Review and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 16. (4/5/1870)

Review and Herald

Apr 5, 1870

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 5, 1870

OUR FAITH AND HOPE;

By James White

Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We Do.

BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.

NUMBER EIGHTEEN—OUR DISAPPOINTMENT.

Why were those disappointed who looked for the second appearing of Christ in the year 1844? This important question, we believe, can be answered in the most satisfactory manner.

Our disappointment did not arise from mistaking the manner and object of the second advent; for no truth is more distinctly stated in the sacred Scriptures than the personal and visible second appearing of Jesus Christ to raise the righteous dead, change to immortality the living righteous, and to destroy the unbelieving world.

Nor did our disappointment arise from misapplying the prophetic symbols of Daniel and John. A careful review of the subject confirms us that the application of these symbols made by the Adventists of 1840–'44 was correct.

Nor did our disappointment arise from a misapplication of the prophetic periods. The year-day theory is well sustained. The argument by which the original date of the seventy weeks of the ninth chapter of Daniel is sustained, is invulnerable. And Adventists correctly held that the seventy weeks were a part of the 2300 days. These two points relative to the seventy weeks being correct, we had sufficient reasons for believing that the 2300 days would terminate in the year 1844.

Neither did our disappointment arise from believing that at the end of the 2300 days the work of cleansing the sanctuary would take place. For it is plainly stated, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14. But when we said that this earth, or a part of this earth, was the sanctuary, and that Christ must descend from Heaven at the end of the 2300 days, to purify the earth by fire, we looked for that which the Bible did not warrant us to expect. Here was the cause of our disappointment. For we have seen that there is no scriptural authority to support the view that any part of the earth is the sanctuary, or that the burning of the earth, and the melting of the elements, 2 Pet. 3, is the cleansing of the sanctuary. By a multitude of witnesses, we have proved that the tabernacle of God in Heaven is the sanctuary to be cleansed, and that its cleansing is a work performed in that sanctuary, with blood, and not with fire. Our disappointment, then, arose from a misunderstanding of the work to transpire at the end of the days.

William Miller and his associates were correct on three of the four fundamental points of the Advent faith. On one they were mistaken. Their views were correct relative to the literal and personal second advent, the application of the prophetic symbols, and their exposition of the great periods of Daniel and John. But they did not understand the event to occur at the termination of the 2300 prophetic days. And their mistake on this one point does not affect the great second advent question, as most men suppose that it does. This one point scripturally corrected, the Second Advent faith stands on as firm a basis, to say the least, as before the disappointment. We therefore see no reason for denouncing that truly great and good man, Wm. Miller, as a false prophet, and the Advent faith as a failure, simply because he was mistaken on one point in four, and when that one mistake was of such a nature as to be scripturally corrected without in the least changing or weakening any other point. And here we would remark that other great men have made mistakes as well as Wm. Miller. The learned Prof. Bush, in a letter to Wm. Miller, said:

“Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to yourself or your friends, that you have devoted much time and attention to the study of the chronology of prophecy, and have labored much to determine the commencing and closing dates of its great periods. If these periods are actually given by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic books, it was doubtless with the design that they should be studied, and probably, in the end, fully understood; and no man is to be charged with presumptuous folly who reverently makes the attempt to do this. On this point, I have myself no charges to bring against you. Nay, I am even ready to go so far as to say, that I do not conceive your errors on the subject of chronology to be at all of a serious nature, or, in fact, to be very wide of the truth. In taking a day as the prophetical term for a year, I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Kirby, Scott, Keith, and a host of others who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and John, do actually expire about this age of the world, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominent in the notices of these eminent divines. Your error, as I apprehend, lies in another direction than your chronology.”

Here Prof. Bush speaks frankly and truthfully, and his words of wisdom sustain the Adventists in the most objectionable feature of their faith. But what was the event for which he looked to mark the termination of the 2300 days? Let the following extract from the same letter to Wm. Miller answer:

“While I have no question that well-informed students of prophecy will admit that your calculation of times, with the above exception, is not materially erroneous, they will still, I believe, maintain that you have entirely mistaken the nature of the events which are to occur when those periods have expired. This is the head and front of your expository offending. You have assumed that the close of the 2300 days of Daniel, for instance, is also the close of the period of human probation—that it is the epoch of the visible and personal second coming of Christ—of the resurrection of the righteous dead—and of the dissolution of the present mundane system. All this I affirm to be gratuitously and groundlessly asserted. Admitting, as I readily do, that we have arrived at a momentous era of the world, and that the expiration of these periods is to introduce, by gradual steps, a new order of things, intellectual, political, and moral, I still peremptorily deny that the Scriptures, soundly interpreted, warrant the expectation of any such sudden and miraculous disruption of the existing order of things, as yourself, and those usually termed Adventists, are in the habit of teaching.”

“The great event before the world is not its physical conflagration, but its moral regeneration; and for one, I am happy to think that by your own limitation, the question is so soon to be put to the test of indisputable fact. The 23d of March—if that is the time—will soon be upon us, and the truth or falsehood of one part, at least, of your scheme will then be decided. But even if years or centuries were yet to intervene, I should still be strong in my grand position, that you had mistaken the nature of the events.”

“Although there is doubtless a sense in which Christ may be said to come, in connection with the passing away of the fourth empire, and of the Ottoman power, and his kingdom to be illustriously established, yet that will be found to be a spiritual coming in the power of his gospel, in the ample outpouring of his Spirit, and the glorious administration of his providence. This is the common and prevailing belief of Christendom, and I have no doubt the true one.”

Evidently, Mr. Bush looked for the conversion of the world as the event to mark the termination of the 2300 days. Both Mr. Miller and Mr. Bush were right on the time question, and both were mistaken in the event to occur at the close of the great periods. Mr. Miller held that the world would be regenerated by fire, and Mr. Bush by the gospel, at the end of the 2300 days. Mr. Bush would put Mr. Miller’s views to the severe test of a few weeks only, while the conversion-of-the-world theory of Mr. Bush has had the terrible test of the last twenty-six years of apostasy, spiritual darkness, and crime. This period has been noted by departures from the faith of the gospel, and apostasies from the Christian religion, as no other period has been marked in the history of the Christian church.

Infidelity in various forms, especially in the name of Spiritualism, has spread over the Christian world with fearful rapidity, while the dark record of crime has been blackening since Prof. Bush addressed his letter to Wm. Miller. If this be the commencement of the temporal millennium, may the Lord save us from the balance.

Both these great men mistook the event to terminate the 2300 days. Why should Mr. Miller be condemned for his mistake, and Mr. Bush be excused for his unscriptural conclusion? Both rest in the grave, while we have opportunity to scripturally correct their errors by the light of the heavenly sanctuary.

“Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

In the providence of God, in the seventh-month movement of 1844, the attention of the people was turned to the types of the law of Moses. The argument which had been given, that as the vernal types, namely, the passover, the wave sheaf, and the meat-offering, were fulfilled in their order and time in the crucifixion, the resurrection of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of pentecost, so would the autumnal types be fulfilled as to time, in the events connected with the second advent, seemed to be conclusive and satisfactory. The position taken was, that as the high priest came out of the typical sanctuary on the tenth day of the seventh month and blessed the people, so Christ, our great High Priest, would, on that day, come out of Heaven to bless his waiting people.

But it should be borne in mind that at that time those types which point to the work in the heavenly sanctuary were not understood. In fact, so few had any definite idea of the tabernacle of God in Heaven. We now see that the two holies of the typical sanctuary, made by the direction of the Lord to Moses, with their two distinct ministrations—the daily and the yearly services—were, in the language of Paul to the Hebrews, “patterns of things in the Heavens,” figures of the true. Chap. 9. He also says of the work of the Jewish priests, in chapter 8: “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.” His words mean simply this: In Heaven there is a sanctuary where Christ ministers, and that sanctuary has two holies, and two distinct ministrations, as truly as the earthly sanctuary had. If his words do not mean this, they have no meaning at all.

How natural, then, the conclusion, that as the Jewish priests ministered daily in connection with the holy place of the sanctuary, and on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the close of their yearly round of service, the high priest entered the most holy place to make atonement for the cleansing of the sanctuary, so Christ ministered in connection with the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary from the time of his ascension to the ending of the 2300 days of Dan. 8, in 1844, when, on the tenth day of the seventh month of that year, he entered the most holy place of the heavenly tabernacle to make a special atonement for the blotting out of the sins of his people, or, which is the same thing, for the cleansing of the sanctuary.

The typical sanctuary was cleansed from the sins of the people with the offering of blood. The nature of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary may be learned from the type. By virtue of his own blood, Christ entered the most holy to make a special atonement for the cleansing of the heavenly tabernacle.

With this view of the heavenly sanctuary before the reader, he can see the defect in the seventh-month theory. It now appears evident that the conclusion that Christ would come out of Heaven on that day is not justified by the premises in the case. But if Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary was to last but one year, on the last day of which he would make an atonement for the cleansing of the heavenly tabernacle, according to the type, then the conclusion that he would on that day come out and bless his waiting people, would be irresistible.

But let it be remembered that “the law having a shadow of good things to come” was “not the very image of the things.” In the shadow, the round of service, first in the holy place for the entire year, save one day, and second, in the most holy place on the last day of that year, was repeated each successive year. But not so in the ministry of Christ. He entered the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary at his ascension once for all. There he ministered till the time for the cleansing of the sanctuary at the close of the 2300 days in the autumn of 1844. To accomplish this work, he then entered the most holy place once for all. Christ suffered upon the cross—not often—but once for all. He entered upon his work in the holy place once for all. And he cleanses the heavenly sanctuary from the sins of his people once for all. His ministry in the holy, from his ascension in the spring of A. D. 31 to the autumn of 1844, was eighteen hundred and thirteen years and six months. The period of his ministry in the most holy can no more be defined before it close, than the time of his ministry in the holy could be defined before it terminated. Therefore, however much the tenth-day atonement for the cleansing of the typical sanctuary proved that our great High Priest would enter the most holy of the heavenly tabernacle on the tenth day of the seventh month, it proved nothing to the point that he would on that day come out of the most holy place.

Could we then have understood the subject of the heavenly sanctuary, our disappointment would have been avoided. Our evidence did not prove that our High Priest would descend from the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in flaming fire to burn the earth, at the end of the 2300 days; but, so far from this, it did prove that he must at that time enter within the second veil, to minister for us before the ark of God’s testament, and to cleanse the sanctuary. Dan. 8:14; Heb. 9:23, 24. Such has been the position of our High Priest since the end of the days, and this is the reason that we did not behold our King in 1844. He had then ministered in only one of the holy places, and the termination of the 2300 days marked the commencement of his ministration in the other.

When John, who saw the door of the first apartment of the heavenly tabernacle opened, Rev. 4:1–5, at the commencement of Christ’s ministry, was carried in vision down the stream of time to “the days of the voice of the seventh angel,” he saw the most holy place of God’s temple opened. “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” Rev. 11:19. Here, by the ark of God’s testament, is where our High Priest ministers, since the close of the 2300 days. To this open door in the heavenly sanctuary, Rev. 3:7, 8; Isa. 22:22–25, we invite those to come for pardon and salvation, who have not sinned away the day of grace. Our High Priest stands by the mercy-seat (which is simply the top of the ark), and here he offers his blood, not merely for the cleansing of the sanctuary, but also for the pardon of iniquity and transgression. But while we call men to this open door, and point them to the blood of Christ, offered for us at the mercy-seat, we would remind them of the law of God beneath that mercy-seat, which made the death of God’s beloved Son necessary in order that guilty man might be pardoned. The ark contains God’s commandments, and he that would receive the blessing of God, at the hand of our High Priest, must keep the commandments contained in the ark before which he ministers.

A Great Fact Acknowledged.

By Editor

[The following article, over the initials S. S. W., appeared in the Advent Herald of March 16, 1870. It is headed “An Important Question;” and the question is, “Is there a difference in the conversions (so-called) of the present day, from those of former days? This question the writer answers in the affirmative; and one cause which he assigns for this, is the utter neglect by the churches of the day, of the great doctrine of the second advent. This neglect of course arises from their rejection of the doctrine in 1844. The fact, then, is plainly acknowledged that a change has taken place in the religious world, and, as one among others, for the reason already named. Now this is what we claim, and all we claim, as a fulfillment of the second message of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. This, we think, is what the prophecy contemplated. And it matters not what terms are employed, so long as all the essential facts are acknowledged. The case is well stated in the article, to which we now invite the careful attention of the reader:]

Is there a difference in the conversions (so-called) of the present day from those of former days? This is a serious and important question, and I think must be answered in the affirmative.

A distinguished writer, some time since, thus remarked: “The great religious problem of the age seems to be, how one can be a Christian on the easiest terms, with the smallest amount of doctrine to be believed, and the smallest amount of experience to be passed through. Deep convictions of sin are not required and are not found. ‘The law work’ on which the Fathers laid so much stress, is a thing of the past. The gate is not very strait, or the way so narrow. The cross, too, is altogether changed. It is a thing of art or ornament. It is fashioned with skill, and covered with gold, and points the spire of the proud Christian temple; it is wreathed with flowers to win admiration among the adornments of a festive occasion; it is richly set with pearls and diamonds and on the neck of beauty. All its repulsiveness is gone. It suggests nothing of sacrifice, nothing of conflict with subtle foes, resistance to mighty forces of evil; nothing of the lingering and painful death of strong passions having their seat at the very center of the spiritual nature.”

It may well be asked why is all this declension in religious experience? May not some, if not a great part, of it be owing to the preaching of the present day? What are the great motives set forth in the New Testament to induce men to repent? 1. The sinfulness and depravity of the human heart. 2. The holiness and spirituality of the law of God. For a want of a clear perception of these great truths, there are not witnessed in the relation of Christian experiences a deep conviction of sin and a hearty reception of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer of men. Indeed, in many experiences of candidates’ coming forward to unite with the church, there is no mention of these great truths. The amount is, they felt bad, they thought they ought to be Christians, and they felt better, and wish to become members. 3. Another motive to induce sinners to repent, and to lead them to Christ, is the second personal coming of the Lord Jesus, to raise the bodies of the sleeping saints, to judge the quick and the dead, and to reward the righteous and punish the wicked. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ is the most prominent doctrine of the New Testament, that is to say, there are more texts that speak of, or allude to, it than to any other doctrine, not excepting that of the atonement; yet a person might attend the churches of our leading evangelical denominations for twenty years, and not hear a sermon on that subject. But I think there are something like 150 places in the New Testament which allude to that doctrine, and in the two epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians—which it will require only about twenty minutes to read—there are no less than thirteen texts which speak of the coming of Christ. Indeed, the three great points in the experience of the Thessalonian Christians were, (1) They turned from idols—showing their conviction of sin; (2) They turned to serve the living and true God—showing their conversion; and, (3) They waited for his Son from Heaven—showing their Christian hope; for the true hope of a Christian is the personal coming of the Saviour, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life in the kingdom of Christ. These great doctrines were preached faithfully and clearly by the primitive Christians, and by such men as Martin Luther, Richard Baxter, Increase and Cotton Mather, and by many others. Thus Rev. Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the New Testament, observes: “To believe in the second advent of the Lord Jesus to judge the world, and to desire his return, became a kind of criterion by which Christians were known. It is so now. [So he says. Would that it were so!] It is one of the characteristics of a true Christian, that he sincerely desires the return of his Saviour, and would welcome his appearing in the clouds of heaven.” If this is so, I confess I hear but little expression of such desires among Christians of my denomination [the writer is a Congregationalist deacon.—Ed. of Herald], either in their prayers or exhortations. Indeed the subject is scarcely ever mentioned.

If, then, we want more genuine, old-fashioned, Christian experiences, let these great truths to which I have alluded be proclaimed in the ears of impenitent

men. Let them understand that God’s holy law is strict and heart-searching—that it is not to be trifled with; that Christ will come, and they must be brought to judgment; that eternal life is offered them if they will repent and believe in Christ; and that they must suffer everlasting punishment if they reject Christ and resist the strivings of the Holy Spirit. “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Why? Because they are going to die? Nay; for death is never presented in the Bible as a motive for repentance. Why then? Because “he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained.”

Let us then speak to sinners as God speaks to them in his holy word, and as his servant, Richard Baxter, speaks in his “Call to the Unconverted,” and his “Saints’ Everlasting Rest.” A minister told me, some time since, his hearers would not bear such preaching. Is it so? Have men such itching ears that they want fables instead of truth? If so, we may well expect spurious conversions and strange experiences. But let the truth of God on all subjects be fearlessly and plainly proclaimed. Let candidates for admission to our churches be more thoroughly examined as to their conviction for sin and their trust for salvation in the atoning blood of Christ, and we may hope for firmer and more devoted men and women of God.

I have written thus plainly because I desire most earnestly that ministers and Christians generally would more plainly set forth the great truths of God’s word, and especially those which I have spoken, that all Christian ministers may be able to say, with Paul, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”

Amusements—when Innocent, when Sinful.

By D. F. Newton

OBJECT to amusements for little folks or great folks? When—or on what occasion? Not a breath of it. We delight to see every one, little and big, mounting up on eagle’s wings joyfully. The whole world is alive, on fire, with things beautiful, musical.

The twinkling stars, the sun, the moon, and all nature pour forth their sweet melodies. The little hills skip like lambs, the mountains break forth into singing, and all the trees of the forest clap their hands joyfully. The birds of the air amuse themselves; the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea. Sooner hush the tuneful lark, tie the legs of the skipping squirrel, stop the flowers from blooming, or the woods and the fields from growing green, as deprive the buoyant youth of innocent recreation.

The question is not between amusements, and no amusements, but between those that are innocent, and those that are hurtful. The world is on fire for something to feed the passions, gratify a corrupt taste. Volumes on volumes are written, regions above, and regions below, ransacked to kill time, and murder the soul! The rush is perpetual after the ephemeral or evanescent, the thirst is to sip at the foul sediment of corrupt pleasure, which, at last, biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder; though every sunbeam is winged with glory, every snow-flake drops heavenly benedictions from the skies for our pleasure.

God is love. Gladness meets us at every step. Our walks, our rides, our pleasure labor, our social interviews, our books, our innocent, virtuous, hallowed festivities, afford ample and varied means for rational exhilaration. Who, then, but a fool or a madman, would plunge into the whirl of fashionable dissipation?

All amusements and recreations, lawful and innocent, are those, and only those, which tend to promote health of body, vigor of mind, purity of soul, and thus qualify for a better discharge of higher and more important duties.

We consider all amusements or pastimes which tend to stimulate the passions unduly, excite impure emotions, and corrupt the heart, sinful, and to be strictly avoided. Oh! that parents and children would see and feel this. How many are now weeping tears of blood for the first step in this downward path! One wrong step prepares the way for another. The way of evil is downward.

“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” Prov. 4:14, 15.

Dancing parties, masquerades, every species of gambling, chess, checkers, marble and card-playing, prize-fighting, cock-fighting, betting of all kinds, horse-racing, the public revel, the barbecue, the circus, the theater, the billiard-table, the fancy fair, the soiree, the tea-party, going from house to house on the first day of the new year, partaking to surfeiting rich and costly dainties, sipping the wine-cup, deemed by some innocent, are more or less expensive, foolish, hurtful, soul-destroying, pitfalls of Satan.

The most popular amusements are inconsistent with the principles of Christianity, hazardous to the soul’s life. Theaters in all ages have been nurseries of vice, sinks of iniquity, places of abominations, and strong-holds of the devil. The very atmosphere around these haunts of iniquity is polluting! In these strong-holds of Satan are presented the worst characters in vivid colors, utterances given to profane and immoral sentiments, and they are resorted to, by the most vicious characters. Thus they offer the contamination of corrupt associations, and are prolonged to late hours, which are additional sources of danger. Every diversion, beloved reader, attended with dissipation, cruelty, immorality, and impiety, everything giving pain to a fellow-creature, everything tending to vitiate or pollute the mind, or render it indisposed to devotion, must be wrong and strictly avoided.

We have no right to visit any place of amusement from which we cannot return to our closets with as ardent a flame of holy devotion as when we left them. Some of the amusements we consider lawful and innocent, and which may be safely recommended to persons enjoying health, strength of body and mind, are gardening, walking and riding, sacred music, drawing, painting, botany, a survey of natural and artificial curiosities, the use of the globes, the telescope, the microscope, useful company, agreeable conversation, and entertaining books.

“Let us not so wrong and vilify the bounties of Providence, as to allow for a moment that the sources of innocent amusement are so rare that men must be driven, almost by constraint, to such as are of doubtful quality. On the contrary, such has been the Creator’s goodness, that almost every one of our physical, intellectual, and moral faculties, and the same may be said of the whole creation which we see around us, is not only calculated to answer the proper end of its being by its subserviency to some purpose of solid usefulness, but to be the instrument of administering pleasure.”

“Our Maker, also, in his kindness, has so constructed us, that even more vicissitude is grateful and refreshing, a consideration which should prompt us often to seek from a prudent variation of useful pursuits, that recreation for which we are apt to resort to what is altogether unproductive and useless.

“Yes, rich and multiplied are the springs of innocent relaxation. The Christian relaxes in the temperate use of all the gifts of Providence. Imagination, and taste, and genius, and the beauties of creation, and the works of art, lie open to him. He relaxes in the feast of reason, in the intercourse of society, in the sweets of friendship, in the endearments of love, in the exercises of hope, of confidence, of joy, of gratitude, of universal good-will, of all the benevolent and generous affections, which, by the gracious ordinance of our Creator, while they disinterestedly intend only happiness to others, are most surely productive to us of complacency and peace.”

We might mention numerous other things equally innocent and useful; but this is sufficient to prove how easy we may be amused, without running after the silly frivolities of an unsanctified world, and which, under the pretense of enjoying necessary recreations, debase our nature, and involve us in misery and disgrace.

A passion for amusement wastes time, enfeebles the body, dissipates the mind, destroys usefulness, and leads to great expense. “He that loveth pleasure,” says Solomon, “shall be a poor man.”

D. F. NEWTON, Ed., “Apples of Gold,” &c.

Abiding in Christ.

By C. LAWTON

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” I have often thought of these words, and the thought would naturally arise in the mind, how is it that we are to abide in Christ? In 1 John 2:5, 6, we read: “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” Here we may test ourselves whether we abide in Christ or not. It is to be expected if we do, we shall walk even as he walked. If we keep his word, obey his teaching, we shall love the Lord with all the heart, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves; for this is the first and great commandment, and this will be evidence enough that we are in him. No room here for self and the world. Our whole being is consecrated to God. All is on the altar. We are no longer our own. Our affections, temper, passions, and appetites, are all consecrated to God. Our will is wholly lost in his. We shall have no desire to indulge in sin; but we shall loathe it and love purity. Oh, blessed state! Oh, glorious resting in God! My soul longs to enter this state of blessedness more fully. Oh! how long shall we remain in the low grounds of sin and unbelief, when just before are the glory-gilt mountains of God’s redeeming love.

Brethren and sisters, be not satisfied with a formal religion. Seek for a thorough conversion, for the abiding witness of the Spirit? Is it not time we put on the whole armor? Dare we delay in this day of preparation? All the heavenly host are engaged for our salvation. Will we remain inactive, close our eyes to the light, give ourselves up to surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, here right in the time of judgment? I feel truly alarmed for many in the church, who seem to be insensible to the dangerous position they occupy. What will arouse them? Oh! that they could realize the great loss they will sustain if they do not put forth extra efforts to get out of the way of the enemy. It does seem that the last testimony should arouse the church. None but those who agonize daily, will go through. Oh! when will the true spirit of agonizing, the spirit of wrestling Jacob like, and prevailing with God, rest on the church? The answer seems to come back to my heart, When we give up our idols, make a surrender of self, and the world, live out the testimonies and consecrate ourselves wholly to God, then will the genuine spirit of labor rest upon us.

My heart is encouraged with increasing evidence of the progress of the work of the third message. The cheering reports from different parts of the field show that the work of the Lord is hastening to its close. The day of preparation will soon be gone. The saints of God will receive the refreshing, and the wrath of God will soon be poured out on the wicked. Let us work while the day lasts. John says, “Now little children abide in Him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

C. LAWTON. Jeff. Co., N. Y.

An Independent Christian.

By A. P. LAWTON.

An independent Christian is not one who feels no need of help from God and his people. He knows that of himself he can do nothing; but his religion is not one of convenience, and is not dependent upon circumstances. If friends forsake, dearly as he may love them, he loves his God better, and cheerfully gives up all for him.

He dares to do right though he stand alone. He does not measure himself by others, but by the word of God. By this he knows he is to be judged. It is sufficient for him that he knows his Master's will. Such a Christian is dear to God. To him he will impart his secret. Soon he will hear, Well done; not from the lips of poor, erring mortals, but from Him who cannot misjudge. Happy man! A. P. LAWTON.

Modesty Gives Merit Strength

MODESTY is to merit, what the shades are in a picture; it gives it strength and relief.

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