Review and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 5. (1/13/1874)

Review and Herald

Jan 13, 1874

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1874

PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT.

About the year 1847, Charles Beecher wrote a series of letters to his brother Henry Ward Beecher, on the Pre-millennial Advent of Christ, and the return of the Jews. These appeared in the Watchman of the Valley, a Presbyterian paper, published in Cincinnati. Such portions of these letters as had a direct bearing on the question of the pre-millennial advent were republished in the Voice of Truth, commencing March 24, 1847. Copying from that, we now lay them before the readers of the REVIEW, to whom they will be of exceeding interest.

Eighteen hundred years ago, there lived a man upon the soil of Palestine, whose whole career was an inexplicable enigma to the generation in which he appeared.

Himself the center of all prophetic oracles, he yet seemed to reverse every expectation prophecy had created. Probably no man ever excited such intense and universal expectations. Certainly no man ever so completely changed expectation into bitter disappointment. The nation and the world expected a conqueror and a king. They received only an executed convict, an expiatory sacrifice.

Yet the results of that first appearing, humble as it was, and utterly subversive of the wishes of a world, have developed themselves for ages, and are yet shaking all nations.

If, then, a second advent of that same singular personage be nigh, how much greater disappointment of a nation's, yea, a world's anticipation, may it involve! How much more tremendous consequences may it not produce!

That that “same Jesus shall so come in like manner as they saw him go up into Heaven,” we distinctly believe. And if that coming should prove to be the beginning and the cause of millennial prosperity, while the universal church are thinking it only the consummation and the close, would not their astonishment exceed that of the church, before his first appearing?

And if that first appearing, without splendor, without judicial authority, without the manifest assertion of regal power among the nations, has wrought results of wonder, what results might not ensue, should millennial hours be ushered in, not only by the mighty movings of the Holy Ghost, but by earthquake shock, and trumpet note—by the flaming apocalypse of Him whose face is as the lightning, conveyed by angels of his might, descending with the clouds of heaven, to stand upon the Mount of Olives?

And if to the previous expectations of the Jewish mind the after developments of the gospel dispensation were a mystery, inscrutable, into which scarce the prophetic gaze of an apostle might penetrate, how much more may the developments of the regal era, the millennial reign, be expected to be a mystery to the professing church and to the world, until the very splendors of the day itself flash upon their startled eyes.

But is that second coming of the Son of Man so nigh at hand? Is it, in other words, the commencement and the CAUSE, or the climax and the product of the millennium? This is the simple question now in the providence of God first claiming the solemn attention of the churches. That he shall return in majesty to judge the earth, we all believe. “For God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that MAN whom he hath ordained.” The simple question where we differ, is, Is that coming pre-millennial?

To the answer of this question, I believe the church is solemnly called. Do you say that it is in vain to pry into unfulfilled prophecy? There is a mode of interrogating prophecy, I am aware, in regard to days and hours and minute details, which savors of presumption. But such is not the nature of this great inquiry. It is a subject on the contrary upon which the church has already pronounced; upon which the popular strain of modern preaching has uttered oracular decision. And it is no longer a question whether it be a legitimate subject of opinion, but which of two opinions already formed and boldly expressed, is legitimate?

It will be my object in succeeding letters, to show by scriptural argument that the coming of Christ to judgment is pre-millennial; and consequently near at hand. In prosecuting which intention, I pray that the Holy Spirit may grant me aid, and enable me so to exhibit his mind and will, contained in Scripture, as to arouse attention and inflame the ardor of all true believers, to prepare for the coming of their Lord. And I pray God that our whole soul, and spirit, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord.

SIN AND ITS RESULTS; Or, Life and Death.

By E. Goodrich

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23.

The great question before us is that of life and death. Neither is it a novel one; for the first real blessing bestowed upon man was life, and the first denunciation against man was a denunciation of death, as the punishment due to sin. And in remarking upon this subject, we may notice:

What is sin, its nature, and its work?
The immediate results of sin.
The dread and final consequences of sin.

1. Sin is the transgression of law. Sin is an action. Sin does something. Sin is that action that stands opposed to lawful action. And as law not only has an action, but is itself a rule of action, the object of which is to sustain and guide all proper action, securing to all their rights, as life and liberty, it is the nature and work of sin to undo and destroy the action of law.

The idea of sin is not, as some seem to teach, only a moral or religious one, but is quite as much a secular and scientific one, entering into all the affairs of life. There are but two kinds of action; the one lawful, and the other unlawful. And in searching for truth, either in the written histories of the past, the open volume of the present, or the uncut pages of the future, the first lesson that should be impressed upon the mind is, that this world in all its kingdoms, and divisions, and classifications of facts, is governed by law—inflexible, sovereign law. There is not an atom of matter, whether at rest or in motion, whether in a chaotic or highly organized state, endowed with life and volition, that is not under the immediate and constant jurisdiction of some divinely ordained law; law perfectly adapted to the objects and subjects governed; law which, if obeyed, is able to bless every act of obedience, but which, if resisted, is able to break down and defeat all opposition.

This argument demonstrates that sin is temporal; for any action offered to a superior living force is in its very nature temporal. And the declaration of the text, “For the wages of sin is death,” is not simply a religious dogma, but a great and universal truth, founded in the nature of things and applicable to all kinds of life and action. And how any one who has given the subject of law and its universal application any attention can teach that man was without law for two thousand years, turned loose like a herd of wild cattle upon the pampas, is indeed most unaccountable.

Again, sin is a mortal disease that defiles and corrupts the soul, and, like a rust or gangrene, corrodes and eats out all the moral sensibilities of our nature, driving away the holy influences of the Spirit of God, leaving the soul a charred and blighted thing. And now, having defined sin, its nature, and its work, let us consider,

2. Its immediate results. In remarking under this division of the subject, there seems to be danger of running into an extreme, either in claiming that man now suffers the full punishment for sin, or that punishment for sin is wholly reserved for a future state.

The action of sin begins in the mind, and at the very time and place where the action begins the consequences begin. And as every action of sin is in the direction of death, but the end is not reached until the action is completed, it follows that sin has both an immediate and final result, and the present is both a state of suffering and of punishment as well as the future. But present punishment for sin is disciplinary, and may be escaped, while the latter is retributive, and is everlasting.

The above argument is founded on the law, that what a man sows that he reaps. And to reason, as some do, that because a man now suffers on the account of sin, therefore he will be justified and saved hereafter, is not good. On the contrary, present suffering is an assurance in demonstrative form of future punishment.

If sin was not followed by present evil consequences, there would be no reason to predict its final results. But the religion of Jesus Christ and God’s moral government over man, in all its parts and bearings upon man, has been reduced to a practical demonstration. And the world is filled with notable examples, both of virtue and of vice, and is strewed with moral wrecks, showing us what sin can do.

If a man could find life, peace, and rest of soul, while walking in the paths of sin, this would be a complete argument for sin, showing that it is good, and that the sinner will be happy and blessed hereafter. But there is no peace to the wicked, either here or hereafter.

Again, to show the complete history and workings of sin, we read, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:14, 15.

In this figure, lust is the mother, enticement is the father, sin is the child, and death is the full grown man. The reading of this scripture, and the doctrine that it contains, opens to the mind a large field of thought and controversy. Quite a large class of Bible expositors teach that the very day that man sinned, the sentence of death, which was a moral or spiritual one, was executed upon him. And some even teach that this death in the form of total depravity is entailed upon our race. This gives us a proper occasion to notice both the doctrine of total depravity and the sentiment that man died the day that he sinned.

It is true that the law contemplated death as the punishment for sin, but to contend that this death was executed upon man the day that he sinned, contradicts the entire economy of divine grace, as revealed to us through various dispensations for nearly six thousand years.

God has provided a remedy for sin, and, like all other remedies, this is to be applied before the disease has taken on a fatal or incurable form. Sometimes the physician is called when it is too late, and he says, Oh! if I could have been called sooner, I could have saved you; but now you are dying. Again, if the convict is pardoned, it is always before the execution. Hence, we see that to argue that man was threatened, convicted, and at once punished for sin, would cut off all possibility, as well as necessity, for mercy upon the part of God.

Neither does it seem to help the matter much to go a step further and include temporal or physical death into the penalty; for all men die, notwithstanding the remedy provided.

As to the doctrine of total depravity, it is certainly a Bible doctrine; but that all men are born totally depraved, and that even infants that die, at once go to hell (a place of torment), is most certainly not a Bible sentiment; because this would place man at the very lowest point of moral degradation; he could get no lower by sinning, and it would be folly to talk of curing such a one; for there is nothing to cure. It is sin that depraves, and the history of sin is the history of depravity; for depravity is but the progressive development of sin and its ravages upon the moral man. Every sin and every iniquity committed, and every truth rejected, is a lesson in total depravity.

We have instances of total depravity recorded in the Bible, as in the first chapter of Romans. But it is of those wicked nations who, having the truth, held it in unrighteousness; and, “when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,

and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and to vile affections. * And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind [margin, a mind void of judgment], to do those things which are not convenient.”

The principles of God’s government are the same in all ages of the world; and whenever we find either a man or a nation depraved, it is sin that has depraved. As long as the Spirit of God performs its office work upon the heart, enlightening the mind and giving knowledge of sin, it cannot be said that the man is totally depraved. But when the light which is in us becomes darkness, because we do not follow it, and when the Spirit of God ceases to strive with us, it is then we are totally depraved. And the doctrine of depravity is the doctrine of reprobation, because when one is depraved and rejected of God, that is reprobation.

There are only three positions of moral relation that are possible for man to sustain to God. 1. That of perfect friendship and reconciliation. This is a state of peace and security, in which we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. In this state, the cure has been applied, and man is safe. 2. A state of perfect alienation and reprobation, in which the person is given over to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind to believe a lie, that he may be damned. This state is represented by the earth, which, although it drinketh in both the rain and dew from heaven, bringeth forth only briers and thorns, and, therefore, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. This is an awful state, in which and for which there is neither hope nor mercy. 3. There is a state of partial alienation, in which there is a remedy and possible salvation. And the object of probation, mercy, and moral training, is perfect reconciliation, a development of good and a suppression of evil. In this state, the gospel, when preached in power and in demonstration of the Spirit, becomes either the savor of life unto life or of death unto death.

3. As to the final results of sin, there remains but little to be said. The work that has been begun is completed. As in nature, so in sin, there is first the blade, then the stalk, then the ear, then the ripe corn in the ear, and then the harvest. In the governments of earth, there is the power that makes the law, there is the power that explains, expounds, and applies the law in all doubtful cases, and there is the power that executes the purposes of the law. In criminal life, there is, (1.) The penal statute that denounces the crime and apportions the punishment; (2.) The crime itself committed, of which the law takes cognizance; (3.) Conviction and condemnation that consigns or appoints to punishment, and, (4.) The execution. So it is in God’s moral government. And as the figure used in the text, there is the labor and then the wages. This is all that there is of sin. The wages of sin is death. And as the punishment for sin is final, the death threatened is everlasting.

E. GOODRICH.

THE YEAR'S LAST MOMENT.

By Horatius Bonar

The crowd sweeps onward still: And we with it move on, Part of the ever-rushing multitude, Till the great goal be won, And for the last time sinks the ever-setting sun.

Another hour has struck, With solemn note, and slow; Another fragment of Time's cliff has rushed Into the vale below; Another of earth's streams this moment ceased to flow.

Another lamp of Time Has flickered into gloom, And left us lonelier in our lonely watch, Waiting the light to come; Not into, but beyond, the life-devouring tomb.

Another of Time's stars Has vanished from the eye; Ah! now the light of the immortal dawn Is coming up the sky, And quenching, one by one, these midnight gems on high.

Another headland turned, While bends the quivering mast; Another beacon of the lone, lone sea Our vessel has shot past. The shore, the shore is near! Is that the haven at last!

Another bridge of life Has now been crossed: few more Remain for us; another bridge of time We've reached, from it to explore The far-outspreading green of the not distant shore.

Another pillar fallen In Time's old temple! See How fragment upon fragment darkly lies; And hear how heavily The echoes wind along by the slow-swelling sea!

Another song has closed, A true but varied strain, And the deep-turret chime I hear afar Has echoed out, Amen, Swelling the long-drawn fall of the well-known refrain.

Oh, well for us to watch! Our night will soon be o'er; The day of mortal doom approaches fast, The Judge is at the door; Awake! arise, my soul, and sleep thy sleep no more!

—Horatius Bonar, D. D.

Cheerfulness as an Excellent Wearing Quality

CHEERFULNESS is an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart. It gives harmony to the soul; and is a perpetual song without words. It is tantamount to repose. It enables nature to recruit its strength; whereas worry and discontent debilitate it, involving constant wear and tear.

The Education of Moses.

THE following instructive and highly interesting article is from the pen of the Rev. Joseph Haven, LL. D., one of the first writers of the day. It is quoted from the January number of Bible Studies, and unless we greatly mistake, will be re-read by hundreds of the readers of the REVIEW.

G. W. A.

We are told (Acts 7: 22) that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And how much was that? What could they teach? What state of culture and civilization had the nation attained? Her own existing monuments enable us to answer this question, and place it beyond all reasonable doubt that Egypt was at that time, and had been for centuries, the source and center of the world's civilization; that she was—what Greece afterward became—the mistress of the nations in letters, science, and art.

If, with the highest authorities, we place the date of the Exodus at about 1300 B. C., the period at which Moses flourished, falls about midway between the original founding of the empire by Menes, and the Christian era. The Egypt of that day had already a history of at least twelve or fifteen hundred years—Lepsius and Bunsen would say from two thousand to twenty-five hundred years—a period sufficient, if we take the lowest estimate, to allow a very high degree of attainment in whatever constitutes the intellectual culture and supremacy of a nation.

There is the clearest evidence that, at the time of which we speak, Egypt held, and had long held, such supremacy. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries B. C. were in fact the golden period of Egyptian greatness, the Elizabethan age of her culture. The education of Moses would, naturally, under such circumstances, be that of the highest nobles and princes of the realm, the best the nation could afford; and that this was of a high order, there is the clearest monumental evidence.

From the first, the Egyptians possessed the arts of civilized life. From the earliest centuries of their national existence they had been workers in wood, and stone, and brass; gold, silver, and bronze, were in common use among them; so was iron, that latest product and surest test of high civilization. The gold neck-lace and ear-rings of Menes, the first king of Egypt, and the signet-ring of Shufu, the builder of the great pyramid, are as elaborate and elegant in their workmanship and finish as anything in that line which modern art can produce. In the chamber at Karnak, which commemorates the wars and triumphs of Thotmes III., of the 18th dynasty—some 200 years before the time of Moses—there is a record of the offerings made to the temple to complete it, in which list mention is made of the metals, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead, good bronze of the land of Babel, tusks of ivory richly carved and polished, and solid rings of gold. The value of the treasure contributed to the temple by Thotmes as the result of these military expeditions is set down in the record at 2,374 solid rings of gold. It was in the ships of Tyre that these treasures were brought by the king to Thebes, his capital. The art of working iron must have been possessed by the Egyptians from the very first, for a piece of wrought iron has been found by Col. Howard Vyse imbedded among the solid masonry of the great pyramid, near the summit, where it must have been left by the original builders.

In other arts, the great proficiency of the Egyptians is attested by the paintings in the tombs at Thebes and Beni-Hassan. The process of glass-blowing, usually regarded as a modern invention, is there plainly depicted; while the articles of luxury, the vases, couches, ottomans, chairs, and other furniture of a richly furnished house, can hardly be surpassed for elegance, richness, and variety. And, what is singular in regard to the matter, the older monuments and works of art, as compared with those of later date, are not the less but the more perfect of the two. The sculptures and inscriptions of the age of Thotmes III., and of Sesostris, prior to Moses and the exodus, are far superior to those executed by the Ptolemies in the later period of the empire.

Of the science of the ancient Egyptians not much is known to us, but it is certain that they understood the science of agriculture, and carried it to perfection. They understood and successfully executed works of civil engineering, before which modern science stands aghast. They turned the course of the Nile into new channels, so as to redeem wide regions of desert from barrenness to highest fertility. In mathematical and astronomical science, the Egyptians seem to have been proficient. The great pyramid is itself, according to the astronomer royal of Scotland, Piazzi Smith, one of the most remarkable scientific and astronomical buildings ever erected. On the ceiling of the temple at Denderah, one sees the characters and signs of the Zodiac as complete as in our modern astronomy.

Nor was Egypt without a literature. On the walls and columns of her sacred edifices, graven in the rock forever, under the care and keeping of the gods, her history, as regards at least its leading events, stands written. Not merely the wars, the battles, and sieges, and conquests, are there recorded, but accompanying the pictorial representations of these are historic inscriptions, and invocations addressed to the conqueror, often in the highest style of oriental poetry. I had intended to give a few specimens of these, as illustrating the character of Egyptian poetical art, especially its marked resemblance to the spirit and style of the Hebrew prophets; but space will not permit.

But such historic inscriptions were not the only literature of this remarkable people, at the time of which I speak. They had also books, libraries, and schools of instruction. An inscription on one of the tombs of the period of Sephres, the builder of the second pyramid, some 2,000 years B. C., speaks of lands devoted to the library of that monarch. This was several centuries prior to the time of Moses. One of the beautiful tombs at Beni-Hassan is that of one of the nobles of the twelfth dynasty—Nahrai who, as the inscription informs us, was steward of the land tax for the support of the schools of the sons of the kings of lower Egypt. This was a thousand years or more before the exodus; and shows the care of the nation, at that early period, for the education of its future rulers. The famous Memnonium at Thebes, palace of

Remeses II., the Pharaoh by whose daughter Moses was adopted and educated, contained a library of sacred books, over the entrance to which may still be seen this most appropriate inscription,—“The Remedy for the Soul.” When after the death of this monarch, and of his son, who survived him but a few years, his infant grandson, Sethos II., came to the throne, Thouoris, the daughter already mentioned, who was guardian and co-regent of the young king, appointed scribes to write books of instruction for him, that he might be incited to noble deeds by the histories of his ancestors. The tomb of one of these scribes has been discovered at Thebes, and in it the books he had written for the young king—the Pharaoh, it is supposed, of the exodus.

From these various facts respecting the general culture and attainments of the Egyptians in art, science, and literature, in the time of Moses, and earlier, it may be inferred, with almost absolute certainty, that the education he received at the court of Thouoris, and perhaps also of her father, the great Sesostris, was of the very highest order, and such as could probably have been obtained in scarcely any other nation of the world at that time.

Revival of the Inquisition in Rome.

“Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad,” is being illustrated by the “Infallible Pio Nono.”

Father Grassi, who for thirty-six years performed successively the duties of priest, confessor, curate, mitred abbot, lent preacher, and lastly incumbent of the great Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, has cast down robes, honor, emoluments, abandoned prospective promotion, and united with the Baptist church under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Wall of England.

A few weeks ago, with Rev. Mr. Wall, he called to bid his associates farewell. It was a scene not to be forgotten. They knew well that he whom they had so long known, loved, and honored, was sincere. As a loving father, he told them of the terrible conflict through which he had passed, why he had given up all and chosen his home with a little company of Christians meeting in a tent, and begged them to consider well his reasons. All were deeply moved, and when he arose, they gathered around, embraced and kissed him. Six of his associates have followed him to inquire what is truth.

Last week, in one day, twelve priests called on Mr. Wall to ask for light. Among them was a D. D., an LL. D., and a D. P. Another, the superior of a convent, who on Sunday sent a priest to Mr. Wall for tracts and Scriptures to distribute among the inmates.

For a few days, nothing was heard from “headquarters” concerning the “apostate.” But last Sunday, the silence was broken. The Vatican had decided to try its strength—revive the Inquisition and make an example of Father Grassi! The “Infallible” comforted a delegation of priests with the assurance that the apostate would soon be swept away.

Immediately he was summoned before the Inquisition to recant or endure the penalties. Grassi decided at once to appear, not because he acknowledged the authority, but because it gave him an opportunity to declare the truth before these men.

He applied to the government for protection, but was advised not to venture, and that, if he did go, he must bear the responsibility. Rev. Messrs. Wall and Duni called on the Inquisitor General. Father Grassi accompanied them, but remained outside, so as to be out of danger.

During the interview, the General, learning that Father Grassi was below, secretly sent an officer, saying, “Your friends desire you to come in.” Not suspecting any snare, he followed, not as he thought to where his friends were, but to another part of the Inquisition.

As it happened, the door was open and Mr. Wall caught a glimpse of him. The idea of some betrayal instantly flashed across his mind, and he called to him to withdraw at once, which he did. Of course, “nothing wrong was intended.”

Another interview was appointed for nine o’clock the next morning. Father Grassi, assisted by Mr. Wall and a priest who is a prominent professor in a college in Rome, spent nearly the whole night in preparing his vindication.

In the morning, after bowing together and committing all to God, we started for the Inquisition. Father Grassi took my arm, and as we walked along the “Via del S. Offizzio” (street of the holy office) thinking of our brethren who had preceded us, but who never returned, I reminded him of our Saviour’s words, “Fear not them which kill the body,” etc., Matt. 10: 28, 33, and of the precious encouragement, “Let not your heart,” etc., in John 14: 1, 2.

Arrangements had been made for friends to stand in the street ready to render assistance if needed. Four of us went in. We were promised permission to be with Father Grassi, but they desired to see him alone a moment first.

He had been advised not to trust himself in their hands for a moment, but now came a trial of moral courage, such as Nehemiah experienced when he refused to shrink from danger, asking, “Shall such a man as I flee?” and Luther when he said, “I will go to Worms, though the devils are as thick as the tiles on the houses.” Grassi entered alone, and the door was shut. We could only beg God to keep him, and enable him to “open his mouth boldly” and declare the truth.

Soon, loud and earnest talking commenced. Again and again, admission was demanded—promised, but not granted. For nearly an hour, we waited, when the door was opened and our dear brother was with us again. Taking my hand and pressing it to his heart, he said, with deep emotion, “E’ finito, E’ finito!”—It is finished: It is finished!

Significant words. The Vatican had determined to revive the most infernal institution ever devised by diabolic ingenuity, and try its power upon one who had so long been a favorite. This was its first attempt, and I greatly mistake if Grassi’s words will not be found applicable to the “Most Holy Roman Universal Inquisition.”

He is calm, tender, humble, and modest, yet firm and fearless. Not often do we witness such moral heroism. Alone he stood before his Inquisitors, declared the truth, entered his protest, denounced their iniquities, defied their power, and scorned their anathemas. To give you a more correct idea of the man, I give a few closing sentences of his defense. Think of him, alone, unprotected, and in such a place. Warming up into the holy enthusiasm of Stephen, the first martyr, and turning upon his Inquisitors, he said:— “O you inquisitors, pontiffs, cardinals, and prelates, God speaks to you: To what have you brought the true church? She that was so pure, so beautiful, so glorious, you have betrayed, violated, despoiled, wounded, and crucified, by your doctrines, superstitions and immorality, and have sealed her tomb by your blasphemous ‘Dogma of Infallibility.’ Hear what God says to his suffering children: ‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’ Do you not tremble at these words? Who but Satan instigated and inflicted the tortures in this place? Oh, could these walls, within which so many have been burned speak? Could this roof but echo back the cries of agony from your innocent victims, and the vaults beneath us reveal the corpses of those who have been buried alive, no other sentence of condemnation would be required.

“But the breath of God has forever extinguished the fires of the Inquisition and swept away your power. Therefore I stand before you to-day, and declare these truths while you dare not touch a hair of my head! Yes, God has begun the work, and soon this tribunal, these walls and instruments, will be bruised under our feet and scattered as ashes to the four winds, proclaiming to the world that the ‘Most Holy Universal Roman Inquisition’ is dead—dead, because God has crushed it under the feet of his children.

“O ye obstinate ones, hear me! Hear one of your own brothers who has said mass, and confessed and preached with you. Weep not over me as ‘dead.’ I am not dead, but among the ‘living,’ and stand before you to announce the resurrection of that church which you have tried to drown in blood. Yes, she is rising glorious as the morning light, and ignorance, superstition, heresy, and tyranny, flee before her!”

“Farewell, church of my youth! Farewell, companions of my ministry. Alas, alas! it has been a ministry of destruction! Oh, if my word has yet any weight with you, I beseech you to open your eyes to the light—to abandon that system of darkness in which you are groping, and accept the true light which Jesus offers to you.”

Well may they gnash their teeth upon such a man. Let prayer without ceasing be offered in behalf of this dear brother.

—Correspondent of the Christian Weekly.

The Hoosac Tunnel.

On Thanksgiving day, the thin partition of rock which alone remained between the two sections of the Hoosac Tunnel was broken down by a prodigious blast of nitro-glycerine, and light at last streamed through the mountain. Thus is virtually accomplished one of the most stupendous engineering feats of modern times.

The Hoosac Mountain is a part of the Green Mountain range, lying across the western end of Massachusetts. The Boston and Albany Railroad climbs in between Westfield and Pittsfield by a tortuous course and a series of easy gradients. The tunnel lies further to the north and forms a link in the chain of communication between Boston and the West by way of the Fitchburg, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and Troy and Greenfield Railroads. The mountain, at the point selected for tunneling, is about 2,500 feet high, having two ridges with a depressed plateau between them. The distance through from heading to heading, and therefore the length of the tunnel, is four and three-quarter miles.

The tunnel was projected many years before ground was fairly broken, which we understand to have been in January, 1872, Rev. Dr. Crawford, of Deerfield, striking the first spade into the mountain on its eastern side. From the outset, the history of the undertaking has been one of struggle, imminent failure, pluck, skill, and perseverance. Space fails us to tell of the peculiar and vexatious obstacles encountered, the ingenious and costly mechanism used, the wonderful nicety of the calculation by which the eastern and western headings met under the headings within a fraction of an inch, the numerous casualties and narrow escapes, the various interesting experiments in methods resorted to, and all the other entertaining points in such a piece of work. As it stands, or rather as it will stand when trains are running through it on double tracks, it is a monument to the triumph of mind over matter, a credit to the skill and patience of engineers, workmen, and contractors, and an honor to the State of Massachusetts.—Congregationalist.

“Where Is the Promise of His Coming?”

By A. M. Lindsley

THE evident cause of this question by the scoffers of the last days is, there has been preceding it a proclamation of the coming of the Lord. This scripture shows conclusively, if there were no other proof, that in close proximity to the end, the minds of the people would be stirred up to consider the subject of his coming; and while some are gladly heralding the cry, the spirit of hatred against the truth by those who love the world in its present sinful condition will lead them to reject the warning, and also to heap contumely and scorn on those who love the doctrine.

Without this class of scoffers, the signs of the last days would be incomplete; for we are to mark this among the first. It plainly points them out as not loving either Him, or his appearing. Say they, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” What stirs them up to say this? Evidently the dissemination of views just the opposite—the presence of signs that were given to mark the period of the advent. Not to be able to discern these signs shows a condition of unbelief in accordance with the carnal heart at a distance from God, and satisfied with sin. Wherever we hear these queries, whether from professors or worldlings, it points them out as being the scoffers of whom Peter speaks.

There may be, it is true, those who manifest a spirit of inquiry, who, like the noble Bereans, search to know whether these things are so, and ask for the evidences; but they are not the ones here spoken of. A heart truly converted to God will be ready at all times to say, What is the truth, that I may walk in it?

The world is asleep, like a person who has nearly filled his days, whose faculties are paralyzed by age. The sense of discernment is dulled by surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life—lulled to sleep by the peace-and-safety cry of the good time coming. Now and then some of them are aroused enough to be somewhat disturbed—perhaps it only irritates them, and they are angry because their sleep has been broken—and like a man who is aroused from slumber, they say at first loudly, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were. After awhile, they become satisfied; having repeated it so often, it sounds as though it must be truth or at least as good. Their incoherent mutterings as they pass into a state of sound and final slumber only echo, Where is the promise?—Where? Such will only be awakened to a sense of their danger and then destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming.

It is sad to know that there are many who possess a well-defined knowledge of these signs, and consider themselves safe, “rich and increased in goods,” who will not awaken to a sense of their poverty and wretchedness until it is too late. May God help us, dear brethren and sisters, to shake ourselves so thoroughly that this spirit of slumber will not overpower us and rob us of an inheritance among the saints.

Were we to ask the student of prophecy, Where are the evidences? he would answer with the prophet, “The morning cometh and also the night”—prophecy has foretold, and history records the fulfillment—earth, sea, and sky, signs in the political and moral horizon, betoken his coming. In whatever direction we turn our eyes, we can read signs there is no mistaking, we feel the token in our hearts, the internal evidence, and sympathize with the groaning creation for the final restitution—we earnestly cry, Come Lord Jesus, and come quickly. A. M. LINDSLEY.

Continue reading: Power to Forgive Sin. Matt. 9:1-8