Review and Herald, Vol. 19, No. 26. (5/27/1862)

Review and Herald

May 27, 1862

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 27, 1862

HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.

By John Nevins Andrews

(Concluded.)

THE SABBATH AND FIRST-DAY SINCE THE REFORMATION.

In 1607 an English first-day writer, John Sprint, gives the views of the Sabbath-keepers of that time, which, in truth, have been substantially the same in all ages:

"They allege reasons drawn, 1. From the precedence of the Sabbath before the law, and before the fall; the laws of which nature are immutable. 2. From the perpetuity of the moral law. 3. And from the large extent thereof appertaining to the Sabbath. 4. And of the cause of this precept which maketh it perpetual, which is the memorial and meditation of the works of God; which belong unto the Christians as well as unto the Jews."

John Thraske began to speak and write in favor of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord about the time that the "Book of Sports" for Sunday was published under the direction of the archbishop of Canterbury, and king James I, in 1618. He took high ground as to the sufficiency of the Scriptures to direct in all religious services, and the duty of the State to refrain from imposing anything contrary to the word of God. For this he was brought before the Star Chamber where a long discussion was held respecting the Sabbath. It was on this occasion that bishop Andrews first brought forward that now famous first-day argument, that the martyrs were first tested by the question, "Hast thou kept the Lord's day?"

Mr. Utter states the result of this examination as follows:

"Thraske was not turned from his opinion, and was censured in the Star Chamber. Paggitt's Heresiography says that he 'was sentenced, on account of his being a Sabbatarian, to be set upon the pillory at Westminster, and from thence to be whipt to the Fleet prison, there to remain a prisoner for three years. Mrs. Thraske, his wife, lay in Maiden Lane, and the Gatehouse prisons, fifteen years, where she died, for the same crime.'"

Mr. Utter continues this narrative as follows:

"Theophilus Brabourne, a learned minister of the gospel in the established church, wrote a book, which was printed in London in 1628, wherein he argued 'that the Lord's day is not the Sabbath-day by divine institution,' but 'that the seventh-day Sabbath is now in force.' Mr. Brabourne published another book in 1632, entitled, A Defense of that most ancient and sacred ordinance of God's, the Sabbath-day."

Of Brabourne's books a contemporary first-day writer, John Ley, thus speaks:

"If his books were as commonly read as they are cunningly penned to this purpose, many more might be taken in that snare at unawares, unless they were more soundly answered than yet they have been."

As Brabourne appealed to the king to use his authority for the restoration of the ancient Sabbath, his appeal gave occasion for the king to appoint Dr. White, the bishop of Ely, to the task of answering Brabourne's book. It also gave occasion, in part, to the preparation of Dr. Heylyn's Sabbath history; which shows that these works, which have been so often quoted in this, were not written in the interest of the Bible Sabbath. Brabourne was brought to trial before the archbishop of Canterbury, and the court of High Commission; and here the fear of man induced him to consent to the established church, though still partially adhering to his former views. As he is the only person known to the writer as having appealed to the civil power for the establishment of the Sabbath of the Lord, so is he also the only Sabbatarian known by him to have recanted when brought to trial. Other advocates of the Sabbath, however, arose:

"About this time Phillip Tandy began to promulgate in the north of England the same doctrine concerning the Sabbath. He was educated in the established church, of which he became a minister. Having changed his views respecting the mode of baptism and the day of the Sabbath, he abandoned that church, and 'became a mark for many shots.' He held several public disputes about his peculiar sentiments, and did much to propagate them. James Ockford was another early advocate in England of the claims of the seventh day as the Sabbath. He appears to have been well acquainted with the discussions in which Thraske and Brabourne had been engaged. Being dissatisfied with the pretended conviction of Brabourne, he wrote a book in defense of Sabbatarian views, entitled, 'The Doctrine of the Fourth Commandment.' This book, published in the year 1642, was burnt by order of the authorities in the established church."

Mr. Francis Bampfield was a presbyter of the church of England. Crosby says of him:

"But being utterly unsatisfied in his conscience with the conditions of conformity, he took leave of his sorrowful and weeping congregation in 1662, and was quickly after imprisoned for worshiping God in his own family. So soon was his unshaken loyalty to the king forgotten, that he was more frequently imprisoned and exposed to greater hardships for his nonconformity, than most other dissenters."

Of his imprisonment Neal says:

"After the act of uniformity, he continued preaching, as he had opportunity, in private, till he was imprisoned for five days and nights, with twenty-five of his hearers, in one room, where they spent their time in religious exercises, but after some time he was released. Soon after, he was apprehended again, and lay nine years in Dorchester jail, though he was of unshaken loyalty to the king."

During his confinement "he preached," says Crosby, "sometimes every day, and gathered a church under his confinement. And when he was at liberty he ceased not to preach in the name of Jesus." After his release he went to London and preached with much success, where, being again apprehended, he was shut up in Newgate prison for life, where he died Feb. 16, 1683-4. "Bampfield," says Wood, "dying in the said prison of Newgate, . . . . . aged seventy years, his body was followed with a very great company of factious and schismatical people to his grave." This company was made up of the congregation gathered by him in London previous to his last imprisonment. Crosby says of him:

"All that knew him will acknowledge that he was a man of great piety. And he would in all probability have preserved the same character, with respect to his learning and judgment, had it not been for his opinion in two points, viz., that infants ought not to be baptized and that the Jewish Sabbath ought still to be kept."

Mr. Bampfield published a small work in behalf of the Sabbath, in which he says:

"The law of the seventh-day Sabbath was given before the law was proclaimed at Sinai, even from the creation, given to Adam, and in him to all the world. Ex. xvi, 24; Gen. ii, 3. . . . . The Lord Christ's obedience unto the fourth word in observing in his lifetime the seventh day as a weekly Sabbath-day, and no other day of the week as such, is a part of that perfect righteousness which every sound believer doth apply to himself in order to his being justified in the sight of God; and every such person is to conform unto Christ in all the acts of his obedience unto the ten words."

His brother, Mr. Thomas Bampfield, who had been

speaker in one of Cromwell's parliaments, wrote also in behalf of seventh-day observance, and was imprisoned for his religious principles in Rochester jail. About the time of Mr. Bampfield's first imprisonment, severe persecution arose against the Sabbath-keepers in London. Crosby thus bears testimony:

"It was about this time, A. D. 1661, that a congregation of Baptists holding the seventh day as a Sabbath, being assembled at their meeting-house in Bullsteak alley, the doors being open, about 5 o'clock p. m., whilst Mr. John James was preaching, one Justice Chard, with Mr. Wood, a headborough, came into the meeting-place. Wood commanded him in the king's name to be silent and come down, having spoken treason against the king. But Mr. James, taking little or no notice thereof, proceeded in his work. The headborough came nearer to him in the middle of the meeting-place, and commanded him again in the king's name to come down or else he would pull him down; whereupon the disturbance grew so great he could not proceed."

Mr. Utter continues this narrative as follows:

"Mr. James was examined and committed to Newgate on the testimony of several profligate witnesses, who accused him of speaking treasonable words against the king. His trial took place about a month afterward, at which he conducted himself in such a manner as to create much sympathy. He was, however, sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. This awful sentence did not dismay him in the least. He calmly said, 'Blessed be God whom man condemneth, God justifieth.' While he lay in prison, under sentence of death, many persons of distinction visited him, who were greatly affected by his piety and resignation, and offered to exert themselves to secure his pardon. But he seems to have had little hope of their success. Mrs. James, by advice of her friends, twice presented petitions to the king, setting forth the innocence of her husband, the character of the witnesses against him, and entreating his majesty to grant a pardon. In both instances she was repulsed with scoffs and ridicule. At the scaffold, on the day of his execution, Mr. James addressed the assembly in a very noble and affecting manner. Having finished his address, and kneeling down he thanked God for covenant mercies, and for conscious innocence; he prayed for the witnesses against him, for the executioner, for the people of God, for the removal of divisions, for the coming of Christ, for the spectators, and for himself, that he might enjoy a sense of God's favor and presence, and an entrance into glory. When he had ended, the executioner said, 'The Lord receive your soul;' to which Mr. James replied, 'I thank thee.' A friend observing in him, 'This is a happy day,' he answered, 'I bless God it is.' Then having thanked the sheriff for his courtesy, he said, 'Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.' . . . After he was dead his heart was taken out and burned, his quarters were affixed to the gates of the city, and his head was set up in Whitechapel on a pole opposite to the alley on which his meeting-house stood."

The famous Stennett family furnished, for four generations, a succession of able Sabbatarian ministers. Mr. Edward Stennett, the first of these, was born about the beginning of the seventeenth century, and after Mr. Bampfield's imprisonment and death, became the pastor of that church which he had gathered in London. Mr. Joseph Stennett is said to be the author of that choice hymn,

"Jesus, I my cross have taken."

Many other able men arose among the Sabbath-keepers in that century, and others have since arisen down to the present time. The laws of England during that century were very oppressive to all Dissenters from the established church, and bore exceedingly hard upon the Sabbath-keepers. Yet fine, imprisonment, and even capital punishment, would not have proved sufficient to suppress the Sabbath. It was in the house of its own friends that the Sabbath was wounded. In the seventeenth century eleven churches of Sabbatarians flourished in England, while many scattered Sabbath-keepers were to be found in various parts of that kingdom. Now but three of those churches are in existence. It was not the lack of able men among the Sabbath-keepers to defend the truth, nor the fierce assaults of their persecutors, that has reduced them to a handful. The fault is their own, not indeed for any disgraceful conduct on their part, but simply because they made the Sabbath of no practical importance, and lowered the standard of divine truth in this thing to the dust. The Sabbath-keeping ministers assumed the pastoral care of first-day churches, in some cases as their sole charge, in others they did this in connection with the oversight of Sabbatarian churches. The result need surprise no one; as both ministers and people said to all men, in thus acting, that the fourth commandment might be broken with impunity, the people took them at their word. Mr. Crosby, a first-day historian, sets this matter in a clear light:

"If the seventh day ought to be observed as the Christian Sabbath, then all congregations that observe the first day as such must be Sabbath-breakers. . . . I must leave those gentlemen on the contrary side to their own sentiments; and to vindicate the practice of becoming pastors to a people whom in their conscience they must believe to be breakers of the Sabbath."

Doubtless there have been noble exceptions to this course; but the body of English Sabbatarians for many years have failed to faithfully discharge the high trust committed to them.

The first Sabbatarian church in America was established at Newport, R. I. Forty-four years after the landing of the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth, the first Sabbath-keeper arrived at Newport from London, where he had in all probability been a member of the church of John James, who was martyred there three years before. Mr. Isaac Backus makes the following record:

"Stephen Mumford came over from London in 1664, and brought the opinion with him that the whole of the ten commandments, as they were delivered from mount Sinai, were moral and immutable; and that it was the anti-Christian power which thought to change times and laws, that changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Several members of the first church in Newport embraced this sentiment, and yet continued with the church for some years, until two men and their wives who had so done, turned back to the keeping of the first day again."

Mr. Utter says that in December, 1671,

"Stephen Mumford, William Hiscox, Samuel Hubbard, Roger Baxter, and three sisters, entered into church covenant together, thus forming the first Seventh-day Baptist church in America."

From that time to the present the Seventh-day Baptists have maintained their position before the world as the observers of the ancient Sabbath of the Bible, and have gradually extended their churches through a considerable portion of the American Union. Among them have arisen men of eminent talent and piety, who have defended the Sabbath in a variety of publications. Among these, one name—J. W. Morton—is particularly worthy of honorable mention. He was sent in 1847 a missionary to the island of Hayti by the Reformed Presbyterians. Here he came in contact with Sabbatarian publications, and after a serious examination became satisfied that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. As an honest man, what he saw to be truth he immediately obeyed, and returning home to be tried for his heresy, was ignominiously expelled from the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He has given to the world a valuable work, entitled, "Vindication of the True Sabbath," in which his experience is related.—The organ of the Seventh-day Baptists is the Recorder, published in Westerly, R. I.

The attention of Adventists was called to the Sabbath question by an essay on the subject from T. M. Preble, dated Feb. 13, 1845. After showing the claims of the Bible Sabbath, and the fact that it was changed to Sunday by the great apostasy, he remarks:

"Thus we see Dan. vii, 25, fulfilled, the little horn changing 'times and laws.' Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the Sabbath, are pope's Sunday-keepers, and God's Sabbath-breakers."

Elder Preble was led to embrace the Sabbath from an acquaintance with Sabbath-keepers in N. H., and he faithfully adhered to it for a season, but afterward adopted the view that there is no sacred time in the gospel dispensation. Mr. P. had however called the attention of other advent believers to this subject; and their interest in this divine institution was not transient as his had proved. Our venerable brother, Joseph Bates, immediately began to preach the Sabbath of the Lord, and also to publish tracts setting forth its claims. His labors have been untiring, and with the blessing of God he has been the means of bringing many to the knowledge and observance of the holy Sabbath. About the same time our esteemed and efficient brother, Elder James White, began to preach the Sabbath, and some three years after began to publish in its behalf. Beginning without resources, and with few friends, with toil, self-sacrifice, and anxious care, he has, with the blessing of God upon his efforts, been the means of establishing an efficient office of publication, now located at Battle Creek, Michigan, and of bringing many to the sacred observance of the Sabbath.

The Seventh-day Adventists believe that the proclamation of the ten commandments and of the prophecies relative to the last days, constitutes the Third Angel's Message of the book of Revelation. It has pleased God thus far to signally bless the preaching of these great truths, and at the present time a goodly number may be found observing the Sabbath of the Lord, and waiting for the advent of his Son from heaven.

The future is given to us in the prophetic Scriptures. From them we learn that our earth is reserved unto fire, and that from its ashes shall spring new heavens and earth, and ages of endless date. Over this glorified inheritance, the second Adam, the Lord of the Sabbath, shall bear rule, and under his precious protection the nations of them which are saved shall inherit the land forever. 2 Pet. iii; Isa. lxv; Rev. xxi; xxii. When the glory of the Lord shall thus fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, the Sabbath of the Most High is again and for the last time brought to view:

"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isa. lvi, 22, 23.

On this scripture Dr. Peter Akers has this important comment:

"The word rendered 'new moon' in this passage, both in the Hebrew, and the Greek of the Seventy, signifies month only, without respect to any particular day. By rendering it new moon, our translaters have assumed, without authority, that it means the first day of the month."

The reason for this monthly gathering to the New Jerusalem of all the host of the redeemed from every part of the new earth may be found in the language of the Apocalypse:

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing [literally, the service,] of the nations."—Rev. xxii, 1, 2.

The gathering of the nations that are saved to the presence of the Creator, from the whole face of the new earth on each successive Sabbath, attests the sacredness of the Sabbath even in that holy state, and sets the seal of the Most High to the perpetuity of that ancient institution.

THE BEAUTIFUL LAND.

I.

A beautiful land by faith I see: A land of rest—from sorrow free, Where the saints in glory, free from strife, Have at last obtained ETERNAL LIFE.

Chorus. Will you go to that beautiful land?

II.

That country is called the kingdom of God; 'Tis the "Eden of Love" on the earth restored; And Jesus the King, who came from above, By faith I see in that world of love. CHo.—Will you go, etc.

III.

By faith there I see a city of light— A city that knows no shades of night: For the GLORY of God, e'er shining o'er, Illumes the land from shore to shore. CHo.—Will you go, etc.

IV.

By faith I see the throne of thrones, And the city walls of precious stones,— The living fount—the streets of gold,— The gates of pearl I too behold. CHo.—Will you go, etc.

V.

The river of LIFE I there do see, And the golden fruit on LIFE's fair TREE,— While saints redeemed in glory stand, And shout for joy in that heavenly land. CHo.—Will you go, etc.

VI.

The ransomed throng arrayed in white, In rapture range the fields of light; And while Redemption's song they sing, The heaven's broad arches loudly ring. CHo.—Will you go, etc.

VII.

By faith I'm there—in that heavenly home, With the glorified saints forever to roam. O, the home of the ransomed! bright and fair, The Kingdom forever! I long to be there! CHo.—I will go to that beautiful land, I will go to that beautiful land, I will go to that beautiful land. World's Crisis.

THE FUTURE.

By Ellen G. White

At the transfiguration Jesus was glorified by his Father. We hear him say, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Thus before his betrayal and crucifixion he was strengthened for his last dreadful sufferings.

As the members of the body of Christ approach the period of their last conflict, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will grow up into Christ, and will partake largely of his Spirit. As the third message swells to a loud cry, and as great power and glory attends the closing work, the faithful people of God will partake of that glory. It is the latter rain which revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble. Their faces will shine with the glory of that light which attends the third angel.

I saw that God would in a wonderful manner preserve his people through the time of trouble. As Jesus poured out his soul in agony in the garden, they will earnestly cry and agonize with him day and night for deliverance. The decree will go forth that they must disregard the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and honor the first day, or lose their lives; but they will not yield, and trample under their feet the Sabbath of the Lord, and honor an institution of Papacy. Satan's host, and wicked men, will surround them and

exult over them, because there will seem to be no way of escape for them. But in the midst of their revelry and triumph, there is peal upon peal of the loudest thunder. The heavens have gathered blackness, and are only illuminated by the blazing light and terrible glory from heaven, as God utters his voice from his holy habitation.

The foundations of the earth shake, buildings totter and fall with a terrible crash. The sea boils like a pot, and the whole earth is in terrible commotion. The captivity of the righteous is turned, and with sweet and solemn whisperings they say to each other, "We are delivered. It is the voice of God." With solemn awe they listen to the words of the voice. The wicked hear, but understand not the words of the voice of God. They fear and tremble, while the saints rejoice. Satan and his angels, and wicked men, who had been exulting that the people of God were in their power, that they might destroy them from off the earth, witness the glory conferred upon those who have honored the holy law of God. They behold the faces of the righteous lighted up, and reflecting the image of Jesus. Those who were so eager to destroy the saints could not endure the glory resting upon the delivered ones, and they fell like dead men to the earth. Satan and evil angels fled from the presence of the saints glorified. Their power to annoy them was gone forever.

ELLEN G. WHITE.

THE USES OF SORROW.

By James White

It is a distinctive feature of the Christian religion that sorrows and misfortunes are not the thunderbolts of an angry God, but are the paternal corrections of a Father chastening his children. The Greeks, it is true, understood the beneficent effects of affliction in shaping and developing character, and their proverb, pathemata mathemata, finds a perfect translation in that beautiful verse of Mrs. Browning, "knowledge by suffering entereth;" but they always ascribed the cause of calamity to the direful wrath of Zeus.

The old Jewish theology seems to have been vitalized by the same spirit. Length of days, respect and honor, wealth and wisdom, are promised to the righteous, while sudden death and every worldly woe are threatened against the ungodly. Thus, with Jew, and Greek, earthly good is made the touchstone of divine approbation. It was left for a new and nobler dispensation to teach mankind that their "light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "Prosperity," says Lord Bacon, "is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favor."

Sorrow and suffering are, by all the teachings of the Gospel, divine in their origin, holy in their ministry, beneficent in their results. We need their purifying influence to make us one with Christ. They transfigure life, reconcile us to duty, and encircle the grave with a halo of light through which we enter heaven. They are the divine agents that cause the soul to slough off earthly affections; the inception of that mysterious process by which mortality shall put on immortality.

Suffering humanizes us. In that beautiful German story, "Undine," a wild, weird, soulless water-sprite is transformed into a sweet, gentle child of earth, endowed with all the mysteries of life and death, and immortality, by the simple power of Love. Mr. Hawthorne has followed out the same idea in his "Marble Faun," where the gay and rollicksume Donatello, a creature who in some way seems to have been preserved from "our Adam's taint and woe," possessed of a paradisial innocence and simplicity, is by a great crime made kin to mankind and heir to the fearful responsibilities and destinies of our fallen race. But neither love nor crime so bring us into fellowship with our kind as suffering.

By nature man is selfish and unsympathizing. His first impulse is to care for self alone, and it is not till his mind and heart have been influenced by interest or grace that he yields his personal claims. In order to sympathize fully with another, you must have had similar experiences yourself. You might as well expect a picture of a gorgeous summer sunset from a blind man, or Beethoven's symphonies from a mute, as true sympathy in affliction from one who never knew a grief.

Suffering christianizes us. Often, before this rich experience is vouchsafed unto us, Christ is a root out of dry ground, without form or comeliness; the Bible, a mere collection of old tales; heaven and hell, words of very doubtful significance; while this great present world fills our vision and receives all our attention.

How changed is all this by a simple touch of God's finger! Christ then becomes the chiefest among ten thousand, clothed with every beauty and grace; the Word of God is made the lamp to our feet; the future life alone is real, and the present a vapor, a dream, a tale that is told.

A few years ago two friends were visiting Niagara Falls. While there, one went out on that frail narrow bridge that connects Goat Island with the tower rock, where the torrent precipitates itself into the fearful abyss at your feet. There he stood on the edge of life, gazing spell-bound into the jaws of death ready to receive him. Deafened by the incessant roar, half blinded by the spray, fragments of rainbows flashing out of the mist like spirit-hands beckoning him to leap into the flood, his brain began to whirl, sense grew dim, and his body slowly waved to and fro over the yawning gulf.

His friend from the shore saw his peril. He shouted to him in vain; his voice was swallowed up in the din and rush of that tremendous cataract. He sprang upon the bridge, and reaching the end of the platform, seized his friend by the arm, and the dazed man was saved.

I see a human soul standing unconsciously on the brink of ruin. Around him are the rushing torrents of life. He has still a foothold on the rock of early religious teachings, or perhaps a pious mother's prayers, but his spiritual senses are deadened by the ceaseless roar of the world. He is warned of his danger; friends entreat him, God calls to him; but the still small voice is not heard in the tumult, when suddenly, for the soul's safety, God comes and touches him—it may be, in the tenderest point—but who shall say that it is other than in love?

Suffering sanctifies us. It is that spiritual culture by which Christ makes a branch, already fruitful bring forth more fruit; a process whereby we are made holy unto the Lord. And oh, poor crushed child of affliction, while in the Gethsemane of sorrow you ask, "Why this cup?" and no answer comes, remember that what you know not now you shall know hereafter. You will then find, as you look back on your sad pilgrimage, that those places which seemed like the valleys of the shadow of death, in the glorious light of retrospect are the very mountain-tops of God's providence, where you were nearer heaven than at any other period of your journey; yea, where the shadows of the Almighty fell the darkest on you, according to the Psalmist you were dwelling in the secret places of the Most High.

Suffering shall glorify us. "And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."—W. W.

OUR TEETH.

THEY decay. Hence, unseemly mouths, bad breath, imperfect mastication. Everybody regrets it. What is the cause? I reply, want of cleanliness. A clean tooth never decays. The mouth is a warm place—98 degrees. Particles of meat between the teeth soon decompose. Gums and teeth must suffer.

Perfect cleanliness will preserve the teeth to old age. How shall it be secured? Use a quill pick, and rinse the mouth after eating. Brush and Castile soap every morning; the brush with simple water on going to bed. Bestow this trifling care upon your precious teeth, you will keep them and ruin dentists. Neglect it, and you will be sorry all your lives. Children forget. Watch them. The first teeth determine the character of the second set. Give them equal care.

Sugar, acids, saleratus, and hot things are nothing when compared with food decomposing between the teeth. Mercurialization may loosen the teeth, long use may wear them out, but keep them clean and they will never decay. This advice is worth more than thousands of dollars to every boy and girl.

Books have been written on this subject. This brief article contains all that is essential.—Sel.

DISCIPLINE IN CHILDHOOD.

By Lord Jeffrey

Young people who have been habitually gratified in all their desires, will not only more indulge in capricious desires, but will infallibly take it more amiss when the feelings or happiness of others require that they should be thwarted, than those who have been practically trained to the habit of subduing and restraining them, and consequently will in general sacrifice the happiness of others to their own selfish indulgence. To what else is the selfishness of princes and other great people to be attributed? It is in vain to think of cultivating principles of generosity and beneficence by mere exhortation and reasoning. Nothing but the practical habit of overcoming our own selfishness, and of familiarly encountering privations and discomfort on account of others, will ever enable us to do it when required. And therefore I am fully persuaded that indulgence infallibly produces selfishness and hardness of heart, and that nothing but a pretty severe discipline and control can lay the foundation of a magnanimous character.—Lord Jeffrey.

TRUTH.

"WHAT is truth?" What a momentous inquiry! What is true of God, of the Lord Jesus, of the Holy Spirit, of ourselves, of our character, of our duty, of our destiny, of the future state of eternal retribution? Reader, is it true that you are an impenitent sinner? Have you ever asked yourself how long you have been such? Has it been ten, twenty, thirty years or more? "God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Then he commands you to repent, and yet you have not. Have you lived so many years in disobedience to this most reasonable command of your Maker? This command has been upon you, yes, upon you, ever since you committed the first sin. Have you ever seriously thought of the guilt of having been so long saying to God, by your practice, that He was not worth minding? If He is worthy to be obeyed, why have you not obeyed Him? This command lies directly across the path you pursue, you cannot take another step, while impenitent, without trampling the high authority of Jehovah under your feet.

Reader, is this true of you? What a truth! Think of it, and turn your feet into God's testimonies! He calls you to do it. "Repent and turn from all your transgressions, for why will ye die." "God your maker asks you why?" You must repent or perish. Is this true? Is it true of you? It certainly is. For the Lord Jesus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Live not another day, no, not another hour, till you offer to "God the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite heart;" for with such a sacrifice he is well pleased.—Am. Missionary.

A Sure Paymaster

A SURE PAYMASTER.—That terrible saying of Anne of Austria to Richelieu holds true for mercy as well as for judgment: 'My lord cardinal, God does not pay at the end of every week, but at the last he pays.' God may put his faithful ones upon a long and faithful apprenticeship, during which they learn much and receive little—food only, and "that in a measure"—often the bread and water of affliction. Yet at the last he pays, pays them into their hearts, pays them into their hands also. We may remember long seasons of faint yet honest endeavor; the prayers of a soul yet without strength; the sacrifices of an imperfectly subdued will, bound even with cords to the altar; we may remember such times or we may soon forget them, but their result is with us. Some of the good seed sown in tears is now shedding a heavenly fragrance within our lives, and some of it will blossom, perhaps bear fruit, over our graves.—The Patience of Hope.

CENTRAL ASSOCIATION.

By James Summerbell

The anniversary season will soon be with us. May is flying and June makes haste. Are you going to attend the Association this spring? Now is the time to decide and get ready; and when the time comes, go. It meets in Adams, Jefferson Co., N. Y., and already the question is passing around: Are you going to attend? Of course, the brethren and sisters in Adams want to see you there, and the brethren and sisters from the "churches scattered abroad," who expect to be there, all want to see you; and you will want to see them. Now the question is, Are you going?

But there are other considerations. Associations meet but once a year, and the year will soon be gone. The world is before us. It is Christ's vineyard. He has said, "Go ye in and work; whatsoever is right I will give you." We have heard the command, and we believe the premise. It is a great work; but many hands make great tasks easy, and love makes all burdens light. It is not my work nor your work, but ours. "We are workers together with him." This is the basis and authority of association. We work; we work together; we work together with Him. Here are the first, second, and third degrees. Let us take them all, and the work shall "go forward," for God and men are in it. I hope you are going.

"The falling away" has come. Alas, that it should be so. What glorious gatherings we need to have! "O, for the days of old!" Those were good times, when the brethren at one meeting of the Association began to get ready for the next. When the whole year was a year of casting ahead, and making ready. When every morning prayer was rising incense to God, bearing fervent desire for his blessing on the work of the last Association, and guidance on the next. Then no business was so important as God's business. No work so important as that. Then, too, were the meetings a perfect jubilee of concord and delight. God was pleased to see the faithfulness and harmony of his "dear children." The worker came down, and the work of their hands prospered; and they rejoiced in it, and in the sight of their eyes, for it was the Lord's doings.

But "the falling away" has come. We have fallen a prey to the world, and must work for it. Now we take turns in going to the Association. Many say, "I went last year, let somebody else go this." Excuses, like opposing foes, rise up out of the ground. Men meet the Association after much contriving for avoidance. They propose to send, as the reluctant boy went to school; one step forward, and two backward. They send their ministers, and forget to pay their expenses; they get substitutes, proxies, and all sorts of things, but the spirit of generous and Christ-like liberality—this dries up. Meeting thus, they meet not God as in former times; they meet not to rejoice, for they have nothing to rejoice over. The valley is there, but it is not the beautiful, blooming vale of Eden; it is only a valley of death, and its fragrance is of dead men's bones. Now these bones may live, and our valley may be changed to blooming hope. Let us fill it with live men, having living purposes. Let us bring into it a living Christ, and living fountains of prayer. Let us not fear to open the channels of our benevolence, and he who is the "Way, and the Truth, and the Life," will meet with us, and breathe upon us.

The Association has work to do; work much neglected. It is God's work, and when his work is revived, then are his people glad. But God works by means, by his people, and through them. When the Association meets, will you meet with it? Let us work and sacrifice as in days of old, and God will bless us as of old he blessed. If you want soul-stirring speeches when you come, come with the resolves ready formed to do, and eloquence will flow as do the unceasing waters, and drop as the dews. Let the mouth speak "out of the fullness of the heart." Let it speak out of the fullness of the purse also; then shall the speaker's tones be as those of a silver trumpet for sweetness.

All that is needed to give interest to our Association's gatherings, is the spirit of Christ there. "He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might become rich." Let us feel toward the unconverted world, as Christ felt toward us, and we will make haste to give them treasures of life, and be glad that it costs us something. Now, if you would have good speakers at the Association, send them along, and come yourselves. Let them know that your pockets shall back them up, and your hearty good wishes shall support them. Let them know that they are not sent away to represent a selfish, worldly, shirking constituency, and they will speak with a confidence which lends wings to thought. Brethren, will you come? JAMES SUMMERBELL.

Continue reading: THE "REST" OF HEB. IV