Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1880
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
THE TWELVE SPIES.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
(Concluded.)
The proposition to send men to search the land was first made by the people. But as it pleased Moses, he presented the matter before the Lord and obtained his consent for them to go. The result was, disaster and destruction. Had they waited for the Lord to say "Go forward," and followed the divine Leader, they would have seen the majesty and glory of God as verily as they saw it forty years afterward. The Lord often permits men to have their own way, to teach them that the way he marks out is the only safe path for them to follow.
All Israel were suffering under the frown of God. He could not work for them while their hearts were filled with bitter murmurings, for they were in no fit state to appreciate anything that he would do for them. The manifestation of his power in their behalf against their enemies would only fill them with pride and self-importance. They would not sanctify the Lord in their hearts, and give him the glory. Therefore he mercifully turned their course backward. They were to be enclosed in the wilderness, and to see neither city nor town for forty years, until those who were continually murmuring should die.
When Moses made known to the people the divine decision, their recent madness and insane rage turned to the most bitter regrets and lamentations. They knew that this punishment was merited. The ten unfaithful spies had perished before their eyes, their doom signifying the destruction of all in their ranks above twenty years of age. Their unbelief and rebellion had cost them all.
At this time even, had they shown true and sincere repentance, God might have given them another trial, as he did the ancient Ninevites; but instead of this they sank down in utter despondency. They knew that God was in earnest with them. They passed a sleepless night, but with the morning came a hope. They determined to redeem their cowardice. They would not look toward the wilderness, or the Red Sea, but they would equip themselves for war, and would seize the land and possess it by their might, peradventure their works might be accepted of God. They confessed saying, "We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us." Here again their transgressions had turned their light into darkness. The Lord had never told them "to go up and fight." He did not design that they should gain the land of promise by warfare, but through submission and unqualified obedience to his commands.
Those who so recently were complaining at the purposes of God because they thought that they were to run some risks in warfare, were now fully determined to carry out their own will at all hazards. Thus it is with human nature. There is nothing rash or inconsistent that a person will not be tempted to do when his heart is raging in rebellion against the will of God, as though weak and feeble man could overthrow the purposes of Jehovah.
These strong-minded men were prepared for the conflict in their own estimation, but they were sadly deficient in the sight of God and his sorrowful servants. When God directed them to go up and take Jericho, he promised to go with them. The ark containing his law was to be a symbol of himself. Moses and Aaron, his appointed leaders, were to conduct the expedition under his watchful direction. With such supervision, no harm could have come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God, and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark of God and without Moses, they march out to meet the armies of the enemy, a tumultous, disorganized company. While Aaron sounds the trumpet of alarm, Moses hastens after them, and says: "Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that ye be not smitten before your enemies; for the Amalekites and Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword."
During the time consumed by the Israelites in their wicked insubordination, the inhabitants of the land had become alarmed, and had prepared for battle. Having heard so much in regard to the wonderful works of God for his people Israel, they made most thorough preparations to defend their cities.
As Israel presumed to disregard the voice of God and man, they had no leader, but rushed impetuously away from the warning voice of Moses. On they pushed in confusion. No prayer was offered now that God would give them the victory, for he had expressly forbidden them to go up. Their numbers were immense, and they determined to make a fierce attack upon the very men whom they had refused to meet, with Moses as leader, and God as their defense. Hatred against the Lord and his pronounced judgments burned in the hearts of these men of war.
But their might of numbers was of no advantage, for their foe was reached only through rocky passages. The Israelites were wearied with their furious march, while their enemies were fresh, and had chosen high ground from which they hurled rocks down upon the supposed invaders. In their desperation they made many efforts, but could accomplish nothing, and after many of them were slain, the remainder turned and fled. Moses thus describes their defeat: "And the Amorites which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah, and ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you." This last defiant act had sealed their fate. This shows us that there is danger of our presuming upon the mercy of God until mercy is turned to retributive justice. There is a limit to the mercy and long-forbearance of God. If the professed people of God in this age refuse to heed his express commands and warnings, they will be in no more favored position than was ancient Israel, when God, their salvation and defense, departed from them.
THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.
By W. H. Littlejohn
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
(Continued.)
JOSEPHUS, in his essay to the Greeks concerning hades, writes as follows:—
“Now as to hades, wherein the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained, it is necessary to speak of it. Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterraneous region wherein the light of this world does not shine; from which circumstance, that in this region the light does not shine, it cannot be but there must be in it perpetual darkness. This region is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to them temporary punishments, agreeable to every one’s behavior and manners. In this region there is a certain place set apart as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day afore-determined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men; when the unjust and those that have been disobedient to God, and have given honor to such idols as have been the vain operations of the hands of men, as to God himself, shall be adjudged to this everlasting punishment, as having been the causes of defilement, while the just shall obtain an incorruptible and never-fading kingdom. These are now indeed confined in hades, but not in the same place wherein the unjust are confined. For there is one descent into this region, at whose gate we believe there stands an archangel with an host; which gate when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels appointed over souls, they do not go the same way; but the just are guided to the right hand, and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed over that place, unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the world; not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the prospect of the good things they see, and rejoicing in the expectation of those new enjoyments which will be peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming those things beyond what we have here; with whom there is no place of toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor are any briers there; but the countenances of the fathers and of the just, which they see, always smile upon them, while they wait for that rest and eternal new life in Heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call the bosom of Abraham.
“But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand by the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with a good will, but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them and threaten with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. Now those angels that are set over these souls drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapor itself;
but when they have a nearer view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future judgment, and in effect punished thereby; and not only so, but where they see the place (or choir) of the fathers and of the just, even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can any one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.”
As the reader—provided it had never been brought to his attention before—has, doubtless, read the above extract with profound interest, he is qualified to decide: 1. Whether the notions of the Pharisees concerning hades, as given therein, were not the real basis of the parable in question; and, 2. To decide whether such doctrines are true in fact, and whether the Lord himself regarded them as such, and designed to give credit to them throughout the ages of the Christian religion which were to follow. In making these decisions, as he is presumably candid, and only anxious to reach the truth, it would seem that delay would not be necessary, and that his386dict would be positive in its tone.
He who would hesitate for a moment as to whether Christ was making a revelation in regard to a region unknown, though real in its character, or accepting for the time-being the opinions held by the Pharisees, in reference to a place which had, at least with them, an imaginary existence, can only do so in the exercise of a credulity in itself almost incredible. Strange indeed would it be if these men, without Scripture warrant, had so accurately described the place of the dead, if there be such a place, that he who was with the Father from the beginning, and knew all things, was able neither to add to nor subtract from their topography of the spirit land. And yet this is true, if the Saviour was revealing facts rather than borrowing ideas. The identity in all of its parts of the place of which he spoke, and of the one of which Josephus wrote, is practically certain. The presence, in both the one and the other, of the gulf separating the righteous and the wicked, the flame and its torment, the bosom of Abraham on the one side filled with the righteous, and on the other the regions of the damned people with its hosts of suffering victims, the angels conveying the souls of the good to one place and those of the bad to the other, as well as other points of resemblance, are not peculiarities belonging alike to two different localities; but they are those correspondences in detail which, to every reasonable mind, would furnish proof positive that the individual speaking and the historian who was writing for the Pharisees were both alluding to the same region. So far as we can discover, there is not one particular in which the discourse and the essay conflict. While the latter, having for its object description rather than arbitrary teaching, is, as it naturally would be, more elaborate in its delineations, that which it adds to the former contravenes nothing contained therein, but simply adds thereunto in such a manner as to supply certain non-essential facts. Nor is there any uncertainty in reference to the antiquity of the opinions concerning hades which the essayist brings forward. They were well defined and elaborately set forth by the Jewish rabbins long before the days of Christ or of Josephus. So that, beyond dispute, the rabbinical notions could not have been derived from the teachings of the Lord, since they not only ante-date them, but are also more circumstantial and full. The inevitable conclusion is, therefore, that, for wise purposes to be considered more fully hereafter, the Master, as he was wont to do, borrowed from the accepted notions of his time such portions as were best adapted to enforce and illustrate the sentiment which he wished to inculcate.
Leaving the question of the origin of the opinions concerning hades as being so fully settled that they need no further comment, the reader is now ready to mark out for himself the boundary line within which may be found the sum of the tenets which he thinks it will be safe for him to decide that the Saviour intended to indorse and enforce in the use of the parable. In doing so, he will, in the first instance, be brought face to face with this proposition: “Were all the doctrines found in the parable literally true?” Before answering this question in the affirmative, let him beware not to jump to conclusions in a matter of such grave importance. Consequences the most momentous in their results hang upon the decision of this point. Decide, for example, that there were such characters as Dives and Lazarus, and that they actually went to the places where they are said to have gone, and those places become matters of fact and a part of the economy of this world’s structure. From that time forward he must give an unquestioning adhesion to the belief that there is now—or at least was for the first four thousand years of this world’s history—fitted up in the bowels of this earth an immense cavern, where the light of the sun never shines, to which there is but one entrance, and which God the Creator did construct to be the grand prison-house for the souls of both the good and the bad, while, at least, the tardy ages made their tedious march from the creation to the cross.
If he shall succeed in bringing his mind to assent to this proposition, he will have accomplished a task which, it would seem, would require an abnegation, on his own part, of every conception of personal taste and preference. As he approaches, in imagination, the gateway which opens down to the regions of the dead, it seems to us that a shudder would pass through his whole being at the very thought of once entering those portals, even though his destination were to be the more fortunate side of the gulf. Even after reading the graphic description which Josephus gives of the regions of the blessed, it seems to us the soul of the most pious man would turn shuddering from the prospect, praying, “O Lord, deliver thy servant from the contemplation perpetually of such scenes as the lurid flames of a continually burning hell revealed to the eyes of those just men whose natures live on in the contradictory and most inexplicable state of being, most ineffably happy while witnessing sights, year in and year out, century in and century out, which would chill the blood in the veins of any mortal, the sympathy of whose nature had not been ennobled and enlarged by entrance upon the glorified state.”
Nay, more: as he takes a retrospect of the past, calling up before his mind such worthies as Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc., and remembers the long ages of their confinement in the midst of such associations, he would debate long the question of their actual felicity, and ask himself whether, after all, the ingenuity of that God whose handiwork is seen among the stars, and is visible all about us in the sunshine, in the flowers, and in the groves and the beautiful vistas in this world, unmarred by horrid sights and signs of torture and of torment, might not have prepared some better thing for those who loved him and were faithful in their day and generation than such a dismal and sepulchral abode as he has assigned to the rarest and noblest spirits of all the past.
Turning over the pages of Holy Writ in searching for some revelation of the divine purpose concerning the condition and state in the future of those who have been faithful in this world, he will read, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Again, running through the apocalyptic vision, and contemplating the gorgeous panorama of future events which were made to pass before the eyes of the bewildered seer, he will read with ecstatic delight the description given of the future eternal home of the saints. In its streets of gold, its gates of pearl, its river of water of life, its tree of life on either side of the river, bearing twelve manner of fruits, its glorious throne all shimmering in the bright effulgence which emanates from its glorious King, he will find nothing lacking, but everything surpassing his capacity for appreciation. This, he will say, is indeed godlike. This, truly, would never have entered into the heart of man had it not been revealed by the Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:9, 10. Contrasting, as he necessarily will, those scenes which have filled and overwhelmed him with a sense of the infinite delight which God is thereby shown to take in surrounding those who love him with scenes and scenery of the most surpassing brightness and beauty, he will ask himself, “Can it be that the same God who has created the bright, the beautiful Jerusalem above to be the eternal abode of his saints, could have been satisfied to leave them for four thousand years in that subterranean vault, hid away in some unfinished portion of the bowels of this earth, with surroundings as disagreeable and disgusting as could well be conceived of?” The verdict will be decisive.
“Hades and the New Jerusalem were not conceived and constructed by the same omnipotent brain and hand. The former is the offspring of the distempered fancy of some Pharisaic mystic, whose views have been colored by his acquaintance with the notions contained in the heathen philosophies of his day, while the latter is the realization of the grand and faultless ideal of that God whose especial delight is found in rewarding virtue.”
(To be Continued.)
PATIENCE.
By Mary Mapes Dodge
Though tangled hard life's knot may be,
And wearily we rue it,
The silent touch of Father Time
Some day will sure undo it,
Then, darling, wait;
Nothing is late
In the light that shines forever.
We faint at heart, a friend has gone,
We chafe at the world's harsh drilling;
We tremble at sorrows on every side,
At the myriad ways of killing.
Yet, say we all,
If a sparrow fall,
The Lord keepeth count forever.
He keepeth count. We come, we go,
We speculate, toil, and falter;
But the measure to each of weal or woe,
God only can give or alter.
He sendeth light,
He sendeth night,
And change goes on forever.
Why not take life with cheerful trust,
With faith in the strength of weakness?
The slenderest daisy rears its head
With courage, yet with meekness.
A sunny face
Hath holy grace,
To woo the sun forever.
For ever and ever, my darling, yes—
Goodness and love are undying;
Only the troubles and cares of earth
Are winged from the first for flying.
Our way we plow
In the furrow "now;"
But after the tilling and growing, the sheaf;
Soil for the root, but the sun for the leaf,
And God keeps watch forever.
—Mary Mapes Dodge.
THE SABBATH.
ITS ORIGIN, BENEFITS, AND DURABILITY.
THE Sabbath originated in the example of God, the maker of Heaven and earth, who was the first Sabbath-keeper. In six creative days he formed the world, and on the seventh he rested. He did not rest on account of weariness. The six days were not spent in work because God required so much time to complete the task. He could have created the world in six seconds as easily as in six days. He worked six days to set us an example. He rested the seventh day for the same purpose. He knew all things from the beginning—man's nature and needs. He designed a perpetually recurring Sabbath of rest and worship. In no mode sublime and glorious manner could that institution have been given us. It comes like an echo from eternity, that one word, “remember,” “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
The Sabbath day is no arbitrary requirement, because it is adapted to man's wants, the wants of his body, his mind, and his soul, as much as the light is to the eye, or the blood to the veins. It is a natural obligation for man's own good, and therefore cannot be arbitrary. The law of the Sabbath is eternal; it is the establishment of the Almighty, and a part of his creative work. Can man change it? As well attempt to change himself to an unaccountable creature. Can the church, could Christ, change the Sabbath law? Certainly not; for he came to fulfill the law and make it honorable. Was the Sabbath made for the Jews, or any other specific class? It was created for man, before any Jews or sect existed. See Mark 2:27, Christ's words: “And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
God set the Sabbath apart for sacred uses. It is lifted above other days, and should be devoted to reflection, prayer, and intenser worship than is expected on other days of the week. He meant that the seventh day should be rescued from the toils of the six working days of the week; therefore set it apart and sanctified it as holy time. Can man change that sanctification to the first day of the week, or any other day?387Impossible. God meant that all men of toil should have one day in each week to wipe the sweat from their brows, and lift their faces towards God in worship. He did not mean the Sabbath for a holiday, nor did he sanctify it for a day of idleness, dissipation, or carousal. Better for man that he should toil three hundred and sixty-five days in the year than spend it in such a way. One day of dissipation does more harm than seven days of honest toil. God solemnly blessed the seventh day at creation, and set it apart for man's benefit, improvement, and present and future glory. To attempt to interfere with its binding force, is to attempt an interference with God himself. “Remember,” means to put you on your guard.
There seems to be a double requirement upon this Sabbath command. It makes you, to a certain extent, your brother's keeper, and even makes you a servant of trust to the cattle of toil within your gates. How is it with you on the Sabbath or seventh day?
In giving the Sabbath to man, God not only showed his mercy to them, but to the domestic animals, that so patiently serve during the six days of toil, and has made it your business to protect them from labor on the Sabbath day, that they may recuperate as well as mankind. The Sabbath command reaches both ways, as does no other command of the decalogue. It tells you what you must do, and what you must not do. Excuses for its violation, on account of surrounding circumstances, are of no avail, for the Sabbath is an edict of the Almighty, and must stand, regardless of man's inventions, until time shall be no more.
To attempt to substitute the first day of the week in its place, or to enact laws to protect Sunday observance, are attempts to violate the command that forbids the serving of other gods than the One that created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh day. It is equivalent to the telling of one falsehood to cover another. God cannot be deceived, though he may be offended; “but woe to him by whom the offense cometh.” Christ says (John 15:10), “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.” “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John 2:4. “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” 2 John 6. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.” Blessed inheritance! But how can men attain it and violate the law of God? The promise is to those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.—Sabbath Recorder.
THE SABBATH IN PARADISE.
By R. F. C.
When first our world was brought to light By wisdom infinite, and might, What crowned the work with sweet delight? The Sabbath.
When man in innocence and love Was sinless as the gentle dove, What gift was given from above? The Sabbath.
Through paradise, his Eden home, In pure delights he free could roam, And hail with joy, when it should come, The Sabbath.
So at the first, when time began, And all unruffled moments ran, That priceless boon was given man, The Sabbath.
Had he not sinned, he ever might Have had God's presence day and night, And ever hailed with fresh delight The Sabbath.
Though now from Eden man is driven, He still may keep the gift then given, The link that binds to hope and Heaven, The Sabbath.
Redeemed by Christ, the living Word, Man and his paradise restored, He shall enjoy (thus saith the Lord) The Sabbath.
God's Israel shall there remain, From month to month shall eat again Of life's fair tree, and still retain The Sabbath. R. F. C.
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.
THERE can be no liberty without law. A condition of lawlessness is a condition in which every man's liberty is imperilled by the selfishness, cupidity, caprices or enmity of his neighbor. In civil society the highest liberty can only be attained by obedience to wholesome laws. Those who willingly and cheerfully obey such laws find them not a hindrance, but a protection to liberty. Only those who wish to break law feel trammelled by its restraints. So with the rules and duties of the Christian life. To those whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil, and who are unwilling to yield obedience to the requirements of the gospel, such obedience seems to be a compulsory servitude, requiring a constant surveillance and restraint of every thought, word and act, which is exceedingly difficult to maintain, and, if maintained, must render existence unhappy and intolerable.
But this estimate of the Christian life does not take into account the grand motive to obedience which actuates the Christian. That motive is love—love to Christ who "hath loved him and washed him from his sins in his own blood," and love for his fellow-men, begotten in his soul "by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." This love to God and man gives delight in the law and service of God. It becomes the grand and effectual inspiration to every duty to God and humanity which the divine law enjoins, and is, therefore, "the fulfilling of the law."
Under the inspiration of this love, the Christian finds his highest liberty and happiness in the performance of the very duties that seem burdensome and intolerable to the carnal mind. It is this that makes Christ's yoke easy and his burden light. If Christian duty is ever felt to be a burden to us, or any restraint upon our liberty, it is the want of love that makes it so. We shall enjoy perfect liberty in doing the will of God, when that doing is prompted by love; for Christian obedience is the natural expression of love. "If a man love me, he will keep my words." "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." It is the very nature of love to prompt to duty and give the sense of freedom in doing it. Perfect love gives perfect liberty. The man who loves God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, will have perfect liberty, that is, liberty to do exactly what he pleases; for, with this love as his controlling motive, he will please to do only those things which are right and pleasing to God.
— Methodist.
FORGOTTEN CONGRESSMEN.
How ephemeral is political fame! Among the thousands who figured in their day as senators and representatives of Congress, the names of but few are familiar to the present generation. Clay, Webster and Calhoun made an impress on the history of their country, which, perhaps, will never be forgotten. The class of statesmen standing next to them in ability are even now almost faded out of the public mind. John Forsyth, of Georgia, was one of the most accomplished off-hand debaters that ever appeared in the United States Senate; yet how few of the 48,000,000 of people now dwelling in this land of ours know that such a man ever lived. William C. Preston, of South Carolina, was an orator of great power and a senator who
reflected honor on his State. After his death, how soon was he forgotten. Webster's reply to Robert J. Hayne is likely to keep his (Hayne's) memory fresh in the mind of the reader. Otherwise he would have been lost to the recollection of posterity; yet he was one of the most brilliant men of his day.
William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was one of the most eloquent of men, and played a conspicuous part in the politics of his State. It is safe to say that a large majority of the present voters are not apprised of the fact. Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, was noted for eloquence at the bar and in the halls of Congress. It is only the political student or the survivors of the era in which he cut his most prominent figure who know anything about him. Maryland kept Gen. Sam Smith in Congress thirty-nine years, and we venture to say that thousands of the politicians of the present day never heard of him. The same may be said of Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, who represented that State in Congress thirty-seven years. We might go on and specify a score of others, equally talented and influential in their day and generation, who are but seldom thought of beyond the precincts of their blood relations.
If such should be the fate of these distinguished politicians, what is to become of the men who are now strutting on the political stage? A large majority of them will not be remembered five years after they have been consigned to private life. Such is political fame.—Louisville Courier Journal.
IN THE MORNING.
By W. N. Glenn
"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and look up."—Ps. 5:3.
THE Bible, as well as secular history, abounds in the records of successful achievements of those who were given to early rising, and especially of those who early waited upon the Lord. Many instances are given of the early morning being chosen as the time to perform solemn and important undertakings, and of the Lord's special blessing attending the efforts. When Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac, he did not lie in bed in the morning grieving over the matter, dreading to get up and undertake the sorrowful task, until the enemy had time to persuade him into vacillating doubts and fears; he rose up early and went obediently and resolutely to work, and the Lord was with him. When Moses was commanded to perform the hazardous task of delivering the Lord's message to Pharaoh, he was told to go early in the morning. Joshua rose early in the morning to commence the conquest of Jericho, and the army of Heaven co-operated with him.
And early devotion has ever been an indication of earnestness and humble sincerity on the part of God's most faithful servants. Job rose early in the morning to offer burnt-offerings in behalf of his sons in the days of their feastings from house to house (which were no doubt frequent), lest they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts during their revelings. "Thus did Job continually." David, in his earnest penitence, and in his overflowing gratitude and praise, makes frequent mention of his early morning devotions, and the Lord's mercies in consequence. The earnest women were early at the sepulcher of Jesus, to perform, as they supposed, the last offices of honor and love for their Master. The Saviour and his apostles, as also the great reformers, were early workers and early worshipers.
It is not necessary here to particularize the many names of men who have in a secular way become famous through early devotion to their professions or missions. It is sufficient to know that God would be sought early in the morning. In the tabernacle sweet incense was offered every morning; and we, who are also but sojourners in the wilderness, should do likewise. How necessary, indeed, it is for us to erect bulwarks in the morning against the temptations and allurements, doubts and discouragements, that arise during the day. Israel's manna was found in the morning, and it had to be gathered early, before the sun had melted it. So with our spiritual manna; if we neglect to gather it early we may have to go hungry all day. Our Saviour is called the "Bright and Morning Star," let us seek him early, while he may be found.
W. N. GLENN.
PERNICIOUS READING.
The bad influence of pernicious books, especially upon the young, is set forth in these anecdotes:—
The boy David Hume was a believer in the Scriptures until he ransacked the works of infidels to prepare for a debate in which he was to take part.
It is said of Voltaire that when only five years of age, he committed to memory an infidel poem, and was never able after that to undo its pernicious influences upon his mind.
Thomas Chambers, an officer of the British government, says that all the boys brought before the criminal courts can ascribe their downfall to impure reading.
Wilberforce, speaking of the words of Lindsey upon his own mind, thus wrote:—
"It was a foolish curiosity, and I was obliged to stop when I had proceeded a little way in the second volume; for, though I was sensible of the sophistry and effrontery of many of his arguments and objections, yet, somehow, my mind was entangled and hurt, and after I had put the book away, it was two or three days before I was composed again."
Robert Hall tells us, in one of his sermons, that after the reading of a certain work, "he could scarcely go through the usual devotional exercises of the sanctuary."
The Harm of Profanity
Profanity never did any man the least good. No man is richer, or wiser for it. It commends no one to any society. It is disgusting to the refined, detestable to the good, insulting to those with whom we associate; unprofitable, needless, and injurious to society. It is degrading to the mind, damnable to the spirit, and abominable to the soul of the perpetrator. Try to desert the habit of profanity. Try to cast of the shackles of the worse than useless pollutions. Try to brake the cord that binds you in your cursing and swearing, and you will see how the devil has you bound in this one thing of profanity. You are in chains that will drag you down to perdition if you allow this evil habit to grow upon you little by little. Friends, stoutly resist beginnings in the downward course, but love and court beginnings in the upward, faithful, moral and truthful course that leads you on in life and peace to God.
Statesmen’s Retreat Toward Popery
A story is told of a man standing on a quay bowing to his friends, who with each bow took a step backwards, bowing and receding till he unconsciously took the last fatal step which plunged him into the depth below. The London Rock says that this is what some English statesmen have been doing with regard to popery: they have been bowing and receding till a few more steps back will plunge them into the depth of subserviency to popery from which England was rescued 300 years ago, and into the thraldom of being priest-ridden like some continental nations.