Both the Old and New Testament often speak of the last days as being times of great interest to the church.
Jacob says to his sons, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. Gen. 49:1. At that early date, Jacob understood what would constitute the last days; and that he did not then live in the last, is evident from his language; and that he expected his descendants to flourish in the last days, is also evident.
Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, speaks thus: “God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son.” Heb. 1:2.
In these two quotations we have two important facts; one is, that in the days of Jacob, the last days had not commenced; and the second is, that in the days of Paul, the last days had commenced. With these facts as a basis, we will proceed.
Let us consider: when speaking of the week, we call the last three days, the last of the week; when speaking of the month, we speak of the last twelve or fifteen days of the month, as the last of the month; when speaking of the year, we call the last four of five months, the last of the year; so of the age of the world: it being now about six thousand years of age, the last two thousand years, being the last third of the whole age (six thousand years), then the last two thousand years are the last years, or “last days,” prophetically speaking of the world’s history.
Reader, look now at the above-mentioned quotations from the words of Jacob, and the words of Paul, both inspired men, and tell me, can you say that this conclusion is a false one?
Here is a long interval of time, from Jacob to Paul. One speaks of the last days as future, the other speaks of them as present. It follows, of course, then, that the last days had commenced in the days of Paul, who wrote this epistle about sixty-four years this side the first advent, and that they had not commenced in the days of Jacob, sixteen hundred and eighty-nine years before the advent.
It is necessary to make this a point, and to make it a clear point; for such is the unwillingness of many to believe in the second advent, that arguments which would be perfectly satisfactory upon common themes, are not noticed upon this; therefore a short and clear statement is necessary.
From the above conclusions, as to the last days, no one can appeal; next it must be admitted that the last half, or last third, of the world’s age, are the last days; if the last half, then the last days commenced about the time of Solomon; if the last third, then that the last days commenced at the advent of our Saviour. In either case, we are in the last days.
Now this article is not to locate any particular point for the second advent. In the works published at the Office, there is much light on this point; but it is astonishing, that any with the Bible open before them, can doubt that we are now living in the last days; and if in the last days, may we not know something quite definite on this matter? Shall Christians allow prejudice to shut their minds against the prophetic scriptures, which speak so often and so emphatically upon the events to take place in the last days? JOS. CLARKE.
WM. H. WILD
By Wm. H. Wild
From Bro. Wild.
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: We are indeed in perilous times. It is discouraging to the lover of present truth, when he sees how little interest the great mass of professors have in it. Surely we have reached the antitypical days of Noah and Lot; but what shall we do, dear brethren? Shall we sit idly in the door of our tents, with our swords sheathed and our banners folded, because of the unbelief that surrounds us? Shall we lay off the armor and conclude that it is in vain to toil, and weep, and pray, for the salvation of souls? God forbid! Now and then we find a spot of good soil; but we know it not until the seed springs up and bears fruit. Remember that the sower cast his seed by the wayside, and among thorns, and upon the stony ground; yet he knew not but it was all good ground, therefore he sowed in hope. Let us be encouraged by this, and toil on with cheerfulness, while we have strength, remembering at all times that not the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law; are justified.
I know the third angel’s message is unpopular, and few are willing to obey it. It strikes at the root of selfishness and covetousness. How many there are who would love to go with us in this unpopular way, and keep God’s holy Sabbath, were it not for the reproach they would meet with, and the self-denial they would have to practice. O my brethren, the great famine is coming; not for bread or water, but for hearing the word of God. Oh! shall it be that then we shall have it said to us, You warned me not of this? God forbid! Oh! then, let us do our duty faithfully, that the blood of those around us may not spot our garments. How many poor souls are lulled to sleep by the false shepherds who are crying, Peace, peace, tickling their ears with fables. Wake up, brother! Wake up, sister! It is time that your lamp should be trimmed, and burning brightly. “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.”
“Watch, for the time is short;
Watch while ’tis called to-day;
Watch, lest the world prevail;
Watch, Christian, watch and pray!
Watch, for the flesh is weak;
Watch, for the foe is strong;
Watch, lest the Bridegroom come;
Watch, though he tarry long!”
WM. H. WILD
Pleasantville, N. Y.
How His Sermons Grow.
A LAY brother made the following remark of his minister, whose pulpit talents were quite ordinary:
“Our pastor comes to the pulpit Sunday morning and preaches a little sermon; and in the afternoon he comes again and preaches another little sermon. In the evening he comes into the prayer-meeting full of love, and we all have a good time, praying, singing, and exhorting. Then on Monday, after spending the forenoon in his study, he goes out and sees a family of his congregation, and talks to them about Jesus; he does the same on Tuesday and each day of the week, and by Saturday night the little sermons on Sunday have grown into big ones.”
One can easily conceive how a people would be satisfied with such preaching. Reverse the matter. If great sermons on the Sabbath become little ones during the week by manifest inconsistencies, would it not destroy all pulpit efficiency?—Canadian Independent.
Alaiedon, Mich
From Sr. Osborne.
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I have been reading Testimony No. 18, and find so much which applies to me, that I pause and ask, Have I ever done one good deed in my life? The answer comes, None; no, not one. “Nothing but leaves.” Oh! how my spirit grieves over my wasted life. I know I must be perfect before I can see my blessed Saviour who has done so much for me. I want eternal life and a home with Jesus. Am I working for it? I can see nothing to recommend me to my Heavenly Father but the blood of Christ. Blessed Jesus! How he suffered for me. I will try harder than ever I have to overcome every sin, that I may see him when he comes, and be like him. Pray for me, that the Lord will help me to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I love the third angel’s message. Thank the Lord that he ever gave me a love for the truth.
Yours striving for a crown of immortality,
Susie A. Osborne.
Alaiedon, Mich
DAVID S. JAMES
By David S. James
From Bro. James.
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I wish to speak in favor of Jesus, for what he has done for me. Precious Saviour! How loving he does appear to a poor sinner when he tries to draw near to him. I feel that I can never doubt that his love could be felt by the vilest sinner, if he would strive earnestly for it.
I hail the weekly rounds of the REVIEW, for our hearts are cheered by reading the testimonies of others, and hearing that there are a few who are striving to overcome, while so many on every side are traveling the downward road. It is my daily prayer to God to be a humble Christian. I want to be like my blessed Master. I want to partake of his sufferings, that I may also share his glory.
Pray for me, that I may have an entrance through the pearly gates, and have a home in the earth made new.
Annexed to each receipt in the following list, is the Volume and Number of the REVIEW & HERALD to which the money received pays,—which should correspond with the Numbers on the Papers. If money for the paper is not in due time acknowledged, immediate notice of the omission should then be given.
$1.00 each. J Burdett 38-19, J Kellogg 37-1, M B Balls 36-14, J M Mills 37-10, N Hanson 37-17, S D Yew 38-1, E Wood 37-1, J A Chase 38-19, Z Henstreet 38-19, Mrs C Morris 38-19, G W Kellogg 35-13, Z Brooks 37-17, J M Chamberlain 38-19, E Griffith 37-1, Samuel Collett 37-19, J A Grainard 39-13, D Clark 38-19, M A Alger 38-19, F Elkhorn 38-19, L A Sprague 37-14, L M Alexander 38-1, G F Merriam 37-19.
$2.00 each. J Denman 37-1, C M Tenny 38-17, A Persing 38-4, M E Ewers 37-17, J Gowell 38-19, M Jackson 38-19, J Cardell jr 38-19, H H Trembley 37-1, A A Fairfield 38-1, T J Hilliard 37-1, M M Myers 37-8, H Darling 37-9, W Elwell 37-1, S Worden 39-1, T B Parker 37-1, R L Woodin 38-1.
Miscellaneous. L Lunger $3.75 38-19, S B Southwell 1.50 37-1, Geo Poulson 3.00 38-18, G W Brackett 3.00 38-20.
Books Sent by Mail.
Julia Burnham $1.00, A T Ainshaw 2.00, A R White 3.45, S D Yaw 1.00, C H Tubbs 25c, S L Chamberlain 1.00, O A Roberts 3.60, G W Frazer 17c, J S Parmlee 15c, J N Solenick 31c, H Clough 17c, Bell Simonton 1.00, J Hathorn 25c, J M Jackson 20c, E Zytkoske 2.75, Mrs J House 20c, D B Welch 17c, J Philbrick 17c, J Black 17c, J N Loughborough 4.35, Enos Rew 25c, B London 44c, J Gowell 3.00, Mrs E Waterman 17c, Jas Hendry 1.00, M Bartow 17c, Geo Marsh 5c, H Marsh 5c, N Hanson 20c, H Fairfield 17c, F T Wales 2.24, F J Holman 35c, B B Warren 17c, F Wheeler 40c, Geo H Roberts 25c, Aaron Persing 20c.
Foreign Missionary Fund.
E Lobdel $5.00, Alfred King 5.00.
Cash Received on Account.
Wm Cottrell $2.90, J N Loughborough $110.00, R L Simpson, for Geo I Butler 34.66, A A Fairfield 50c, I Sanborn $1.50.
Michigan Conference Fund.
Church at Colon $9.00, Church at Locke 6.25.
Appointments.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
No PREVENTING providence, the churches and scattered brethren of Gratiot Co., will hold their next quarterly meeting at Alma, Sabbath and first-day, Nov. 5 and 6. Will Eld. Byington attend this meeting? T. Z. ANDREWS.
The Lord willing, I will meet with the friends at Rochester, Ohio, Nov. 24-27, and in Troy, Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, and longer if necessary. L. D. VAN HORN.
The next monthly meeting of the Seventh-day Adventists of Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., and vicinity, will be held with the brethren and sisters in Otto and Mansfield, the first Sabbath and first-day in November. All the friends are invited to attend. B. B. WARREN.
The next monthly meeting of the S. D. Adventists of Northern Maine, will be held with the church in Canaan, Sabbath and first-day, November 12 and 13, commencing Friday evening. Some of the ministering brethren are expected to attend. We want to see a general gathering at this meeting. Come, prepared to work for the Lord. GEO. W. BARKER.
W. C. G
By W. C. G.
Bro. Smith is recovering from his fever; but, according to the advice of his physicians, will not resume his editorial duties for some weeks. The readers will please bear with any defects in the paper consequent upon Bro. Smith's absence. Those who have presented questions for editorial consideration will understand why they have not been answered. Remember the paper and its editor in your prayers.
W. C. G
“The Seventh Part of Time.”
By R. F. Cottrell
THIS is one of our best tracts, because it fully meets the most common objection against the Sabbath of the Lord. Whatever else one holds of all the multitudinous, discordant and contradictory theories which errorists oppose against the truth—whether it is a first-day Sabbath, no Sabbath, or every-day Sabbath—the seventh part of time is about sure to have a place somewhere in their creed; hence this tract meets a general demand.
As Bro. Littlejohn has suggested, if the term, seventh-day—as used in the 16th of Exodus, the time in which no manna fell—means only a seventh part of the time, then the term, sixth-day—the time in which they gathered a double portion—means simply a sixth part of the time. Taking this thought, and going back to Gen. 1, we find that, according to the theory in question, the fifth day means one-fifth part of the time, the fourth day, one-fourth of all, the third day, one-third, the second day, one-half, and the first day means simply all the time.
Of all the subtle sophistries by which Satan helps men to blind their own minds to the truth, nothing has been more successful than this seventh-part-of-time theory; but when it is thoroughly sifted, nothing is more transparent, nothing more ridiculously absurd. It will be found that when the Bible speaks of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh-day, it means a definite day of the week, as much as Sunday, Monday, &c., designate particular days. And all who will read the history of the contentions concerning the two rival days, during past centuries, will find that the Sabbath and the first day have ever been treated as two distinct days. And besides this, when our own free government shall be so perverted as to press Sunday-law upon the people, it will be found that one day in seven and no particular day will not meet the requirement. Why should men treat the law of the great Jehovah as they dare not treat the law of the State?
Brethren, let “The Seventh Part of Time” have a wide and judicious circulation. Bro. White informs us that our power press is capable of turning out this tract at the rate of nineteen to the minute. Let the press keep moving! And may God make it a blessing to thousands. And you, brethren and sisters, take a share in this blessed work. In due time you shall reap, if you faint not. R. F. COTTRELL.
The Discipline of Sorrow.
If the block of marble that lies before the sculptor were capable of feeling, how it would deplore and bemoan every stroke of the hammer, chipping off piece after piece of substance. It would deem its lot a pitiable one indeed. Yet that hammer and chisel are transforming the rough and shapeless stone into a form of life, grace and beauty fit to adorn the palace of a king.
So it is with us. Our characters are like unhewn blocks of marble, rude, misshapen, comparatively worthless. And God is sculpturing them into forms of divine symmetry and beauty, that may forever illustrate to the universe the power of his grace. The heavy block of adversity and the rasping cares and petty annoyances of our daily life are but different parts of the same divine and loving process.
And shall we look simply at the hammer and chisel, and doubt the glorifying work for which God is using them? Shall we think only of the chips which the blows of his presence strike from us, and overlook the immortal characters which the great Sculptor is seeking thus to perfect for his celestial temple?
Hamilton, Mo., Oct. 24, 1870
By James White
Personal.
At the Kansas camp-meeting, we met Bro. G. S. West, of that State, and heard his complaints of bad treatment at the hands of some of our people in the state of Illinois, where he resided some ten or fifteen years since. From his statements, many of which were well sustained by certificates and letters in his possession, we came to the following conclusions:
1. That the unfavorable statement relative to Bro. West, given from Jo Daviess Co., Ill., which appeared in the REVIEW some ten or twelve years since, should not have been published until he had had an impartial trial.
2. The principal witnesses against Bro. West were not reliable men. We now speak from personal acquaintance of them. Their testimony could not then be taken in any important case, especially where they were personally interested.
3. Bro. West should have a hearing before impartial judges in the case, at the time of our next General Conference. Let them, therefore, who have published Bro. West as a man unworthy of confidence, either prepare to sustain the charges at the time of General Conference, or frankly take back the charges as groundless, through the same medium that they employed in publishing him. JAMES WHITE.
Hamilton, Mo., Oct. 24, 1870
Rest in the Lord.
God draws a cloud over each gleaming morn;
Would we ask why?
It is because all noblest things are born
In agony.
Only upon some cross of pain or woe
God’s sun may lie;
Each soul, redeemed from self and sin, must know
It’s Calvary.
Yet we must crave neither for joy or grief;
God chooses best;
He only knows our sick soul’s fit relief,
And gives us rest.
More than our feeble hearts can ever pine
For holiness,
That Father, in his tenderness divine,
Yearneth to bless.
He never sends a joy not meant in love,
Still less a pain;
Our gratitude the sunlight falls to prove;
Our faith, the rain.
In his hands we are safe—we falter on
Through storm and mire;
Above, beside, around us, there is One
Will never tire.
What though we fall, and bruised and wounded lie,
Our lips in dust;
God’s arm shall lift us up to victory;
In him we trust.
For neither life, nor death, nor things below,
Nor things above,
Shall ever sever us that we should go
From this great love.
The Aged Serving God.
By Matthew Henry
MAY the old servants of God be dismissed from waiting on him? No; their attendance is still required, and shall be still accepted; they shall not be cast off by their Master in time of old age. Therefore, let not them desert his service. When, through the infirmities of age, they can no longer be working servants in God's family, yet they may be waiting servants. Those that, like Barzillai, are unfit for the entertainments of the courts of earthly princes, may yet relish the pleasures of God's courts as much as ever.
The Levites, when they were past the age of fifty, and were discharged from the toilsome part of their ministrations, yet still must wait on God, must be quietly waiting to give honor to him, and to receive comfort from him. Those that have done the will of God, and their well-doing is at an end, have need of patience to enable them to wait till they inherit the promise; and the nearer the happiness is which they are waiting for, the dearer should the God be they are waiting on, and hope shortly to be with eternally.—Matthew Henry.
PROMPTNESS IN DUTIES.—
There is always a joy in duties performed, and promptness in the execution heightens that joy. To wait and look on a business we ought to do at once, enervates and disheartens; to arise and do it immediately, strengthens and enlarges the heart. Delay begets hesitancy and timidity; direct performance brings zeal and courage. They that wait upon the Lord renew their strength; but they that postpone till to-morrow, present duties, are weaker for them to-morrow than to-day. Promptness in duties, then, gives greater strength for new duties. Enduring hardness as a good soldier in one campaign, qualifies the Christian for more manly feats in the next. We grow on food and exercise morally the same as we do physically. Christian fortitude helps develop that noble, full stature of character and life which the gospel enjoins—gives grace to discipleship, and energy and efficiency to the churches.—Morning Star.
Correction of Address for Bro. McCoy
By J. H. W.
To Bro. McCoy, Iowa: The address omitted is Woodburn, Ill. J. H. W.