Earlier text: DISCUSSION ON THE SABBATH QUESTIONSome Common Objections to the Sabbath.
By N. J. Bowers
1. “It makes no difference which day we keep, only so we observe one day in seven.” But it does make a difference, our accusers themselves being judges. If it matters not which day we may regard as holy, why is it that we are charged with Sabbath-breaking, for working on Sunday? Why do ministers and others find fault with us because we regard the seventh day (Saturday), as a holy day? Do we not keep one seventh part of time? Certainly. Our practice and belief in this matter, then, is unimpeachable, according to the standard furnished us. Where then is the consistency of the charges brought against us? 2. “The world is round. Nobody can keep the seventh day.” Can any body keep Sunday? Oh! certainly. When Sunday comes, the globe undergoes a wonderful transformation. It flattens out into an immense plain, so that everybody can keep the “Christian Sabbath,” and then doubles up into a great ball for the six succeeding days. This is indeed a wonderful phenomenon. But anything to avoid the claims of the Lord’s Sabbath, and to bolster up the pope’s. The putters forth of this doctrine do not, in their zeal, stop to consider that the objection rebounds with equal force against the observance of Sunday. Can the “first day of the week” be kept at the poles, under the equator, and in the Sandwich Islands? Certainly. So can the Sabbath. 3. “Nobody knows when the seventh day comes.” Wonder if any body can tell when the day of the resurrection comes? Millions testify, both by daily precept and weekly practice, that such a thing is possible. If our first-day friends can find Sunday, surely we can find the day just preceding it. They give us the key to unlock the difficulty. It is then easy to determine the day. “The Creator did not bless any particular day, but the Sabbatic institution.” The institution of the Sabbath could not have been blessed; for it owed its institution to this act of the Creator together with his act of resting on the Seventh day. If then the expression, the seventh day, means the Sabbatic institution, that institution was abolished; for we are told that the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day, has passed away. But it is said that the Sabbath was re-enacted. But the Sabbatic institution, the seventh day, was not re-established; for it is claimed that “the first day of the week,” and not the seventh, is now obligatory. Therefore, according to this oracle, there is no sacred time in this age. 4. “We should keep the Sabbath in the spirit, and not after the letter.” It has been said that only the ceremonial part of the Sabbath was put away, and that the ceremony consisted in the observance of the seventh day. It never was clear to my mind why the simple observance of one day was more ceremonial than another observed in a like manner; why the seventh day was more ceremonial than the first, the fourth than the third or sixth. We do not offer on the Sabbath “two lambs of the first year without spot, and two-tenths deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof.” Num. 28:9. Such ceremony was necessary for the Jew, but the requirement does not reach us. Col. 2:16. 5. The apostle Paul is made to teach some very absurd things, and contradictory, according to the gospel of Sabbath opposers. It is asserted on the authority of Rom. 14:5, 6, that we needn’t keep the Sabbath, or we may, convenience or caprice may dictate, while in Col. 2:16, we are taught that Sabbath is abolished, and cannot now be regarded as holy, and the great apostle expresses a fear in Gal. 4:10, that he had expended labor in vain on the brethren at Galatia, because they observed the Sabbath. But it seems that this very same Paul did the same thing that he was afraid to have them do. Acts. 18:4; 13:14, 42, 44. May we all be saved from the fate of these “children of disobedience,” who thus are engaged in the infidel work of making God’s word a writing of absurdities and incongruities. N. J. BOWERS. The Object of Life.
By Charles P. Whitford
THE great object of life in this world, is to prepare for a home in the kingdom of God; and if we would be thus prepared, a character must be formed which will bear the fruits of the Spirit, and if we would have such a character, we must pass through such a chain of circumstances in this life as will make manifest the real condition of the human heart, for without this we should never know ourselves; and consequently never be able to overcome our easily besetting sins, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Happy indeed is that man who has had such an experience in the things of God that he is able to understand the secrets of his own deceitful heart. This knowledge, it is possible for us to obtain. The office of the Spirit of God is to reprove sin; and when we seek God with our whole hearts, the influence of the Spirit operating thereon will show us our sins, and we shall thus be enabled to go to work understandingly to put them all away. But while it is true that we may understand our real condition in the sight of God, it is a lamentable fact that many of us do not. We may deceive ourselves, but we cannot deceive God. He is thoroughly acquainted with the secret movings and workings of the human heart, and in it he beholds much that is corrupt, selfish, worldly, covetous, and proud, for “the heart of the sons of men is full of evil.” And in view of these sins, as well as the fact that our individual cases are very soon coming before the Judge of quick and dead, how clear that deep contrition before God should characterize our actions. None of us can for one moment doubt but that we have reached a most solemn and important time in the history of the third angel’s message. Signs on every hand proclaim the Judgment near. How fearful the thought that we have each a case pending in the court of Heaven, and that purity of heart and life will be the only sure passport through the celestial gates, into the eternal city of God. In view of the swiftly approaching Judgment day we should be led to examine our hearts and seek God as we have never sought him before. The good resolutions formed at our recent camp-meeting must now be put into practice, if we expect to make advancement in the things of God. Dear brethren and sisters, if the Lord, by his Spirit, has enabled us to more fully understand our hearts, and see our sins, it will not be safe for us to trifle with him by neglecting to put them away. Heartfelt repentance and forsaking of sins should characterize our actions now. Our resolutions, determinations, and promises to the Lord have all been recorded by the angel, and now shall it be that we fail to fulfill our vows unto him? Let us remember that better, far better, will it be for us in the Judgement day had we never vowed, than to vow and not pay. Tipton Co., Ind
By Wm. Covert
ELD. S. G. CLARK, of the “age-to-come” advocates, preached three discourses lately at Little Wild Cat, Tipton Co., Ind., against the Sabbath and law. If there was any point he was trying to make, it was that the ten commandments were the old covenant; and yet he claimed there was no distinction between moral and ceremonial law. If there is no distinction, why are the “ten commandments alone” the covenant as they claim. He tried to make a great show of argument from Gal. 4. His argument was as follows: The ten commandments are the covenant from Sinai, but this covenant gendereth to bondage; therefore, those who keep the ten commandments are in bondage, and shall not be heir with those who are free from this yoke. Now, I would like to ask those friends, if keeping the ten commandments makes a slave of a person, how can you be free while you are bound to keep nine of the same commandments? Besides this, there is nothing oppressive in the one you reject, or the Creator did not understand the wants of his creatures when he made the Sabbath for man, Mark 2:27, and would have him call it a delight, holy and honorable, Isa. 58:13. Is there anything oppressive in rest? Do you feel that your rights are trampled upon when God asks you to keep your feet off his holy time? Certainly this can oppress none but the carnal mind. Rom. 8:7. But Paul does not say that the old covenant answers to the ten commandments, but to the Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. But the Elder and his brethren claim “the Jerusalem that now is” as the capital of the kingdom of God, and that the Jews, the literal children of that city, are to be heirs with them and chief of the nation, and that their generations must continue for 24,000 years after the setting up of the kingdom. They argue from Ps. 105:8, to prove that there must be 1000 generations of the literal seed of Abraham; that it takes 30 years to produce a generation; that at this rate there can be only 200 generations even from Adam to the ending of the six thousand years, and Eld. C. told us that the remaining 800 generations must be born in the “age-to-come.” They see that the 1000 year “age-to-come” is too short to suit their theory; so they are discarding it. Then if we are children of Hagar, as the Elder told us, we may expect to be rulers instead of being cast out in the coming kingdom. He has evidently mistaken the parties, and asserts that Hagar “is the free woman.” It is said that “the irritating grain of sand, which by accident or incaution has got within the shell of an oyster, incites the living inmate to secrete from its own resources the means of coating the intrusive substance, and thus germinates the pearl.” May it not be so with our troubles and afflictions? May not they, even, be turned into pearls of great price? “O my Saviour! Thou dost know,
By thy sufferings here below,
All the depth of human woe,” All the subtle Tempter’s wiles,
The allurements of his smiles,
And how sin the heart defiles. And, since so pitiful thou art,
So patient with my wayward heart,
And bid’st my cares and fears depart, I’ll hearken ever to thy call,
Nor choose my path, whate’er befall—
So shalt thou be my “All in all!” Significant Items.
By F. A. Buzzell
Compiled for Review by F. A. Buzzell. CRIME in New York is increasing at a fearful rate. During the year ending on the 5th of April last, the total number of arrests was 84,514; that is about 9,000 more than the aggregate of the previous year. In 1869–70 the number of homicides was 24, in 1870–71 it was 57, and this year it has been 63; more than one a week. Last Sunday's criminal record embraced three men shot, one man brained with a paving-stone, and two knocked over with a slung shot.—B. Tribune. I THINK the danger in our American churches to-day—and a startling danger it is—is the danger of aristocracy. It seems to me more than alarming. It is the wild fire-brand of the hour. Costly churches shut up, decorated, frescoed, not only by the painter, but also by a mortgage. Churches shut up, property lying idle, doors closed, and yet every rum-shop in the land wide open (six days in the week.) It is all wrong.—Extract from remarks by G. H. HEPWORTH at Congregational reunion in N. Y. As an evidence of the progress of crime in New York, it is stated there are now over six hundred prisoners in the city prisons awaiting trial. Part of these are confined in the Toombs, and the others are in cells at Jefferson Market, Essex Market, Yorkville and Harbor Police courts; there is scarcely a vacant cell we are told, at either of these places, and most of them contain two or three prisoners. Of the prisoners at the Toombs, 22 are charged with homicides, 44, burglary, 65, grand larceny, and 19, felonious assault and battery.—Boston Transcript. Brief Notes of the Michigan Camp-Meeting.
Between eight and nine hundred Sabbath-keepers assembled at this meeting. A grand circle of tents, thirty rods in diameter, the different stands for provisions, for books, and for speakers, the ample area of seats for the congregation, and the two large tents all within the spacious and shady grove, constituted the pleasant arrangement of the grounds. There were seven tents more than could be accommodated in the circle, in all, sixty-four tents. The camp-meeting committee performed their duties faithfully, and the arrangements for the meeting were very pleasant and complete. The place for the meeting is thought by many to possess advantages over any that we have heretofore occupied. The grounds are spacious. Five thousand people, if need be, could easily find tenting room in the grove. And when the Ohio and Michigan R. R. is completed, which runs a few rods nearer to the ground than the Mich. Central, we know of no better location, so far as good ground and R. R. facilities are concerned, than this, for a general S. D. A. Camp-meeting whenever it shall be thought advisable to establish such a meeting. There were twenty-two ministers and licentiates present. Twelve discourses were preached, one each by Brn. Van Horn, E. B. Lane, and Waggoner, four by Bro. Littlejohn, and five by Bro. Butler. The preaching was pointed and plain, and was received by the people as meat in due season. The social meetings were lively and interesting. At one meeting, seventy testimonies were given in about forty minutes, and at the last meeting, brethren spoke in quick succession and to the point, about three a minute for something like an hour. On Sabbath, about four hundred came forward for prayers. A good start was made, and there was deep feeling on the part of some. It would have been well if this work could have been followed up, but business meetings prevented. On Sunday, there was estimated to be about four thousand persons present. The great doctrines which especially distinguish us as a people, the advent and the Sabbath, were faithfully set before them on this day. Bro. Butler showed in the forenoon, by arguments which all who heard must have seen to be invulnerable, that the great change now before the world, an expectation of which, in some degree, seems to be existing in all minds, is not the conversion of the world, but the second appearing of our Lord and Saviour in power and great glory, to redeem his people and dash the wicked nations in pieces like a potter's vessel. In the afternoon, Bro. Littlejohn showed the position the Sabbath question occupies in the Sacred Scriptures, and the position it is to occupy in the political agitations of this nation, as set forth in the word of prophecy, and plainly indicated in movements now in progress in the land. The cause is onward. The correctness of our applications of Scripture become each year more and more apparent. There is no mistake here; and there is no going back in this work. God's word is to be fulfilled, he will have agents to do the work, and we may occupy that post of honor if we will. Judging from the many testimonies borne, the meeting had an encouraging effect upon those present. They testified that they had received the blessing of the Lord at this meeting, some in a large degree. If we mistake not, many will number this occasion among their prominent blessings. Bro. Vuilleumier, who has now been in this country two months and a half, being introduced to the audience, bore a very impressive testimony in perfectly intelligible English. This was a point of great interest. He bore to the brethren in America the fraternal greeting of the brethren in his far-off native Switzerland. He besought the prayers of the brethren here for the success of his mission in coming to this country, to learn our language, and so become acquainted with the truth more thoroughly. He will have them. The speaker's stand richly adorned with festoons of leaves and bouquets of flowers made a beautiful appearance. The order was perfect throughout, and the attention of the people good. No disturbing element seemed to be present. A vote of thanks was tendered at the last meeting, to the camp-meeting committee for their great pains to provide for the comfort and convenience of the encampment, and to the owner of the ground for the use of the grove. One encouraging feature was that all, with few exceptions, remained till the last meeting, avoiding what is sometimes unpleasantly evident, an anxiety to get away even in haste and confusion. The season closed excellently, with a good spiritual meeting. Eighteen were baptized. The Health Institute and Michigan Conference held their sessions according to appointment, which will be reported in other portions of this paper. Of late we have beheld new beauties in this psalm. It consists of 176 verses, and in every single verse the law of God is referred to in some manner, and many of these devotional breathings, from a soul filled with love to God, are beautiful beyond description. In variety of expression, and richness of thought, this composition cannot be equaled. Sometimes we are accused, or found fault with, for saying too much about the law of God. But where is the writer or speaker among us, who has referred to the law of God 176 times in an essay or sermon of the length of the 119th psalm? Says some one, “You seem to delight in talking, and thinking, about the ten commandments continually.” Would to God this were true of every one of us, yea, more, that we all faithfully obeyed them, then we would find no time to follow the leadings of carnality. The sweet singer of Israel delighted in the law of God, and in his law he meditated day and night. We could do no more than this, should we use our utmost endeavors. Says God, Ps. 1:1, 2, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” How many of us are living for this blessing? Surely none that think the law abolished, or are troubled when hearing its claims presented. I love God's law. Oh! that it may ever be my delight, a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path, till with the righteous nation that have kept the truth, I may enter the portals of perfect bliss. H. A. ST. JOHN. Who Will Stand the Trial?
By John Norton Loughborough
We read, in Rev. 3:10, of an “hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” By examining the connection of this text we learn the time of its application: “Behold, I come as a thief.” Just before the coming of Christ, which will overtake the world as a thief, a fearful hour of temptation is to come. Of the same, we read, in Isa. 59:19, 20. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” Paul states it, speaking of the coming of Christ, thus: “Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” 2 Thess. 2:9. In Revelation it is said: “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief.” Rev. 16:14, 15. Through the miracle, wonder-working of spirits, just before the great and final day, an hour of temptation is to come upon all the world. Spirits are already working, and the temptation will be to accept their teachings and lay aside those of the Bible. The manifestations are assuming a phase that none can resist except those who are rooted and grounded in the truth of man’s nature, the state of the dead, and the Bible doctrine of devils and their deceptive work. I will make a few extracts from an account recently published by a minister in the St. Louis Democrat of July 10, 1872, concerning what he saw in the course of a three weeks’ investigation at Moravia, N. Y. After excusing himself for reporting his investigations he says: “Now for the facts. Kind reader, imagine yourself at a country house, and in a plain room, about large enough to seat comfortably twenty-five or thirty persons. As it happens, there are now just seven persons present to form a circle. Only three of these are strangers to me; the rest my relatives, who accompany me hither. We form a semi-circle and join hands. The medium, Mrs. Andrews, sits facing us. I can easily touch her with my cane. My right arm rests on a piano-forte. A lamp is burning brightly. It is after 9 o’clock in the morning, but we need the lamp, because the only window of the apartment is darkened, and the only door bolted. “The medium now remarks: ‘We first sit in the dark, and continue till the spirits call for a light. The light is now extinguished. The piano begins to play. It is not the medium, for I am conversing with her. Passing my cane along the keys I feel no one; still the playing goes on, and is directly assisted by voices, seemingly in the air above us, that join in with great power and sweetness. Mysterious lights are beginning to dance before us, describing curve lines and circles, and playing around each other in a way that makes it clear they are guided by intelligence. While this beautiful display is going on, soft voices whisper startling things in our ears, and delicate hands thrill us by gentle touches and affectionate caresses. A familiar voice, long silent in death, as I had thought, said to me: “Dear brother, I come to greet you! believe me, this is your own sister Nancy. A fortnight ago you visited my grave; I stood by your side, though you saw me not, my spirit body being invisible as the viewless air. How I wanted to speak to you! Thanks to Heaven for the present opportunity!” Tender lips now kissed mine. I sat speechless, my heart swelling and throbbing, but directly found relief in gushing tears. “During the dark séance, white and purple clouds gathered above our heads and seemed in commotion. Their crimson edges now and then shed such light as enabled us to see one another, and every object in the room. Out of the clouds came, at one time, a little dash of fine rain, accompanied by wind and the rich perfume of flowers. Immediately after this, a white figure that seemed a column of cloud, snowy, yet tinged with something bright and luminous, came down and stood before me. While I gazed, wondering what it might be, the figure bent towards me, and out came a luminous hand, which was gently laid upon my forehead. It remained but for a moment, touching my temple and cheek affectionately. It disappeared in the fleecy folds enveloping the mysterious figure, which now ascended and was lost to my view amid the moving clouds overhead. “After about thirty-five minutes of darkness, a voice in the air said, ‘Please strike a light.’ Being nearest the lamp, I complied with the request. The medium, now rising from her chair, went into the cabinet, which is a thing looking not unlike a common wardrobe. It is made of plain, thin boards, and has folding doors about three feet and a half high. Above the door hangs a black velvet curtain reaching down to the top of the shutters when closed. “Upon entering the cabinet the medium requested me to close and latch the door after her. As I did so, I was surprised to see an armless hand, white as snow, come out from under the curtain and tap me on the arm and hand, which it did quickly and several times, then darted back into the cabinet. Resuming my seat in the circle, we waited a few minutes, and the curtain of the aperture slowly moved aside while the face of an aged man appeared. There was nothing ghostly in the look or action of the apparition. Countenance, feature, complexion, and every movement of muscle, and motion of head, hand and lip were perfectly natural. He bent his gaze steadfastly upon a middle-aged man in the circle, who was a stranger to me, and evidently made an effort to speak, but failing, waved his hand and drew back from the light, letting the curtain drop. The gentleman at whom the apparition had looked so earnestly, now exclaimed, ‘That’s my father! Oh, will he not speak to me?’ Immediately the curtain went aside again and the same face presented itself, and another effort, I thought a painful one, was made to speak; the mouth opened, the lips moved, but no sound of voice was heard. With a slight shade of disappointment on his countenance, the old man bowed his head twice, and putting forth his hand, waved an adieu in a most feeling manner. In a few seconds after, the curtain was put back by a hand resembling very much the armless one which had caressed me at the aperture. And now a familiar face, fac-simile of one I had seen coffined years ago, made its appearance. Without speaking, I turned a glance upon my sister in the flesh, sitting by my side; she was trembling and weeping, so I felt sure she was not behind me in the recognition of the face at the aperture. It was our dear departed sister, the same who had spoken to us in the dark a few minutes before. She now uttered her own name in her own clear, familiar tone. How the blood tingled in my veins as her well-remembered gray eyes met mine! Nor seemed she less moved than I. I could not keep my seat, but glided up to the aperture, when she, with manifest emotion, threw her arms around my neck. It was but for a moment. Releasing me, she quickly disappeared behind the curtain. “But I must crowd the facts and incidents I propose to give more closely. Of course I cannot set down all, nor even half, in an article like this, intended to be brief, which was elicited during an investigation kept up day after day for three weeks. “I saw many strange faces at the aperture; some days from ten to fifteen or twenty, the most of whom were recognized by some one or more present in the circle. It was nearly a week after the appearance of the sister just alluded to,101before I recognized another face, yet a number of apparitions professed to recognize me. At length two other sisters succeeded in materializing themselves, and appeared side by side at the aperture. The recognition was undoubted, my sister at my side recognized them at the same moment I did. And strangers present remarked upon the family resemblance. But the certainty was made doubly certain when the apparitions mentioned incidents in their earth-life and ours which we readily and vividly remembered. “A few days subsequent, our mother appeared, threw open the door of the cabinet, and showed herself to us from head to foot. “Six times during the three weeks an old acquaintance, who died a materialist, appeared to me, looked and talked naturally; referred repeatedly to his materialistic notions, and how unhappy they made him. Said much about his present condition, and its advantages over the former; tried to give me an idea of spirit life, the pursuits, pleasures and amusements of spirits, as well as their institutions for doing good, educating the ignorant, and lifting higher the low and debased. “I must give one more instance of recognition, and close my story, already, perhaps, too long. “A few days before I left the place a gentleman came there, bringing with him two little girls—his own daughters—the elder perhaps eight years old, the younger about six. Before going into the séance-room he said to me: ‘When about leaving home my wife observed, “I would go too if I thought mother would show herself there; but, as she was always opposed to spiritualism, I’m sure she’ll have no desire to make any manifestation.” ’ ‘The last one I should look for,’ he rejoined: ‘she was so bitter against everything of the kind.’ But lo! after the light séance began, who should appear first at the aperture but this same old grandmother. She bent her eyes affectionately upon the children. The little girls gazed a moment in mute astonishment—then both at once clapping their hands in ecstasy, exclaimed: ‘Grandma! Grandma!’ “ ‘Keep still,’ said the father, in a low tone of voice, and evidently much moved—then to the apparition said, ‘You didn’t believe in this a few weeks ago.’ “ ‘No,’ replied the spirit, ‘but thank God it is true!’ These words were uttered very distinctly and with a peculiar stress of voice, indicating earnestness and deep feeling. The old lady had been dead but three weeks. “I could give many more remarkable tests through recognition, but must close here.” But, such manifestations are not confined to the Davenport boys, in the dark, nor to Moravia in the light. Here comes another case with its results, which I copy from the San Francisco Daily Post of Aug. 14, 1872. A METHODIST CLERGYMAN SEES THE SPIRIT OF HIS WIFE
“The Rev. R. W. Bingham, a Methodist clergyman of Newman, Ga., lost his wife some weeks since. Grief nearly killed him. Suddenly his wonted cheerfulness returned. The change caused much comment, which was increased a hundred-fold by the sermon he preached on a recent Sunday. He spoke of spiritual manifestations, avowed his belief in them, and gave the reason why. Twice his dead wife had come to him. He had seen her, and heard and understood her words. ‘I know that I am neither insane nor superstitious,’ he said, in conclusion, ‘yet I would as soon doubt my own existence as the truth and reality of what I have told you.’ ” How can those who believe the soul is immortal, that the dead are conscious, that there is no devil, and that our friends who have died are guardian angels all around us, stand against the fascination of such manifestations? Let us arouse to greater earnestness in presenting these truths to the people, which warn them against Satan’s deceptions, that they may, if they will, receive them in the love of them, and escape. Let us live still nearer to God that we may be kept by his power through faith. 1 Pet. 1:5. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH. Formality and Fanaticism.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
Dead formality and seething fanaticism—the rock Charybdis and the whirlpool Scylla—are both alike to be avoided. The successful navigator must carefully sail between the two. He must not fear the whirlpool so much as to dash his vessel upon the rocks, neither must he, to shun the rocks, rush into the whirlpool. Death is imminent on either hand; but there is a channel through which the mariner may steer his vessel in safety. The formalist trusts in a lifeless form of words and ceremonies; the fanatic in the teaching of the Spirit. Both have a spirit, but neither of them the Spirit of God. Those who would worship God acceptably must worship him in Spirit and in truth. The word of truth is necessary, and the Spirit of truth is no less so. There is such a thing as a person unrenewed, having the carnal mind, conforming in a measure to the outward acts of religion, and at the same time being a stranger to the Spirit of God and experimental religion. On the other hand, there may be a remarkable experience, and impressions supposed to be from the Spirit of God, and yet the person be laboring under a delusion, not being led by the Spirit of God, but the wild spirit of fanaticism. The one cries, “The word, truth, duty;” the other, “The Spirit, impressions, experience.” Both are wrong; the one is being driven upon the rock, the other is being drawn into the whirlpool. “Genuine sanctification follows the channel of Bible truth. It is not grounded on flights of feeling, but on the immutable truths of God’s word. It is the truth received through the mind and practically carried out in the life. When the truth is thus received and carried out, there is a radical work, a change indeed; and those who receive and obey the truth are not destitute of good feeling. They have an inward satisfaction arising from a consciousness of well-doing, and enjoy the approbation and blessing of the Lord to encourage and strengthen them in their great and glorious work.” Sanctification, p. 8. What we experience from the Spirit of God is for our own encouragement, and not for an evidence to others that we are truly converted. The best evidence possible to others is a life in harmony with the word of God; and this too is the best evidence to ourselves, for we may well doubt the most rapturous and ecstatic experience that flows from some other source than a sincere endeavor to know and do the revealed will of God. It is good to enjoy the approving smiles of Heaven, the witness of the Spirit that we are truly converted. Let all seek and enjoy this. But when we are favored with some rich experience which is new to ourselves, let us not conclude from this that our brethren have never been converted to God. We should encourage a heart work, but our experience is not the measuring line. We have a better one in the word of God: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Our words and actions are the fruit we bear. D. T. BOURDEAU
By D. T. Bourdeau
The pillar of cloud was darkness to the Egyptians, while it was light to the Israelites. So the advance steps of God's people are darkness to some, while they are light and a source of encouragement to others. We, as a people, have been expecting that the last message would go with a loud voice, and that God would cut his work short in righteousness upon earth. But I have feared that as the means to bring about this desired result were brought into requisition, some would look upon them as evidence that it would take a long time for the message to do its work, and that consequently the coming of the Lord was a great way off. How inconsistent is this mode of reasoning. It would be far more rational to reason thus: God uses means to advance his cause, and these means are being brought into exercise; therefore they will soon accomplish their work, and we have increased evidence that the coming of the Lord is near. To illustrate: A farmer has one thousand acres of wheat to harvest, and should one man undertake to harvest this grain with a sickle, he might despair of seeing his work accomplished. But if twenty men were to enter this field with cradles, the prospects of securing the crop would be more flattering. But if you would add to these cradlers three or four reapers, then would you know of a surety that the grain would soon be harvested. So with the work before us. It commenced with comparatively feeble means to carry it forward. We had but a few preachers, and a few publications. God greatly blessed these instrumentalities. They were like money out at a thousand per cent. Rich indeed have been the returns to the glory of God. Hundreds and thousands have been led to embrace the truth. Our facilities to publish the truth have greatly increased. We have a Health Institute, and publications on health, to relieve the bodies as well as the souls of men, and more reapers are entering the great harvest field. And thank God for the prospects of a denominational school to help in preparing more laborers to aid in carrying forward this glorious work. Surely the message will soon do its work, the Lord will soon come, and we have reason to take courage.