Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 13.
A SAD, BUT TRUE PICTUREPage 1
Earlier text: A SAD, BUT TRUE PICTUREDO BEASTS HAVE IMMORTAL SOULS?
By Dudley Marvin Canright
“To those who have never studied the ways of the lower animals, it may seem strange to assert that they, as well as ourselves, possess conscience, i. e., a sense of moral responsibility, and a capability of distinguishing between right and wrong. It is necessarily developed strongest in those animals which are placed under the rule of man, and especially in those which, like the dog, belong to his household, and are made his companions. Conscience, in their dealings with man, is their religion, and they often exercise it in a way which would put many a human being to shame. “It is this feeling which induces the dog to make itself the guardian of its master’s property, and often to defend that property at the risk of its life. For example, if a dog be placed in charge of its master’s dinner, the faithful animal will never touch a morsel of food, however hungry he may be. Nay, a dog would rather, as an ordinary rule, die of starvation than eat the food which belonged to his master. We often see field-laborers working at one end of a large field, while their spare clothes and their dinner are at the other end, guarded by a dog. They are quite easy about the safety of their property, knowing well that the dog will not allow any one to touch either the clothes or the provisions.” “A very common form of conscience among the lower animals is that which may be defined as a recognition of having done wrong, and an acknowledgment that punishment is deserved. It is exactly the same feeling which induced Adam to hide himself after he had fallen into sin. Animals have in their way very decided ideas as to right and wrong; and when they have committed an act which they know will offend their master, they display as keen a conscience as could be exhibited by any human being self-convicted of a sin; and, in many cases, the offense is acknowledged, and the creature remains miserable until pardon has been granted. This we call in ourselves penitence.” “Whenever our dog while young did wrong we found the greatest punishment was to take no notice of him, and refuse his offered paw. On one occasion, I remember, he ran off, and was missing all day. When he came back, he was shut up in his sleeping-place, after we had shaken our heads at him and turned away. Although he must have been very hungry, he would not touch his food, but sat close to the door, whining and crying, till we made it up with him by telling him he was forgiven, and taking his offered paw, when he ate his supper and went quietly to bed. His love for us is unbounded, and he almost overwhelms us sometimes by his affectionate embraces, especially if we have been away, when he almost talks in his joy at seeing us again.” “A Newfoundland dog of great age, but still the gentle, good-tempered friend of his master’s children, lay one morning sound asleep. One of his playmates, wishing that he should accompany their walk, gave him a kick. The poor dog, suddenly awakened, seized sharply the little girl’s leg, but without really hurting her. The nurse thereupon scolded him, pretended to beat him with a pocket-handkerchief, and, when he wanted to go with them, shut the door in his face. “One of the men soon afterward found him lying with his head in a ditch, dragged him out, and brought him to the stables, where he lay, refusing to eat or drink. Ere long he was again found at the same ditch, dead. Whether, in remorse and despair of forgiveness, he had successfully repeated an attempt at suicide, or whether he had lain down there to die of a broken heart, I do not know.” As illustrative of this trait of character, read the following:— “In a little village in Wiltshire there lived a small black terrier, called “Mungo,” and a large yard-dog, the two being on the most amicable terms. One night the terrier paid a neighboring farm-house a visit, in order to offer his respects to another little terrier, whom he much admired. But alas for his gallant intentions! A large rough watch-dog, not tolerating rivals, set on him savagely, and poor Mungo returned home in a sorry plight—bleeding, torn, limping, and scarcely able to crawl. “He lay down by his faithful friend, and told of his piteous wooing. Fondly and gently the big dog listened, and licked his friend’s wounds, who for many a day lay sorely bruised, and never attempted to leave home. Sometime afterward, on a fine moonlight night, some laborers, who were returning home across some fields, met the two friends trotting gayly along. Next morning the farmer found his savage watch-dog stretched stiff and stark on the straw in his yard.” “What a combination of qualities do we not find in the conduct of these two dogs. They must have possessed a language sufficiently definite for the one to tell the other what had befallen him, and to designate the offender. They then must have arranged that the big dog was to avenge the injuries inflicted on his little friend as soon as the latter was well enough to show him the way. There was memory in both dogs, enabling them to postpone the execution of their design until the injured dog had recovered; and there was sympathy for suffering in the large dog, and desire for revenge in the little one. The two dogs in question belonged to a clergyman, who told the story to my correspondent.” “The following little history is taken from Hardwicke’s Science Gossip, for September, 1871: ““A little redbreast has come to our door all through the winter for his meals, and a most friendly, welcome guest he has been. One spring morning we saw robin do a deed of charity that more than ever endeared the little bird to our hearts. It had been a bitterly cold night, and on our servant’s going down stairs to fetch some coal to light the fires, she found a poor little starling, shivering and frightened, in the cellar. She called me to see the bird; it had only just left the nest, and it was so weak that it could not fly. I tried to coax it to eat, took it near the fire, offered it bread-crumbs, seeds, water; but no—the starling would not be tempted. ““Breakfast-time came, and with it the little robin. We thought that if we put the wee birdie out of doors its mother might come to look for her lost child; then came the fear of the robin—he was so very pugnacious. Well, we risked it, keeping a very strict watch over the starling’s safety. Robin eyed it for a moment, and flew away; still the little baby bird stood on one leg shivering, and no mother arrived. The moments seemed hours. Presently robin came flying back, and with something in his beak, too. Hop, hop, he came to where the wee baby starling was shivering, and popped a worm in its beak, which it opened, just as if robin had said, “Open your mouth—here is some breakfast;” and away he flew, and again returned with some food to the young bird, and then they both flew away. We never saw the starling again, but good little robin’s deed made him more loved than ever in the house.” “I am rather glad to have the opportunity of making known these examples of sympathy between animals, because I have received communications from persons who really appreciate the moral capacities of the lower animals, but who cannot bring themselves to believe that they feel any sympathy with each other, though they do so for man.” This is well illustrated in the following anecdote:— “The traveler in question was a guest for a while in a house at Granada. In this house about twenty chocollitos were kept; and, as they were all brought to the house when very young, they did not form their matrimonial attachments until after their arrival. Perhaps among them the sexes were not equally divided, so as to insure each bird a mate; but the sad fact was that, after one pair had entered the marriage state, another male made love to the wife. The lady was weak, and yielded to the solicitations of the too fascinating lover. “The result was, according to Froebel’s own words, as follows: ‘When the husband understood the whole extent of his misfortune, and after he had made the last unsuccessful attempt to bring his faithless companion back to the path of duty, the unhappy creature, heart-broken by his wrong, took his lonely seat on the perch on which he had passed happier nights, closely pressed to the side of his partner, refused to eat or drink, and one morning was found dead on the floor below.’” “The reader may compare this narrative with that of the Mandarin duck [given in last week’s REVIEW]. In both cases there was strong conjugal love; but in the former the lady was faithful, and her husband avenged himself on the disturber of his domestic peace; while in the latter the lady was frail, and the husband died of a broken heart. Both narratives are wonderfully human, and each could furnish the plots of a sensational drama.” Now, all these facts conclusively show that beasts are possessed of mind, reason, conscience, affection, &c., as well as man. Are they all immortal therefore? Have they an undying spirit which continues to live when the body dies? Few of our readers will be willing to believe so absurd a doctrine. If, then, God can organize even the beasts so as to think, reason, and love, he certainly can do the same in organizing man; and this we believe is just what he did do. The fact, then, that man can reason is no argument for the immortality of his soul. D. M. CANRIGHT. WHERE HAST THOU GLEANED TO-DAY?
By R. E. Thurber
These words, found in Ruth, chapter 2:19, and addressed by Naomi to her daughter-in-law, are very applicable to Christians now, and especially to those who profess to believe in the third angel’s message: “Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where wroughtest thou?” Has it been to gather with Christ or to scatter abroad? “He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” Matt. 12:30. Has it been your aim and object to do the will of your Father which is in Heaven? If so, your labor has not been in vain. But if you have been seeking your own pleasure, regardless of others’ happiness, and continue to do so, your life will be a failure. Each day is bringing us nearer the Judgment, and what will be the account we shall have to render? Each day helps to develop some new trait in our characters, and each day is given us to glean precious sheaves for the Master. Our influence during one day may tell sadly against us in the Judgment. How important, then, that we have much of the spirit and wisdom of Christ to enable us to live just right. There are many ways in which we can glean sheaves for our Heavenly Father. Though we may not have the talent to preach, and though we may not be able to go out as missionaries, yet we can imitate the example of our divine Lord, and our godly lives can be sermons to some one. May it be our lot to gather with Christ, and reap a rich reward in the kingdom at last. What a wonderful thing is life? How utterly beyond the reach of man to give it, or even to comprehend what it is! None but the great Infinite can bestow this wonderful gift. We feel it thrill through our whole being; by its power we live and move, and by the same power the mind, that wonderful piece of mechanism, is made to act. Life is indeed a great gift, but it is, nevertheless, one which is but poorly appreciated by many of us. It is given to us for some good purpose. Is it that we may spend it in idleness, and in ministering only to self? Nay, in so doing we show ingratitude to the giver. We would not think of so misusing the gift of an earthly friend; neither does God bestow his gifts that we may waste them and trample them beneath our feet. And again, we do not realize by how frail a thread life hangs, nor how slight a tension will snap asunder the delicate cord. To-day we live and move among our fellow-beings in the full exercise of all our faculties of mind and body; to-morrow we may lie silent and cold, realizing and feeling as little as though we had never breathed; for the house in which this life dwells is but dust, and when the life-power leaves it, only the dumb clay remains. The body may be as perfect as when the person lived, but it cannot move, think, or realize, simply because this all-animating life-power is extinct. The question naturally arises as to whether this is the last of man; for to all human discernment he is as if he had never been. Man is powerless to restore life; and were it not for the infinitely greater gift of God to us, we must ever sleep in death. But he has given us his dear Son, through whom we may again live. Jesus triumphed over the grave. To him have been committed the keys of death and of hell, and he is able to loose their captives. The life which he will give, can no man take away. It will continue throughout all the ages of eternity. But there is a condition with which we must comply in order to obtain this great boon. It is this: We must improve the life which is now given us if we would have that which is to come. How this is to be done may be illustrated by one of the parables given by our Saviour. A certain lord gave to his servants talents, and went into a far country. When he returned he called those servants, and inquired concerning the talents he had entrusted to their care. To those who had made good use of them, he gave still greater gifts; but to him who had made no use of his lord’s money, he gave nothing, but took away even that which he had. So will it be with us. God is not mocked, and if we misuse this great and wonderful gift by spending it all in self-gratification and indulgence, we will have it taken away, and no other life will be given us. We shall die, never to live again,—yes, die as we might have lived—eternally. Let us then try so to use this gift of life, that, when we are called to yield it up to Him who gave it, we may do so, feeling that it has not been for naught that it was bestowed, and hoping for that eternal life which will be given to the overcomers. WHO SHALL BE SAVED?
By A. S. Nason
We are living in the most grand and solemn time of the world's history. The work of God is rapidly advancing, and soon it will be said, “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.” Now is the golden opportunity to fit up characters that will stand the test of the Judgment. The accounts in the REVIEW are very cheering that many are advancing, since the day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, and that they begin to taste the sweets of pardoning love. It is a thought to occasion the deepest sadness that some will not be benefited by this day of fasting. Oh! that all could realize just what they need to do in order to be saved. If Sabbath-keepers were more firmly united in love, how much good might be accomplished in saving souls. Truly we need to pray that the softening Spirit of God may melt our hearts and subdue our stubborn wills. There is cause for the deepest gratitude that we have a Saviour who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who will never turn away any who come to him in the spirit of humility. When he has shown to us such tender compassion, how necessary that we should compassionate each other. The love of Jesus passes all understanding, and it is free for you and for me. Have any been sad and desolate, feeling that the way was hard, and that no ray of light seemed to penetrate the darkness? Look up! Jesus' hand is extended for the sure relief of all who will grasp it by faith. The thought of being saved in that bright world, where sorrow and sighing will forever flee away, is enough to inspire courage in the faintest heart. We cannot afford to trifle in the solemn work God has assigned us in these last moments of time. Oh! if we fully realized that our Saviour is at the door, how eager would we be in our efforts to rescue perishing souls from the enemy's power. God grant that the spirit of humiliation and repentance which has commenced to work among his people may grow broader and deeper until such a reformation shall take place as we never have witnessed. Then shall we hear the cry on every hand from poor sinners, “What shall I do to be saved?” All desire eternal salvation, but not all are willing to sacrifice to obtain it. Many, like the young man who came to Jesus, will go away sorrowful, because they are unwilling to give all for Christ. It is those alone who are dead to self, and are entirely consecrated to the Master's service, who will at last be among the saved. “Self-love dismissed, ’tis then we live indeed;
In her embrace, death, only death is found,
Come, then, one noble effort and succeed,
Cast off the chain of self with which thy soul is bound.
“ Oh! I would cry, that all the world might hear,
Ye self-torment, love you God alone;
Let his unequalled excellence be dear,
Dear to your inmost souls, and make him all your A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF FURNITURE.
By Albert Wike
You may talk of your fine furniture and your finely furnished houses, mahogany-finished chairs, soft-cushioned sofas, and beautiful pictures with gilded frames, but we have one piece of furniture more valuable than they all. It is different from any other furniture we have been able to get. It seems never to grow old. It has been in use for sixteen years, and we think it better than when we first commenced using it. We should feel lost without it, both night and morning. Some only use it at night; they do not take time in the morning. I know it is not because they are afraid of wearing it out; and every family can have this piece of furniture, without money and without price. Would you know its name? We call it the family altar. It makes home dearer and our sleep sweeter to gather our little ones around this altar, and ask our Father in Heaven to take care of us and our loved ones. And then in the morning, when all the cares of the day, with the temptations and trials, await us, how sweet to resort to the altar of prayer for a fresh supply of grace. I often think of the family altar at a neighbor's when I was quite young. I have many times resorted to his home, to meet with the family around the altar, my father being a non-professor. Fathers and mothers, lovers of Christ, if you have not already done so, will you not furnish your homes with this beautiful altar of prayer? Divine and Human Legislation
The ends of a Divine and those of a human legislator are vastly different. It has been beautifully said that “the veil which covers the face of futurity is woven by the hand of mercy.” PREACHING BY STEAM.
By James White
When men shut their eyes to the apostasies, disorders in society, and the villainies of the present, and look only upon the advancement in the arts and sciences, they feel flattered that they live in an age of unparalleled progression. Not stopping to discuss the question whether advancing blessings equal progressing evils, we wish here to call attention to the approximate perfection in the art of printing, and the rapidity with which the religious press may do preaching by steam. Probably no religious people have done as much preaching in this way, when numbers and time are taken into the account, as the Seventh-day Adventists. We established a paper which taught the views of this people in 1849, when we could number only a few scores of souls. This small beginning has grown in a quarter of a century, steadily and surely, to a legally incorporated Publishing Association, at Battle Creek, Michigan, with a capital of $100,000, a reliable patronage of fifteen thousand souls, and through our Tract and Missionary Societies, to almost unlimited demand of printed matter on religious and reformatory subjects. April, 1875, the Pacific S. D. A. Publishing Association was incorporated according to the laws of California, at Oakland. In about ten months, buildings have been erected at a cost of $12,000. A car-load of presses and other machinery has been purchased and brought across the continent from New York, type and other material sufficient to do the present business of the Association have also been purchased, the entire cost of which is $8,000. This sum has been donated by the Eastern friends of our cause. And this young Association is paying neither interest nor rents. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES has a paying circulation of nearly 4,000, and its lists of subscribers are rapidly increasing. Thank God that we can give so good and cheering a report of the California Publishing Association as it enters on the eleventh month of its existence. Judging from the past, we can safely predict for it a very prosperous future. Besides the issue of the SIGNS, our California steam press has printed, during the past four months, more than three tons of tracts and pamphlets, containing the most valuable matter for our people at this time. Already the item of postage paid on this kind of matter which has been sent out from the Office of the SIGNS, during the past three months, amounts to between two and three hundred dollars. The idea is truly grand, that an unpopular message of Bible truth, which was first held by a few humble persons on the shores of the Atlantic a few years since, has passed across the continent, gathering strong and devoted friends at every step, and now is being preached by steam on the Pacific. Best judges say, when speaking of our large cylinder printing machine, that it is the best press on the Pacific Coast. And right here, just as the Pacific Press is completely established, the advancing cause in Europe demands that there should be an Office of publication in Switzerland, as suggested in a recent report from our worthy missionary, Eld. J. N. Andrews. We highly approve the measure, and venture the statement that there is no time to be lost. But little has been accomplished for the cause in our own country without the press. The cause moved very slowly on this continent until we began publishing in good earnest. The work in Europe will amount to but little until our brethren there commence preaching by steam. Periodicals in both the French and German languages will soon be issued from the S. D. Adventist Office in Europe. There, too, our tracts, already published at Battle Creek in both these languages, can be reproduced, and others of equal or superior value can be at once printed. The time has come. We have three men of ability in Europe who are devoted to the cause of God, and we expect more will be raised up there to stand in defense of the truth. Mrs. W. joins us in the pledge to give $1,000 for the mission and press in Europe before the close of 1876, and we shall expect that those of our brethren who have more than a humble competency will join us with a liberal hand in this important work. By the grace of God we will have a Publishing House in Basel, the central point for Switzerland, Germany and France, before the close of the current year, where work may be done on our own presses. But for the present Eld. Andrews must hire others to do his printing; and in order to do this he must have immediate help. We shall therefore send him $100 each month, beginning with April, and close up the amount of our pledge with $200 in December. Eld. Andrews is in need of immediate help. We shall forward to him not less than $2,000 at the time of the extra session of the General Conference, and shall expect that our wealthy brethren will join us liberally in the April installment for the European Press. Now is our time to act, and may God prosper our missionaries in Europe in all those preparations necessary for preaching by steam. J. W. THE SANCTUARY.
By Uriah Smith
Thirteenth Paper.—The Original Advent Faith. Seventh-day Adventists are sometimes charged with being a mere offshoot from the Advent body, followers of side issues and newly-created hobbies. We claim, and shall show, that we are the only ones who adhere to the original principles of interpretation, on which the whole Advent movement was founded, and that we are the only ones who are following out that movement to its logical results and conclusions. The reader has seen something of the strength of the argument by which the original application of the prophetic periods is sustained. Those who have attempted to re-adjust those periods in order to extend them to some future point of time when Palestine or the earth should be purified by fire, have found themselves in an extremely embarrassing position. Their own confessions have proved this; and the reader will be interested to see some of them. Josiah Litch, a prominent writer and laborer in the early stage of the Advent movement, spoke as follows in the Advent Herald of Dec. 28, 1850:— “Chronologically, the period [2300 days] is at an end, according to the best light to be obtained on the subject; and where the discrepancy is I am unable to decide. But of this we shall know more in due time.” “God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.” The Advent Herald, seeing the utter inconsistency of denying the termination of the 2300 days in the past, while at the same time it was setting forth unanswerable arguments in vindication of the original date for the commencement of the period, as it long continued to do, in connection with the seventy weeks, it at last denied the connection between the seventy weeks and the twenty-three hundred days, and thus cut this latter period adrift upon the prophetic sea. This appears from the following queries by a correspondent, and the answers of the then editor of the Herald, inclosed in brackets, which appeared in the Herald of May 22, 1852:— “In your ‘chronology’ the cross is placed in A. D. 31. What are the principal objections which bear against its being placed in A. D. 39? [Ans. 1. The absence of any evidence placing it there. 2. The contradiction of the wonderful astronomical, chronological, and historical co-incidences which show beyond the shadow of controversy that the seventh of Artaxerxes was in B. C. 457–8, that the birth of Christ was B. C. 4–5, that the thirtieth year of Christ was 483 years from the seventh of Artaxerxes, that the crucifixion was in A. D. 31, and that that was the point of time in the last week, when the sacrifice and oblation should cease.]” “If the seventy weeks of Dan. 9 do not commence in the twentieth of Artaxerxes, how can the 2300 days begin at the same time with them, and yet terminate in the future? [Ans. They cannot.] Must we not henceforth consider that they have different starting points? [Ans. Yes.]” To understand how serious a departure this was from the “original Advent faith,” the reader should bear in mind the following statements which under the significant heading of “Points of Difference between Us and our Opponents,” once formed a standing notice in the Advent Papers:— “We claim that the ninth of Daniel is an appendix to the eighth, and that the seventy weeks and the 2300 days or years commence together. Our opponents deny this.”—Signs of the Times, 1843. Who now deny this? All who call themselves Adventists, so far as we know except the Seventh-day Adventists. And in what position do they place themselves by this denial? In the position of those who were originally the opponents of the Advent faith. Gone over to the side of their opponents, and yet claiming to be the adherents of the original Advent faith! The declaration above quoted is as good for us to-day as it was for the Signs of the Times in 1843. It still flies from our mast head. “We claim that the ninth of Daniel is an appendix to the eighth, and that the seventy weeks and 2300 days or years commence together. Our opponents [apostatized Adventists] DENY THIS.” Who, then, are the original Adventists? Again, to show the importance which was formerly attached to this matter, we quote from the Advent Shield, p. 49, Art. The Rise and Progress of Adventism:— “The grand principle involved in the interpretation of the 2300 days of Dan. 8: 14, is, that the 70 weeks of Dan. 9: 24, are the first 490 days of the 2300, of the eighth chapter.” Those who have yielded this point, have therefore given up the “grand principle involved in the interpretation of the 2300 days.” If to do this and go over to the position of “our [their] opponents,” is not a serious defection from the original Advent faith, we greatly err. The following well-founded opinion was expressed by Apollos Hale in 1846:— “The second point to be settled, in explaining the text [Dan. 9: 24], is to show what vision it is which the 70 weeks are said to seal. And it should be understood this involves one of the great questions which constitute the main pillars in our system of interpretation, so far as prophetic times are concerned. If the connection between the 70 weeks of Dan. 9, and the 2300 days of Dan. 8, does not exist, the whole system is shaken to its foundation; if it does exist, as we suppose, the system must stand.”—Harmony of Prophetic Chronology, page 33. Mark this language. The connection between Daniel 8 and 9 constitutes one of the “main pillars” of our system of interpretation. If it does not exist the whole system is shaken to its foundation. If it does exist, the system must stand. We rejoice in the fact to-day that this connection does exist, and the system stands. And now, what are the reasons offered for taking a position which denies one of the main pillars of this system of interpretation, and shakes it to its very foundation? Simply this:— “We have no new light respecting the connection between the 70 weeks and 2300 days. The only argument against their connection is, the passing of the time. Why that has passed, is a mystery to us, which we wait to have revealed.”—Advent Herald, Sept. 7, 1850. The same paper, in its issue of Feb. 22, 1851, further said:— “Before 1843, we became satisfied of the validity of the arguments sustaining their connection and simultaneous commencement. There has nothing transpired to weaken the force of those arguments but the passing of the time we expected for their termination. We now have no other fact to advance against their connection; and, therefore, can only wait for the mystery of the passing of time to be explained. But of the commencement and termination of the 70 weeks, we are satisfied that they cannot be removed from the position which Protestants have always assigned them.” Before such a matter of course surrender was made of the strongest evidence and clearest proofs that can be drawn from the word of God on any subject, we submit to the reader if it would not have been more logical to inquire whether there might not possibly be some mistake in the view that the earth is the sanctuary, and that the cleansing of the sanctuary is to be by fire at the second coming of Christ; whether the days may not have ended, and the work to which they brought us, whatever it is, be now in process of fulfillment. S. D. Adventists, before rejecting the past movement, raised this inquiry, and the result has repaid our researches a thousand fold, as will hereafter appear. And how do those who disconnect the 70 weeks and 2300 days, dispose of this latter period; for something must be done with it? They attempt to date it from the point at which Daniel saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward so that no beast might stand before him; and that pushing they make to be the decree issued against the Jews, as recorded in the book of Esther. As the result of the pushing in the prophecy, no beast could stand before him. This view therefore makes the Jews to be the beasts. But how did this matter come out? A counter decree was issued; fear of the Jews fell upon all the people; many joined themselves to them; and when the day of slaughter came, no man could withstand the Jews. Esth. 9: 2. They smote all their enemies. Verse 5. Seventy and five thousand Persians fell before them; and it was to them a day of triumph and joy. This, forsooth, was the ram pushing and doing according to his will, and becoming “great,” so that none could deliver out of his hand! To such absurdities are men driven in trying to avoid the plain and evident conclusions to be derived from God’s word. That men should seriously argue in this manner is one of those strange phenomena that sometimes appear in the workings of the human mind. But even dating from this point, and recklessly changing the date of it as some have done to as late a year as B. C. 426, the time has now run out. Every limit to which the 2300 days can be extended is passed by. Time has thus demonstrated that those days have ended. All we now ask of any one is to accede to unquestionable facts, and admit that these days are in the past. But if time has demonstrated that these days are in the past, it has also demonstrated that the earth is not the sanctuary, the very point claimed by those who offer this fact as the explanation of our disappointment in 1844; for no change has come over the earth except, physically, increasing signs of infirmity and old age, and, morally, a deeper plunge into wickedness and sin, on the part of its fast degenerating sons and daughters. The former view that the earth is the sanctuary, being thus demonstrated to be incorrect, the inquiry, What is the Sanctuary? is now fairly in hand, and peremptorily demands an answer. U. S. FEELING VS. GOD’S WORD.
By A. S. Hutchins
Many who would be shocked at the thought of holding in higher estimation their own feelings than the word of God do, nevertheless, in matters of religious faith and practice, often act more from the impulses of their own heart, than from the teachings of the Scriptures. Were man left to the influence and power of his fallen nature to work out his salvation, we may easily determine, from Romans 1: 21–32, as to the character he would form and the destiny he would meet. In love to the world, and to secure the salvation of the penitent, God has revealed his will and established a public ministry to proclaim and bear it to the nations, tongues, and kings of the earth. Shall we honor and acknowledge the Author of this priceless Revelation by receiving it as the man of our counsel, and the unerring rule of our faith? Shall not its divine instructions be heard above the voice of the people? Shall they not mould our religious sentiments and turn our feet into the “narrow” way of life, rather than trust to early education and tread the “broad” way of death? Shall not tradition with all its alluring errors bow before the word of inspiration101and by it be hewn in pieces as was Agag by the sword of Samuel? Let the church of God awake from her slumbers and cry, The Bible, the Bible. Let her come forth from the wilderness, “leaning upon her beloved,” with her voice raised for Bible religion, Bible life, Bible hope, and strong confidence ultimately of Bible felicity. Let her awake in vindication of the law of the Lord, in defense of the down-trodden Sabbath, the rest-day of the Creator, blessed and sanctified, and given to man before sin had marred the Creator’s work. Says David, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” In behalf of the Scriptures the apostle bears the following testimony: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Doctrine is the first thing specified for which the Scripture is said to be profitable. Amid the confusion of creeds and sentiments of religious bodies at the present time, we cannot look too closely to the word of God, or by it too thoroughly test our religious faith. False sentiments may please and charm us, but they cannot convert the soul, nor secure to us eternal life. Said Christ, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And again he prays in behalf of his disciples, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” And it is a painful reflection that the apostle looked forward to the time when men would not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts should heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and they should turn away their ears from the truth, and should be turned into fables. Says one man, Our business now is to convert the world, and if it shall prove that our theology is incorrect, we will settle that question when we get to Heaven. But I incline strongly to the opinion that Heaven will not prove the place to settle theological debates. “For instruction in righteousness,” Paul affirms the Scripture is also “profitable.” As Christians we need “reproof,” “correction” and “instruction.” For these we are directed to the Scriptures. Not a word said about taking our feelings as a sure guide. What apology, then, shall be offered for those who have been soundly convinced from the Scriptures of their obligation to hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, been blest in acknowledging the claims of this ancient institution, and in keeping it unto the Lord, and yet, all at once have a conviction come over them of the sacredness of the first day, so much as to lead them to sacrifice reason and judgment and the plain teachings of the Bible, and turn from the Sabbath of the Lord to the first day? How will men and women, whose minds have been enlightened on this question to that extent they know the Bible enjoins no weekly Sabbath but the seventh day, meet the Judge and stand before him with no excuse for not obeying the commandment only that some dying friend had warned them never to leave the church of their early choice? And how will ministers meet the record of their lives, who have taught men to honor and keep as the Sabbath another day than God’s chosen rest-day, while they see the Bible contains no commandment to sustain them, and declare they want no command, and are satisfied without Scripture enjoining the observance of it? A heavy responsibility rests upon the minister of the gospel. Oh, that it might be realized! The voice of the Master is, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” Of the false prophets he says, “If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.” Jer. 23: 22.