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Review and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 23.

THE FOLLY OF FASHIONABLE RELIGION

Review and Herald

Jun 7, 1877

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 7, 1877

THE FOLLY OF FASHIONABLE RELIGION.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Upon this point there are so many good things said, and so well said, that I want the readers of the Review to have the benefit of some of them. The following is from a tract entitled, Pure Religion, published by the American Tract Society:—
“‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.’ Jas. 1:27.
“The devil can be religious; nor is he awkward at it. He can be natural and clever in religion, not overdoing the matter by cant, and not underdoing it by ill-timed gayety. And this religion is a real religion; that is, it is a service, a worship. And that is what religion in the strict sense means. In Greek ‘θρησκεία,’ in Latin ‘religio,’ it has reference primarily and principally to the outward actions, as conformable to a certain system.
“There is, therefore, (as we see in this passage,) a vain religion as well as a pure religion. They are both real religions; they have external exercises; they are visible and noticeable by outsiders. They are not only, both of them, symmetrical religions and real religions, but they are, in their human adherents, honest religions. Their votaries are equally sincere. They are not hypocrites, but believe in what they do. God is the ostensible object of worship in each religion. ‘I believe in God’ is the first article in the creed of each. And yet these two religions are as far asunder as the poles. The one is actuated by Satan, and the other by the Spirit of God; and yet Satan is so skilled a practitioner, that the very victims of his deceit do not know what spirit they are of.
“Where deceit is so easy and complete, in regard, too, to our highest interests, it behooves us to look to the distinguishing marks between the good and the evil, that God has set up. In this passage, the vain or empty religion is designated as one wherein the unbridled tongue deceives the heart. The tongue ought to be the servant of the heart; but one of the marks of man’s chaotic condition by reason of sin is in the tongue’s usurping the mastery, and bringing the heart into servitude. The tongue repeats glibly its credos and its pater-nosters, or talks eloquently on orthodoxy, and the sound is satisfying music to the heart. The tongue has charmed the heart into quiescence, and made it very honest in its false religion, as its complete dupe. And it is in this honesty that men pride themselves; just as if a drunkard should pride himself in his perfect honesty by which he sees double. The tongue-religionist thinks he has the testimony of a good conscience. He has the testimony of conscience, but not of a good one. It is the testimony of a drugged conscience. There was a time when he willfully allowed his conscience to be drugged, and now it is useless as a watch and guard.
“It is a grand triumph for Satan when he makes the tongue the seat of religion. When he gets religion out on the tongue, he encourages it with kindred helps, and fortifies it with the aid of the other senses. He builds magnificent cathedrals, with painting and statuary to delight the eye; he fills the ear with concord of sweet sounds; the odors of flowers or incense load the air; and so the tongue has its pleasant companions, to make the ways of its religion pleasantness and all its paths peace. The devil’s religion is a very beautiful religion. It has the best singers, tenors and sopranos and all the rest, with French names and German names and Italian names; and it has the most delectable violins and exquisite cornets; and it has the approbation of the first circles. It harmonizes most delicately with all the elegant ways of fashionable society, and has no rude and prying methods of making itself disagreeable in social and business life. So soft, so smooth, so poetic, and so respectable is this religion of the tongue, that it does seem a pity every one is not contented with it.
“But, unfortunately, there always are some angular people, who are ready to spoil every pleasant arrangement,—vulgar people, who believe in sin and depravity and hell—who would mar all our innocent frivolities with their talk of eternity or some other great and solemn thing that nobody wants to hear about. They are a low, psalm-singing set, who cannot rise to the seraphic loveliness of our refined religion of beauty, and are miserably awkward in our elevated society.
“Now all this is sincere speech on the part of the adherents of the devil’s religion. They are not playing a part, but look down from their lofty plane of respectable religion with sincere feelings of either contempt or pity, as the case may be, for the simple-minded believers in retribution and personal conversion. If sincerity made a saint, these would be saints of the first degree, for they have not a doubt of their own superiority to the mass of mankind. They firmly believe they are made of purer stuff than the rest, and are decidedly assured that God always is on the side of respectable people.
“When I see these poor, benighted sinners in velvet and gold, I wonder how they are ever to be reached with the gospel. The heathen of India and China are far more accessible, and their hearts are not so hard. They are on the ground, and you can reach them. There is some common interest between them and you. But these refined and respectable worshipers, who are so graceful in their devotions and so grand in their social life, are far up in the air above your heads; beautiful balloons, lifted so high by their gas that they think themselves favored of Heaven, to which they seem so near. There’s no soul more dead, no more hopeless heathen, no more putrid corpse of sin on earth, than a rich, fashionable Christian; for the very reason that the vain or empty religion with which the tongue has deceived the heart is so very satisfying to the superficial soul. All the healing, saving power of Christianity is assumed as in externals, and so the soul all dead, but with a name to live, is never alarmed; while the nominal heathen of India and China have no doctrine so comfortable as that of Christ and his salvation, to steal and use without a right.
“The apostle James, so early in the church’s history, saw quantities of these mummy Christians. He saw men with gold rings and grand apparel enter the church, who were shown at once to a choice pew near the pulpit. He saw a poor man with cheap raiment enter at the same time, who was pointed to a seat in the corner, or left to stand. He saw brothers and sisters in Christ left destitute of food and clothing, while Christians kept back the wages due them. He saw the members of the church indulging in envy and strife against one another, and all morals relaxed under the plausible excuse of being in the fashion; and in the midst of such Satanic religion he utters his indignant denunciations, and gives the definition of the true: ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.’ This is the very opposite of the vain and empty religion. It is a religion that has its rise in the heart, that bears the scrutiny of God, that belongs to a soul in sympathy with the sorrowful and in antipathy to the world.
“The second characteristic of true religion is, ‘To keep ourselves unspotted from the world.’ The Bible idea of the world is that it is a dirty thing, not to be meddled with without defilement. Some Christians form a very different notion of it. They think it is lovely, full of sweets, and ‘why shouldn’t they partake of them?’ God contradicts them, and says that the whole style of this world is false and foul. Its politics, its society, its business, its home-habits, are all steeped in pollution. The standard of action everywhere is depraved and vicious. Lying, stealing, and licentiousness lurk under pretty names in all the avenues of worldly life. Such names as shrewdness, business-tact and enterprise, smartness, love of art and grace and beauty, freedom from bigotry, gallantry—these are given to the various devices of selfishness, low cunning, and sensual filth; and so sin by common consent permeates the mass of mankind, refined and unrefined, educated and uneducated alike.
“This the Bible warns us of, and bids us to come out from it all and be entirely separate, as the children of God. It shows us that to touch the unclean thing with our sympathy and conformity, is to daub ourselves with pitch. Christian character is soiled and spoiled by any such contact. We see it glaringly in the lamentable looseness of morals in the way Christians make their money, and a like looseness in the way in which Christians treat the subject of practical purity—initiating their young sons and daughters into the slime of intrigue and immodesty through French novels and lewd operas and semi-nude exhibitions, because, forsooth, high society does it, as if high society was anything else than the devil’s humble servant. How utterly incompatible is all this with Jesus and his pure love! What an infinite distance between this gilded vulgarity and the sublime companionship of the Son of God!
“The Christian is not only to avoid the world, but he is to live so far away from it, that it may not shake any of its filth upon him. Close partnerships with it in any form, are but sure traps to maim and pain the soul. Considerations of money and position are to be left out of view in so great a matter as this, and we must be ready to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Oh! how many fall before this plea of worldly position and success!
“It is a hard plea to resist. A mother has a family of daughters and but scant means. How natural to wink at their going to the theater and frequenting the society of those who make a mock at sin, when wealthy young men seek their society, and visions of large establishments and rich wardrobes fill her brain. A father sees a grand opening for his son in a large and flourishing firm. The members of the firm are notoriously godless, and half their fortune they made by cheating. But what of that? It is too good an opening to be lost. And into it the boy goes, put there by his Christian father, to grow up into the loathsome proportions of a Fisk. Every day these direct defiances of God are ventured on by Christian parents around us. They risk honor and Heaven alike for the glittering bauble, that will rust in their hands. The voice of God comes plainly to his people, ‘Keep yourselves unspotted from the world.’ Be willing to lose all earthly advantages for the sake of Jesus and the truth. Deliberately choose for yourselves and your children poverty and insignificance with a pure heart before God, rather than wealth and honors all tainted with sin—a taint which will never, NEVER, rub out.”
“Brethren, there is no more important subject than this for our city and the church of Christ here. Line upon line and precept upon precept we need, for the whole rush of the torrent is in this direction of ruin. The evil is overrunning our churches. I cannot flatter myself that we are any of us exempt. Oh! for the sake of the pure and blessed Christ—for the sake of your own holiness and happiness—for the sake of your children and their true and lasting welfare—resist the tempter with prayer and determined faith, and exemplify a pure and undefiled religion by visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping yourselves unspotted from the world.”
May the merciful Lord preserve Seventh-day Adventists from any inclination to this popular, formal, soulless worship. The simplicity of Jesus, the power of the Spirit, must be jealously cultivated among us.
D. M. CANRIGHT.

THE RULE IN THE JUDGMENT.

By R. M. Kilgore

“How shall God judge the world?” Rom. 3:6.
The different ages of this world have been marked by varied degrees of light and knowledge. In the several parts of the world, at the same time, the human family are found living under widely different circumstances. In one, no written law or rule of action is found, while in another, literature abounds, law is promulgated and expounded. In one part, the light of the glorious gospel of the Son of God is shining; in another, the clouds and fog of ignorance hang over the idolatrous nations. There are also different “dispensations,”in which God’s people have lived. In one they were left without a written revelation of the will of their Creator; in another they were “shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed;” while in another they are not surrounded with types and shadows, but dwell where “the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.”
The Scriptures declare that God “hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world.” Acts 17:31. That this judgment will be strictly personal there can be no question. The apostle says, “We shall all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:10–12. There must be some rule of judgment by which to determine the characters of this innumerable throng. The rule by which they were required to live and develop character in this life must be that standard. It would be unjust to try their cases by any other. Then one of two things must be true,—(1) God will have several different standards, adapted to each of these several ages or dispensations, or (2) He will judge all men by the same standard.
The first of these is certainly out of harmony with Him who is a God of order; the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; a God who changes not, and sees the end from the beginning. Can we for a moment suppose that God will judge the antediluvian and the patriarchal world by one rule, the Jewish by another, and the Christian by still another? This would be pre-eminently absurd. Yet this is, really, the ground occupied by some teachers of the present day. They tell us that the great moral code of God’s government, the ten commandments, was not promulgated prior to its announcement on Mt. Sinai, and that the same was abolished at the crucifixion of Christ.
If this be true, then we must conclude that those living in these different periods were governed by three different moral codes, and therefore, in the Judgment, must be summoned to appear at separate tribunals or before the same bar with different standards of judgment. And then, what do we behold when these cases are all adjusted, and the good of all ages receive their reward? There are Abel, Enoch, and Noah, in the kingdom of God, with characters developed according to one code of morals; while Abraham, Moses, and Daniel reveal characters of a different nature; and Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley appear there, forever and ever, with characters formed by another standard of morality. Who can believe it?
How much more reasonable is the view that God will have but one standard in the Judgment! It is the same God that created all men that will be their Judge. He changes not, neither is there in him any variableness or shadow of turning. His decrees are unalterable. His purposes will be carried out. He made man, and placed him on probation, subject to law, by which he might develop an upright and holy character. In order for man to do this, he must have a perfect rule to walk by. This he has given. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” God said to Abraham, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” This rule will be a transcript of the divine mind, reflecting the character of the great Creator.
The purpose of God in the creation of man in his own image was that man should glorify him. It is the duty of the creature to love supremely, his Creator; hence the command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Deut. 6:5. This is the reasonable service of every one of God’s intelligent creatures. A change in dispensations could not affect, under any considerations, their obligation in this respect. Nothing less than this will be required throughout an unending eternity.
But man failed to fulfill perfectly the object of his creation. He ceases to love his Creator, and obeys a usurper. He now is a sinner, weakened by transgression. The curse of God rests upon him. He must return back to the dust from whence he was taken. He is lost. But the promise of a Saviour is announced through the “seed of the woman.” Hope revives as the plan of salvation is revealed. Now, to suit man in his fallen estate, that law which was affirmative in its requirements is now drawn out in a negative form, to shield man from the evil that would befall him. God sees that man would be active, always doing something; and, to keep him in the paths of virtue, he commands, “Thou shalt not,” “Thou shalt not.” By obeying these restrictions, the creature is in harmony with the Creator, and manifests that love which “is the fulfilling of the law.”
God has implanted the principles of this law in the hearts of all men; and though some may have a more perfect copy than others, yet every one will be judged according to that portion of the law which is found upon his heart, and the obedience given to it, which will be seen by his life record, found in the “book of remembrance” above. The reason why the heathen, who have not heard of Christ, will be lost, is because they have not done that which they knew to be right, and have done what they knew to be wrong. They daily violate that copy of the law which they have upon their hearts. Paul says, “There is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without [the written] law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the [written] law shall be judged by the [written] law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Rom. 2:11–16.
And lest we should conclude that the heathen might escape the judgment of God because they did not have the written law, he parenthetically throws in these words: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the [written] law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the [written] law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” Rom. 2:11–16. This scripture clearly teaches that, in the Judgment, if any shall be found who were doers of the law, and never had sinned, they shall be justified by the law. They were not transgressors, the law cannot condemn them. But such cannot be found, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
But some will say, Can God be just, and condemn the heathen? That is just what Paul asked when he spoke as a man. “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?” He answers, “God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?” Rom. 3:5, 6. Of those Gentiles who had slanderously reported against him, he says, their “damnation is just.” Now, why? Let Paul answer. “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” Rom. 3:8–11.
As if to settle this forever, the apostle adds in the 19th verse, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” The margin reads, “subject to the judgment of God.”
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law cannot justify the transgressor. All who shall be justified in the Judgment will have sought it through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour; through his righteousness and not their own, that through faith in his blood, God “might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
The declarations of the Scriptures, throughout, are such as to lead us to conclude that but one rule of judgment will be found in the great day of final account, when every one shall receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The Psalmist, in the 119th psalm, speaks of the “judgments” of God more than twenty times, referring to the law as the standard in the Judgment. He says, “My tongue shall speak of thy word; for all thy commandments are righteousness. Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Again, “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. 96:13.
The wise man says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14. “Yes, that will do,” says the antinomian disciple, “for those who lived in the days of David and Solomon, when the law was binding.” We ask, By what law would you have them judged, if the law was abolished by the death of Christ? Will the law have a resurrection, or will you have them judged by an old dead law? A law repealed, without a saving clause, cannot condemn. Again: What will you do with the words of Christ when magnifying the sixth commandment, when he says, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment”? Then it is revealed that he was a murderer. And James, after quoting two of the ten commandments, exhorts us still, so to speak and so to do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Jas. 2:12. R. M. KILGORE.

LONGINGS

By Lilla D. Avery

I long to see that land Where sorrow is unknown, To clasp my Saviour’s hand, And list the music grand Of that bright angel band Around the pearly throne.
I long to pluck the flowers In Eden’s garden rare, Exchange this world of ours, Where oft the tempest lowers, For bright immortal bowers, So beauteous and fair.
I long to know my King, My blessed Lord to see. I long his praise to sing Till Zion’s hills shall ring, And adoration bring To him who died for me.
Ye Spirits of delight, Around the eternal throne, In that fair world of light, Where all is pure and bright, Where somber shades of night Forever are unknown,—
Do ye not sometimes fly To this dark world so drear, To wipe the tearful eye, To soothe the mourner’s sigh? Do ye not leave the sky, To whisper words of cheer?
I fain would bid you stay, Sweet messengers of love, O tarry here I pray, Nor haste your flight away To those bright realms of day And fadeless joy above.
E’en now by faith I see The city’s glittering towers. My spirit longs to be From earth’s dark shadows free, Enjoy life’s healing tree, And gather fadeless flowers.
I know my hope is sure, That my reward is nigh. What though earth’s joys allure If I may but endure, And gain that heaven pure, In that “Sweet by and by”?
LILLA D. AVERY.
Locke, Ing. Co., April 21, 1877.

WHOM WILL YOU SERVE?

By Mary E. Doble

“No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matt. 6:24. A master is one whom we serve, either as a willing servant, or a bond servant. We cannot be a devoted servant to two masters, however near alike they may be; for while our time is employed in serving one, we must neglect the other. And if we cannot serve as masters two men, who may be very near alike, how utterly impossible it is for us to serve God and mammon! therefore, as we cannot serve both, we must serve one or the other alone. Mammon, which is riches or the lust of this world, has a great many subjects. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” 1 Tim. 6:10.
If we are employed in the service of God we must serve him with our whole heart. We may not serve God awhile, and sin awhile, for such service is not acceptable in his sight. But what is it to serve God? Is it to spend our time, our talent, and our money for improper and needless food to satisfy our pampered appetites, for that which only feeds the craving and makes it harder to be resisted than before? Is it to spend our time in the pursuit of foolish literature, which only poisons the mind? or is it to be devoted to the service of that powerful goddess, fashion, who has no power save through our weakness, who through that weakness is mighty?
Is this the service of God? Is not this the service in which a great many of us who are professing to be the servants of God are engaged? Let us look to this thing. We may think we serve God. We may pray sometimes, we may read the Bible, we may attend public worship, and we may give a small portion of our substance to the support of the gospel; but is it not too much our aim to get something good to eat, and something nice to wear? This is certainly not the Bible standard for serving God. Then what is? “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
This visiting of the fatherless and widows is a duty easy to be understood; but the duty to keep ourselves unspotted from the world is very broad. Now what is meant here by the world? Christ says, “I pray not for the world, but for those thou hast chosen out of the world.” Then the world are those that God has not chosen. God has not chosen the rich of this world, but the poor, being rich in faith. Then those that are not rich in faith, are called the world. These are they which are engaged in sin instead of the service of God. Then to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, we must not engage in the sins of the world. There are sins of commission, and also of omission. We are not only to restrain from doing evil, but we are to do good. Meroz was cursed because the inhabitants came not up to the help of the Lord. So will it be with us if we stand idle. Christ says, Go labor in my vineyard; and the apostle says, As much as in you lies, do good to all men; and also, He which converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death. How can we expect to hear the “well done” if we have not been faithful?
Let us consider this matter, and see whom we had better serve. If mammon be our god, and we must serve it, there is no use in trying to serve the living God, for we cannot serve both; but if the Lord be our God, let us serve him, that we may not hear the sentence, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
MARY E. DOBLE.

IMMORTALITY

THE denial of the immortality of the soul is the denial of what can stand the test of neither reason nor Scripture. It is not the denial of anything attaching to human dignity, for it never did attach in any conceivable sense to mankind. It is passing strange that immortality, or the duration of being without end, should be so commonly referred to as the most distinguished mark of human nature, to deny which is declared to be a degrading of man to the level of the brute beasts. Is it not more truthful to say that the possession of a mental and moral constitution in which man resembles the Being who created him, and differs so vastly from the creatures beneath him, comprises man’s pre-eminence and distinction?
Immortality, in the only sense in which it is applicable to man, is deathlessness—a duration of being without end. Is man pre-eminently a nobler being than the inferior animals because he has a longer lease of life than they? Is longevity to take the wall of mental and moral greatness? Then must it be true that he is most dignified who lives the longest, so that a man who lives thirty or forty years in the world is more dignified (in this life) than he who lives twenty. If there is such remarkable dignity in mere duration, then to what dignity must some animals, and even trees, arrive, a dignity super-eminent above that of man, in many cases; for there are animalsand trees which survive the life of man. We shall need to adopt a new classification in our natural history, if longevity is to take so distinguished a place; for the inferior animals must be brought to the same standard, and that must be reputed the noblest animal who lives the longest. The swift and stately tiger must give place to the creeping tortoise, and the majestic lion must abdicate his throne in favor of his liege subjects of the forest. It must surely be apparent that the denial to man of immortality as his actual privilege, cannot be equivalent to the degrading of him to a level with the beasts that perish, inasmuch as it denies no constitutional characteristic, but only an alleged circumstance of his being.—Eng. Christian Examiner.

USEFULNESS IN THE WORLD.

By J. H. Rogers

We are living in a world where, and at a time when, a broad field of usefulness is opened before us. Then why be idle, especially when “time’s career is closing”? Is it not reasonable that man, who is “made a little lower than the angels,” to whom the whole creation ministers, should live, not for the good of himself, but for others? God has written upon all his works, “Be useful to all around you.” The flowers that sweeten the air, the rain that freshens the earth, the mighty sun which cheers and gives light to all the millions of earth, declare that none of us should live unto ourselves. If we would understand these things, we should find that true enjoyment consists in ministering to the happiness or good of others. We should aim to make all happy and agreeable; we should in some way show ourselves benefactors to our fellow-men. Be useful in the world.
Then why complain about life and life’s circumstances? for it is only by contentment we may smooth the way over its roughness; for
“The road may be rough, but it cannot be long; I’ll smooth it with hope, and I’ll cheer it with song.”
Dear brother, sister, do not murmur. Complaining is useless; fretting is a sin; to repine shows a lack of confidence and trust in God. Some people are weary of life on account of these things; they show that their hearts are not right toward God on account of his providences. Fault-finding people are an unruly element in society; and the world around them is all a discordant jar. It is so in the family, the school, and the church. How much superior is a cheerful and happy mind! You can never be useful while murmuring and complaining.
Others are always “out of sorts.” The weather is always wrong. It don’t suit them, nor can it. It is too wet for this, too dry for that; does not rain when it should, and when it does rain it rains too long. This is the way with not a few persons who vainly imagine they are good Christians, while they are full of murmuring and complaint against the providence of God. They need conversion and the genuine grace of God in their souls. In order to be useful and cast a healthful influence around them, they must cease their murmuring, and try to realize that contentment is a continual feast.
Then, again, some seem to act as though there was no real service intended for them. They follow an idle, listless, aimless, go-easy sort of life. God did not intend us to rust out, but to be useful in the world. We have a work to perform; and “cheerful activity” should be the motto. There is something to do in order to be a worthy citizen in this world. We owe a great deal to the community in which we live, to the church and the world at large.
He who does nothing is a cipher, has not answered the great object for which he was sent into the world—is a mere blank in creation.
“This life to toil is given; And he improves it best, Who seeks by patient labor To enter into rest.”
J. H. Rogers.
Memphis, Mo.

MOODY'S ANSWERS.

THE following are some of the questions handed to Mr. Moody at the Boston Tabernacle, with his replies to the same:—
“How can we get more life into our prayer-meetings?” Get more into yourselves first. It is a good thing to get prayer-meetings out of the ruts sometimes. Let the place of meeting be well ventilated and warmed, and cheerful. Let the prayers be short.
“How would you get a church to work?” Go to work yourself.
“Do you think it best to advertise religious services?” Certainly. We should learn from the world. Advertising is wise in business, and does more good than harm to religion.
“Is there any danger of preaching too much to the careless and too little to the unconverted?” I would go for the careless every time; and then I would attend to the unconverted. There is not much encouragement in going over a cold church to reach the world.
“How would you cure a chronic fault-finding church member?” Get him into the prayer-meeting and pray with him till the devil is cast out.
“May not a minister be too personal in his preaching?” Well, I don't know. Personal preaching is very effective. It is well to wake a man up, if he is asleep. A hunch from the elbow may save a soul.
“Would you encourage young converts to become communicants?” If they feel sure they are converted, I would.
“How can gambling in our churches be cured?” Have no festivals. There is no gambling at prayer-meetings.
“Would you encourage young converts to speak in meeting?” Yes.

THE INQUISITION IN THE 13TH CENTURY.

By A. O. Burrill

[The following from Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, b. 3, chap. 5, p. 2, may be of interest to the readers of the Review. A. O. Burrill.]
“The persons arraigned before this tribunal, besides those mentioned in the text, were the abettors, encouragers, and protectors of heretics, the blasphemers, and such as resisted the officers of the Inquisition, or interrupted them in the discharge of their duties. A person became suspected of heresy if he said anything that might offend others; if he missed the sacraments or other sacred things; if he treated the images with disrespect; if he possessed, read, or gave to others to read, books prohibited by the Inquisition; if he said mass or heard confessions without being in orders; if he attended, even for once, the preaching of heretics; if he did not appear before the Inquisition as soon as he was cited; if he showed any kindness to a heretic, or aided him in making his escape. Abettors of heresy were those who harbored heretics or did not give them up; those who spoke to arrested heretics, without permission, or even trafficked with heretics.
“When the Inquisition discovered a transgressor of their laws, either by common report or by their spies or by an informer, he was cited three times to appear before them; and if he did not appear he was forthwith condemned. It was safest to appear on the first citation; because the longer a man delayed, the more guilty he would be; and the Inquisition had their spies and a thousand concealed ways for getting an absconding heretic into their power. When a supposed heretic was once in the hands of the Inquisition, no one dared to inquire after him, or write to him, or intercede for him. When everything belonging to the person seized was in their hands, then the process began; and it was protracted in the most tedious manner.
“After many days, and perhaps months, which the accused dragged out in a loathsome dungeon, the keeper of the prison asked him, as if it were accidentally, if he wished to have a hearing. When he appeared before his judges, they inquired, just as if they knew nothing about him, who he was, and what he wanted. If he wished to be informed what offense he had committed, he was admonished to confess his faults himself. If he confessed nothing, time was given him for reflection, and he was remanded to prison. If after a long time allowed him he still confessed nothing, he must swear to answer truly to all the questions put to him. If he would not swear, he was condemned without further process. If he swore to give answer, he was questioned in regard to his whole life, without making known to him his offense.
“He was however promised a pardon if he would truly confess his offenses,—an artifice this by which his judges often learned more than they knew before, against him. At last the charges against him were presented to him in writing; and counsel also was assigned him, who, however, only advised him to confess fully his faults. The accuser and informer against him were not made known to him, but the real charges against him were put into his hands. He was allowed time for his defense, but his accuser and the witnesses against him, he could know only by conjecture.
“Sometimes he was so fortunate as to discover who they were; but rarely were they presented before him, and confronted with him. If his answers did not satisfy the judges or if the allegations against him were not adequately proved, resort was had to torture, a transaction which well-nigh exceeded the sufferings endured by the first Christians when persecuted by the pagans.
The torture was by ropes, by water, and by fire. The rope was passed under the arms, which were tied behind the back of the accused. By this rope he was drawn up into the air with a pulley, and there left to swing for a time, and then suddenly let fall to within half a foot of the ground, by the shock of which fall all his joints were dislocated.
“If he still confessed nothing, the torture by water was tried. After making him drink a great quantity of water, he was laid upon a hollowed bench; across the middle of this bench a stick of timber passed, which kept the body of the offender suspended and caused him most intense pain in the backbone. The most cruel torture was by fire, in which his feet, being smeared with grease, etc., were directed towards a hot fire and the soles of them left to burn till he would confess.
“Each of these tortures was continued as long as, in the judgment of the physician of the Inquisition, the man was able to endure it. He might now confess what he would, but still the torture would be repeated, first to discover the object and motives of the acknowledged offenses, and then to make him expose his accomplices. If when tortured he confessed nothing, many snares were laid to elicit from him unconsciously his offenses. The conclusion was that the accused, when he seemed to have satisfied the judges, was condemned, according to the measure of his offenses, to death, or to perpetual imprisonment, or to the galleys, or to be scourged; and he was delivered over to the civil authorities, who were entreated to spare his life, as the church never thirsted for blood; but yet they would experience persecution if they did not carry the decision of the court into execution.
“What an infernal device is this Inquisition! What innocent person could escape destruction if an inquisitor was disposed to destroy him? A heretic, even if he had been acquitted by the pope himself, might still be condemned to die by the Inquisition. An equivocal promise of pardon might be given to induce him to make confession; but the promise must not be fulfilled when the object of it was obtained.
“Even death did not free a person from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition; for a deceased heretic must be burned in effigy. The inquisitorial judges do not deny that by such proceedings many innocent persons unavoidably perish, along with the guilty; but this does not trouble them. Better, say they, that a hundred good Catholics should be cut off and go to paradise, than to let one heretic escape, who might poison many souls and plunge them in endless perdition.”
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