It may be well for them to say now that they are in love with the laws of our country; for they may well be. While the laws grant toleration to all religions, they see a good opportunity to fill the country with good Catholics. In this respect, like some anciently, “their strength is to sit still.” The question is, Will they carry out our country’s laws of toleration if they become strong enough to resist them. As we have already quoted, they say, “The church is of necessity intolerant.”
As another proof of their mild character, we are pointed, here in San Francisco, to a late speech of Father Buchard on the evening of Nov. 25, 1874. Speaking of the American Protestant Association, he said, “The Association calls upon the Protestant sects to unite and oppose the advances of the Catholic church. The right of private judgment which Protestants claim makes this impossible. Our Protestant fellow-citizens need not fear the Catholic church nor hate its members. We are all children of one government. Jew, Turk, Mohammedan, and Christian, are all equal here.” “Catholics have a right to live here as well as Protestants. They do not wish to interfere with any man’s conscience, and will allow no encroachment upon theirs. The Catholic church loves our country and reveres its laws.”
We know that this Jesuit, Father Buchard, says, “We love our country,” but we do not know with how much Jesuitical, “mental reservation,” he says it. Had they the power to change the laws here, which now grant tolerance to all religions, how long would they let them remain? They love these laws now, simply because they give them an opportunity to go on unmolested in their work of preparing to overthrow these same laws.
As to how they regard matters in this country, let the following from a Florence journal, of June, 1874, testify: “The pope has been presented with a copy of an address sent from the United States to Archbishop Ledochowski, of Posen. The Holy Father, in replying, spoke most cordially of America, and said, ‘The United States is the only country where I am really pope in the eyes of the government. I am always afraid lest European governments shall oppose or control my acts, whereas I can freely send pontifical documents to the United States, without fear of opposition on the part of the government.’”
No wonder the Catholics profess to love the United States; but it is very apparent that they have in their hearts a deadly hatred for our free institutions and free schools. Read the following, clipped from the Charlottetown Islander, Prince Edward’s Island, 1874: “No later than last week it is well known that Bishop McIntyre addressed a ‘Pastoral Letter’ to his clergy in this Colony, in which he solemnly commands them to leave no means within their power unattempted, to influence their respective flocks to vote for those candidates only who will pledge themselves to carry out his wishes in the matter of the school system of this Province.”
The shy manner of Catholic encroachment is very graphically described by Gavazzi: “The church of the pope is, at first, oh, how modest! What a pattern of humility! She humbly stands before you, and with downcast eyes, and with a faltering voice, asks a corner—a small corner—a neglected, useless corner—where she may build a little altar, a small modest chapel, and worship her God according to her faith. Pleased with her humble fervor, beguiled by her unassuming mien, a Protestant government grants her the supplicated ‘little corner.’ She builds her church, an unpretending edifice, worships her God without ostentation, smiles meekly as you meet her in the street, gives you the walk, and takes the gutter, passes by, and troubles no man.
“Thus, for a few months, a few years, she worships God in spirit and in truth—as you may think; but all the while she has other work on hand, which she urges forward, energetically, untiringly, adroitly, unscrupulously, secretly—Jesuitically! And now her modest chapel has grown into a cathedral; her bishops, archbishops, perhaps cardinals, are poured into your community, and palaces rise to receive them. Where now is her humility—her little corner? Squares are too small to contain her. She meets you in the street, and holds her own. She is your equal and tells you so.
“A little longer, and she has advanced still further. Her temples, her palaces, her domains, have spread so far and wide that there is no longer room for yours. She meets men in the streets, and has lackeys and guards at hand to thrust them out of her way. Times have changed, and if she permits the Protestant government and people to have ‘a little corner and a small church in which to worship God according to their faith,’ it is a marvelous toleration; much more probably, she asks them to kneel in the dust and kiss her foot in token of subjection.”
From a sermon by Rev. Dr. Hatfield, of Chicago, in August, 1868, we quote the following respecting the future of the papacy: “The Romish power grows weak in the old world. The man of sin is palsied and trembles upon his throne, and casts eager and wistful glances to this magnificent country, with its broad prairies, and its magnificent prospects, eagerly desiring to avail himself of its resources. His eyes are fixed on this country, with the hope that he may here build himself up a throne that will outlive the years and survive the wreck of ages. Here the last great contest is to take place, in which the papacy is to bestride this country like another Colossus, or is to sink like a millstone in the depths of the sea, to rise no more forever.”
The means resorted to by the papacy to obtain power are various. The following, from an article in the Cumberland Presbyterian, of Aug. 8, 1873, speaks for itself: “A great many immigrants are landed upon Ward’s Island, New York, and the authorities have erected a house of worship for their special comfort and accommodation. The Catholics have attempted to control the building and to exclude the Protestants.”
It seems from the said article that Mr. Smith, an Episcopalian, was appointed chaplain of the island in February, 1871, and that Rev. Father Prakensky was appointed Catholic chaplain of the island in August, 1868. It seems Prakensky thought it his duty to get the Protestants out of the chapel, and made a practice of getting all the Protestant children he could. Before a lawful body appointed to investigate the case, Prakensky gave in the following testimony:—
“I have tried in several instances to get children from their mothers. I do not consider this proselyting, but actual conversion, as there is but one baptism. I believe my judgment in this respect is perfect. I do not know that the laws of the State prohibit proselytism. I believe I have divine right to secure Protestant children from their Protestant mothers and make them Catholics. I deny the right of the Protestant minister to do the same.”
“The chapel in which the Catholics now worship is now virtually consecrated to their worship; if the chapel was used for other purposes it would be considered by me as profanation; the Protestants would defile the church by worshiping in it. I would consider it an act of injustice if the commissioners permitted the Protestants to worship in the chapel.” And were they as strong as in other times, they would say it was injustice to allow any Protestants on the island.
The papists of the old world are designedly seeking to gain power here. Their schemes are known to careful observers in Europe. As far back as July, 1846, Frederic Kapp, a member of the German Legislature, is reported to have said before that body, in Berlin, “At the present moment, it depends only on the Catholic church of the United States to determine when it will begin its war on the government and on Protestantism.”
That papacy is at heart what it always was, and just as ready to persecute as ever when it has the power, was fully manifest in the late massacre in Acapulco, Mexico. Four men and one woman were killed in the church, and a large number were wounded. The San Francisco Chronicle says, “Justi Denada, the Roman Catholic pastor of Acapulco, granted the assassins full forgiveness of sins and two hundred days’ indulgence for every Protestant they killed. The Roman Catholics of Acapulco presented a petition to Diego Alvarez, the governor of the province, asking him to use his authority to prevent the opening of any more places of Protestant worship in the city. This Alvarez promised to do.”
The man of sin, nearly consumed to death as a civil power, not only says what John saw that this power would say, but must soon meet the fate predicted in the prophecy. The church says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” But God says, “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God which judgeth her.” Rev. 18:7, 8.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Depopulation of the Sandwich Islands.
It is a sad fact that for nearly a century, the population of the Sandwich Islands has been gradually dying out, and that the process continues even under the now prevailing influences of Christianity. The charge that this is due to the influence and policy of the missionaries has been a standing slander among the enemies of Christianity for many years. It has just been revived, in a most offensive form, by the Chicago Tribune, in a report of an interview with Governor Kapena, one of the escort of King Kalakaua, of these islands, now traveling in the United States. He is reported to have said:—
“When Cook came to our islands, we were barbarous, but healthy. Our habits were different. In those days, my people, owing to their beautiful climate, wore very little clothing. The missionaries came first with the Bible, and they spoke of fig leaves and the indecency of being nude. Our people did not wish to shock the feelings of the whites, and adopted their clothing. They dropped the native mantle, which, in old times, used to shield them from the occasional Pacific winds during our short winter. They wore the same light clothing in winter as in summer after Cook came, and this bred consumption, and all manner of lung diseases, which carried them off by thousands. It is somewhat remarkable, that wherever the missionaries came—I will except the Roman Catholics—depopulation followed.”
“Reporter.—How do you account for it?
“Gov. Kapena.—Because they talked eternal Bible and nothing else. They were forever attending to the spiritual wants of the people, but had no care for their temporal requirements, as the Roman Catholics had. To prove what I say, I have only to assert that in the islands where the Catholic faith obtains, the population has not decreased with the terrible rapidity which it has in Protestant sections. I know it appears strange, but it is so.”
Thus the American people are asked to believe the astounding declaration that missionaries have succeeded in placing a numerous and healthy population on the road to actual extinction, by teaching them to wear clothes instead of going naked, a change which the accommodating native accepted and persisted in, purely out of regard for the feelings of the whites!
The Interior suspects that the whole statement is fictitiously attributed to Governor Kapena, and has assurance from a friend and classmate of his that he is far too intelligent a man to make such statements. The same paper gives the following statement of facts:—
“When those islands were discovered by Capt. James Cook, in 1778, he found them well populated with a healthy and vigorous race of barbarians. The population has been fairly estimated as numbering 400,000, which was as great as those mountainous islands could support without the aid of civilized art and agriculture. Captain Cook treated them treacherously and cruelly. They remembered it against him, and when he landed again in 1779, they very justly killed him. As a result, they were not again visited until 1792, when Vancouver landed, and treating them honorably, was kindly treated in return. He was with them for portions of three years. From that time forth those islands became the resort for Pacific whaleships, over 300 ships visiting them periodically, and for so much commerce, chiefly in sandal-wood, as they afforded—the natives taking their pay mostly in rum. The Hawaiians had no idea of chastity. The marriage bond was a rope of sand among them. Polygamy was universal with those who could afford it. In short, their paganism was of the lowest and most degraded type. The result was, that the Hawaiian Islands became the brothel of the Pacific for the sailors and whaleship crews, and the deadly disease which is the penalty of that vice rapidly infected the population.
“Another cause, almost equally destructive, was the practice of infanticide. This originated in the density of the population, and was so excessive that a majority of the infants were murdered. Added to those were the wars of conquest, by which Kamehameha I. reduced the whole group to subjection. These three causes combined resulted in a decrease of the population before the arrival of the missionaries in 1820, not elsewhere found equaled in history. In the forty years which elapsed between the discovery of the islands by Captain Cook, and the landing of the first missionaries on their shores, the total decrease amounted to the fearful aggregate of 260,000. Had not the missionaries been able to check the dreadful destruction, there would not now be a solitary survivor of a race which, less than a century ago, numbered 400,000. The missionaries found a dying race, mortally diseased in body and benighted in soul, and heroically set to work for their salvation. They succeeded in establishing monogamous marriage, in thwarting the licentious ships’ crews to a large extent, and in the establishment of order, law, industry, and other conservative influences.”
The exception which the report quoted above sees fit to make in favor of Catholic missions is accounted for by the simple fact that these missions were on islands in the group which have no adequate harbors, and were seldom or never resorted to by the sailors and venders of rum. In reference to the future prospects of the people, the Interior adds:—
“We fear the race is doomed. The population has decreased at an average of nearly two thousand per year for the fifty years since the establishment of the missions. During the forty years previous to the arrival of the missionaries, and after the discovery of the islands, the average annual loss was 6,500. The seeds of death planted in their blood seem to be ineradicable. When a man born in a Christian land dies of the disease engendered by licentiousness, he gets just what he deserves. The only regret is, that it does not kill him so promptly as to prevent its entailment upon his posterity. But its ravages among simple-minded barbarians—a people with such capacity for Christian civilization as the Hawaiians proved to have, is one of the saddest chapters in human history.”—Christian Statesman.
SWEEP BEFORE YOUR OWN DOOR.
By Sel.
Do we heed the homely adage handed down from days of yore?
“Ere you sweep your neighbor’s dwelling, clear the rubbish from your door;
Let no filth, no rust there gather, leave no traces of decay.
Pluck up every weed unsightly, brush the fallen leaves away.”
If we faithfully have labored thus to sweep without, within,
Plucked up envy, evil-speaking, malice, each besetting sin—
Weeds that by the sacred portal of the inner temple grow—
Poison weeds the heart defiling, bearing bitterness and woe;
Then, perchance, we may have leisure o’er our neighbors watch to keep—
All the work assigned us finished, we before his door may sweep;
Show him where the moss is clinging—token ever of decay—
Where the thistles, thickly springing, daily must be cleared away.
But, alas! our work neglecting, oft we mount the judgment seat,
With his failings, his omissions, we our weary brother greet;
In some hidden nook forgotten, searching with a careful eye,
We the springing weeds discover—some slight blemish there descry.
For his slothfulness, his blindness, we our brother harshly chide,
Glorying in our strength and wisdom, we condemn him in our pride.
Ask not why he has neglected, thus before his door to sweep;
Why grown careless, he has slumbered, failed his garden plot to keep.
On the judgment seat still sitting we no helping hand extend
To assist our weaker brother, his shortcomings to amend:
For his weariness, his faltering, we no sweet compassion show—
From our store no cordial bring him, no encouragement bestow.
But, while busied with our neighbor, urging him to ceaseless care,
Calling to the thoughtless tillers, to their labor to repair—
Lo! unseen the dust has gathered, weeds are growing where of yore
Flowers rare and sweet were blooming when we swept before our door.
Ah! how easy o’er our brother faithful ward and watch to keep!
But, alas! before our dwelling hard indeed to daily sweep;
Harder than to share the conflict, “by the stuff” at home to stay,
Easier far to sit in judgment than to humbly watch and pray.
—Sel.
The Way to Conquer
“I’ll master it,” said the axe, and his blows fell heavily on the iron; but every blow made his edge more blunt, till he ceased to strike.
“Leave it to me,” said the saw, and with his relentless teeth he worked backward and forward on its surface, till they were all worn down or broken; then he fell aside.
“Ha! ha!” said the hammer, “I knew you wouldn’t succeed, I’ll show you the way,” but at his first stroke, off flew his head, and the iron remained as before.
“Shall I try?” asked the soft, small flame. But they all despised the flame; but he curled gently around the iron, and embraced it, and never left it till it melted under his irresistible influence. There are hearts hard enough to resist the force of wrath, the malice of persecution, and the fury of pride, so as to make their acts recoil on their adversaries; but there is a power stronger than any of these, and hard indeed is that heart that can resist love.
Casual Thoughts Can Hold Great Value
(CASUAL thoughts are sometimes of great value. One of these may prove the key to open for us a yet unknown apartment in the palace of truth, or a yet unexplored tract in the paradise of sentiment that environs it.
PROGRESS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
By James White
At this time, when important movements are being made which have a direct bearing upon the prosperity of the cause on the Pacific Coast, it is proper that we should make statements of the real condition of things. And we are very happy that we have no discouraging reports to make. We have no apostasies of note to record, and no disheartening divisions among brethren to make public. God has greatly blessed the labors of his servants on this coast during the past year, and a cheering state of things exists in all parts of this field.
The North Pacific Mission has been a decided success. The labors of Eld. Van Horn in Washington and Oregon have resulted in great good already. He is a judicious laborer, always carrying a good influence, and never rashly destroying his own work. If less fruits appear at first under his labors, in a few years, more will be seen than under the labors of those who incautiously cut off the ears of the people in ripening an interest too soon.
Eld. Van Horn reports improved health for himself and family, and good courage in the work. He asks for a fellow-laborer that he may enter the larger places in Oregon with the tent this season. Eld. E. B. Lane and his wife are both worn by ardent labors, exposures, and privations in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, and we are confident that the Pacific climate would improve their health, and that their faithful labors would result in great good to the North Pacific Mission.
Eld. Carright reports a good work at Petaluma, and that his health and spirits are good. Discouragements have been hanging over the little church at Petaluma; but the clouds are breaking, and the light is shining. The number of Sabbath-keepers has doubled the last six weeks.
Bro. Saunders reports progress of a decided character in the church at Woodland, under the labors of Eld. Waggoner. He states that a dozen or more voted to keep the Lord’s Sabbath in a recent meeting. These are new cases of persons who have reached the point of decision under Eld. Waggoner’s recent labors.
And we were very happy to meet Eld. Loughborough at the Napa quarterly meeting with the armor on, and his face still set toward the city of God. He has rested from his labors only a few days to be with his faithful companion in her last sickness, and is now in the field again. The meeting at Napa was excellent.
One year since, aggressive movements on the part of certain parties, who, in the spirit of the dragon, would make war on those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, caused some solicitude. But from the time of the Napa discussion the matter has seemed to be in the hands of God, who has turned determined opposition to indirectly serve the cause of truth, and unite firmly with the body some who were wavering. And while not one of our number has been led from the truth by the Sabbath-abolished Adventists, not less than a score have left their ranks on this coast the past year, and are keeping the Sabbath of the Lord.
The season for lectures under canvass in the larger cities is at hand, and very soon the three tents on the Pacific Coast will be welcoming within their cotton walls those who come to hear the word of God. The California Conference is favored with the labors of the aforementioned three able and experienced ministers, besides several young men who are already making their mark in bringing souls to Christ. With God’s guiding hand, and his special blessing to attend the word spoken, we may hope for a large ingathering this season.
The incorporation of the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, and the building of a printing house in the beautiful and rapidly growing city of Oakland, Cal., are events in the history of the cause on this coast of no small importance. The facilities the Association will have for printing The Signs of the Times, tracts, books, and for extensively advertising tent-meetings by hand bills, will equal in completeness any other printing house in the United States. The important bearing this institution will have upon the cause here can hardly be estimated.
Oakland and San Francisco are destined to be large and growing cities, and will ever be as important fields of missionary labor as can be found on the globe. These cities are seven miles apart, and are connected by the most pleasant means of travel we have seen from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From San Francisco to Broadway, Oakland, the conveyance is by steamers across San Francisco Bay, a part of the way, and the remaining distance by steam railroad cars. There are twenty-four trains and steamers each way, which pass not less than 10,000 persons to and from the city of Oakland daily. Fare, 15 cents.
Oakland and San Francisco are in the world’s great thoroughfare of travel. All nations are represented in the Pacific metropolis. From this point the light will shine forth to the nations by our publications in the different languages, and by persons who may hear the word of God in these cities. There must be ample houses of worship at San Francisco and at Oakland, where speakers, necessarily connected with the press, can address large audiences gathered in by annual efforts with the tents, and by missionary labors. After the California Camp-meeting, lectures should be given in the tents in these cities, provided there can be places of worship to accommodate the people at the close of the tent-meetings. Otherwise such efforts would not be practicable.
The question now comes up, Shall the work in all its branches go forward upon this coast? In a few days the Pacific S. D. A. Publishing Association will receive a deed for the site for The Signs of the Times Office building, and the builders will be at work in earnest. We propose to be one of ten persons to take stock in this Association to the amount of $10,000. The ten will be found. If any of these want time, they can have it. We advance a second $1000, without interest, to help the case of those who need time to raise the $1000 each. We urgently invite all who can raise means for this enterprise, without paying high interest, to forward it immediately, that the work be not hindered. Let those who have money out at from ten to fifteen per cent interest, now avail themselves of the benefits of infinitely higher rates. Shall the steam press be running in the new building in season to print a daily advertising sheet of a tent-meeting in San Francisco in October and November? Shall an ample place of worship be opened in that city? And all other things being equal, shall a telling effort be made there with the portable, double, cotton church, immediately after the California Camp-meeting? Who is there among us that will not come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty?
THE WORK EVERYWHERE.
Firmly we are advancing in all parts of the field. Steadily and surely the work goes on. We are too far advanced, with the bridges all torn up behind us, to waver now. The times demand men and means, and they will be at hand. There are those who will esteem it their highest pleasure to give themselves to the work, and their means for its advancement. God is evidently with Bro. Andrews in Europe. Those who have the cause at heart, as they read his report of the work in Prussia, will readily adopt these words: “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Prov. 25: 25. At present, we look to Bro. Andrews and the friends in Europe to obtain pure and proper translations of our tracts in French and German. Let them translate and print at the expense of the American brethren, and we will reprint for all in this country.
As the closing work for sinners presses on, the love which Christ felt for a ruined race kindles in our hearts for sinners, the heavenly country in its greatness and glory nears, and this poor little world dwindles and fades away. Who will work for God in earnest now? Who will gladly make sacrifices, and suffer weariness, deprivations, and reproaches, through the brief, closing strife, in hope of entering upon the eternal reward at the soon coming of the Son of God?
We feel assured that there are a goodly number in the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists who will consider it a pleasure to help meet the present demand for means to place the work of publishing above want on the Pacific Coast. The rich and the stingy may withhold, and run their chances of meeting the displeasure of the Lord, while a host of the poorer classes will open their hands wide to the wants of the cause rather than to let the work be delayed for want of means. A sister now in California teaching music, who was a patient at our Health Institute last fall, has already paid of her earnings into the Pacific Publishing Association the sum of $110, in gold coin. We invite all who can give from choice to come forward with their free-will offerings, which are needed just now to raise the work of publishing on the Pacific Coast in as good condition as at the central point at Battle Creek, Mich. When this shall be accomplished, in due time it will be the privilege of those who have ability to obtain, and liberality to give, to help in the work of establishing the press in one of the Atlantic States. Very soon after the 19th of the present month, when by-laws of the Pacific Publishing Association will be adopted, and the corporation take charge of the financial workings of the Signs Office, we shall leave for the East, to return about the 20th of September. We hope to spend a few days at each of the camp-meetings, and attend the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference before our return. But our first work on returning to Michigan will be to connect with our printing house at Battle Creek a complete, first-class electrotyping department, to produce at least two sets of plates of all our best works in English, and in other languages as fast as they can be made ready.
Our papers are all the same size, so that the best sermons, and other matter of like value, to make even pages, can also be put in plates at Battle Creek. These plates can be shipped from point to point, and used once a year in all our papers at a great saving in the expense of publishing, and can also be used in running daily papers in connection with tent-meetings in large cities. A great work is before us, and there should be no time lost in laying our plans wisely and well, and in executing them with earnest diligence. This is no time to move inconsiderately and rashly. All our statements of “Broader Plans” have been made within proper bounds. The work is before us. Let us take hold of it liberally and firmly, and in God’s name and strength press it forward in faith.
Our camp-meetings are gatherings of great importance and value to our people. And there can be no better time for the brethren generally to present their free-will offerings before the Lord than at these annual meetings, provided they cannot present them sooner. These should be given with willing hands and glad hearts, without one urging word.
God loves the cheerful giver, and will bless the gift thus presented. The very poor, and the exceedingly stingy, should feel excused from this work of liberality and love, while the true-hearted and faithful will come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. J. W.
Why Should They Do So?
By James White
Why should our opponents persist in misstating our real position relative to the work of the law of God upon the minds and hearts of the children of men? Seventh-day Adventists have never taught that salvation from sin came by the law. But they have taught, from first to last, that by the law is the knowledge of sin, which can be put away only by the blood of Christ. We have proclaimed, and have repeated again and again, in our prints, and in our public discourses this plain and evident fact, that it is not in the power of law, either human or divine, to redeem the transgressor of law. Pardon is the sinner’s only hope of escaping the full penalty of the law. It is not true that Christian Sabbath-keepers trust in the law for salvation. We rely on Christ alone for salvation from sin, and complete redemption from its results, to a life of eternal glory.
Those who have the truth can afford to fairly state the positions of those with whom they differ. The strength of those who oppose the truth is in putting its advocates in false positions. Do our opponents feel that they cannot afford to have our real views correctly represented before the people? And do they feel that their success in keeping the people from investigating our views depends upon their skill in misrepresenting them?
If we be thought severe, then we inquire, in the name of reason and religion, Why do our opponents persist in stating that, while they trust in Christ for salvation, we trust in the law? They give the impression that we have left Christ and have “gone back,” as they state it, to the law. If they are ignorant of our views, what right have they to handle them before the people? If they understand our real position, they very well know that ours, when properly contrasted with theirs, is this, that we hope for salvation through Jesus Christ alone, in obedience to the commandments of God, while they trust in Christ for salvation in violating the commandments of God and teaching men so. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Where? Certainly not with those who cast aside the commandments of God, and bear false witness against those who do them, and teach them. Near the close of the Christian age, see Rev. 14:12, a people was to appear to public notice, standing on the broad platform of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. On the one hand is the blind Jew, shut up to the Old Testament, boasting of Abraham, and trusting in the law. On the other hand is the equally blind Christian, shut up to the New Testament, and boasting of his faith in Christ, while trampling the commandments of God under his feet. Between these two extremes is the truth of God. Here is our real position. And by the grace of God the people shall understand it. And from it we reach out our arms to those on the right and left to help them from their nut-shell positions to the broad platform of the law and the gospel, or the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. On this broad ground stood the apostle Paul at Miletus as he appealed to the assembled elders that he had kept back nothing that was profitable to them, “testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21.
Our only hope of eternal life hangs upon Christ. Adam placed his hope there. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the believing Jews, had no other hope. The hope of the next life depends upon Jesus Christ. Faith in his blood can alone free us from our transgressions. And a life of obedience to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will be a sufficient passport through the golden gates of the city of God.
J. W.
Good Work at Petaluma, Cal.
By Editor
OUR Progress Department having gone to press when the Signs of the Times, containing the following report from Bro. Canright dated, Petaluma, Cal., April 5, 1875, was received, we give it in this place:—
“We have now held meetings here five weeks, and the Lord has been pleased to bless our labors beyond what we expected. The weather has been pleasant most of the time, only twice has it rained enough to injure the meetings. There were about a dozen Sabbath-keepers here who had held on alone for six years, with very little labor or prospect of addition. It seemed to be a hard and unpromising field; but the way opened favorably for another course of lectures, and, by the advice of Bro. White, I came here, though I desired another field.
“Some of the time we have had an audience of three hundred, but most of the time it has averaged about seventy-five, and these have attended almost constantly. Bro. and sister White spent a few days here; and sister White remained twelve days, speaking a part of the time in each meeting. I was very glad of this help. Seventeen grown persons have taken their stand with us upon the Sabbath. We still continue our meetings with some hopes of reaching a few more.
“There are some very interesting cases among those who have come out. One brother had become almost a confirmed skeptic by seeing the inconsistent lives of professed Christians, and the unreasonable doctrines held by the churches. The doctrines of the sleep of the dead, and the destruction of the wicked commended themselves to his judgment; and the fulfillment of prophecy gave him faith in the Bible. With tears and deep emotion he now expresses his thankfulness for the truth. An educated Catholic lady and her parents have embraced the truth. She publicly renounced Catholicism and took her stand with us. For years she has held the highest grade certificate as a teacher. We hope she may be an ornament to the truth, and useful in the cause. In several cases we can see the direct providence of God in leading and preparing these souls to see the truth. Had these lectures been given six months ago, scarcely a soul of these who have come out would have been so situated as to have heard us, but now they were all ripe for the truth. Shall we not acknowledge the hand of God in this? How important that we be directed by the Lord in our labor, when and where he has prepared souls for the truth. Last Sabbath was a good day for us. Over thirty were present, all Sabbath-keepers. Those who had lately embraced the truth publicly confessed it. Six united with the church, and others will come in soon. On Sunday, we had a full house, when six persons were buried with Christ in baptism. Among these, was one brother whose wife embraced the Sabbath four years since. He was then an infidel133and opposed to the truth; but, after carefully examining the present truth over and over, he gave up his unbelief, embraced the third angel’s message, and is now heartily joined with us and with his most excellent wife. Is not this the work of God? The little church here have great reason for gratitude to God for what he has wrought in their midst. It should be to them renewed evidence that God’s hand is in this work, and with his servants.”
How Much Jewish?
By A. C. Bourdeau
SOME object to keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, claiming that “it is Jewish.” This objection is fairly met by showing that the Sabbatical institution dates back to creation, when “the Sabbath was made for man”—for Adam and all his posterity; that Jew comes from Judah, who was born 2225 years after the creation, and thus the distinction of Jews and Gentiles did not exist for more than two thousand years after the day of rest was blessed and sanctified; and that the seventh-day is never called in the Bible a Jewish Sabbath, or the Sabbath of the Jews, or of the Greeks, or of the Romans; but is always and invariably called “the Sabbath of the Lord.”
A few months ago, at a railway station, a gentleman asked me a few questions about the Sabbath in the presence of two clergymen, which I answered, proving by the Scriptures that the seventh day of the week is the only Bible Sabbath, and that it is enforced by the fourth precept of the decalogue, and is binding upon Christians in this dispensation; while there is no scriptural or inspired authority for the observance of Sunday as a Sabbath, or a holy day, or the Lord’s day. Whereupon one of the preachers affirmed that Christ broke the seventh-day Sabbath, and in the very next breath he asserted that the ten commandments were abolished at the cross.
I asked him if he really held to those two positions, when he answered in the affirmative. But soon after he was led to admit that his views would make our Saviour a transgressor before the cross, making it needful for him to die for his own sins; although we read that he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, etc. He further admitted that if, because the law is abolished, we are at liberty to break the Sabbath precept, for the same reason we are also at liberty to break any other precept of the decalogue—to kill, commit adultery, steal, covet, etc.
But the other preacher would not have the controversy end thus. Said he, “That Sabbath is Jewish, and our friend might as well be a Jew and hold to circumcision also.” I replied, How much Jewish? The word reads “The seventh day is the Sabbath [not of the Jews, but] of the Lord thy God.” It is no more Jewish than our Bible, which is certainly not for the Jews exclusively, or than the God of the Bible, who rested upon the seventh day, etc. Who were the inspired writers, the prophets, patriarchs, Christ, and his apostles? They were Jews, and salvation is of the Jews. To keep the moral precepts acceptably, the rest-day of God’s own appointment not excepted, we need not be Jews outwardly, neither have that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but we need to be Jews inwardly, and to have that circumcision which is of the heart, in the spirit, etc. Rom. 2:28, 29. Again, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19.