Earlier text: History of the SabbathHIGH AUTHORITY ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS.
By G. W. A.
In Mr. Benson's commentary on the ninth chapter of Daniel's prophecy, we find the following clear and logical argument for the beginning of the seventy weeks. We do not give the following extract because there is any lack of evidence for the right commencement of this famous period, but because it is good authority, and an unanswerable argument in establishing one of the main pillars of the Advent faith. Also admissions in favor of the truth, from the ranks of its enemies, constitutes the highest kind of evidence. Four edicts of the kings of Persia, in favor of the Jews, mentioned in Scripture, are, 1. That of Cyrus. Ezra i, 1. 2. That of Darius Hystaspes. Ezra. iv, 6; Hag. i, 12. 3. That of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of his reign. Ezra vii; Esdras viii. And 4. That in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. Neh. ii, 1. The first of these edicts can not be applied to this prophecy, inasmuch as from the first of Cyrus, before Christ 536, to the death of Christ, A. D. 34, are 570 years. It was, however, the basis of liberty to the Jews, for all the indulgences granted them afterward, by the following kings of Persia, were founded on the precedent of this great monarch. So that he might well be considered as fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah: "He shall build my city, he shall let go my captives." Chap. xlv, 13. In consequence of this decree 50,000 Jews returned under Zerubbabel, and partly dispersed themselves in their several tribes, and partly settled at Jerusalem, and began to build both the city and temple. But this was in a very rude and tumultuous manner, and they met with so many hindrances from the Samaritans and others, that the decree was not carried into effect. This, therefore, is not the period we are to reckon from. The second, namely, that of Darius Hystaspes, was made about fourteen years after, preceding the death of Christ 550 years. But neither was this efficacious. Besides, it related to the temple only, as appears from the letter of the Samaritan colony to Cambyses [Ezra iv, 11-16], neither, therefore is this the period. The third decree, which was that of Artaxerxes Longimanus [B. C. 457], recorded at large [Ezra vii, 12-26], was of great solemnity and efficacy, importing no less than the restoration of the Jewish constitution, both civil and ecclesiastical, providing in the first place for the re-establishment of divine worship with becoming order and magnificence, exempting the priesthood from all taxes; then, for the civil government of the people, the institution of tribunals, and the administration of justice according to the law of Moses. This decree answers to all the characters of the prophecy, the restoration of the constitution, the rebuilding of the city, and the chronological periods distinctly specified, and is, no doubt, here chiefly intended. Thus, of the four edicts, the first two are excluded because they were not efficacious, and prolong the term to near six hundred years; and the fourth was only a confirmation of the third. No other commencement of the four hundred and ninety years agrees with the event, than that of the seventh of Artaxerxes; and this system is perspicuous, and free from all difficulties. According to a request of the Seventh-day Advent brethren of Wright, Mich., made through the Review, for aid and counsel in organizing a church in said place, a series of meetings were held, commencing Dec. 14, 1861. On Sabbath Elder James White preached a discourse on the state of the Laodicean church. It was fairly demonstrated that the present state of the true church was in a beggard condition, and deceived with themselves. The importance of Bible sanctification was also urged upon the brethren, in order that they might have an abundant entrance through the gates of the everlasting city. It was difficult for the speaker even on the holy Sabbath, to impress a sense of conviction or solemn attention upon many of the audience, on account of a spirit of levity and vanity which was in the assembly. On first-day, Dec. 15, it seemed as if that spirit of vanity had grown to be a monster, and a spirit of such careless, indifferent, giddy, trifling, and taunting character, as would seem to defy the very speaker to his face. This was particularly manifested among the youth. Bro. and sister White both gave repeated admonitions to them of this dreadful state of rebellious and God-dishonoring state of mind, and appealed to them with earnestness that they might take heed to God's word and the signs of the times, and forsake this foolish disrespect for God and his government. On first-day two discourses were given, which embraced some of the principal points of the three messages, and showed how soon the church would become polluted by seeking the friendship of the world. James iv, 4. On Monday evening the charm of the Devil was broken, and the Spirit of the Lord seemed to have free course. Some of the youth desired the prayers of the church, that they might be kept from this Satanic world-influence. Parents began to see that their children were in a horrible pit, and commenced to pull them out. The Lord began to help. On Tuesday, 10 o'clock A. M. the church met to effect a more thorough organization. Between sixty and seventy Sabbath-keepers, with many of their children with them, assembled at the place of worship. As this day was appointed for business, the meeting was called to order by Bro. Walter Hastings. Opened by prayer by Elder James White. The objects of the meeting being declared, the church listened to remarks upon organization by Elder W., and the state of the church as sister White understood it, in Wright, and elsewhere. Adjourned one-half hour. After an examination of most of the names of those who offered themselves for church fellowship, and a removal of many of the faults by confessions to one another and the church, Resolved, That we adopt the covenant which was recommended in Review, Vol. xviii, No. 20, for the Wright church covenant. Adjourned till 7 o'clock. Resolved, That we proceed to the election of church officers. Resolved, That Bro. E. H. Root be the elder of the church. Resolved, That brethren R. J. Foster and J. I. Cramer be the deacons of the church. Resolved, That James Sawyer be the clerk of the church. The elder and deacons were ordained, and a vote of thanks declared to Bro. and sister White for their faithful labors with the brethren. Adjourned sine die.
WALTER HASTINGS, Chairman
JAMES SAWYER, Clerk. THE HIDDEN CHURCH.
By R. F. C.
ELIJAH had complained that Jehovah's name was forgotten, and his covenant forsaken by the children of Israel; and had added, that he himself was left alone. His complaint was correct enough for human knowledge. The days indeed were evil; the age of Noah seemed to have returned; all the vintage of God seemed gathered from the earth, with the exception of two or three on the topmost bough. Painful in the extreme must all this have been to such a spirit as Elijah's; but suddenly he receives from God himself the astonishing tidings that seven thousand were still reserved, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, nor kissed him. How astonished must the prophet have been at this disclosure! How ready to recall his words, "I, even I only, am left alone!" and how must his new commission have been undertaken with renewed courage! And what could be more delightful in this our day than to be surprised by similar intelligence? Certainly, our own age seems greatly superior to that of Elijah's; but there is much that is only exterior show, which can hardly be mistaken. If all that appears to be divine life were really such; and if all were evangelists who in modern times are preaching, not for the truth, but against it; if they were men of God, led and gifted by the Spirit of God, and bowed the knee in truth to the exalted Redeemer; if all the multitudes, who in every place crowd into the places of worship, really said, in their hearts, "Come, let us return to the Lord!" if the thousands who, in Bible and missionary associations, labor in building the ark, all came into this ark themselves—nay, if even all whom we see uniting for meeting of edification and prayer, could be regarded as true worshipers, then might we indeed say something good of our times, though much would still remain to be wished for. But of what use is it to deceive ourselves? Things are far from being what their appearance would indicate; alas, many things which, from a distance, look very beautiful, are found, when more closely examined, to be full of deformities, if not mere phantoms of what they seemed to be. Yet supposing we could regard all who have the show of piety as real christians, how few would even these be, compared with the number of those among us who openly show themselves to be unbelievers! The prevailing spirit of our times is that of infidelity and apostasy—a spirit of pretended illumination, but in reality of the blindest presumption—a spirit of opposition to the plain word of God, and of arbitrary determination upon good and evil independent of it—a spirit of the most idolatrous exaltation of mere natural reason above the revealed wisdom of God. Among the great mass of nominal christians, both of the learned sort and the illiterate, it has long been taken for granted that the doctrine of our native corruption is a gloomy fancy, and that of salvation by the blood and righteousness of Christ an antiquated and by-gone notion. It is held that the miserable tinsel of exterior decorum, the mere flimsy garniture of selfishness, is quite sufficient to satisfy God; and that a Mediator is not at all necessary to the salvation of men. Many have long been agreed that the dogmas of a few conceited philosophers, so called, are more to be trusted than the truth of God delivered by Christ and his apostles; and that such faith as that of Paul, Peter, or John, is insufferable in the present day, as being absurd, mystical, and unworthy of any maturely instructed mind—yes, that it ought to be banished from the earth, even by persecution, if no other means will suffice. Such is the prevailing spirit of our modern christendom, which with some is disguised by a christian profession; with others, has shamelessly cast off all disguise. It is found in every district, and in all ranks of society, and is taught in by far the greater part of our schools and nurseries. Millions of men professing the name of Christ, lie at the feet of this impious, lying spirit in the present day. If you travel through the country, in whatever direction, you find it discovering itself in every company, at public tables and in private families. Go from one church to another, and you will almost everywhere find that this spirit of seduction is the preacher and expositor; inspect a multitude of our modern hymn books and catechisms, and instead of the spirit of God, this spirit of darkness in the garb of religion will confront you; yes, and in a very large number of our places of education, this spirit is the Moloch to which our youth and children are sacrificed. Indeed, a review of the Christian world in the present day is enough to make every pious spirit shudder. The spirit of antichrist is prevailing in the world to such an extent as it has never done heretofore; and it is almost time to join with the complaint of the psalmist, "Help, Lord! for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fall from among the children of men!" Ps. xii, 1. Surely many think far too favorably of the present times. But do not others think far too gloomily of them? We are willing to believe they do, and the experience which Elijah had, who even thought that he only was left; and afterward heard to his surprise that there were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, may help to confirm us in this belief. Assuredly the Lord has many servants with whom we are unacquainted, he has hidden ones whom we may never hear of in this world; and many a country, and many a city, would perhaps long ago have been as Sodom and Gomorrah, had not a small remnant of such been left in those places. Elijah, as we find, received an express revelation concerning the faithful in Israel, and their number. The Lord unveiled to him the hidden church, and it may be supposed how great was the astonishment of this man of God at hearing that among the very people he had so severely accused, there were so many as seven thousand who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. He had regarded himself as the only light in the darkness of Samaria; and now, behold! a whole firmament of chosen souls is disclosed to his view, which the clouds of his weak faith had kept hidden from him. However low may be the present state of the church, we have reason to conclude that it is not so poor and destitute of persons influenced by divine grace as we are ready to imagine. I believe that if it pleased God to lift the veil, we might be surprised with the discovery of such numbers as would seem like a resurrection scene. We doubt not but the Prince of the host has still many an ambush of reserve in this world, and that he needs only to sound the trumpet, as he will do, in due time, according to Zech. x, 8, and then we shall be surprised at beholding troops of christians about us, as Elisha's servant was surprised at beholding troops of angels covering the mount of Dothan. 2 Kings vi, 17. If we look in the day-time toward heaven, we can not see the stars of God. They are there fixed in the firmament, but the eye can not distinguish them. Wait until evening. The night invites their rays from concealment, and in the dark you behold their gentle luster once more. So also is the firmament of the church. In the sunshine of worldly prosperity they are scarcely perceptible, and the difference between them and the better sort of the children of this world is sometimes hardly discernible. But in this case also have patience until evening, and their glory will light up before you. As doubtless at the time when Hazael, the Syrian, broke in upon the land with fire and sword, these seven thousand in Israel were made manifest, so also on the day of the mighty sifting which awaits the Christian world, we shall be better able rightly to measure the Lord's temple upon earth. These days of purification are hastening on with rapid flight. There is no want of signs of the most diversified kind, which announce to us the nearness of that period in which the Lord will manifest that his fan is in his hand, and will thoroughly purge his floor. Predictions hasten to their close; and the days are approaching in whose wild perplexity even the elect, were it possible, might be deceived. Then if a time should come when the mark of the beast shall be obtruded on our foreheads at the point of the sword or bayonet, when nothing can save us from torture or a bloody death but a renunciation of Christ and his gospel, the gold will be separated from the dross in the church, and it will be made apparent where the substance of godliness existed, and where only the appearance and tinsel of it. Alas, how many a star, respecting which we have at present no such presentiment, will then fall from the firmament of the church; and what clouds of chaff shall we then see borne away on the wind, even from places where our eyes at present perceive nothing but rich floors of wheat! For every thing that is not from the Spirit of the Lord, will not survive the ordeal of that day; and everything which now assumes to itself the ornaments of the sanctuary, but is not clothed with them by the Lord's hand, will be seen in the shame of its own nakedness. At the very same period when trees "without fruit" shall fall, when multitudes of false brethren shall be severed and distinguished from the true; thousands, of whom at present we know nothing, shall throw aside the veil, and with cries of Hosannah! shall range under the banner of martyrs. When no other choice will be left but between Christ and Belial, then will those who heretofore have been reserved and timid declare themselves openly for Christ and his cause.—Krusensaker. The twilight of present truth seemed to dawn upon our author's mind.
R. F. C. DID CHRIST ARGUE FOR TOBACCO?
By Uriah Smith
PETER speaks of some who wrest the Scripture to their own destruction; and if the following is not a case of this kind, it would be difficult to find one at the present day. A professed Sabbath-keeper persists in the use of tobacco, and endeavors to justify himself in his course by these words of our Saviour: "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man." Matt. xv, 11. Does the individual understand what he is doing by thus using this language? Does he really suppose that Christ was here laying down a principle calculated to justify men in the indulgence of any unnatural, filthy, and hurtful appetite they might see fit to contract? If not, if this was not the design of the language, then no one has a right to use it for such a purpose; but if any one should contend that this was its design, and it can be shown elsewhere in the Scriptures that these things are sin, then he makes Christ emphatically the minister of sin, and exposes himself to the denunciation of the apostle against such a course. But let us try the above claim a little further. If it can be urged in defense of tobacco, it can be also in reference to any other thing that goeth in at the mouth. Try it then in the case of rum, brandy, and all other intoxicating drinks, by which men make themselves sots and drunkards. These things go in at the mouth;30consequently on the above-named principle, do not defile the man; therefore drunkenness is no sin, and there is no wrong in being a drunkard. While no one would probably go so far as to argue in this manner, it may be well to mention here the express declaration of scripture which says that neither "thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. vi, 10. It is an acknowledged principle that the greater offense must include all the less of the same kind; and when the Bible forbids drunkenness with intoxicating drinks as a sin, it forbids everything which partakes in the smallest degree of the same nature. Now can the advocates of tobacco tell us in what respect the appetite for tobacco differs from that for rum or brandy? They are both of them unnatural and acquired; both the articles are stimulating, and not only useless, but positively injurious. If one is expressly forbidden, the other is no less so. To use then the language of the Saviour in defense of the one or the other is glaringly to wrest and pervert it. What then is the meaning of the Saviour's words? If they can not be taken in this sense, what were they designed to teach? The context will show. The circumstance which called them forth was the accusation of the Jews against the disciples because they ate with unwashed hands. The Jews, from a tradition of the elders, were scrupulously particular in this respect. Before eating they would wash their hands, just as they would filter their wine to strain out a gnat, lest they should swallow a particle of something that was forbidden in their law as unclean. Christ tells them that they need not be thus scrupulous; for it is not that which goeth into the mouth as food that defiles the man. The language may be legitimately used as an argument against the previously existing distinction of meats which was to perish when the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was swept away; but to use it in defense of the gratification of a perverted appetite, to make the Saviour, the great teacher of righteousness and pattern of purity, stand up and plead for the practise among men, of fleshly and sinful lusts, if not the sin of blasphemy itself, can be nothing less than bordering thereon. U. S. As Christians are alike, as regards keeping the heart, watchfulness and prayer, sobriety, temperance, chastity, virtue, holiness, godliness, obedience to all the ten great moral precepts, in their deep spiritual sense upon the heart; and the faith of Jesus is the same in its requirements, in regenerating, reforming the life, and changing the current of the thoughts, and in remodeling, purifying, and settling the character upon the basis of righteousness and truth, upon Jesus, the way, the truth, the life, the chief corner-stone. But in many relative duties our calls are not alike, nor are our gifts alike, nor is any one to complain of his sphere of duty, for God it is who appoints to us our bounds, and more than Sinai's thunders await him who, Korah-like, would overleap the boundaries of his calling. To one is given grace to conduct his business honestly and nobly, and to command his family, and lead them to God and glory, and by every way daily to reflect the image of Jesus. To the youth it is given to obey, to be useful, and diligent; to the aged, resignation and peace; to the young, sobriety; to the teacher, wisdom; to the apostle, zeal, and wisdom, and power: to the prophet, far-seeing penetration; to the pupil, teachableness; and should the layman complain because he did not have all the light and glory granted to the active messenger, it would be because his pride had mastered his common sense. We are promised grace for our day (circumstances), and strength for our needs, and we must expect this, and all superfluous strength or grace God will not grant for waste, to satisfy curiosity. Just what we need, and no more. God will not give so precious gifts to be abused as mankind abuse his common bounties. Lord, help us to attain to humble devotion and wise zeal, that we may all walk with even step in the way of relative, as well as positive, duty. “TO BIND UP THE BROKEN HEARTED.”
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
Among all the promises of the Bible, none is more soothing to the heart-stricken child of God than the following: “He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.” Isa. lxi, 1. This no doubt, was spoken with reference to Christ's commission to this world, and how strikingly it was fulfilled in his ministry. Surgeons may show great mechanical skill on the human frame, but the heart they can not touch. Some years ago a circumstance came under my own notice which led me to admire and wonder at the skill of man. Near my school-house was a high swing, where the scholars every day took their nooning, and it was also a great resort on Sundays for those who kept the day for recreation and amusement. On my return one Monday morning I was startled by the intelligence that the day before a boy in the neighborhood had fallen from the swing and broken both his limbs just above the knee joint. He was taken up and carried home, with little expectation that he could live. The surgeons were sent for, and commenced their operations to bind up the wounds. That day-noon, out of sympathy and curiosity together, I went to the place of the misfortune. It presented a solemn and impressive scene. There was every appearance of a funeral, except life in the mangled body before me. The physicians were actively engaged with various tools, from the axe down to the small probing instrument, in making the necessary preparations that preceded the permanent binding up. All things being now ready, the most painful scene takes place. His lying in this mangled condition so long, the sinews of his limbs would of course become contracted, and must be stretched in order to replace the shattered bones. This they found extremely difficult, and with the united strength of two or three men, they failed of about an inch to bring one limb to its original length, thus leaving him subject to a halt the remainder of his days, should he survive the catastrophe. A great undertaking, thought I, and observed to some one, “The doctors can do more than I realize, if they can mend up this boy and make him live.” Yet they did it. In six weeks' time, I believe, he was walking around. But suppose after the parents had sent for the physician they must dictate for him and carry out their notions of sympathy, objecting to any confinement, and the harsh means that he employed to bring his limbs into a proper shape before the healing process commenced. Think you that he would have recovered? By no means. His life depended wholly upon his own obedience, and that of those who had the care of him, to the rules and regulations laid down by the surgeon. Here is a good moral lesson. The state of a broken heart is fitly represented by those mangled and broken limbs, and as the surgeon understood the science of binding up those shattered bones, placing them in a proper condition to heal, just so well does Jesus, the great Physician, understand binding up the broken heart, when every cord is affected. But as the surgeon understood his business, and must have his rules and regulations carried out, just so with this Physician. We dare not choose our own way for the work to be accomplished. What think you would have been the consequence had that wounded boy refused to remain where he had been placed as the only position in which he could be healed? Why, it necessarily follows that during all the time he should have remained in the right position he would have suffered as in the beginning, and at the end of the days would have been unprofited, his wounds fresh and bleeding still. Or suppose he had been very careful most of the time, then in a fit of impatience thrown off all restraint, and tossed himself in any position he chose. The result would have been the same. This is the reason, and the only reason, why christians are left to repine in sadness; they do not submit themselves to God, do not believe in Jesus, do not remember that this was one of his errands into the world. The causes of a broken heart are various, and thus the processes of binding up are diversified. Some are broken in consequence of wrongs they have done, and others sympathize with those wrongs, and stand in the way of the instruments being applied, and the severe measures necessary to be taken to bring them into a position where they can be healed. Thorough work must be made in the beginning. How painful is the operation after having set a bone wrong, to break it the second time and set it over. Equally so must be a half-hearted work; and it is not unfrequently the case that those whose sympathies are so warmly enlisted with the wrong, when they see the united strength of the church on one side, and the patient himself willing to submit to the painful process, refuse to come to their place, and must be severed from the body. Some have been crushed by the hand of injustice, and thus been led to distrust everybody and everything. In their case the cords of affection must be enlarged before the healing process can commence. It may be hard for an individual to forget the injustice heaped upon him by those whom he has been living to benefit, but in the strength of God it can be done. So was it painful for the boy to have his limbs set, but it proved well in the end. Just so with every case that Jesus undertakes. The patient will be led to adopt the language of one of God's tried and faithful servants, “I rejoice that there is no sorrow of earth so great, no wounds so deep, but what heaven can heal.” Again, there is another class who have been wounded by bereavement, and so deep is the wound that for many long years, like Rachel they refuse to be comforted. To you, O afflicted one, is this Physician especially sent. Jesus is willing to make you whole. He only waits for you to say with all your heart, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Can you not believe that he is able to raise you entirely above this sadness and despondency? “Have loved ones gone? does earth look drear?
Look up! shed not that bitter tear.”
To those who have long carried a sad heart, there is hope in this promise. They need not say, “I am afraid these things will yet destroy me;” for they are not left to go in their own strength. They have a Physician to apply to who perfectly understands their case, and has said, As thy day is, so shall thy strength be. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Ps. cxlvii, 3. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. May the Lord lead all the broken in spirit to his word, and to a careful investigation of this subject, then will they see what a tender care their heavenly Father has for them, and that he is more to them than all earthly friends. SELFISHNESS.
By Geo. Wright
In no period of this world's history has selfishness been so general as at the present time. Among the great sins that swell the catalogue of abounding iniquity, none are more blighting than this. It dries up all that makes man noble among his fellow-men; and with him who is under the control of this cruel power, Bible consecration is out of the question. When the plain, straight testimony of God's word is brought to bear upon the minds and hearts of the multitudes that surround us, God's faithful ministers often witness with sorrow, after weeks of labor in presenting the last solemn message of mercy, how few there are willing to obey. The reason is obvious. It may all be traced directly or indirectly to a selfish heart. The sacrifice is too great. Hundreds acknowledge the truth, but the Devil is ready to snatch away the good seed, and they submit to be led captive at his will, and pass on to their doom. I have before me a letter from a very dear friend in the West, who has had the truth faithfully and ably presented to him the past summer. He acknowledges we have the truth on the Sabbath and near coming of the Lord, but adds, I am a Baptist. He has decided to glide along with a popular church. Will he not, with thousands of others who occupy a similar position, if persisted in, share the fate of those who knew their duty and did it not? The life of the christian is a self-sacrificing, self-forgetting one. I speak of the real follower of Christ, who can pray with a dying Saviour, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. How feeble are our best efforts to follow that dear Saviour in whose life cannot be found one selfish word or act. O, for more of the mind that is in Jesus; that willingness to suffer, esteeming the reproaches of Christ, with Moses, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Give me, dear Lord, strength and grace to walk the radiant path, to rejoice amid the surrounding perils of these last days; and above all, "Give what I have long implored—31
A portion of thy grief unknown;
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone."
Is it not time, dear brethren, to closely examine ourselves and see if we are really in the faith? Here are a few gems from Paul's theology to try ourselves by. In honor preferring one another. . . . Condescend to men of low estate. Rom. xii, 10-16. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Phil ii, 3, 4. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. 1 Cor. x, 24. But here is some testimony from the beloved disciple which comes a little closer, a sure test. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? And to crown the whole, he says, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John iii, 16, 17. God declares Job to be a perfect and upright man. Did he forget the poor in the days of his prosperity? Let us see. Turn with me to chap. xxix, 11-16. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. And why, Job? Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out. This, to my mind, is a noble instance of genuine christian benevolence. Why then, dear reader, withhold the means God has entrusted to your care to use to his glory, and lose the blessing of the cheerful giver? Why cling so tenaciously to the treasures of earth? The blessed cause in which we profess to be engaged, demands entire consecration; and if we really love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as ourselves, we shall find ample scope for our best offerings and largest liberalities. May God help us to see duty, and overcome every prompting of self, and hear at last the "Well done! thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." "And must I part with all I have,
My dearest Lord, for thee?
It is but just, since thou hast done
Much more than this for me."
"Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another."
DEAR BRO. WHITE: I wish to say to the dear saints scattered abroad that I am still striving to overcome this wicked world, and wish to move in harmony with the third angel's message, believing it to be present truth, and the last message of mercy this guilty world will ever hear. I feel that I can not praise my heavenly Father enough for opening my eyes to see wondrous things out of his law. I feel to thank him for his long-suffering unto me a poor sinner, in opening my eyes to see that I was walking according to the traditions of men, instead of the commandments of God. Dear brethren and sisters, let us be careful to heed the counsels of God's immutable word, also the warnings and admonitions of his chosen servants who are called to give the household of faith meat in due season. Who would not be willing to lay aside tea, coffee, tobacco, hoops, and all other superfluities, for the sweet assurance and consolation of sacrificing in the cause of Christ? None, I believe, but such as are joined to their idols, and of such it will soon be said, Let them alone. I am fully in harmony with the body on the subject of organization and church order. In short, I have no disposition to find fault with those whom God has placed at the head of this work. I hope by the assisting grace of God to be found in my proper place, and finally to stand with you on mount Zion.