Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 1, 1860
THE FAITH OF JESUS.
By John M. Mosher
TO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW: In your editorial remarks in reply to my inquiries on the faith of Jesus &c. in the Review of Feb 2nd you have misrepresented us (the Seventh-day Baptists) as a denomination. And therefore I referred the article to one who is more acquainted with the views of our denomination who has kindly consented to reply to said remarks and lay before you a fuller view of our people as a denomination.
Yours in love of truth. JOHN M. MOSHER.
N. Y. City.
REPLY
IN conformity with the request of Bro Mosher I would offer a few remarks for the consideration of the editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald upon his reply to Bro. M. in the Review and Herald of Feb. 2nd upon the sentiments of the Seventh-day Baptists. The article in question appears to be written in the Spirit of kindness and I make no complaint on this account.
In pointing out some of the particulars wherein the Seventh-day Baptist denomination fail in coming up to the standard in matters of belief to the faith of Jesus, in his remarks upon the several points noticed, he assumes that as a matter of certainty his views of doctrine and construction of the Scriptures are right, and of course that those who differ from his standard are wrong, and in those particulars have not the faith of Jesus. This is logically right. It is this way that we reason upon the same points. We believe that we understand the Scriptures correctly upon those points in which we differ, and consequently that we are right and our brethren who differ from us are wrong.
As to the doctrine of our Lord's second personal advent, I am not aware that we differ from our brother. It is acknowledged in our denominational expose, and I know of no church among us which has questioned its truth. And we also believe in the literal resurrection of the dead and final judgment of the quick and the dead, of the just and of the unjust when every one shall be judged and receive at the hands of our Judge according as our works shall have been. But I believe that we as a denomination differ from his view of an intermediate state between death and the resurrection. He says, "The only hope Christ ever held out to his disciples of being with him was through the medium of his personal return." Our people generally think otherwise because in their opinion the Scriptures justify a different opinion. Jesus represented the rich man after his death and prior to the resurrection as being in torment, and Lazarus being comforted, thus each having a foretaste of their final reward. Whether we consider this narrative of our Lord in the light of history or as a parable, the sentiment of intermediate suffering and comfort is sustained.
The promise of Jesus to the dying penitent is to the same purpose. "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This is certainly a promise of being with Christ not through the medium of his personal coming. Jesus also said, Rev. xiv, 13, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." To be blessed is to be happy, and from henceforth signifies from this time forward, that is, from the time of their death. This implies that they exist, are conscious and capable of happiness. St. Paul said, Phil. i, 23; "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." He was comforted with this hope, and it implies existence and a capacity for enjoyment this side of the personal coming of Christ; for in the following verse he contrasts this being with Christ with abiding in the flesh. From these and other portions of the Scriptures the Seventh-day Baptists consider this as one item of the faith of Jesus, and that those who have adopted an opposite have so far departed from the faith once delivered to the saints.
The Seventh-day Baptists hold to the doctrine of the eternal judgment at the second coming of Christ, when he will cast the wicked into hell with all that forget God, adjudged to everlasting punishment, and he will then reward his disciples with everlasting life in his heavenly kingdom.
From the above it may be seen that the Seventh-day Baptists do not sympathize with such as hold that death is the coming of Christ, or the day of judgment, or that man at his death goes to his final reward.
The Seventh-day Baptists believe in the coming of Christ personally, but I am not aware that they have at any time fixed upon the time of his coming. They do not agree in remembering when the literal sun has been darkened, or the moon withheld her light, or that the stars have literally fallen from heaven. Neither do they concur with their second advent brethren in holding that their concurrence with them in their eccentric view of these signs is an item of the faith of Jesus.
I think that the Seventh-day Baptists have never ignored the promise of Christ or its fulfillment, in bestowing the gifts of the Spirit upon the church and I think these gifts are possessed and enjoyed by this people as far as may be justly claimed by any other branch of the church of Christ.
Once more and I will have done. In the article under review the washing of feet is referred to. It says, "There is also an ordinance which our Lord instituted for his church as brought to view in the xiiith of John, 1-17, which is now generally neglected."
The Seventh-day Baptists have never recognised this act of our Lord as instituting an ordinance for the church the practice of which is essential to church fellowship. It is looked upon more as an act of hospitality than as a standing ordinance in the church. Churches in the denomination have at different times and in different localities had appointments for such as felt it a duty to engage in washing each other's feet. How far the members have performed this rite, or how often, the writer is unable to say. The subject is left for every one to be fully persuaded in his own mind and to act accordingly. *
THE PERILS OF THE LAST DAYS
By E. B. Saunders
Do not consist altogether of persecution and trouble to the saints, but in the danger of being led away from the truth and being turned unto fables. The great apostle to the Gentiles in describing the perils of the last days, speaks of men "having a form of godliness." It is this form of godliness that entraps the unwary; and how often we hear the remark, "I would like to know which are right." "How can we tell who has the truth?" &c.114
Satan has succeeded in dividing the professed followers of Jesus into a multitude of factions, and then has arrayed these factions against each other till a complete babel of confusion exists. No wonder that some are blinded and confused amid all this uproar, and walk like blind men seeking to be led, till Satan's own professed ministers of light lead them whither they know not.
One of the great perils of these days is the danger of being led away from the true light by the false ones of Satan. He places so many false beacons on the rocky coast that only a close prayerful study of the pilot-book, the Bible, will enable those who are homeward bound to discern the genuine among the false. But the careless mariner who continues to allow his ship to drift with the waves of popular opinion, will awake only to die hungry and thirsty for the word of the Lord, while the siren song of evil angels will be changed to derisive taunts and cruel mockings.
It is a notable fact that the most of those who have only a form of godliness also "deny the power thereof." The gifts of the Holy Spirit, those present blessings which the church was to enjoy till made perfect are almost universally denied. If we speak to such professors of the gift of tongues, of prophecy, or healing, we are told that such things used to be, but now we have no longer need of them; that since men have by the aid of the printing press, translated the Bible into so many languages, the gift of tongues has been abolished. This pitiful reasoning is no better than that which denies the gift of healing because physicians are numerous; or of prophecy because we have the Bible.
Another device of Satan is to inspire many with a feeling of sanctification.
One writer in Canada in 1857 says, "We should speak at a low computation, should we express it as our belief that we had seen one thousand souls sanctified, and from fifteen hundred to two thousand souls justified during the past summer and autumn." Guide to Holiness, vol. xxxiii, page 39. This was during the great revival in 1857-58.
When a person becomes thus in his own estimation, sanctified, he is clad in a truth-proof armor, and is able to quench the truth when hurled at him by saying "The Lord would not bless me so if I was in error." Thus we see them go on in error, deceived, ignorant of God's law, of the ministration of our Lord, our great High Priest in heaven, and of their own condition.
They claim to be sanctified but it is not through the truth. They all with one accord unite with the Man of sin in casting down the truth to the ground, and in taking pleasure in unrighteousness; while over all they throw the cloak of sanctification.
Brethren let us have charity for such and pity their blindness, but let us speak out against their errors. It is right to exercise charity towards individuals but not toward their errors. And while you pity such as are caught in the net of self-deception, do not falter or look back as though the way was too narrow or the hill too steep; neither envy those who are trying to go "through" by railroad, but toil on and soon the Captain of our salvation will come and deliver us out of these perils.
E. B. SAUNDERS.
Eagle Harbor N. Y. Feb. 1860.
A SWEDISH HYMN.
Guardian of pure hearts, and Hearer,
Lord, of every faithful prayer,
In thy courts one day is dearer,
Than a thousand days elsewhere!
Worn with earth's unrest, how sweet
In thy temple fair to meet—
There to sing away each sorrow
That from life and toil we borrow!
With the righteous oft it fareth,
Here, as if his deeds were ill;
Blight fair virtue's flowers impaireth,
Weeds of vice do flourish still;
Joy and fortune haste away,
Friends with friends—how short their stay!
Rachel still her children mourneth,
Still her soul from comfort turneth!
But when here devoutly soareth
High the temple-anthem sweet,
Grief grows calm, no plaint outpoureth—
Hearts with holy rapture beat!
Freed from earthly clogs, the soul
Presses toward a higher goal,
Takes from hope the comfort given,
Speaks even now the tongue of heaven.
O my soul, thy wing ascending
Yet on Salem's mount shall rest—
There where cherub-harps are blending
With the singing of the blest!
Let thy note of praise and prayer
To thy God precede thee there,
While even yet a care-worn mortal,
Still without thy Father's portal!
Days are dawning, days are flying!
Hold thou fast the word of God—
"Lantern to my feet," still crying,
"Light of all my dreary road!"
Joy thou in that holy word
Which of old on earth was heard,
For man's peace and comfort given,
Only guide from earth to heaven.
Let us, Christians, here that wander,
As our fathers in their day,
Piously together ponder,
Gladly sing, and meekly pray.
Be the children's voices raised
To the God their fathers praised.
Let thy bounty, failing never,
Be on us and all for ever.
Bless us, Father, and protect us,
Be our soul's sure hiding-place,
Let thy wisdom still direct us,
Light our darkness with thy grace!
Let thy countenance on us shine,
Fill us all with peace divine,
Praise the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Praise Him, all that life inherit!
Pure Truth
PURE truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation, because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves.
SLAVERY.
By WM. S. FOOTE.
As our country is now agitated from center to circumference relative to the subject of slavery, and as there is a fair prospect that this agitation is to increase and be one of the greatest subjects which is to occupy the minds of our countrymen in and out of our legislative halls, does it not become us to inquire, What have we to do with it? We profess to be waiting, watching, and praying for the coming of our Lord; we believe his coming to be near, even at the doors; and if these things are a part of our religious faith, will not our great adversary try to entrap our feet by over-exciting our minds relative to this and other things which are now so much engaging the attention of those who would regulate the affairs of the "two horned beast."
So far as I have to do with the subject of slavery as an individual member of the body of Christ, I have no right to let it occupy my mind to the exclusion of things of greater import. I have no right to enter into the political field and get into discussion with pro-slavery men. But there are things which I can and ought to do. I should let the "two horned beast" take care of his own business; I should mind my own; I can pray for the oppressed and down trodden; if opportunity offers I can assist them otherwise, but to do anything towards the abolition of slavery, I cannot, for several reasons. One is, that I consider our country hopelessly in the hands of Satan, and that it will continue to be until he who is stronger than the strong man armed shall come and take from him all the armor wherein he trusts, and with him shall divide the spoils. Another reason is, judging from passing events and the present mould of the public mind, I am positive that there will not be time enough to revolutionize public sentiment; consequently the ameliorating of the condition of our slave population is entirely out of our reach. Another reason. The Apocalyptic Babylon is to be destroyed when in the very height of her temporal prosperity and glory. She is then to be dealing in "gold, silver, precious stones," &c., "slaves and souls of men," and consequently human slavery will continue until the advent of our King. Lord hasten the day, for our souls are sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which the earth is filled.
WM. S. FOOTE.
"WISDOM
By J. CLARKE
HATH builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens; she crieth in the highest places of the city, whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith unto him, Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled; forsake the foolish and live, and go in the way of understanding." Prov. ix, 1-6.
There is a sublime beauty in the truth; it is like the architecture of heaven; it is consistent, it is strong, it is lovely. Yes, wisdom hath builded her house, the feast is prepared, and the guests are already being collected; rich and wholesome are the viands she hath prepared for those who love her entertainments.
To the honest, zealous, sincere inquirer for truth, she hath multiplied charms; her proffered gifts do nourish the soul, and strengthen its powers to further advance, even as the genial summer sun and showers do nourish the various herbs and grains; and as the drouth does dry up and impoverish the earth, even so does error dry up the resources of the mind, and leave it in darkness, and doubt, and barrenness.
In order to fully appreciate the beauty and excellence of truth, we must first get a view of the hydra-headed monster, error, who, horrible as she has always been, is still becoming more and more horrible and disgusting as she is continually increasing her deformity by the multiplication of the number and hideousness of her heads, each with distended jaws and protruded fangs; she seems to threaten destruction to all that is pure, all that is good and holy.
Never did the truth appear more beautiful and symmetrical in her outline and proportions, than while listening last evening at Lovett's Grove, (I went to take notes, but disapprove of attending such places except for some sufficient reason), to a new development of error, in the lectures of W. Gay, who professes to be a restorationist, but is in fact like no one I ever heard of in his sentiments. (I think Satan has some designs in the matter). His object seemed to be to prove that all would finally be saved, and so mingled in the Advent ideas with error, that one might suppose some Advent believer had apostatized (yet he stoutly denies it), and had dragged down with him to the bottomless pit of error some of the bright gems of truth, which he so slimed with the snaky fold of error that it was indeed a disgusting, a horrible repast.
Like the fabled monster, who served up the most unclean of reptiles at his table and then forced his guests to eat, so Satan now seems bent on the boldest schemes in the work of poisoning the public mind, and now in the vicinity of Lovett's Grove, almost any bait will take which professes opposition to the third angel's message; but thank God, most of the Sabbath-keepers there remain firm in the faith.
Mr. Gay teaches the doctrine of the final salvation of the wicked, and even the final purification of Satan, makes the arch fiend to play a necessary part in the drama for the present (a sort of fatalism), would be willing he says to talk with Satan (yet professes opposition to Spiritualism), teaches the first and second resurrections, saints' reign on the earth during the one thousand years and the wicked saved after the punishment of fire at the second resurrection, recommends good morals and good works to the wicked in order to lessen or mitigate their future pains, he means to do the best he can, but he does not feel altogether sure he shall have a part in the first resurrection, but is sure that with all (he lays great stress upon the word all), he will be sure of life in the second resurrection; he makes sport of being licensed to preach, says any one has a right to preach, says the Adventists are correct mainly, wants them to take one more step, has been acquainted with the advent movement since 43, has found 534 unconditional promises in the Bible, tried to invalidate the writings of some of our belief, and by scattering isolated passages, attempted to prove the final salvation of all, and inferred positively none can be lost and that it was better so than not to get to heaven at all.
It may seem almost like blasphemy to quote such sentiments, but I write them to show to what heights of folly and depths of error poor man may blindly progress when once he leaves the highway of truth and holiness, and that evening after evening a congregation may be collected to listen to such open and willful perversion of truth. Baptism and the third message are to come up in course for consideration by him as he is trying to start a sect, and who knows but he may (despite his disabilities) gain many followers. "Professing themselves to be wise they became fools." Rom.
J. CLARKE.
RANDOM THOUGHTS.
By A. C. Hudson
“My head is sick, my heart is faint
With every day's report of wrongs
And outrages and human woes.”
OH! there is so much of the world, world, world, in the thoughts of the professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus that it is no wonder the masses are led captive by Satan at his will.
When such men as Pomeroy, Porter and Onderdonk commit such crimes as they have; when such men as “Bethume, Cox, Murry, Adams, and Parker assemble at a fashionable rumselling hotel to feast, crack jokes, toast each other and make great swelling speeches; when the M. E. Church fellowships slavery, so also the American Board, and the American Tract Society refuses to publish anything against it; when in the midst of a revival prayer-meeting there can be nothing said of the poor slave or the near approach of the Saviour, the Christian's hope; when quarreling occurs in an assembly of revival ministers, and the lie is given as has been done by those who are most active in the recent revival in Ireland; when such things are too numerous to be mentioned and are enacted all over the world by the intelligent and the professed Christian, does it look as if the religion of Jesus is sufficient to renovate the world? Does it look as if the millenium is now at the door—just ready to enter as the popular belief of the churches say it is? Where is truth and equity and justice and righteousness, to say nothing of mercy and peace? It115seems as if “the heavens were about to fall because justice is not done.” It seems as if a horrid jargon must ascend into the ears of the Lord, such as provoked his judgments by the flood, the confusion of languages, the destruction of Sodom, of Egypt, the Canaanites, the dispersion of the Israelites, the destruction of Babylon, Nineveh, Persia, Greece, Tyre, Jerusalem, the subversion of the Roman empire and the French Reign of Terror.
Is not the great boast of the age “improvement and advancement” a boast of being rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing, when the fact is we are miserable and poor and blind and naked and in need of all things? Are the common people who presume to pass judgment upon passing events capable of so doing, when the most profound historians declare themselves incapable of so doing? Are they not more incompetent to the task than a private soldier in a slight skirmish in the morning to pronounce the decisions of the day? It is true the Christian may go to the word of inspiration where he learns that the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands eventually fills the whole earth. He knows too that if he does the commands he shall have right to the tree of life and shall enter the city.
But is it not to be done in a different manner from that which Porter and Pomeroy and Onderdonk and the Irish delegation and their coadjutors, to say nothing of those who sincerely inquire “Lord what shall we do that we may work the works of God,” have been accustomed to expect?
It seems to me too from the present prospects that the return of the Jews and the conversion of the world are quite as unlikely to occur as the immediate resurrection of the dead and the return of the Saviour. This we do know if we have ever tried to live Christian lives, that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution; that broad is the road that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be who find it; that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure in a field, the which when it was found was hid, and for joy the finder went and sold all he had and bought the field; and like a goodly pearl which the merchant man bought with all his possessions.
The prevailing sentiment of the churches seems to be that the narrow way has grown and will continue to grow broad till all the world will walk in it. As Dr. Bushnell said in a recent farewell sermon, “That the great problem now for Christianity to solve is not how it shall meet persecution, but how it will amidst refinement and popularity and opulence maintain the simplicity and spirituality of the gospel.”
I ask if Mr. Bushnell thought of the sum of all villainies when he breathed that remark, or if he recollected how the poor are banished from worshiping with the wealthy in palace churches? Did it ever occur to him that the proposed monument to John Wesley resembled the garnishing of the sepulchres of the prophets to which the Saviour referred when he said “Fill ye up the measure of your iniquities?” Thus much I had written and was going to speak of the children of Abraham who are heirs of faith, whose lives are devoted to what some would call a chimera; of those who have devoted their lives to tell of a risen Saviour, and whose money has not been spared, who have foregone friends and friendships that they might better accomplish the work; of the faintness that would come over them when their hope is deferred and they are told that there is no such thing as miracles; that the Bible is only a history containing stories contrary to reason and sound sense, and effete so far as it is to be a guide and compass over life's dark sea; that the pretended miracles can either be accounted for on scientific principles or are perfect hoaxes; that the history of the race is all a fable; that the histories of China and Egypt as ascertained by learned research extend far back of the Mosaic period of the creation; and this assertion said to be corroborated by geological discoveries. And then memory flies back to a statement in the American Baptist that “there is a well in Italy dug through a layer of clay and then of chalk when a surface mold was reached containing grass and trees and implements of husbandry, below which was clay and sand, before water was found,” or some such account; or to another found I believe in the back part of Sanders' Fifth Reader (old series), of the ruins in Central America, of the slow progress of accumulating soil in arid regions at a great height, and of the depth of soil on those towers and of the age of mouldering trees on them. And then these running, rambling thoughts are followed up by being told that Abbot in a lecture delivered recently said that one George R. Giddings an accomplished Egyptian scholar after spending twenty years of research among Egyptian hieroglyphics, asserts the existence of Egypt as a refined and popular kingdom thousands of years before the Abrahamic period; and that geologists affirm the impossibility of a flood ever having occurred in the region of the Euphrates. And then to hear it said that the revelations were communicated by spirits through men that were ahead of their time or age; that Jesus Christ was only a man much ahead of the age in which he lived; and that there are seers in our days as well as of old; and that A. J. Davis is one of their chief ones; and that spirits have been consulted as to the manner of obtaining light from water, and that it is by their aid that the method has at length been discovered; that there is no God but the God of nature, that nature is God and that it is as appropriate to pray to a lily as to the Mosaic God; that a man prays when he comes home weary and chafed from his daily toil and scolds his wife, and that a woman prays when she cries, besides many other such assumptions.—How at all this the head reels and the heart sickens. At such a time how pertinent these lines of Young:
Religion, providence, an after state,
Here is firm footing, here is solid rock.
All else is sea, becalms and then devours.
His hand the good man fastens on the skies,
And bids earth roll nor heeds its idle whirl.
The Christian can fly to the law and to the testimony and say if they speak not according to these words it is because there is no light in them.
How precious is the sixth Psalm. How precious are the ten commandments. How precious is the blood of Jesus. How precious is the transforming influence of his example. The Christian knows it is not a chimera. He knows in whom he has believed, and that he is able to keep that he has committed to his care; and he says, How sweet are thy words! They are sweeter than honey to my taste, infinitely sweeter. How precious is the sum of them. They calm the troubled soul and give the wounded conscience peace.
Friends and Foes.
Do we not need them both? Our enemies see our faults with eagle eyes and great severity; while our friends, through mistaken motives may conceal them, lest by disclosing them they wound our feelings. Let us praise God then for enemies, even those who persecute us, treat us despitefully and use harsh epithets. They may do us great good, unintentionally drive us to the mercy seat for the graces of patience, of love and meek humility—for the “wisdom that cometh from above, which is first pure, then peaceable.”
Walking with God.
Do not wish to be anywhere but where you are; nor anything but what you are. It is a want of communion with God that makes our thoughts run a gadding. Daily beseech the Lord to make your way plain; then leave it to him to direct your steps.—Beveridge.
The Ills of Life.
THERE are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual; for it is religion alone that can teach us to bear them with resignation.—Pearls of thought.
Work, Worry, and Health
It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction. Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.
Extracts From Wakefield's Translation
Of The New Testament.
MATTHEW v, 17, 18. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to perform them.”
vi, 13. “Bring us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil One.”
xi, 14. “The prophets and the law were your teachers until John.”
xiii, 39. “The harvest is the conclusion of this age.” So verses 41, 49.
Verse 56. “His sisters also, are not they all of our opinion?”
xix, 25. “What rich man then can be saved?” So Luke xviii 26,
xxii, 9. Go ye therefore into the cross roads and as many as ye find invite to the feast.”
xxvii, 50, “When Jesus had cried out again with a loud voice, he expired,” not gave up the ghost as in King James’ translation, which conveys a wrong idea. So Mark xv, 57; Luke xxiii, 47; John xix, 30.
xxviii, 1. “Now after the end of the week, as the first day of the next week began to dawn.”
The Lord Adds to His Church
By Bro. Stanley
From Bro. Stanley.
BRO. SMITH: I wish to say to the brethren and sisters through the Review that the Lord is adding to his church such as shall be saved. We now have great reason to rejoice that the Lord gave us patience and decision of character to hold on to the third angel’s message so many lonely years. We have proved the Lord and found him faithful to peform all his promises. While we were shut out from the world like hundreds of the brethren and sisters, we were enabled by the help of the Lord to possess our souls in patience and now the Lord has helped us openly and given us nearly thirty to worship on the Lord’s Sabbath.
Praise his holy name! The work is not yet finished here. Many are enquiring for the return of Bro Sanborn, and some others are ready to come into the truth when the church is set in order.
Hundred Mile Grove, Wis. Feb. 8, 1860.
The Message Advances
Bro. A. A. Marks writes from Jackson, Mich. ‘‘Bro. Smith: I can say I rejoice in the prospect of good there is before us. I look back to the time when there were but two (Brn. Bates and White), who were bringing this Message before the people; now there are those that are going east and west, north and south to sound the alarm and yet we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers into the wide field. The power-press is also sending out the silent messengers to warn the world of a coming Saviour, and thus the work moves on, and thus it will until the time shall come for the loud voice of the third angel.
‘‘I do not ‘hang all my faith and hope too on Bro. Smith and Review,’ but I do thank God that he has raised up men to send out the weekly messenger to comfort the hearts of the scattered sheep and lambs of Jesus in the dark and cloudy day. May the Lord bless all the instrumentalities that are in use for the advancement of this last work of God.’’