Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 30, 1883
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
Luther's Second Answer Before the Diet.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
WHEN Luther was again ushered into the presence of the diet, his countenance bore no trace of fear or embarrassment. Humble and peaceful, yet grandly brave and noble, he stood as God's witness among the great ones of earth.
The imperial officer now demanded his decision concerning the second question,—whether he was prepared to defend his books as a whole, or desired to retract any part of them.
Luther made his answer in a subdued and humble tone, without violence or passion. His demeanor was diffident and respectful, yet he manifested a confidence and joy that surprised the assembly.
After imploring the indulgence of the diet if by reason of his secluded, monastic life he should neglect any of the customary proprieties of courtly address, he observed that his published works were not all of the same character. In some he had treated of faith and good works with such plainness and Christian simplicity that even his enemies were obliged to confess them not only harmless but profitable. To retract these would be to condemn truths which all parties confessed.
The second class of these works were directed against popery, exposing those who by their teaching and example were corrupting all Christendom, both in body and soul. No one, said he, can deny nor conceal that by the laws and doctrines of the popes the consciences of Christians are held in bondage, burdened and tormented, and that the property and wealth of Christendom, especially of the German nation, are devoured by the incredible rapacity of Rome. Were I to revoke what I have written on this subject, what should I do but strengthen this tyranny, and open a wider door to so many and great impieties?
The third class of his books were written against individuals who undertook the defense of Romish tyranny, and the overthrow of the doctrines which he had inculcated. Concerning these he said, I freely confess that I have been more violent than was becoming. I do not think myself386a saint; but even these books I cannot revoke, because in so doing I should sanction the impieties of my opponents, and they would then take occasion to crush God's people with still greater cruelty.
But, he continued, as I am a mere man, and not God, I will defend myself as did Christ, who said, "If I have spoken evil bear witness against me." By the mercy of God, I implore your imperial majesty, or any one else who can, whoever he may be, to prove to me from the writings of the prophets that I am in error. As soon as I shall be convinced, I will instantly retract all my errors, and will be the first to cast my books into the fire.
What I have just said, I think will clearly show that I have well considered and weighed the dangers to which I am exposing myself; but far from being dismayed by them, I rejoice exceedingly to see the gospel this day as of old a cause of disturbance and disagreement. It is the character and destiny of God's word. Said Christ, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." God is wonderful and awful in his counsels. Let us have a care lest in our endeavors to arrest discords we be found to fight against the holy word of God, and bring down upon our heads a frightful deluge of inextricable dangers, present disaster, and everlasting desolations. Let us have a care lest the reign of the young and noble prince, the Emperor Charles, on whom, next to God, we build so many hopes, should not only commence, but continue and terminate its course, under the most fatal auspices. I might cite examples drawn from the oracles of God. I might speak of Pharaohs, of kings of Babylon or of Israel, who were never more contributing to their own ruin than when, by measures in appearance most prudent, they thought to establish their authority. God removeth the mountains, and they know not.
In speaking thus, I do not suppose that such noble princes have need of my poor judgment; but I wish to acquit myself of a duty that Germany has a right to expect from her children. And so, commending myself to your august majesty, and your most serene highnesses, I beseech you, in all humility, not to permit the hatred of mine enemies to rain upon me an indignation I have not deserved.
Luther had spoken in German; he was requested to repeat the same words in Latin. The German tongue did not please the emperor, nor was it readily comprehended by the Spanish and Italian courtiers. Though much exhausted by the previous effort, Luther complied with the request, and repeated his speech in Latin with the same clearness and energy as at the first. God in his providence directed in this matter. The minds of many of the princes were so blinded by error and superstition that at the first delivery they did not see the force of Luther's reasoning, but the repetition enabled them to perceive with great clearness the points presented. The Spirit of God set home the truth, and a deep and lasting impression was made. The Reformation had gained a victory which would tell with great power against the papacy.
But those who stubbornly closed their eyes to the light, who were determined not to be convinced of the truth, were enraged at the power of Luther's words. Of this class was the spokesman of the diet. As Luther ceased speaking, this official said angrily, "You have not given any answer to the inquiry put to you. You are not to question the decision of the councils; you are required to return a clear and distinct answer. Will you, or will you not retract?"
Luther answered firmly, "Since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one; and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils; because it is as clear as day that they have often erred and contradicted each other. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons; if I am not satisfied by the very texts that I have cited; and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything, for it cannot be right for a Christian to speak against his conscience." Then turning his eyes upon the assembly before which he stood, and which held his life in their hands, he said, "Here I stand, I can do no other. May God help me! Amen!"
So stands this righteous man upon the sure foundation, the prophets and apostles, Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. Firm and fearless at his post of duty is the great Reformer. Faithful among the faithless, unheeding the storms of malice and revenge, he stands a mighty cedar of Lebanon among the trees of the forest. While the passions and pollutions of the multitude surge around him like waves of the great deep, he stands, a Heaven-sent beacon, to warn the imperiled mariner of the hidden shoal and the rocky shore.
Luther knows not what may be his fate; but he knows that the cause of truth can never fail, and he is ready to die, if need be, knowing that by death he may serve the truth better than by his life. Light from the throne of God illuminated his countenance. His greatness and purity of character, his peace and joy of heart, were manifest to all, as he testified against the power of error, and witnessed to the superiority of that faith that overcomes the world.
When the Reformer ceased speaking, the whole assembly were for a time motionless with amazement. Several of the princes were charmed with his frankness and nobility of soul. The emperor himself, deeply impressed, exclaimed, "The monk speaks with an intrepid heart and unshaken courage." The Spaniards and Italians were confounded, and began to ridicule that moral grandeur which their base and unprincipled minds could not comprehend.
The partisans of Rome had been worsted; their cause appeared in a most unfavorable light. They sought to maintain their power, not by appealing to the Scriptures to show Luther the error of his course, but by a resort to threats, Rome's unfailing argument. Said the spokesman of the diet, angrily addressing Luther, "If you do not retract, the emperor and the States of the empire will proceed to consider how to deal with an obstinate heretic."
Luther's friends, who had with great joy listened to his noble defense, trembled at these words; but the doctor himself said firmly, "May God be my helper! for I can retract nothing."
Luther then withdrew, while the princes consulted. When he was called in again, their orator thus addressed him, "Martin, you have not spoken with that humility which befits your condition. The distinction you have drawn as to your works was needless; for if you retracted such as contain errors, the emperor would not allow the rest to be burned. It is absurd to require to be refuted by Scripture, when you have been revising heresies condemned by the General Council of Constance. The emperor therefore commands you to say simply, Yes, or No, whether you mean to affirm what you have advanced, or whether you desire to retract any part thereof."
Luther replied calmly, "I have no other answer to give than that I have already given."
They understood him perfectly. Firm as a rock he stood, while the fiercest billows of worldly power beat harmlessly against him. The simple energy of his words, his fearless bearing, his calm, speaking eye, and the unalterable determination expressed in every word and act, made a deep impression upon the assembly. There was no longer the slightest hope that he could be induced, either by promises or threats, to yield to the mandate of Rome. The monk had triumphed over the rulers of this world.
Charles the Fifth rose from his seat, and the whole assembly rose at the same time. "The diet will meet again to-morrow morning to hear the emperor's decision," announced the chancellor. There were many in that company actuated by the same spirit which inspired the Pharisees of old. They thirsted for the blood of him whose arguments they could not controvert. Yet Luther, understanding his danger, had spoken to all with Christian dignity and calmness. His words had been free from pride, passion, and misrepresentation. He lost sight of himself, and of the great men surrounding him, and felt only that he was in the presence of One infinitely superior to popes, prelates, kings, and emperors. And Christ, reigning in Luther's heart, spoke through his testimony with a power and grandeur that for the time inspired both friends and foes with awe and wonder. The converting power of God was in that council, impressing the hearts of the chiefs of the empire.
The pope's adherents, feeling that they had been defeated, angrily asked why the chancellor of the diet had not sooner interrupted the guilty monk. Several of the princes openly acknowledged the justice of Luther's cause. Many were convinced of the truth; but with some the impressions received were not lasting. The seed sown had not much deepness of earth, and the heat of opposition caused it to wither away. There was another class who did not at the time express their convictions, but who, having searched the Scriptures for themselves, at a future time declared with great boldness for the Reformation.
The Elector Frederic had looked forward with anxiety to Luther's appearance before the diet, and with deep emotion he listened to his speech. He rejoiced at the doctor's courage, firmness, and self-possession, and was proud of being his protector. He contrasted the parties in contest; on the one hand the world and the church, in all their pride and power, and on the other a single obscure monk; and he saw the wisdom of popes, kings, and prelates brought to naught by the power of truth. The papacy had sustained a defeat which would be felt among all nations and in all ages.
ROCK OF AGES, SAFE IN THEE.
WHILE upon life's heaving ocean, foam-crest billows rise and fall,
Passion's tempests beat around us, lightning shafts our hearts befall;
And before us fiery trials burden o'er life's troubled sea,
Keep us through the trying ordeal, Rock of Ages, safe in Thee.
Weak I am, but thou art able all my sorrow to assuage.
Thou canst cleanse the blotted sin-drops from life's dark and checkered page;
When I err through folly wandering, thy blest precepts may I see,
Leading me in wisdom's pathway, Rock of Ages, safe to Thee.
Oft our courage fails, and trembling we despair in mazes dark,
And forget that there is succor for the weak in mercy's ark;
But when, Peter-like, we're sinking in the surges of the sea,
Take us by the hand and lead us, Rock of Ages, safe to Thee.
Earth's decaying; moss-grown tombstones fill the vales and mountains hoar;
Nations rise, but soon they perish, gone like breakers on the shore;
Beauty fades and riches perish, all is fleeting that I see.
Fix me on a sure foundation, Rock of Ages, safe on Thee.
Last day perils thicken round us, lust pollutes the worldling's heart,
And the moral air is murky, all of earth is drear and dark;
But beyond earth's deep pollution, realms of purity I see,
May we there find rest forever, Rock of Ages, rest in Thee.
—Unknown.
Man's Primitive Condition.
By J. B. Drury
REV. J. B. DRURY, D. D., by the appointment of the General Synod of the Reformed Church, delivered the Vedder course of lectures before the faculties and students of the Theological Seminary and Rutger's College. His subject, "Evolution," was treated with admirable discrimination, and in the light of the best thought from many points of view. The following is a condensed statement of his fourth lecture on "Man's Primitive Condition:"—
It is essential in any theory of mechanical evolution, which makes man only a modification of the anthropoid ape, that his original condition be a brute-like savagery. Hence, much research and learning has been expended on the endeavor to substantiate this postulate. Man's reason, self-determining will, and moral sense have marked him as so widely separated from the brutes that the effort has confessedly failed. This is conceded by many who believe in the ability of natural selection or uncontrolled evolution to account for the previous steps in the process. Notably, Alfred R. Wallace maintains it is inapplicable to man. His argument from the size of man's brain, the loss of such useful peculiarities as the hairy covering for the back, and the prehensile character of the feet, the long undeveloped potentialities of the human hand and voice, his intellectual and moral attributes, has never been satisfactorily met.
The question is to be settled only by a careful examination of facts. Evidence as to original condition to be decisive must be looked for in man's original home. For evolutionists concede
the unity of the race, and ethnologists have fixed his original habitat on the plateaux of Central Asia. There, if anywhere, the records of his primitive state are to be found. Thus far there has been produced no proof of a stone age, prior to all others, as existing either at the original center or in the countries adjacent. The oldest remains discovered in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile, in India or China, tell of an advanced civilization rather than savagery. The relics relied upon to demonstrate the condition of primitive man are gathered from the scenes of his migration, and are confined to western Europe. Even there is found nothing to betoken a half-man and half-brute condition. The earliest crania, as the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, Huxley concedes denote no inferiority of mental capacity. The smaller of the two had a brain measurement nearly double that of the highest of the apes. Existing savages, as well as the oldest remains of man, give no shadow of evidence that there has ever existed a connecting link between men and brutes.
Man everywhere gives evidence of capacity for improvement; possesses all the essential elements, as speech, reason, and moral sense, of a true humanity. Present savage races when brought under the influence of civilization and religion for only a short time prove this. Savagery expresses the conditions or environment under which the struggle for existence is carried on, not innate capacity. Man everywhere wages successfully the warfare against unpropitious circumstances and natural enemies. His devices, utensils, and weapons, when viewed in the light of his surroundings and condition, will be found well adapted to his need. They are found, however, widely separated by distance or time, to be substantially alike in principles, form, and even ornamentation; showing that men in the same circumstances or conditions meet their necessities in practically the same way, thus manifesting that men are made to differ through circumstances rather than natural capacity.
Robinson Crusoe, deprived of his wreck, despite his acquaintance with civilization, would have begun and continued life on his island in the same way as the savage, and it may be doubted if he would have waged the struggle for existence as successfully.
There is no particular objection to the division of civilization into the Palæolithic and Neolithic Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages, as has been proposed as the consequence of the study of prehistoric remains of western Europe, provided they may be considered expressive of condition, and not of succession in time. They denote the severity of the struggle for existence, degree of isolation, and absence of division of labor, and give no reliable evidence of antiquity. The evidence increases of large contemporaneousness in northern and western Europe, and is almost conclusive as to their existence, at the same time as a high civilization in the older houses of the race. The palæolithic and neolithic men of the drift and the caves were the crowded or driven out members of the older communities, and most probably the ancestors of what history calls the Iberian and Celtic races. The ages of stone, and bronze, and iron passed one into the other just as the severity of the struggle for existence relaxed, and the barriers of isolation were broken down. The bronze age, in the very materials of which the metal is composed, and the shape and form of its articles, is demonstrably the result of commerce with the older seats of civilization.
The ages were not only frequently contemporaneous, but merged rapidly one into the other, and the stone often followed as well as preceded the bronze. This has been conclusively demonstrated by Schleimann's excavations on the sites of ancient Troy and Mycenæ. There has been degradation as well as progress. Civilizations have been lost as well as gained. Indeed, the two processes go on side by side.
Society has its waifs and wrecks as well as its successful ventures. When in the severity of competition men are crowded out and down, when called upon to live away from the appliances of civilization, there is ever a reversion to that which is simple and unexacting in skill and labor. This Dr. Mitchell has well shown in his admirable book "The Past in the Present." But more than all else the mechanical evolutionist's theory of a slow and gradual upward progress of man from a brute-like condition is negatived by a true conception of human progress. The advances of
the past fifty years have fostered the idea that as men we are far in advance of all who have lived in the past; that we are in the midst of a continuous, universal, and unlimited upward progress.
But a little reflection will show all this a mistake. What we call progress is only an advance in particular and narrow lines. It is by discoveries—leaps. A new force is applied, a new device introduced, and it works a wide-reaching revolution in certain directions. But in a short time the full effects are reached, the potentialities are exhausted, and progress ceases. The great advances of the nineteenth century have been largely due to the applications of steam. One or at most two generations, sufficed to exhaust its capabilities, and for twenty-five years nothing new has been added. Every labor-saving invention—the spinning jenny, the sewing machine, the reaper and mower, reaches in a generation or two relative perfection, and thenceforth the world is richer for the devices, but progress ceases.
We are now busy examining the capabilities and applications of electricity. The progress has been and is wonderful. But it requires no prophet to predict that fifty years will suffice to perfect the analysis and reach the limits of its potentialities. The most essential and valuable of inventions and discoveries are of hoary antiquity, and have had nothing added to them for thousands of years, e.g., bread-making, the making of pottery, the mechanical powers, etc. Changes of condition cause often the loss of valuable practices and arts. Many a so-called modern discovery is only a re-discovery, and it is often found that the ancient artisan was the superior of the modern. The true conception of progress shows us that condition of civilization is no criterion by which to measure the lapse of time or the capabilities and powers of man as man.
Civilization is dependent on causes which affect the severity of the struggle for existence, and the relation of men and communities to each other. The civilization which is in the van of all that of the past and which is peculiarly modern, has its source, it is not difficult to show, in the influence of the gospel of Christ on the social relations of man. Certain it is that man came on the scene of earth in the plenitude of his powers. His primitive condition was not one of low, brute-like savagery. Mechanical evolution cannot account for or explain his civilization.
Triumph at His Coming.
AT the age of seventy-three, Rev. Thomas Rawson Birks, professor of moral theology in Cambridge University, England, died July 22, 1883. He was an able writer, and an earnest "pre-millennialist." In a notice of his death in Messiah's Herald we find the following extract from his book "The Four Prophetic Empires":—
"Will it be a smooth and gradual progress by which the fallen world shall slide into happiness, it knows not how, and, after the storms of six thousand years, like a cradled infant, rock itself to rest? Is it by the common efforts of Christian zeal, so that the church militant of our day may be able to take up the boast of the Assyrian, only of a nobler triumph, and say, 'By the strength of my hand have I done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent?' No, such is not the lesson of past experience; nor are such hopes confirmed by the true sayings of God. A great work is indeed allotted to the church, but of the first-fruits, not of the harvest; of preparation, not of the full triumph. The redemption will be assuredly complete, but will dawn in righteous judgments. It is through a dark cloud that the bow of the covenant will shine forth in its brightness on a fallen world. Before the stone shall become a mountain and fill the whole earth, 'the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold' must be 'broken to pieces together,' and be driven away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. The Son of man must first appear in the clouds of heaven, and his true saints and servants be gathered into his presence, to render their account, and then to receive their kingdom."
The Need for Friendship and Love
Don't live your life alone, without forming friendships and love; poor nature needs love; you were made for it, and other natures need you. You are robbing yourself, you are robbing others, if you live like a hermit. Therefore go into God's world, and live your life for others.
“Private Interpretation.”
By R. F. Cottrell
An apostle has affirmed that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation;” yet many who profess to be guided by the Scriptures persist in seeking for them some allegorical, mystical, or hidden meaning. One of the latter instances that has come under my notice is from a discourse on “The Transfer of the Sabbath,” by Rev. H. A. Duboc, of Tonawanda, N. Y. He said:
“When ‘the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them,’ the ‘morning stars sang together’ and all the sons of God shouted for joy;’ and a day was set apart to commemorate the completion of the Creator’s work. But the prophet Isaiah tells us of another creation more glorious than the first, and more worthy to be had in remembrance: ‘Behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered; nor come into mind; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;’ Isa. 65:17, 18,—alluding to the dawn of the gospel dispensation and to the transfer of the Sabbath to commemorate the work of redemption rather than that of the original creation.”
Mr. Duboc is not alone in this sort of interpretation. Many years since, Dr. Lord, of Buffalo, N. Y., gave a discourse in which he argued in favor of a change of the Sabbath, and alluding to the outpouring of the Spirit on the celebrated day of pentecost, he said: “We behold the new heavens and the new earth, and the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven upon the Christian Sabbath!”
Now Peter, the writer of our text against private interpretation, did not hold with these gentlemen concerning the fulfillment of the promise of the new heavens and earth, given through Isaiah. The apostle wrote about A. D. 66, more than thirty years after “the dawn of the gospel dispensation.” 1 Pet. 3. He says: “There shall come in the last days scoffers.” The subject of their scoffing is the promise of Christ’s coming. They see no signs of it. He refers them to the fact, which they willingly ignore, that the earth was once overflowed with water,—literal water, I suppose. He then affirms of the present heavens and earth, that they are “reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Is it figurative fire? He carries us forward to the day of Judgment; and though the time is so long that men begin to think that such a day never will come, he goes on to assure all that “the day of the Lord will come,” and that in that day “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also.” Mystical earth, do you say? “All these things shall be dissolved,” says he. “Nevertheless,” says he, though the present earth and elements shall be melted, “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
The promise was recorded by Isaiah the prophet; and the apostle, in A. D. 66, was still looking forward for its fulfillment. And what did he see before its fulfillment? He saw the scoffers of the last days disbelieving the evidences of Christ’s second coming, which, in the last days, must be near. He saw “the day of Judgment,” “the coming of the day of God,” the dissolution of the earth and its elements, and “the perdition of ungodly men,” the execution of the decision of the Judgment upon them; and, beyond that, he teaches us to look for the fulfillment of the promise recorded by Isaiah.
And did the prophet predict a transfer of the Sabbath in the new earth? If so, men have got it transferred too soon. And when the new earth, which the apostle looked for on the strength of the promise, does come, it will be too late to institute a memorial of an event which transpired nearly two thousand years in the past.
But the Sabbath will survive and be observed in the endless ages of the new earth. God’s purpose in creating the earth, though for a season seemingly frustrated by sin, will not fail forever. The earth, though melted and purified in the fires of the last day, shall come forth renewed, and be the blessed abode of renewed and redeemed men. “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Isa. 45:18.
And the second Adam, “the Lord from Heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45–47), shall receive “the first dominion” (Micah 4:8), “the uttermost parts of the earth,” for his possession (Ps. 2:8); and having raised his saints from death, and purified “the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14) from sin, sinners, and the curse, he shall stand at the head of the whole earth, as Adam did at the first. The Son of David “shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun.” Ps. 89:36.
The Sabbath truly will be there. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23. There will be no need of a new Sabbath to celebrate the birth of the new earth; for the first creation has not been utterly lost. Man and his habitation have been redeemed and saved. The original Sabbath only can celebrate the Creator’s rest at the close of the first week of time. The song of the morning stars and the shout of all the sons of God were not in vain, when they beheld the work of God in the beautiful creation. That song and that shout will only be renewed when they shall see man and his habitation redeemed, and the original purpose of God carried out.
How beautiful, how harmonious, are all the words of God! They should be taken at par value, and not discounted so largely by private interpretations. When will men cease to trifle with, and caricature, the words of the Most High? When will they yield to his institutions and ordinances, plainly taught in his word, and no longer make the commandments of God of none effect through the traditions, doctrines, and commandments of men? Such unwarrantable liberties taken with the sacred word, by men in high places in the church, only serve to nourish the prevailing and increasing infidelity of our times; for infidels are not slow to follow such examples, and hide their shameless contradictions of that word behind the flimsy fabric of allegorical interpretation. Ye professed men of God, when will you cease to give aid and comfort to the enemies of divine revelation? When will you take the word of the living God by which to correct your false theories, and no longer force that word, by your interpretations, to teach the traditions and commandments of men? This is plain talk; but it is meant only for the good of those who revere the word of God.
Truth is sent into the world to save men, not to condemn them. Yet, rejected, it will be a savor of death unto death. Oh, that I could persuade men to choose life, that they may live!
All flesh have never come to worship God from Sabbath to Sabbath, since Isaiah wrote. But the promise will be fulfilled. When? After sin has been abolished and sinners destroyed. Righteousness only shall dwell in the new earth. Then there will be “no more curse.” Glad day! How cheering the anticipation! Oh, let me share in the fruition.
R. F. COTTRELL.
Tribulation.
"BUT we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom. 5:3-5.
Our tribulation is one of the great influences which God, in his providence, uses to fit us for the glory that awaits us. We need a course of training, and experience to educate the mind and heart, before great power is conferred upon us. We need, also, to be weaned from the love of this present earth.
The history of David before he became king of Israel, abounds in scenes of trials and suffering, both in body and mind. After all his long training in adversity, he was exalted to the throne of Israel. But he seems to have forgotten how Saul abused his power in persecuting him, for the abuse of kingly power was also a weakness of David. For his sins while king the Lord punished him severely. We are told to "despise not the chastening of the Almighty," and Paul says, "Whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth." Job 5:17; Heb. 12:6.
But besides the training, tribulation serves other very important purposes. Concerning Job in his prosperity, Satan says to the Lord: "Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the works of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." If God blessed us with peace, plenty, and earthly honor, for being righteous, then the world might join in with Satan, and say that we were Christians only through worldly policy, and selfish considerations.
Again: Our historic evidence of the reality of the Messiahship of Jesus is firmly built upon the tribulation of the Jewish Christians to whom Jesus said, "And you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." But what would their testimony have been to us if they had not sealed it in great tribulation, and with their hearts' blood? This is strong evidence that Jesus rose from death, and ascended into Heaven. Would the apostles and Jewish disciples have made their lives a continued scene of tribulation, and finally laid down their lives for the testimony which they held, if they had not known for certain that their testimony was true?
"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!"
EPSILON.
“Sabbathismus.”
FROM the Echo de l’Orient of May 23, we glean some interesting news of the Sabbatiens of Transylvania in Europe. Three hundred and fifty years ago, one Simon Pechy, a man of influence, became a zealous Roman Catholic persecutor of Unitarian Christians. Subsequently he became a convert to the doctrine that the ten commandments, including the original Sabbath, are obligatory upon all mankind. He also accepted certain views of the Levitical law which are unpopular with Christians. In his turn he was violently persecuted and fled into Turkey, and died in exile at Constantinople. But he left a people in his native Transylvania, who, in secluded places, maintained a conscientious worship and the observation of the Sabbath. In the judgment of their persecutors it was a grievous sin to profess Christianity while keeping the Sabbath! However, the sect has lived on to the present time.
When freedom of worship was revived in Hungary in 1867, the Sabbatiens applied for the protection of the Government; but they found they had counted without their host. It was “all for us and none for you.” The wrath of the Christian priesthood was aroused, and peremptory terms were offered, in effect as follows: If you persist in keeping the Sabbath and the laws of purification, you must register yourselves as Jews! You cannot be recognized as a religious body outside of Judaism, so long as you keep the Sabbath! Being hard pressed, a portion of them—perhaps all—rather than give up the Sabbath, consented to be registered as Jews. We confess to a great anxiety to hear their own story, and shall not be disappointed to hear of wrongs, insults, and sufferings, endured because of their love for the law of God. To drive men from Christ because they keep the Sabbath, is this the Christianity that is going to save the world? We do not believe it.—Sabbath Memorial.
The Case Against Infant Baptism
An Irish clergyman has published a work on "Infant Baptism." This is claimed as his improved patent:—
"Mr. Robinson makes overpowering use of the principle that what was sanctioned or commanded in the Old Testament is still in force in the Christian Church, unless it is repealed in the New Testament or shown by the example of our Lord or his apostles that it is no longer to be used."
That looks sensible, and if he could only find that "infant baptism" was "sanctioned or commanded" in the Old Testament it would be almost "overpowering." But this is just where his principle cannot be applied, for infant baptism is not in the Old Testament any more than in the New.—Baptist Weekly.
The Christian Use of the Tongue
THERE are many persons who think they are Christians because they have had experience; but they do not feel it to be their Christian duty to use their tongues according to the laws of kindness. Nor do they think, in the confession of their sins, to confess that day in and day out they are making somebody unhappy by the manner in which they use that member.