PREACHING UPON POPULAR PROVERBS.
"Speak the truth and shame the Devil."
"Ho can never be God's martyr who is the devil's servant."
"Neutrals are soused from above and singed from below."
"The way to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem."
"Truth may be blamed, but shall never be shamed." There is a great deal of confusion along the line of fence which divides the good people of this world from the bad. The fence itself is bestridden by an uncounted host, on the right side of which there is a multitude, standing and looking wistfully toward the wrong, and on the wrong side, another multitude looking toward the right. We cannot count those who are undecided in their convictions; still less can we count those who with their convictions correctly formed, have voluntarily chosen a neutral policy, and taken position upon the fence. Undecided, compromising, neutral, negative, these men form a portion of humanity as respectable in numbers as they are contemptible in quality. Asses between two bundles of hay, dogs in the manger—eating not and hindering others from eating—houses divided against themselves, men of putty who always flatten under pressure, men of pewter who never take an edge under any rasping; slaves in the market and tools for the crafty, self-seekers, and self-losers by self-seeking, soused from above and singed from below, these neutrals are as uncomfortable and unhappy in themselves as they are powerless as positive forces in society. Manhood demands that a man shall take a position on the side of truth, and in some way, declare himself in that position. It bids him, if it be necessary to achieve this step, to cut off old companionships, to compromise apparent momentary advantages, to incur enmities, and endure hardships. It demands that he plant himself upon the ground of right; and stand there though all the world forsake him—stand there and fight there if necessary. Self-respect—always requisite for the attainment of the respect of others, is of vastly more value than the respect of others. There can be no manhood without it, and true manhood will always hold it above mercenary advantage, or temporary popularity, or dread of singularity, or personal peace and comfort. A man who voluntarily refrains from taking a position towards which his convictions urge him, because it will disturb pleasant relations or interfere with his pecuniary interest, or compromise his comfort, does not deserve the name of a man. He is always a coward—often a knave. There are always in society two marked classes of neutrals. One of these is, on the whole, more to be pitied than blamed, being composed of men of weak will, with excessive love of approbation and great good nature. It seems to be impossible for them to withstand the fire of opposition from any quarter. They become accustomed to yield or dodge every disputed point. They cannot stand up before a strong will and assert themselves without experiencing emotions akin to guilt. They half doubt their personal right to an opinion. For walking boldly out upon the field of right and wrong and taking a position and maintaining it, they do not appear to have the legs. I say that such men are in some respects the objects of pity, because their mental and moral constitution is at fault. They feel themselves almost obliged to take position on the fence, and spend their lives in bowing in about equal measure to each of the opposition camps—afraid to dismount for fear of being in somebody's way, or treading upon somebody's toes. I suppose there may be the germ of manhood in many of these men, and that it might, under favorable circumstances, be developed; but the most of them consent to be nothing and to be good for nothing while they live, and to die "without an enemy in the world," simply because nobody deems it worth while to be their enemy. The other class is made up of men who in all matters of principle and policy make it a point to take middle ground. They delight to be called "conservative men," but their conservatism always relates to their own reputation and interests. They desire the good opinion of all classes, and imagine that their moderation and their location between two extremes will enable them to use both for the accomplishment of their purposes. They are ambitious of preferment perhaps, or greedy for wealth, or desirous of popularity. They aim to make themselves stronger by drawing to their support the sympathies of all parties, through direct or indirect alliance with all parties. To some of them, "There is something good in all parties"—to others "all parties are equally bad." Others still, convey the impression that they are but passengers in the social vessel, having no interest in ship or cargo, and indifferent as to the name and qualifications of the captain. Now I despise these men—though there may be among them those whose talents I admire. Conservative and reputable, negative, neutral and contemptible, I recognize in them no element of manhood—no chivalry, no bravery, no devotion to conviction, no true self respect, and no supreme love of truth and the right. Humanity demands that a man shall take his position on the side of truth and the right, and maintain it. We look around us and see how positively pronounced are the agencies engaged in the prostitution of humanity. Despotism enforces its power at the lips of the cannon, error preaches upon the mountain-tops, cruelty and wrong work out their ends by systems cunningly devised and openly defended, drunkenness displays its enticements at the corners of the streets, prostitution flaunts its colors in open day and crowds purity from the streets at night; corruption—recognized and unrebuked—riots in the various departments of government, mobs rule cities and perjury presides at the ballot-box. All that ambition, avarice and lust can do to prostitute humanity to their purposes is done and done boldly. Humanity, therefore, demands that all true manhood shall stand boldly pronounced upon the side of right. It demands that the power arrayed against the iniquity and wrong that afflict it shall be positive—that there shall be no middle ground, no neutrality. What manhood and humanity demand so plainly, christianity demands with still greater authority. In christianity there is no middle ground. He that is not for it is against it. There is no such thing as being God's martyr and the devil's servant at the same time. We know those to-day and have known many others, who profess to have a great deal of respect or reverence for religion. I have no doubt that much of this respect is honest, that it is not all a hypocritical pretense. They love to have their families attend church. They never interfere with the religious instruction of their children. They are willing to pay their share towards the support of the institutions of religion. They attend church themselves, perhaps, and shun all profanity and debauchery, but they fail to show their respect for religion by embracing it, receiving it as the ruling element of their life, and declaring themselves to be its adherents and possessors. I suppose that such men imagine that, on the whole they are on the side of religion—that their influence, in the main, is in its favor. They declare with their lips and their intellects that religion is a good thing, while with their hearts and lives they declare that it is not worth personally securing and possessing. How much is such favor as this worth? How valuable is that testimony which the heart and life belie? Ah, no! There is no middle ground here. It is either everything or nothing. Christianity asks for no man's patronage, and seeks for no man's favor. It is something given, for man to accept or reject, as he may see fit. It is something bestowed, for a man to incorporate into his own life if he will. It is an infinite favor from an infinite benefactor, and does not go around seeking the endorsement of those who do not care enough about it to receive it. To all those who decline to make its personal acquaintance, it says: "Take me or leave me. No service that you can render me by words and patronizing deeds, can counterbalance the contempt which you manifest by refusing to me a dwelling place2in your heart. I ask for no friends, and I can possibly have none, who are not willing to take me into their life, and acknowledge me to the world. I reign supreme, or I reign not at all. If you fail to accept me, you reject me, and are to all intents and purposes, my enemy. If I can do nothing for you personally, then you can do nothing for me. If you gather not with me, you scatter abroad." There is another class for whom Christianity has no more favors than for this—a class which holds a relation to christianity no more honorable than this. I refer to those who profess to be christians, but who accommodate themselves, their thoughts, habits, pleasures and pursuits—to whatever society may envelope them. They are exceedingly pious at a prayer-meeting, and uncommonly sharp in business; devotedly attendant on public religious services of the Sabbath, and very forgetful of their religious obligations during the week; perfectly at home in a respectable carousel, not particularly conscientious in their politics, careless in the use of their neighborhood names, indulgent often in a kind of mongrel profanity—a cross between slang and swearing—that would be wicked if it dared to be, and meanly powerless always before the scoffs and bold iniquities of the infidel and the scoundrel. Riding the horse of selfishness with a christian profession in one pocket of their saddle-bags and a worldly life in the other, sailing the sea of life with religious papers and a black flag, professedly bound to Jerusalem, yet taking the well known Babylon road, these men occupy, in fact, no neutral ground. They are not for christianity, but against it. There is still another class; and in the history of christianity it was never larger than at the present time—which openly affects a kind of neutrality in its relations to christianity. This class holds the Bible as, on the whole, an excellent book, and Jesus Christ as, without doubt, the best man that ever lived. There is much in christianity that they admire, but much that has been superceded. They have a kind of religious philosophy that embraces all there is that is good in christianity, and discards all that is not up to the wants of the present age—particularly all with which it does not harmonize. With such men reason stands above revelation, to approve or condemn it, point by point. Some of these men go so far as to call themselves christians, while others adopt with more consistency, other names. Now christianity is what it pretends to be, or nothing—a complete and authoritative system of religion or an imposition. It is something above all religions and all philosophies, in that it is divine, or like all other religions and philosophies, in that it is incomplete, incompetent, and human. I am utterly at a loss to know how any man can call himself a christian—much more at a loss to know why he should desire to be called one—who denies the supreme authority of christianity as the one true and complete religion revealed by God to men. I declare there is no middle ground here for philosophical eclectics to occupy. The denial of a part of christianity, is the denial of the whole as a complete and true religion. What manhood, humanity and christianity conspire so evidently to demand, must be in the line of a sound policy. No man can prosper in wealth, reputation and happiness who strives to win them against the force of such demands as these, so that self-interest, intelligently consulted, demands that a man shall pronounce himself on the side of the good, the pure and the true. All the men who have won a name that will worthily live, who have attracted to themselves the admiration and love of the world, whose words and lives have become powers, felt and acknowledged upon the heart and life of mankind, whose influence has mingled in the tide of good that gathers volume from age to age to whelm at last the black contents of wrong, have been positive men—self-committed, self-declared—men of manhood, humanity and christianity, who shunned the fence, voluntarily cut off their own retreat, and battled bravely where they stood and while they lived. The policy of neutrality is suicidal. It is not only cowardly and mean, but it is thriftless and disastrous. Positiveness is both a prerogative and a privilege. If it be a privilege to live, it is a privilege to live for a purpose and be recognized as a true man. To add a single ounce to the propelling power of human progress, to remove one stone from its path, to reform one abuse, to rectify one wrong, to add a single ray to the gathering flood of light which is to envelop the world, to assuage one sorrow and lift up and save a single fallen man—this is indeed, a privilege. Intelligently to choose the right and maintain it and do battle for it is to accept a privilege which gives us a place among all good intelligences, and makes us co-workers with God himself. It is to achieve self-respect, to make a place for one's self in the world, to enter into the sympathies of the noblest, the bravest and the best that live, to make life savory and significant, to put away the temptations to meanness, and to be upon the side that will as surely win as there is a God in heaven. Let every man be something or other. A misguided zeal is better than lukewarmness. It is better to be a living cock on a dunghill, telling a sleepy village of the coming of the morning, than a gilded cock on a church spire, voiceless, and wheeling to the touch of every wind. In some place, in some office, by some means let every man assert himself, and exert his measure of power for the redemption of the world to goodness. FORGIVENESS.
By Bishop Heber
O God! my sins are manifold,
Against my life they cry;
And all my guilty deeds, forgone,
Up to the temple fly.
Wilt thou release my trembling soul
That to despair is driven?
"Forgive," a blessed voice replied,
"And thou shalt be forgiven." My foemen Lord are fierce and fell;
They spurn me in their pride;
They render evil for my good;
My patience they deride.
Arise my King and be the proud
In righteous ruin driven!—
"Forgive," the awful answer came,
"As thou wouldst be forgiven." Seven times O Lord I've pardoned them,
Seven times they've sinned again.
They practice still to work me woe,
And triumph in my pain;
But let them dread my vengeance now
To just resentment driven!
"Forgive," the voice in thunder spake,
"Or never be forgiven." THE EYES OPENED.
By Editor
"LORD, open his eyes, that he may see," was the prayer offered by Elisha the prophet, when his servant, as they were encompassed by the Syrian host, cried out, "Alas, master, what shall we do?" And the answer is recorded; "The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." You, reader, are encompassed about by a multitude of unseen objects far more wonderful and worthy of regard. The objects around you are of such magnitude, and such interest to you, that if your eyes were opened to see them just as they are, this world, with all its attractions and absorbing concerns, would fade from your view.3fold, in willing yet fatal captivity, down to the chains and darkness of their everlasting prison. You would see "an innumerable company of angels" performing a great variety of most important offices, and standing, some of them at least, in the most intimate and interesting relations to you: the swift messengers and mighty ministers of God's throne; the constant attendants of Christ's person, and the glad agents in his kingdom of love and mercy; the guardians of Christians in their earthly footsteps, and their representatives in the court of heaven; the vigilant and affectionate friends of sinners, watching with deep solicitude their continued impenitence, or their increasing convictions; and when one of them repents hastening to communicate the tidings to their kindred spirits, and diffuse through all the heavenly host the seraphic joy which this happy event enkindles in their own bosoms. You would see great numbers of evil spirits plotting ceaseless mischief against our race, and exulting in the too successful execution of their malicious schemes, prowling about the earth, like roaring lions, seeking whom they may devour; besieging many a human heart, intrenching themselves in many more, and leading the great mass of mankind, yourself perhaps among the rest, bound and blind- You would see God every where present, all-knowing and all-controlling. Angels, and all holy creatures, are but the happy agents of his infinite benevolence. Evil spirits are his unwilling instruments. You can no more flee from him than from the universe, than from yourself. In the sublime language of Scripture, you "live, and move, and have your being in him." Do you not feel his hand holding you? Do you not see his eye fastened on your heart? Does it beam with sweet complacency on your humble and growing piety? There is heaven in that look of love. Does it flash with holy indignation on your unrepented and cherished sins? That frown of displeasure is hell. You may close your eyes against it now, but if you continue impenitent, you must one day see it, and it will kindle in your bosom the flames of the bottomless pit. You would see CHRIST knocking at the door of your heart for admission, or interceding in your behalf at the right hand of the throne of God. He himself says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." Behold him at the door of your heart, knocking and waiting for an answer, his locks wet with the dew of the morning, his feet bedewed with precious blood; one hand pointing to Gethsemane and Calvary, the other laden with the blessings which he purchased there, and would now bestow on you, and his eyes lifted to heaven as the place of your future reward. Oh, lovely attitude; can you turn your back upon the sight? Backsliding Christian, he knocks at the door of your heart, and with beseeching tenderness inquires, Will you also go away? Lukewarm professor, he stands before you, and methinks I hear him exclaim, "Crucified afresh; wounded in the house of my friends." Have you, in the hour of temptation, denied your Lord for a few paltry pieces of silver, or a few empty puffs of honor? He turns his eye upon you, with a look of unutterable compassion and love. That look made Peter "weep bitterly." Would that it might affect you in like manner. Art thou a consistent and devoted follower of Christ? All unworthy as thou art, rebel as thou hast been, he intercedes for you with his Father, that you may share with him his universal inheritance and his everlasting kingdom. Behold the gracious attitude of the divine Intercessor. Listen to his accents of love and mercy. Do they not fill your soul with wonder, gratitude, and joy? You would see the Holy Spirit carrying forward his work of renovating and saving grace in our fallen world. This heavenly monitor comes often to the sinful soul in all the severity of wisdom and goodness, warning, striving, alarming, convincing, by arguments drawn from heaven, earth, and hell, and persuading by the more melting eloquence of a Saviour's prayers, and tears, and blood. He has often made you these gracious visits; and did you repulse him? Did he go away grieved? How could you grieve your best Friend? How could you grieve infinite love and mercy? How dared you resist the only influence that can save your ruined soul? Or did you comply with his convincing and persuasive influence, and give him free admittance to your heart? Then your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and your spirit his inner sanctuary. Then he rejoices while he imparts to you the joys of salvation, and prepares you for the perfect bliss of heaven. Will you mar at once his joy and yours by defiling the temple of the Holy Ghost? You would see death near; perhaps at hand. I seem to see, in near prospect, your dying bed. Yes, yours. Call it not another's; it will be your own. Death enters your chamber an unexpected visitor, and finds you unprepared. You turn pale; your lips quiver; your frame is convulsed, and you expire with despair on your countenance and remorse in your conscience. You would have a near view of judgment and eternity. Look forward but a little space, and what do you see? The heavens and the earth have fled away. The Judge has come invested with infinite majesty and glory, and attended by a countless host of angels. He has taken his seat on the great white throne, opened the books of final account, and gathered all nations before him; and they are judged out of the things written in the books. Are these things indeed so? What manner of person, then, ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness? You stand on holy ground; the air you breathe is holy; spirits from another world are about you, intent upon your weal or woe. You have your being in God, your almighty friend or enemy. The blessed Saviour woes your love, or intercedes in your behalf. The Holy Spirit strives with you or dwells in you. Death may have already marked you for his victim. The judgment-day is at hand; your next step may be into eternity. Heaven stands with open gates for you to enter. Hell yawns to receive you. And does such a being live only to occupy himself with the trifles of this fleeting world? How can you remain unconcerned about the salvation of your soul, when all the high orders of intelligent spirits are awake to its momentous interests? The Lord open your eyes to behold as much of the unseen world as you can bear, lest at length it burst upon you with sudden overwhelming terrors.—Rel. Tract. CHRIST'S ADVENT AT THE DOOR.
The Love of Christ's Appearing.
SURELY, if our affections are placed on the Saviour,—if he is to us the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely,—if we have none in heaven but him, or on earth that we desire in comparison with him; we shall desire his return,—we shall long to "see him as he is,"—shall pray, "Thy kingdom come,"—"Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,"—"Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?" Let us suppose, for instance, a woman, whose husband is a long way absent from her, perhaps in the East Indies. She is possibly very diligent in the management of his affairs, and conducts herself with perfect outward propriety, but always breaks out into a passion whenever any one speaks to her of her husband's return: 'O, no,' she says, 'he cannot be coming yet; I expect to be much better off before he comes; I expect his estate, under my management, to be much more extensive; if he were to come now, he would disarrange all my plans; besides, what is the use of thinking about his coming? I may die first, and that will be exactly the same as his coming to me.' Let her asseverations of love and affection be what they may you cannot believe otherwise than that her heart is alienated from her Lord, and probably fixed on another. Now let us suppose another woman in the same situation: see her constantly reading his letters, and especially those parts of them which describe the time and the circumstances attendant upon his return; hear her talking of it to her children, and teaching them to look forward to it as the consummation of her and their fondest wishes. Mark the silent scorn with which she treats a judicious friend who would try to persuade her that there is no use in looking out for his return, for that he had never mentioned the month, far less the day, or the hour, when it was to take place: though she may make no noisy protestations of love; though she may speak but little about him, except to her children and to those whose hearts are tuned in unison with her own, we cannot for a moment entertain a doubt of the real state of her affections. Let us apply this figure to ourselves: and of this I am certain,—and I wish I could make the warning ring through every corner of our professing land,—that a dislike to hear of the coming of the Lord is a more decided proof of the affections of the religious world at large, and of every single member of it, being alienated from Christ, and, therefore, in an unholy, unsanctified, and unconverted state, than all the noisy protestations at Annual Meetings, all the Bibles and Tracts circulated, and missionaries sent out, are proofs of the reverse." A HIGHER STANDARD OF PIETY.
While impurity is making a Sodom of a portion of our country, while oppression is preparing a larger portion for scenes more horrible than were enacted in France during the reign of Terror—and while the rapid growth of our cities, and their still more rapid progress in extravagance, idleness, and dissipation are threatening ruin to our prospects as a Christian nation, it becomes every considerate Christian prayerfully to inquire how can these evils be arrested? Do we not need a higher standard of holiness in our churches? We can readily see in nominally Christian countries how the glaringly inconsistent example of the church is rather deterring from, than inviting the infidel to its fold. Generation after generation of the deluded followers of Mohammed have gone down to a wretched eternity in the midst of churches who had ceased to be "the light of the world," for what would they have gained by exchanging their superstitions for those of the Nestorian and Armenian? Does not a warning voice come to us from these lands and lead us to ask to what extent the low standard of piety in our churches is repelling from our embraces the large masses in our community? We build costly houses of public worship, and spare no expense to secure for our pulpits the highest talents of our colleges and theological seminaries; and in our exclusive pews and fashionable assemblies forget that we are the disciples of that meek and lowly Saviour who said, "To the poor the Gospel is preached"—when not even once a week do "the rich and the poor meet together" around one common mercy-seat, to feel that "the Lord is the maker of them all." Do we not virtually say "to the poor man in vile raiment, Stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stool?"—Independent. “And is the Gospel peace and love? Such let our conversation be: The serpent blended with the dove, Wisdom and meek simplicity.” Beloved reader, how is it, have you consecrated your lips to God’s service? The lips are the whole man. Unless the lips are consecrated nothing is truly consecrated. Some very good people tell us they have laid all upon the altar, made a complete sacrifice or surrender, brought all the tithes into the store-house; when, in fact, their lips are their own, to use as they please—yes, their own, not God’s! Instead of laying all upon the altar, Christ Jesus, it is evident, there is yet nothing on the altar. Unless the lips are wholly and unreservedly set apart for God, the first step is not taken. James tells us that “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able, also, to bridle the whole body.” Very many we fear, professing entire consecratedness to the Lord, are mistaken, or deceive themselves. The very moment they open their lips you perceive the mistake. This little unruly member, the tongue, which no man can tame, is unbridled. “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.” David said, “I will keep my mouth with a bridle.” “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” It is the lips that do the mischief, that tell the secret. “Murder will out.” To verify our entire consecratedness our conversation must be rightly ordered, at home and abroad, in the family circle, the social party, in private conversation, in meetings for prayer, praise and testimony. The words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts, must be acceptable in the sight of the Lord. We must speak as the Holy Spirit gives utterance. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” “Who is a wise man, endued with knowledge among you? let him show, out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom; but if ye have bitter envyings and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.” Persons with wholly consecrated lips are exceedingly careful to order their speech arright—to speak to the spirit of meekness and love—their conversation is such as becometh the Gospel of Christ; they let their moderation be known to all men; they are never petulant, fretful, overbearing, unduly excited or censorious; they never engross the time in prayer, praise, testimony or exhortation that duly belongs to others; they are not wise in their own conceits, or think that wisdom is about to die with them. “For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing he deceiveth himself.” Every one whose lips are wholly sanctified, set apart exclusively, for things heavenly and divine, feels and knows that by his words he is justified, and by his words he is condemned, and for every idle word he shall speak he “shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Consecrated or sanctified lips are never employed in joking, jesting, or foolish talking, which are not convenient, but rather in giving thanks, in praising God, uttering words of soberness, meekness, modesty, humanity, administering edification and grace to their hearers. In a word, they are wise, watchful, prayerful, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Friends, are your lips thus sanctified, set apart for God’s glory? Do you profess to have laid all on the altar, without reserve? Above all, is this little unruly member, the tongue, given up to be led by wisdom that cometh from above? Is your heart so entirely sanctified, made so holy that every word that proceedeth from your lips is dictated by heavenly wisdom, by the Spirit of Christ? Paul says: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” There is no surer test of the true state of the heart, whether sanctified or unsanctified, than the ordering of the lips; “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” “So let our lips and lives express The holy Gospel we profess; So let our works and virtues shine, To prove the doctrine all divine.” —Golden Rule. Love for the Brethren
By Dr. Hawker
THERE may be with some precious souls, seasons when former views of Christ's person and suitableness, and fullness, and all-sufficiency are not so bright and shining as heretofore. But there are no seasons in the life of a believer when the love of the brethren, as brethren in Christ Jesus, is done away. Try a child of God in the darkest hours, and this remains. And if I love a child of God because he is a child of God, I must certainly love him on whose account I feel that love; so that it is a sweet testimony in the absence of higher tokens of our love to the Lord Jesus Christ, when we love the brethren for his sake. He can never be said to trust God with his soul, who is over-anxious in providing for the body; and very sure I am that he is really lean in spiritual things, who is fattening on temporal things. “God is love,” and from all eternity he hath been giving out demonstrations of that love in the streams and effects of it. Christ is the first edition of that love, and all the subsequent works are with him, and in him, and through him, and by him. Our Adam-fall gave occasion for the greater display of that love. But Christ and his church were one in the womb of God’s love before the Adam-fall or even the foundation of the earth was laid.—Dr. Hawker. We advise all young people to acquire, in early life, the habit of using good language both in speaking and writing, and to abandon as early as possible, any use of slang words and phrases. The longer they live the more difficult the acquisition of correct language will be; and if the golden age of youth the proper season for the acquisition of language be passed in, its abuse, the unfortunate victim of neglected education is, very properly, doomed to talk slang for life. Money is not necessary to procure this education. Every man has it in his power. He has merely to use the language which he reads instead of the slang which he hears; to form his taste from the best speakers and poets of the country, to treasure up choice phrases in his memory, and habituate himself to their use—avoiding at the same time, that pedantic precision and bombast, which show rather the weakness of a vain ambition, than the polish of an educated mind. THE SABBATH RECORDER.
By Editor
THE Sabbath Recorder, the organ of the Seventh-day Baptist denomination, is published in N. Y. city. Standing forth as it has in defense of the true Sabbath, in opposition to the traditionary practice of Sunday-keeping, we have been interested in its course and position. But we have long felt that the Sabbath was too great and glorious a truth, and too far in advance of the dark-age theology of the present day, to make, while repudiating all connection with Sunday, common cause with other doctrines which may claim a twin relationship to Sunday; in other words, to be held in connection with the equally traditionary doctrines of the consciousness of the dead, the eternal torture of the wicked, a spiritual kingdom of Christ, &c. Hence we may be allowed to express our gratification in seeing, especially of late, many of the correspondents of the Recorder—the majority of them, if we rightly judge— taking what we consider a Bible view of these questions, and freely and forcibly expressing their views through the columns of that paper. As an illustration, we present in another column the article, "Does the World turn over?" So marked has the correspondence of the Recorder become on these subjects that we may almost adopt the language of Eld. S. S. Griswold, found in its issue of Nov. 10th. He says: "I am well aware that my views are not accordant with what seems (especially of late) to be the sentiments of the Sabbath Recorder. For, if I have rightly read its columns, it has, after long vacillation, hoisted the flags of annihilationism, destructionism, millerism, and material paradiseism. I use the above names only to designate certain views, and not in any individual manner; for far be it from me to speak lightly of any one's religious views. Nor do I mention them as though they must be errors; for I frankly admit that they may be the true Bible doctrine on those subjects. And while I as yet do not accept them as the true exegesis of the inspired record, I have great respect for those who do. For, unless there underlies the letter of the Bible a spiritual meaning, they are true without doubt." The italicizing of the above is our own. "Unless there underlies the letter of the Bible a spiritual meaning, they are true without doubt." This is almost as good as the unequivocal stand which others have taken upon these questions. It is an admission that, according to the plain letter of the Bible, that is, if it is to be taken literally and means what it says, these views are undoubtedly correct. We look upon this as quite an advance in the right direction; being, as it is, a frank admission that the opposite of the views we hold is only supported by that hidden, spiritual and mystical interpretation of the word of God, which was introduced by the fathers of the speculative philosophy, and has been continued by their successors to the present time. Of these persons Mosheim (Church Hist. Cent. ii, part 2, chap. ii, § 5) thus speaks: "They attributed a double sense to the words of Scripture; the one obvious and literal, the other hidden and mystical, which lay concealed as it were under the veil of the outward letter. The former they treated with the utmost neglect, and turned the whole force of their genius and application to unfold the latter; or, in other words, they were more studious to darken the Scriptures with their idle fictions than to investigate their true and natural sense." But for this course on the part of early commentators, views opposite to the obvious and literal teaching of the Scriptures would undoubtedly never have obtained in the church; and certainly when the controversy is brought to hinge upon this point (as in Eld. G.'s position), whether the Scriptures shall be understood literally or mystically, we are confident that it cannot with many be of long continuance. We regard the great truths of man's state in death, the destiny of the wicked, and the coming of the Son of man, as especially needed at the present time to check the downward spiritual tendencies of this age, and to lift up a standard against the floods of Spiritualism and infidelity which are beginning to sweep over the land. Hence we are gratified to see them obtaining among any people or in any denomination. THE REVIVAL IN IRELAND.
By Editor
THE following sentences we clip from an article in the New York Independent, headed, "Disgraceful Scene in the General Assembly of Ireland." "It is with deep mortification and regret, but from a high sense of duty, that we lay before our readers an account of a scene of disorder in the session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, held at Belfast at the close of September. We take the account from a full and impartial report in the Belfast News-Letter of September 30th. On the evening of Thursday, the 29th, a scene transpired which painfully reminds one of the doings of the Tract Management and their abettors at Layfaette-place church and the Academy of Music." The report of the scene of confusion we need not give. It is well summed up in the following comment thereupon, from the same source. "Here in this venerable body of ministers and elders, we find two ministers openly giving each other the lie, and the whole General Assembly turned into a scene of confusion bordering upon riot. Trans-atlantic Christians found it hard to reconcile the riotous proceedings of the Tract Management in New York, with the glowing reports of the revival here; and so Christians upon this side of the water will be perplexed to understand how, at the very time when a delegation from the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church are giving us thrilling accounts of the revival in that country, that General Assembly, meeting in the very seat of the revival, could exhibit such a scene of unchristian commotion." We present these extracts as calculated to throw light upon the character of the revival movement which swept over this country and is now working in Ireland. When we consider the scene which took place in the Tract Society in the midst of the revival here, and bear in mind the fact that prayer for the enslaved must not be tolerated in its union prayer-meetings, and now behold the scene that has taken place in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, how can we be otherwise than suspicious of the character of that movement? We are not alone in this. Many eyes are open to the fact that a genuine work of the Spirit of God does not operate in this manner.