Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 13, 1860
DEMONIACAL INFLUENCES.
THE susceptibility of man to supernatural influences from evil spirits stands on the same footing with his susceptibility to heavenly influences from the Spirit of holiness. If one is a reality, the other is also. The reasoning that can disprove the spiritual connection of man with Satan, will be equally effectual in dispelling the idea of a spiritual connection between man and God.
We may disbelieve in the existence of a personal Devil, but no logic can erase the doctrine from the divine records. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is full of warnings against our spiritual foe. He began his career on earth with the conquest of woman and man, as narrated in the opening chapters of Genesis; he finishes it with the war of Gog and Magog that closes Revelation. Our adversary is represented as a roaring lion, that "goeth about seeking whom he may devour." He walks to and fro in the earth, taking captive deluded souls, that become the obedient vassals of his will. He works in the hearts of the children of disobedience. He is "the prince of the power of the air." He and his emissaries traverse the regions of our atmosphere with the same freedom and facility as angels of light. Darkness is particularly favorable to his ghostly workings. The inferior spirits, or demons, as they are denominated in the New Testament, who serve under the direction of this one infernal master-spirit, are innumerable. They have the power of entering in and possessing the minds of their victims, filling their hearts with evil suggestions, and leading them, yet not against their will, into the perpetration of every form of wickedness. Satan must first gain the assent of the individual whom he tempts before he can make a conquest. Hence the scripture direction, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you." A wicked thought leads to a parley with the adversary; the parley, almost to a moral certainty, ends in actual transgression.
As God has a kingdom on earth, so has Satan. He has his subjects, and these have hitherto comprised a majority of the human race. As the Holy Spirit enters the heart of the believer, transforming him into the image of God, so the Devil incorporates his workings into the motions of the unbeliever's heart, not merely extinguishing spiritual life, but producing instead a diabolical life, an infernal union of earth and hell. Perhaps it may be thought too bold an expression if we should assert that as the Christian receives a new birth from God, so the sinner receives in his inner moral nature an actual birth from the Devil, but such is the representation of scripture. "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." Mankind are classified as "the children of God and the children of the Devil." By infusing his image and nature into the heart of the incorrigibly reprobate, Satan becomes their spiritual father, and their volitions become but the mere transcript of his will.
None but a downright infidel can question the reality of an infernal influence on mind. But there is more hesitancy in admitting the physical manifestations of Satanic power. And yet it seems impossible, with the Bible in our hand, not to perceive that it bears witness to the latter as well as the former. The account in Genesis shows that Satan manifested himself in a visible form. He wrought physical wonders through the magicians that imitated Moses, though their power extended only to a part of the miracles wrought by him. The adversary was allowed to exercise his power on Job, and he smote him from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot; but for the divine prohibition, he would have taken his life. The "peepings and mutterings" of the ancient wizards were physical developments of Satanic influence. In the days of our Lord, the prince of darkness and the impure spirits subject to his control, appear to have possessed an unwonted power over the inhabitants of Judea. It certainly was not in spiritual modes alone that demoniacal influences were exerted then. Grievous bodily torments were inflicted by supernatural agency. Unclean spirits were roaming through the land, seeking for human beings in whom they might find a lodgment. After they had obtained possession of a victim, his nerves and muscles were strung with a supernatural tension far surpassing the limits of human power, and rendering him incapable of confinement even by chains and fetters. Seven of these polluting demons had taken captive an unresisting female, and were instilling the virus of their malignity throughout her whole physical organism. In another case, a legion were clustered upon one poor maniac. They were not only capable of attaching themselves to human organisms, but they could also exert their malevolence upon brutes, as they did in driving a whole herd of swine, by a resistless impulse, from the brink of a precipice into the sea.
The mode in which good or evil spirits act upon the mind or body is, and probably will remain, a mystery. We know in fact but little of the power which one human being is capable of exerting upon another. We see in general that impressions are made through the avenues of sense; but these are not the only channels through which mind is affected. There are other modes and conditions of influence, by mind upon mind, but in the effort to detect and explain them, science has hitherto been foiled. The mesmeric charm by which one mind impresses its perceptions on another, appears to be an unquestionable fact. Scientific men have carefully examined the phenomena, and have pronounced them no illusion. Whether there be, or be not, such a power as that of clairvoyance, is still a matter of doubt. How much of modern spiritualism is produced by mesmeric influence, how much of it is gross imposture, and how much, if any, is attributed to Satanic agency, cannot with our present knowledge, be satisfactorily decided. By far the greater part is probably gross imposture. That none of the pretended revelations come from the spirits of the deceased, has been conclusively proved. But it is not so certain that the spirits of demons have no part in these performances. The weight of evidence is in favor of their agency. The effects are such as satanic malignity would be likely to produce. The wild eye and the excited brain remind us of the ancient sorcerers. In hundreds of cases these manifestations end in insanity. Hume, the celebrated medium, is said to have nearly arrived at this point. Then the frightful rapidity with which the subjects of these influences are hurried into licentiousness can scarcely be accounted for, except on the supposition of a direct infernal impulse. Theaters, dancing parties, luxury and intemperance, while their tendencies are all downward, yet do not wholly obliterate the moral sense; some traces of innate shame, some consciousness of guilt still remains; but spiritualism makes men and women shameless; they glory in their adulteries, publishing and defending them with a boldness and recklessness unaccountable, except on the supposition of an actual demoniacal possession, the complete prostration of the soul under some overpowering infernal influence, that supercedes and obliterates the ordinary impulses of humanity.
If such be the tendencies of spiritualistic manifestations, how dangerous must it be to tamper even with the outlying threads of the tempter's web? Some, no doubt, enter these mysterious circles from an honest desire to ascertain what is202truth and what is error; and we acknowledge that it is important to the cause of science and true philosophy that all natural phenomena, both physical and psychical, should be thoroughly investigated by men of learning and well balanced minds; but how many, trusting to their own powers of discrimination and self-control, have been suddenly thrown off their guard, insensibly drawn under a mysterious enchantment, and finally plunged into a chaos of mental and moral conflict from which they will never emerge but by a miracle. To the young especially we would say, beware of placing yourselves within reach of any doubtful influences; the tempter ever has his net ready, and what begins in sport may end in unavailing regret. By the Jewish law all intercourse with familiar spirits was strictly prohibited; the man or woman that had a familiar spirit, not the man who professed to have a familiar spirit, as modern sadducers would interpret it, but who really did have such a spirit, for his ally and counselor, was to be put to death. If the consultation of demons was a crime of such magnitude under the old dispensation we cannot suppose that similar practices will be innocent now.
But we need not multiply evidences that there are unseen, mysterious, malignant agencies now at work in the hearts of men. It is not strange that those whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world should be unable to discern the influence of that subtle power which is urging them on. But the spiritually minded well know from personal experience, the reality of Satan's power. They are not ignorant of his devices. They feel the necessity of daily offering the petition, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one;" for such is the most natural translation of that clause in the Lord's prayer. Elsewhere in the New Testament the same term is rendered, "the wicked one."
Happy day, when the mighty angel shall descend with his key and chain, and the old devouring dragon roam the earth no more!—Am. Baptist.
NONE BUT THEE.
By Sir Robert Grant
BY SIR ROBERT GRANT.
"Whom have I in heaven but thee! and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Ps. lxxiii, 25.
Lord of earth, thy forming hand
Well this beauteous frame hath planned
Woods that wave, and hills that tower,
Ocean rolling in his power ;
All that strikes the eye unsought,
All that charms the lonely thought,
Friendship, gem transcending price ;
Love, a flower from Paradise ;
Yet, amidst a scene so fair,
Should I cease thy smile to share,
What were all its joys to me ?
Whom have I on earth but thee ?
Lord of heaven ! beyond our sight
Rolls a world of purer light ;
There, in love's unclouded reign,
Parted hands shall meet again ;
Martyrs there, and prophets high,
Blaze a glorious company ;
While immortal music rings
From unnumbered seraph strings.
Oh ! that world is passing fair ;
Yet, if thou wert absent there,
What were all its joys to me ?
Whom have I in heaven but thee ?
Lord of earth and heaven ! my breast
Seeks in thee its only rest :
I was lost ! thy accents mild
Homeward lured thy wandering child ;
I was blind ! thy healing ray
Charmed the long eclipse away.
Source of every joy I know,
Solace of my every woe,
O ! if once thy smile divine,
Ceased upon my soul to shine,
What were earth or heaven to me ?
Whom have I in each but thee ?
SMALL THINGS.
By Dr. Bushnell
NOTWITHSTANDING the vast stretch and compass of the work of redemption, it is a work of the most humble detail in its style of execution. The Saviour could have preached a sermon on the mount every morning. Each night he could have stilled the sea, before his astonished disciples, and shown the conscious waves lulling into peace under his feet. He could have transfigured himself before Pilate and the astonished multitudes of the temple. He could have made visible ascensions in the noon of every day, and revealed his form standing in the sun, like the angel of the apocalypse. But this was not his mind. The incidents of which his work is principally made up, are, humanly speaking, very humble and unpretending.
The most faithful pastor in the world was never able in any degree to approach the Saviour, in the lowliness of his manner and his attention to humble things. His teachings were in retired places, and his illustrations drawn from ordinary affairs. If the finger of faith touched him in the crowd, he knew the touch, and knew also the faith. He reproved the ambitious housewifery of an humble woman. After he had healed a poor being, blind from his birth—a work transcending all but divine power—he returned and sought him out, as the most humble Sabbath-school teacher might have done; and when he had found him, cast out and persecuted by men, he taught him privately the highest secrets of his Messiahship. When the world around hung darkened in sympathy with his cross, and the earth was shaking with inward amazement, he himself was remembering his mother, and discharging the filial cares of a good son. And when he burst the bars of death, its first and final conqueror, he folded the linen clothes and the napkin, and laid them in order, apart, showing that as in the greatest things, he had a set purpose also concerning the smallest.
And thus, when perfectly scanned, the work of Christ's redemption, like the created universe, is seen to be a vast orb of glory wrought up out of finished particles. Now a life of great and prodigious exploits would have been comparatively an easy thing for him, but to cover himself with beauty and glory in small things, to fill and adorn every little human occasion, so as to make it divine, this was a work of skill which no mind or hand was equal to but that which shaped the atoms of the world. Such everywhere is God. He nowhere overlooks or despises small things.—Dr. Bushnell.
THE Saviour and his disciples are crossing the sea of Galilee. He is asleep in the stern of the boat. A sudden and violent storm bursts upon them. The waves cover the boat. The disciples, though fishermen, and accustomed to battle with the fury of the elements, are alarmed. They awake Jesus, crying, "Lord save; we perish." He rises to quell the tempest, but first rebukes those who had prayed to him. He does not say, "O ye unbelieving!" for if they had been utter skeptics they would not have prayed at all. There was faith in their appeal, but it was feeble; and for its feebleness they were rebuked. Let us look then at the nature of their faith.
They had seen Christ working miracles all day. His touch, his voice, had expelled diseases and devils. They believed, no doubt, that if he should arise and exert his miraculous power, he could deliver them from the wrath of the tempest; and thus they showed very great confidence in the Saviour. He had wrought no miracle hitherto on the water. He had exercised no control over winds or waves. It was a grand and noble faith, then, which led those disciples to go to that weary teacher in the stern of the boat, and ask him to save them. Perhaps not another being at that time, on earth, would have trusted as the disciples did—would have waked up the sleeping Saviour, expecting to be delivered from the fury of the night tempest.
But there was an alloy of sense in this faith. They must see before they could fully believe. Christ awake, with his eye upon the danger—Christ speaking to, or laying his hand upon the crested billows, would have inspired them with hope. But Christ sleeping in their midst, apparently unconscious, gave them no comfort. In the facts that they had embarked by his special request, and that he was with them—he the Son of God, having all knowledge and all power, and dear to the Father on high who never slumbers or sleeps—they found no comfort. And yet these are the facts which should have encouraged them. That sleeper was their divine Master. He knew all that would occur during the night when he commanded them to embark. He controlled the elements as truly while he slumbered as when he arose and rebuked them.
An absolute and perfect faith is like that of Jesus himself who slept during the storm. He had toiled all day for the glory of God. He had exhausted the strength of his human body in labors of love, and he had a right to seek repose, committing himself to the sleepless care of his heavenly Father. He knew that he was the well-beloved Son, and that he could not be forgotten or neglected, though he laid at midnight on a frail boat, rocked by the tempest. The contrast between his child-like sleep and the terror of the disciples, shows how much truer and better his faith was than theirs.
Every Christian may have the faith of Jesus on the sea. He is not the only begotten Son, but he is beloved for that Son's sake. He is a branch of the "true vine." While he tries to serve and honor God he will be guided and guarded as Jesus was. His doubts and fears are an impeachment of the gracious promises in his behalf. They grieve the hearts on high which love him; they astonish the ministering spirits which come to protect and serve him. "Little faith" is better than no faith at all, but it subjects us to a great deal of needless trouble and fear. We should seek earnestly to have the dross of sense purged away—to be able to believe because God has spoken; or because we know that God, as a reconciled Father, is omnipresent and omnipotent, and not because we see evidences of his interposition in our behalf.
This faith will not lead to sluggish inactivity. Christ toiled when there was work to do. He trusted only, without toiling, when human power and skill were insufficient. Our unbelief leads us to neglect what we can and ought to do, and to struggle and tremble when we ought to trust. When we have spent the day as Jesus spent his we may sleep at night amid the wildest tempests, as the child in its mother's arms. And sleeping thus will prepare us for the toils of a true life. There is an intimate connection between the faith of energy and the faith of repose.—Cen. Chris. Herald.
THE MORAL LAW.
By Walker
THE moral law is set forth in the Scriptures as holy, just and good, in its character; and whatever may be its effects upon the soul itself, that its character is such no intelligent being in the universe can doubt, because it requires of every one perfect holiness, justice and goodness. It requires that the soul should be perfectly free from sin in the sight of God; and, as we have seen, God ought not to allow one sin; if he did, the law would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy. But the more holy the law, the more conviction it would produce in the minds of sinners. If the law extended only to external conduct, men would not feel guilty for their wrong thoughts, desires or designs; and if it extended only to certain classes of spiritual exercises, men would not feel guilty for those it did not condemn, but, if it required that the soul itself—the spiritual agent—the 'I' of the mind—should be holy, and all its thoughts and feelings in accordance with the law of love and righteousness, then the soul would be convicted of guilt for a single wrong exercise, because while it felt that the law was holy, just and good, it could not but feel condemned in breaking it. When Christ came, therefore, every soul that was taught its spirituality, would be convicted of sin. One of two things men had to do, either shut out its light from their soul, and to refuse to believe its spiritual and perfect requirements, or judge and condemn themselves by those requirements. And while the law thus showed sin to exist in the soul, and condemned the soul as guilty and liable to its penalty, it imparted no strength to the sinner to enable him to fulfill its requirements: it merely set forth the true standard which is holy in itself, and which God must maintain; and, by its light, it shows sinners their guilt, condemns them, and leaves them under its curse.
Now the Scriptures declare that this is the end which, by its nature, it is adapted to accomplish, and that it was revealed to men with the design to accomplish this end, and thus lead men to see and feel the necessity of justification and pardon by Jesus Christ. The scripture saith, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." "The law worketh wrath—where there is no law there is no transgression." "Moreover, the law entered that offense might abound, for where sin abounded grace did much more abound; that as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Mark the following: "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God; therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The argument of the apostle in vindicating the holiness of the law, while it at the same time produced conviction and condemnation, is conclusive. "What shall we say, then, Is the law sin?203God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (i. e., I would not have felt covetousness to be sin, except the law had condemned it as such). For I was alive (i. e., not consciously condemned) without the law once, but when the law came, sin revived and I died; and the commandment which was ordained to life (i. e., which required the soul to be holy, and therefore alive to God), I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment (or acts shown to be sin by the commandment), deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin (i. e., sin which did exist in the soul, was made to appear in its true character) working death in me by that which is good (i. e., the holiness of the law showed the evil of sin), that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." And then, for deliverance from this bondage, he looks to Christ. "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." And mark again, "Is the law then against the promises? God forbid. For if there had been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness would have been of the law (i. e., while the law showed the soul to be unholy and condemned to spiritual death, it provided no means for the relief of the sinner; no influence by which love and holiness could be produced in the heart). But the Scriptures (i. e., the revelation of the law in the Scriptures) hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that should be revealed; wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith."
Now from the above scriptures, it is evident that the apostle understood the law not only to be adapted, but designed by its Author to show the soul its guilty and lost condition, its inability to free itself from the condemnation to which it was liable, and to prepare it, at the proper time, to trust in and love Christ for salvation from sin, and spiritual death the consequence of sin.
THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL.
By Walker
ACCORDING to the constitution which God has given the soul, it must feel the want of spiritual mercies before it can feel love for the giver of those mercies; and just in proportion as the soul feels its lost, guilty, and dangerous condition, in the same proportion will it exercise love to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation. How, then, could the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men, in order that they might love the spiritual benefactor?
Not by temporal bondage and temporal suffering, because these would lead men to desire a temporal deliverance. The only possible way by which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies, and to love a spiritual deliverer, would be to produce a conviction in the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy the requirements of a spiritual law, or to escape its just and spiritual penalty. If man could be made to perceive that he was guilty and needy; that his soul was under the condemnation of that holy law of God, he would then, necessarily, feel the need of a deliverance from sin and its consequences; and in this way only could the soul of man be led to appreciate spiritual mercies, or love a spiritual benefactor.
Mark another fact in connection with the foregoing which is to be especially noticed, and which will be developed fully—The greater the kindness and self-denial of a benefactor manifested in our behalf, the warmer and the stronger will be the affection which his goodness will produce in the human heart.
Here then, are two facts growing out of the constitution of human nature: First, the soul must feel its evil and lost estate, as the prerequisite condition upon which alone it can love a deliverer. Second, the degree of kindness, and self-denial in a benefactor, temporal or spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude that will be awakened for him.
Now in view of these necessary conditions, mark the means which God has used, and the manifestations which he has made of himself in order to secure the supreme love of the human soul.
In the first place the soul is brought to see and feel its evil and lost condition, and its need of deliverance.
At the advent of Jesus the Roman world was in precisely the condition which was necessary to prepare it for his doctrines. The Jews had the moral law written in their scriptures and recognized it as the will of Jehovah; and the Gentiles had its requirements concerning their duty to each other, and their duty to worship written in their hearts. Both the doctors among the Jews and the schools of philosophy among the Gentiles, especially those of the Stoics, taught the obligatory nature of many of the important moral duties which man owes to man. No period in the history of the heathen mind ever existed before or since, when man's relations to man were so clearly perceived. The Jews, however, had these advantages, that while the few intelligent Gentiles received the instruction of the philosophers in relation to morals, as truth, it was truth without any higher sanction than that of being spoken by wise men, and therefore it contained in itself no authority or weight of obligation to bind the conscience, while they had the moral law as a rule of duty, sanctioned by the authority and infinite justice of Jehovah. Thus the moral virtues assumed the sanctions of religious duties; and they had not only the moral precepts thus sanctioned, but having been taught the true character of God their religious duties were likewise united in the same sacred decalogue.
Now Jesus applied the divine law directly to the soul, and laid its obligations upon the movements of the will, and the desires. He taught that all wrong thoughts and feelings were acts of transgression against God, and as such would be visited with the penalty of the divine law. Thus he made the law spiritual and its penalty spiritual, and appealing to the authority of the supreme God, he laid its claims upon the naked soul—he entered its secret recesses—he flashed the light of the divine law upon the awful secrets known only to the soul itself; and with the voice of God he spoke to the "I" of the mind—Thou shalt not will, nor desire, nor feel wickedly.
“HE WENT AWAY SÓRROWFUL.”
THE sorrow experienced was connected with going away from Christ. No one was ever made sorrowful by coming to Christ. Sooner shall the traveler, whose eyes have rested for days on the barren, burning sands of the desert, be made sorrowful by reaching the oasis, with its refreshing waters, its green herbage, its oleanders and olives; sooner shall he who has been long an exile in foreign lands be made sorrowful by approaching his native shores, and by crossing the threshold of his home, to find all his heart-treasure safe, than a guilty, wandering, outcast, condemned sinner shall be made sorrowful204by coming to Christ. Thousands have found peace and joy in believing; but no one ever found sorrow.
TREAT YOURSELF AS YOU HAVE OTHERS.
By Spurgeon
TREAT yourselves, my dear friends, as you have been accustomed to treat others. We get another man's character and tie it up to the halberds, and out with our great whip, and begin to lay on with all our force, and after the flogging we wash the poor creature with a kind of briny pretence of excusing his sins. After that again we throw him back upon the bed of spikes, on our own supposition that he is a great deal worse than we have made him out to be. Ah, just serve thyself so. Tie thyself to the halberds, man, and lay on the whip. Do not spare him. When you have got yourself tied up, strike hard, sir; it is a great rascal you are whipping. Now, then, a heavy blow! Kill him if you can. The sooner he is dead the better; for when he is once killed, as to all idea of righteousness in himself, then he will begin to lead a new life and be a new creature in Christ Jesus. Make him feel that the leprosy lies deep within. Give him no rest. Treat him as cruelly as he could treat another.
'Twould be only his deserts. But who is this that I am telling you to treat so? Yourself, my hearer, yourself. Be as severe as you can, but let the culprit be yourself. Put on the wig, and sit upon the judgment-seat. Read the King's commission. There is such a commission for you to be judge. It says, Judge thyself—though it says judge not others. Put on, I say, your robes; sit up there lord chief justice of the Isle of Man, and then bring up the culprit. Make him stand at the bar. Accuse him; plead against him; condemn him. Say, "take him away, jailor." Find out the hardest punishment you can discover in the statute book, and believe that he deserves it all. Be as severe as ever you can on yourself, even to the putting on the black cap, and reading the sentence of death. When you have done this, you will be in a hopeful way for life, for he that condemns himself God absolves. He that stands self-convicted may look to Christ hanging on the cross, and see himself hanging there, and see his sins forever put away by the sacrifice of Jesus on the tree.—Spurgeon.
A CHINESE FABLE.
The Rev. Canon Stowell narrates the following discourse by a Chinese tailor, with reference to the relative merits of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
"A man had fallen into a deep, dark pit, and lay in its miry bottom groaning and utterly unable to move. Confucius walking by, approached the edge of the pit and said, 'Poor fellow, I am sorry for you; why were you such a fool as to get in there? Let me give you a piece of advice: if you ever get out don't get in again.' 'I can't get out,' groaned the man."
"A Buddhist priest next came by, and said, 'Poor fellow, I am very much pained to see you there; I think if you could scramble up two thirds of the way, or even half, I could reach you and lift you up the rest.' But the man in the pit was entirely helpless and unable to rise."
"Next the Saviour came by, and hearing his cries, went to the very brink of the pit, stretched down and laid hold of the poor man, brought him up and said, 'Go, and sin no more.'"
PRAYER AND WORKS.
CHRISTIANS are often insincere in prayer. They ask for growth in grace, but make little effort to improve their type of piety. They do not struggle resolutely to attain the blessings for which they petition. The following extract from Dr. Phelps' admirable little work, "The Still Hour," is a good illustration:
A luxurious Christian prays, in the good set phrases of devotion, for a spirit of self-denial; that he may endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ; that he may take up the cross and follow Christ; that he may be ready to forsake all that he hath and be Christ's disciple; that he may not live unto himself; that he may imitate him who went about doing good—who became poor that we might be rich, and who wept over lost souls. In such a prayer there may be, consciously, no insincerity, but a pleasurable sympathy, rather, with the grand thoughts and the grander feeling which the language portrays. The heart is buoyant with its gaseous distension to the bounds of its great swelling words.
This lover of the pride of life does not discover his self-inflation, till conscience pricks him with such goads as these: "Are you living for the things you are praying for?" "What one thing are you doing for Christ which costs you self-denial?" "Are you seeking for opportunities to deny yourself, to save souls?" "Are you willing to be like him who had not where to lay his head?" "Can ye be baptized with the baptism that he is baptized with?" If then, this effeminate one is not aroused to a more Christ-like life by the uncovering of his hypocrisy, what a sickly murmuring of self-reproach fills his heart at the collapse of that prayer!
WESTERN TOUR.
By James White
WEDNESDAY morning, Nov. 28th, Bro. Weaver took us to the cars at Anamosa, paid our fare to Dubuque, and parted from us with feelings of brotherly tenderness which we shall not soon forget.
In the evening we took the boat for La Cross, Wis., where sixth-day morning we took the cars for Mauston, and found Bro. Steward waiting to take us to his house. We had been suffering much for several days with pain, soreness and fever of the lungs, and feeling the lack of sleep and rest, with an application of cold water, in the form of a compress upon the lungs, we found sweet rest in blessed sleep for a short time. Then Bro. Ingraham and Sanborn drove up, whom we were exceedingly rejoiced to see, and we seemed to forget our sickness. That evening we went out and preached in a school-house full of attentive hearers. From that point we began to improve, and after speaking on the Sabbath, and three times on First-day, we felt usually well, and exceedingly free in the Lord. How precious are such evidences that one is in the path of duty. We now feel better in regard to health and freedom of mind than we have felt at any time for the last three months.
In regard to the church in Mauston and vicinity, it may not be duty to speak very definitely at present. Here is quite a body of Sabbath-keepers, and there are a goodly number in the vicinity. Bro. Steward has ably defended the leading points of our position in this community, and shares the respect of his brethren, and the community generally. But we judge that the brethren in this section are behind on the subject of church order and consecration of themselves and their property to the cause of God.
It is true that these are hard times, and that many of the brethren are poor, but we do think that if they felt the importance of church order and systematic benevolence, they would sustain the cause among them. Bro. Ingraham received $1 at this conference, Bro. Sanborn nothing, and we, of course, expected nothing, and were not disappointed. Our expenses from last conference in Iowa were $8.
But a spirit of consecration has recently arisen in this part of Wisconsin of a very doubtful character. It appears to consist of words, feeling and exercises not of a very intelligible and edifying kind. It has evidently arisen from taking the extreme view of consecration, without being balanced by those cautions against the deceptions of Satan and fanaticism so often found upon the sacred page. We felt exercised upon the subject, as the articles of "M. E. A." were being published in the REVIEW, and should have presented some cautions in connection with those articles had we not been otherwise employed. The history of Luther, the Wesleys and others, who by the power of a living faith led the church from the dark shades of error and formality to a clearer light, proves the necessity of the mind being balanced with caution. And he who sees no danger of caution here is not far from some delusive snare of Satan.
While we write these things with feelings of respect and pity for those who have fallen under a delusive spirit in this part of Wisconsin, we do it under a sense of duty to those who may be in danger of being drawn under the same delusive influence. We expect to be censured for mentioning these things, but do not fear the censures of a few for a short time, as we do the doom of the unfaithful watchman.
We think it our duty to state something of the appearance of this work here, which is called by some "The Reformation," but to us it looks more like a deformation. Many things, however seem orderly, intelligible, and beautiful. But it never seemed right to us when four ministers were present, for a sister to open the meeting. But she excuses herself on the ground that she felt it her duty. Well, a brother preacher says it was his clear duty to pray. Query. Could both be impressed at the same time? Certainly not, unless we adopt the plan practiced sometimes by the reformers here, to all pray aloud at once! But the sister did not have liberty in her opening prayer, showing that her evidence was a mistake.
Again, while we were preaching, a sister broke out in an opposition shout, so we waited some time for her to get through. It was with difficulty that we finished the discourse. She said she could not help it. This we are somewhat inclined to believe, for when labored with afterwards, and evidences of her errors presented, she would generally begin to shout, and show that she was controlled by some spirit.
This reformation, as it is called, has passed some very important decrees. It is said that one or more have the spirit of prophecy, and that they have seen things of the deepest interest. For instance, the body of Sabbath-keepers sustaining the REVIEW, have been seen branded as follows—"Advent," "Babylon," "Fallen," "Organization." This is too significant to need comment. Also, that Sr. W.'s writings, excepting her first little tract, were all wrong. And many things of the like, too numerous to mention.
It will be seen at once that if we had any faith in this work, we should be brought into rather a close spot, as we had along with us, 200 copies of the Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 2. A few took this work. Others would have taken it, but for the want of ready cash. They requested us to leave some with Bro. Steward so that they could get them; but as he declines, and wishes us to take Vol. 1 which he had on hand, we take the burden off his hands, and the friends will be obliged to get them through the post office, or of Bro. Russell at Mauston.
Bro. S. has grieved over his lonely position in the message, but if he follows those things which condemn the body, and that which the body regard as important to its prosperity, and thus shuts himself away from the body, his complaints will appear out of place.
We leave these dear, mistaken friends with our pity and our prayers, that they may speedily be recovered out of the snare of the Devil, and find their places in the ranks of those who are being united upon, and sanctified through, the truths connected with the Third Angel's Message. J. W.