, a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin." We now notice some of the Watchman's quotations from history. He quotes Mosheim to show that "all Christians, in the first century, set apart the first day of the week for public worship." This does not prove that they considered the first day of the week holy. Justin Martyr, A. D. 140, in his apology for Christians, says: "The Christians in the city and in the country assembled on the day called Sunday; and after certain religious devotions, all returned home to their labors." And Mosheim in his history of the fourth century, virtually admits the same. Vol. 1, pp. 304-5. He says that the first day, "In consequence of a peculiar law enacted by Constantine was observed with more solemnity than it had formerly been." Dr. Chambers says; "By Constantine's laws, made in 321, it was decreed that for the future the Sunday, should be kept a day of rest in the cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow their work."—Encyclopædia, Art. Sund. Lond. 1791. And Milman, in his Hist. Christianity, pp. 289, 325, says that law "enjoined the suspension of all public business and private labor except that of agriculture." If Constantine's law required a more strict observance of Sunday than it formerly had, we do not hesitate to say that it had not previously been kept as holy time. The Watchman next produces a garbled testimony from Ignatius. "Let us no longer keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner, but let us keep the Lord's day." But we will see if what the Watchman has left out will not greatly modify his construction of Ignatius. "Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner, in sloth and idleness; but let us keep it after a spiritual manner, not in bodily ease, but in the study of the law, and in the contemplation of the works of God." "And After we have kept the Sabbath, let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lord's day, festival!" This gives altogether a different idea from the Watchman's testimony about Ignatius. "Wm. Tyndale, writing in the sixteenth century said, the Sabbath was changed by men. Dr. Henry acknowledges that the first day of the week is not called the Sabbath in the Bible. Bishop Cranmer (born 1489) said, they observed the Sunday according to the judgment and will of the magistrates. Melancthon, the friend of Martin Luther, confessed, that the Sunday-keeping was not founded on any apostolic law, but rested solely on tradition." "The American Presbyterian Board of Publication in Tract 118, states that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath did not cease till it was abolished, after the empire became Christian, i. e., till the Bishop of Rome became omnipotent. Therefore, the Waldenses who never submitted to the authority of the Pope, according to the testimony of Mosheim, [Vol. 1, p. 332,] of Robinson in the history of Baptism, and Jones in his Church History, they observed the Hebrew Sabbath as late even as Charles XII of France, and long afterwards." Yours for truth. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Battle Creek, Feb, 5th, 1858. FOR EVERY ONE THAT ASKETH RECEIVETH.
Oh! ask not wealth;
The gaudy bauble glitters to deceive;
It hath a thorn to press thee when asleep;
It maketh wings and leaveth thee to weep;
Ask not what wealth can give. Oh! ask not fame;
The empty bubble breaks at every gale;
Its mighty shadow stalks in midnight gloom;
It kills its hero, and then haunts his tomb,
Where all its triumphs fail. Oh ask not love;
"The fond heart's idol" breaketh the fond heart;
Its smile is oft deceitful, and its power
Too oft is felt in sorrow's darkest hour;
Ask not his treacherous dart. Oh! ask not power;
Seek not a burden that must crush thee down.
Look at the thrones of tyrants in the dust;
Behold how frail the prop in which they trust;
Ask where their might has gone. Oh! ask not life;
"Not even life itself makes good the name,"
How oft its victim craves the boon of death,
When guilt or sorrow yearn to yield the breath;
Ask not the fitful flame. Ask for a broken heart;
A grief for all the ills thy hand hath done;
A pang for wasted life, for useless breath;
A hope that triumphs o'er the fear of death.
Ask, and the goal is won. Ask for a quiet mind;
A heart at rest from all the jars of strife;
A humble heart that never soars to fall;
A heart to bless the hand that gives it all,
That priceless gift of life. Ask for a fount of tears;
The heart to sympathize in other's woe;
The soul to feel for all the sorrowing here,
And power to point them to a better sphere,
Where tears can never flow. Ask for a home in heaven,
Poor lonely wanderer on life's troubled sea,
When wealth, and fame, and power are gone,
And all earth's blandishments forever flown,
Where grief can never be. Of body and mind is indispensable to usefulness and happiness in every calling of life. When one is out of health, his prospects are clouded and gloomy. A useless, painful existence is burdensome to the sufferer, and any approach to ill health, as headaches, nervousness, palpitation of the heart, chronic complaints, with all the train of evils and mental suffering consequent, are a bar and hindrance to usefulness and happiness. When the body is deranged, the mind sympathizes with it in a greater or less degree, and thus unfits the individual to serve God or man acceptably. A person suffering from nervousness will often start at the rustling of a leaf, and the evil passions are often ungovernable in such a person, and a peevish fretfulness is manifested even in those who in health are mild and equable. The person suffering from chronic diseases is sure to be low spirited. Nothing goes right. Most devoted friends are often viewed with distrust, and dependants are sometimes treated with cruelty, and equals with coldness. The organs of life are deranged, so is the mind. Satan takes advantage of such, and gains an easy victory. A person crippled by ill health, is entirely unfitted to grapple with difficulty, to oppose the tide of evil which the tempter often turns upon the mind, right reason cannot be vigorously exercised. Everything is seen through a perverted, distorted vision, and too often the mind gives place to Satan. Then comes the hour of darkness and trial to the saint, and little does he imagine that ill health is the cause of his troubles of mind. The physical and mental powers being weakened, the flood gates of temptation are thrown open, and a miracle must be performed to enable him to preserve cheerfulness and equanimity. But worse than all, is the fact, that generally the cause of all ill health is laid in carelessness, or rashness, or ignorance, or intemperance, or willful sin. Diseases have a cause and a remedy; and to understand the remedy without knowing the cause, is as useless as to know the cause without using the remedy. Both should be understood or disease will perpetuate itself, and for this we need not wade through the materia medica nor consult the learned. The exercise of common sense and judgment, and care in eating and drinking, and fasting at proper intervals, with regular out-door exercise, is better than the best medical aid. A breakfast of water gruel will often quiet the most obstinate toothache or headache. A fast of forty-eight hours in the first stage of disease, is better than a council of Doctors afterwards. The best exercise for females is walking with good serviceable shoes on, every day, cold or hot, dry or wet. They should wear more woolens, less cottons and silks. Most men labor too hard and too steadily, they never get wholly rested, and the overworked body drops into the grave prematurely. Some are slothful and rust out. Some work by fits and starts, and thus injure the muscular powers. Some are injudicious and intemperate, though not gluttonous or drunken. Some tax the mental powers in study or other literary pursuits, until a late hour at night, and then wonder that sleep is denied, until health and reason fail. Literary men should retire to bed early, and perform their most arduous duties before 10 o'clock A. M. Plain, coarse food at regular intervals, regular rest and exercise, habits of temperance in all things, regard to God's revealed and natural laws, would prevent a vast amount of sickness and ill health, and consequent misery, poverty, and sin. A person in vigorous health has a corresponding flow of cheerfulness and courage, is more agreeable, looks better, acts better, feels better, vastly better than when pain and sickness rack the frame; and can perform a far greater amount of labor, and do infinitely more good, with positive pleasure and ease; and he who wishes to be useful to his fellow men, and to glorify God, should take the greatest pains to gain and preserve this priceless blessing. Law and Prophets.
By Jesse Dorcas
In the course of our labors, we often meet with those, and some, even, that we have reason to believe are striving to be serious Christians, who, when the Sabbath of the law of God is presented, immediately introduce the conversation that took107place between Christ and the Jews, respecting the disciple's conduct while passing through the cornfield, &c. &c., as though this was an argument against the observance of the Bible Sabbath. To aid such, in relieving their minds of this error and to establish a correct view, I will here give a quotation from a book entitled Leila Ada, who was a converted Jewess, and the subject of the book we refer to. The writer, O. W. T. Heyway, in speaking of the Mishna, says: "If those who penned the Mishna set about their work to shock common sense, and load the Jewish religion with contempt, they could scarcely have acquitted themselves better." The reader will here perceive, that the Mishna, and Bible are two different books, and that while those caviling Jews were governed by the former, or their own corruptions of the Scriptures, Christ and his followers were guided by quite another rule. So at the present time, compare Bible and creeds, confessions, disciplines, &c., and we shall find in some points at least, that they differ as widely from the Bible as those books called Mishna, Talmud, &c. We meet also with those, who, notwithstanding they profess to be converted to God and truth, denounce us vehemently because we have a disposition to understand and teach the prophetic portion of the Scriptures. Here I will introduce a passage from the writings of Leila Ada herself, which, it is humbly hoped may have an influence in this direction. She says, "I have read the Talmud, and have dipped into the learning of the east, and while my heart has been intent on the prosecution of these studies, I have comparatively neglected the blessed word of God—the majestic Scriptures. The result of my reading is a strong opinion that the advent of the Messiah is probably near; yet while I have been consulting the writings of men, I have greatly neglected the prophecies which relate to him. Why then do I profess to my heart that I have formed an opinion, when I have neglected the great test, the predictions of the Scriptures. O Lord forgive my thus dishonoring thee." May the Lord grant that the example of this excellent woman may be salutary in the minds of many, in affecting a speedy cure of their virtual infidelity. In conclusion, let me say dear reader, that the result of my reading and daily observations, is a "strong opinion" that the coming of the Messiah is near at hand without even the shadow of a doubt. At this time there are many thousands of nominal Christians who are members of Protestant churches, and who love to be known and recognized as professors of the religion of Jesus Christ; but “not every one that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom.” When we take a cursory view of the great mass of professors, how few comparatively are the real followers of Christ. Jesus Christ was meek and lowly, gentle and kind: he sought not to please the world, but rather to do the will of his heavenly Father. Now, if “any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” If we inquire for men and women who really follow Christ, exhibiting in all they say and do, the spirit of the humble, unassuming Nazarene, where shall we find them? They are not to be found in the gay and fashionable circles of society. True, there are many who profess to be his followers mingled in this ungodly group; but Jesus will not dwell in the heart of that person who conforms to this world. It is true that some who would be Christians, mingle in the society of the ungodly, and partake, to a very considerable extent, of the same spirit. This they do, they say, in order to keep on good terms with them. But, oh! careless and thoughtless soul, do you not know that, in trying to accommodate their feelings, you displease your best friend? A true Christian seeks first to please God, and if, in pleasing him, he can please others also, he has no objections. A Christian indeed is humble, unassuming, and separate from sinners. David gives a very clear and beautiful illustration of a Christian character: “He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” There are but few such Christians. If we take away the fashionable, the covetous, the worldly-minded, the cold and formal professors of religion—in a word, if we take away all but such as follow Christ in all his precepts and examples, we may get down at the feet of Jesus, and, in the words of one of his disciples, ask, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” It is painful to see the indifference manifested by professors of religion. In my own heart I often feel alarmed at my want of holiness and spirituality. O that I could lose myself wholly in Jesus Christ, be lost and swallowed up in his will, and glory in nothing save the cross of Christ! There is a beauty in the hidden life—“hid with Christ in God.” When storms of adversity arise, the true Christian feels himself secure, for he is hid in the clefts of the Rock of Ages. O! my soul, hasten to thy hiding place; for there, and there only, art thou secure. The Christian indeed labors with all his heart and soul to advance the cause of Christ; and his time, talents, influence, and possessions are all dedicated to the service of God: he liveth not to himself, nor for any selfish purpose, but to do the will of his heavenly Father. At home he is a Christian; in the house of God and in the public throng, he evinces that he is an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. The house of God is as the gate of heaven to his soul: he trembles at the voice of God, and dreads the consequences of offending him. In the path of virtue and piety he is ever to be found. Merciful God, am I such an one as thou delightest in! Cleanse thou me from secret faults; save me from presumptuous sins; be to my soul as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The Christian indeed looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, assured that God has “provided some better things for him;” and when he nears the Jordan of death, and feels the cold waters dashing against his feet, he is calm—he dreads not to die; and when the breath trembles upon his cold lips, and it is softly whispered in the chamber, that he is dying, he is happy; although loved friends weep around his couch, he is joyful; and, with a sainted smile, he takes his leave of friends on earth. Good bye, faithful Christian! we will gather thy bones and carry them to some silent resting-place; thou hast well done. After struggling through this barren land, ’mid scenes of confusion, and under the hot sun of tribulation, thou hast finished thy course at last. Good bye! Though we are loth to be separated from thee, yet thou hast fought valiantly for the crown, and it is yours. Once more we say—good bye! but not forever! No, thank God, we shall see thee again; not as we have seen thee, in sorrow and conflict, but when the wail of expiring time is heard, and the nations are summoned to the judgment of the great day. Then we will see thee happy, inexpressibly happy. Close beside thine elder brother we expect to see thee, crowned as a king and priest forever. Blessed Jesus, and shall thy hand ever place a crown upon this unworthy head of mine! and wilt thou accept of me in thy presence forever! If thou dost not prepare me by thy grace, I shall never dwell with thee. Be near to me: oh, be my light, my wisdom, my counsellor, and my all.—Rel. Tel. THEATER managers and showmen have the art of awakening the public attention by captivating and stirring appeals in their advertisements. “A few days more,” “the last opportunity,” and “positively the last opportunity,” are conspicuously capitalized to stir up the flagging curiosity. As our eye has often been arrested by such announcements, we have thought of the serious and solemn application they would bear. To every sinner there is a “last” and “positively” a last, opportunity for securing a neglected salvation. They have “line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little;” and then the appeals to their conscience, to their hopes and fears, become less frequent, until the awful juncture arrives when the last invitation is offered, the last warning is uttered, the last opportunity is afforded, and the decree goes forth “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be filthy still.” It has often occurred that an individual, eager for sensual pleasure, and hastening with light and buoyant step to some resort of sinful amusement, or some haunt of polluting vice, has in this very act lost his last, positively his last opportunity for securing the blessings of eternal life. The last opportunity of averting a fate which no earthly language can sufficiently depict, may be much nearer than the soul may imagine. That special call from the pulpit which now strikes on the ear; that earnest expostulation from a friend; that startling providence which, for a time, has absorbed the attention; that still small voice within, dissuading from sin and urging repentance and conversion, may be the last opportunities, as they have in thousands of instances proved to be to others. It is first, “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” and then before the soul is aware, comes the stunning decree, “He is joined to his idols, let him alone.” Ministers of the gospel, let that sinner alone, and hold out to him no further invitations! Let no friend prevail with him to consider his ways, and let no providence arouse him. Let him alone! Spirit of God, often insulted and disregarded in thy most tender expostulations to win him from the path of ruin, let him alone, without a friendly monitor, and without a hope! Sad, indeed, is the condition of that one who, being often reproved, has hardened his neck, and who having many opportunities, has lost his very last one. Other evils and calamities admit of reparation, but this is an irretrievable one. There is neither physician nor balm in Gilead for its cure. Reader! have you repented? Have you given your heart to God? Are you a Christian? If you cannot answer these questions in the affirmative, there is now an opportunity of remedying the folly, the madness, the sin of your previous neglect of the great salvation; and perhaps it may be the last, positively the last, you shall enjoy.—Presbyterian. The Horse and the Jackass
By Van Bibber
A horse and an ass came to the same stream to drink. "How crystal-clear is this water," said the horse. "To me, it appears very muddy," grumbled the ass. No wonder! he drank with his head down the stream, and the mud came from his own hoofs. All ye who search Holy Writ only to foster doubt, and who, in the very act of searching it, turn your backs on the fountain-head from which it flows, examine well that long-eared and stupid ass, and then, if you can, continue to do likewise.—VAN BIBBER, in Home Journal. Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe, in an article on Heb. xii, 26-27, in the Independent of Nov. 12, 1856, thus thrillingly writes: "How can we look for peace? Peace! One might as well stand when a storm was rising, when clouds were rolling up from every quarter of the horizon, lightnings darting, thunders muttering, and fierce winds lashing the storm into fury, and talk of peace. These are the times spoken of by Christ, when there shall be distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking for the things that are coming on the earth. His voice once shook the earth, but now hath he promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.' In these shakings, earthly hopes fly like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, earthly joys like the withered leaves. Earthly reliance is as stubble. Things firmest set, trees that have grappled with the storms for years, towers that are hoary with the moss of centuries, institutions hallowed with ages of reverence, all must go crashing down together;—but, thank God, something will remain. The tempest removes the things that can be shaken that the things that cannot be shaken may remain."