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Review and Herald, Vol. 30, No. 2.

GOD A BEING AND HEAVEN A PLACE

Review and Herald

Jun 25, 1867

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 25, 1867

GOD A BEING AND HEAVEN A PLACE.

By Wm. S. Ingraham

BY ELD. WM. S. INGRAHAM.
TEXT, Matt. vi, 9. Our Father which art in Heaven.
In making remarks on this text I do not design to refer to every point, but discuss the following propositions:
  1. God is a personal Being.
  2. Heaven is a location.
When we consider the Orthodox view (so called) of this subject, we find it left in dark obscurity, forming no foundation for Christian faith or hope. God is supposed to be a being without body or parts, thus denying virtually his real existence, and if believed in at all we must confidently endorse the notion that he is immaterial; and if form is in any way connected with him it must be ghost-like or shadowy; and to doubt the sentiment of poets, and call in question their poetic fancy, that Heaven is “beyond the bounds of time and space,” is an outrageous crime hardly to be forgiven in this world or in the world to come. But there is a pleasure in the thought that God does really exist, and also that the home of the saints is a city fair, made of solid material which will never decay. With these reflections the reader is called to a consideration of the question in debate, and
1. God is a real person. My first proof in support of this proposition is Gen. i, 26, 27. The point in question is the expression, the image of God. Many suppose this consists in nature and not in form, and as God is said to be immortal, and man being in the image of God, the conclusion is that man must be immortal also. If this reasoning is correct, why not embrace other attributes of the divine mind? Is immortality the only attribute he possesses? Is he not omnipresent and omnipotent also? To reason from the nature of God to the nature of man (which no one has any right to do) would exalt man to the throne of the universe and place him on the right hand of the Majesty in the Heavens. Gen. i, 26, 27 shows that man was made in the image of God, and Gen. ii, 7, proves that man was formed of the dust of the ground. The conclusion is clear that that which was made or formed of the dust of the ground was made in the image of God. Paul’s testimony corroborates this fact. 1 Cor. xi, 7. “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God.” Here man with a head (and not a headless ghost) is the image of God. In my old Discipline I used to read that the Creator was without body or parts. This I never could believe. The Bible taught me another way. What saith the word? Ex. xxxiii, 18. “And he (Moses) said I beseech thee shew me thy glory.” Verse 20. “And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.” Verses 21, 23. “And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock; and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” I am aware that Drs. of Divinity live in this age, and certainly this age is the place for them. Had they lived in the age of Moses they would have been out of employment, for this great truth was not sick at that time, not having, as yet, fallen into the hands of uninspired physicians. In Ex. xxiv, 9, 10, 11, a scene of majesty and grandeur is witnessed by Moses and the elders of Israel: “Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.”
Some tell us that the Bible does not prove the existence of God, but takes it for granted. With lawyers, evidence is that which demonstrates and makes plain.
Have we such evidence of the existence of God? In the above record it is plainly stated that God was seen by more than seventy witnesses. Is all this taken for granted? Verse 10. “And they saw the God of Israel.” The view that many entertain in relation to the immateriality of God we admit is taken for granted, for the proof is lacking. One text more from the Old Testament and then we will come to the New. Dan. vii, 9. “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.” None dare deny but that a person is here described, but say that Christ is meant. How does this better the case? Trinitarians tell us that Christ is the eternal God, and if this be true, when Daniel speaks of the Ancient of days he means Christ, and when he sees Christ he sees the eternal God, for both are one. Again, if the view that Trinitarians hold, be true, that Christ is the Almighty God, and that Daniel in verses 9 and 10 refers to Christ, my point is gained, that is that God is a person. But I deny that Daniel in verses 9 and 10 refers to Christ at all. The prophet in this record not only represents the majesty and glory of the Divine Being, but represents him as presiding in judgment. In verse 13 he says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” If the Ancient of days is Jesus Christ, who is the Son of man that stands before him? In verse 14, the Son of man receives a kingdom from the Father, or the Ancient of days. Query. Does Christ stand before himself? Does he receive a kingdom from himself? How rational the conclusion that the Father and the Son are both seen in this vision, and that they are separate persons. This idea does not harmonize with the notion that at the incarnation of Christ two whole and perfect natures (the Father and Son, or human and divine) were joined together, never to be separated. “But,” says one, “this vision was given long before the birth of Christ.” But sir, this does not help your case in the least, for the eye of the prophet penetrated the future, and he was carried in heavenly vision down the stream of time to where the thrones shall crumble before the Majesty of Heaven as he sits in judgment to fix the destiny of men and place his Son on David’s throne to reign.
Some testimony from the New Testament will be offered. Acts vii, 56. “And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Testimony of dying men is usually considered good evidence, especially if they have their reason. We cannot question the soundness of Stephen. The 55th verse says, “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” Query. Did Stephen see Christ? Most certainly. What was his position? It was standing. Where did he stand? On the right hand of God. How do we know whether he stood on God’s right hand or on his left? By giving heed to the declaration of this man of truth. He says he saw God and his Son. This evidence proves conclusively that God is a person. We will now listen to Paul. Phil. ii, 5, 6. “Let this mind be in you which was also inChrist Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” How can Christ be in the form of God if God has no form? Does this mean that the humanity was equal to the divinity? and that the humanity was in form like the divinity? Turn this passage as you will and it proves that God has a form. Heb. i, 3. “Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his (the Father’s) person.” This is evidence that cannot be denied unless the doubting mind has some selfish end in view.
A vast amount of evidence might be added to the above. Who was that majestic Being that spoke on the burning mount, in the midst of thunders, and darkness only broken by the lightning’s flash and the glory of him that spoke? It was one whose voice shook the earth and made the Israelitish host to tremble. Was this the voice of an immaterial ghost? No! God was there. Moses says he saw him. Deut. ix, 10. “And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God.” How could a nonentity deliver to a man tables of stone? How could an immaterial being plow the solid rock with its finger, and deeply imbed or write a law on stone? Matt. xvii, 5. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Peter says this voice came from heaven. 2 Pet. i, 18. Moses was on the mount of transfiguration. He was permitted to hear the same voice that spoke the ten commandments when he was on Mount Sinai and at that time he saw the one that spoke.
Matt. xviii, 10. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you that in Heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven.” There are two points worthy of remark in this text. 1. The Father was in Heaven and the Son on earth (surely the divinity was separated once from the humanity). 2. God is said to have a face, which proves his personality. Matt. v, 8. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This cannot refer to Christ, for “every eye shall see him.” Rev. i, 7. “And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Matt. xxiv, 30. All the nations of the earth will see the Son of man, but only the pure in heart will be permitted to see the Father,—“and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.” Enough has been said on this part of the subject, and we now submit it to the judgment of the reader. If we have proved our first point, the second is easily reached. If God is a personal being he must have a fixed habitation.
We are now prepared to consider our next proposition.
2. Heaven is a location.
In arguing this point we might call up the question of the resurrection of the saints and show that they will have material bodies, composed of flesh and bones like the glorious body of Christ. And also that angels are real beings, tangible and material. These principles involve the idea that Heaven must be a location. Evidences growing out of the bare facts we pass over and offer proof from another source. Deut. x, 14. “Behold, the heaven and the Heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also with all that therein is.” Now unless the Heaven of the heavens, so expressed by way of eminence, has a real existence and a location as well as the earth, how can it be said to belong to God? If there is no local Heaven, then there is no local earth. David is in harmony with the above. “Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy Heaven.” Also in another place, Deut. xxvi, 15, the locality of Heaven is brought to light. “Look down from thy holy habitation, from Heaven, and bless thy people Israel.” Also Isaiah lxiii, 15. “Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory.” Luke xv, 7. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke says again, chap. ii, 15, “And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them (shepherds) into Heaven.” How could such language be applied to a Heaven “beyond the bounds of time and space?” Christ went to Heaven. Acts i, 9, 10, 11. Verse 10. “They looked steadfastly toward heaven.” Verse 11, “Which was taken up from you into Heaven.” Acts iii, 21. “Whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. 1 Thess. i, 10. “And to wait for his Son from Heaven, even Jesus.” John xiv, 1. “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” Paul in 2 Cor. xii, 2, says, a man was caught up to the third Heaven. In verse 4, he says he was caught up into Paradise. (The apostle alludes to his own experience.) This chapter locates Paradise, and I understand the Father’s house here spoken of by Christ, is Paul’s Paradise. They are identical.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Rev. ii, 7. Compare this with Rev. xxii, 2, where John in describing the holy city says that the tree of life is in the midst of the street of it. We learn, 1st, that Paradise is in the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to carry the subject still further, that overcomers will reach that blissful home. The scenes of this beautiful world so attracted the mind of the prophet that he almost forgot the duty he owed to the church of God, and the faithful record which he was to make for the benefit of future generations. And a voice suddenly broke upon his ear, saying, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” The contrast between this state of existence and the world to come, is very great. Three times has this earth been cursed as the result of transgression. First, when man rebelled against the government of God and partook of the forbidden fruit. In quick succession one curse after another was pronounced upon man. In the animal creation there was a regular revolt from the control of man. No more in innocency do they play before him. Fear is upon every living creature. They roam over creation seeking to devour and tear in pieces each other. The elements are placed in opposition to man, and the means of perpetuating life is cut off (Gen. iii, 22–24), that the penalty of the law might be inflicted upon him, and he return back to dust again. Earth’s beautiful flowers are nipped as with an untimely frost, and thorns and thistles take their place. The curse spreads itself over the earth like a mildew from heaven, and its glories begin to fade and die. Man soon becomes so corrupt in his nature that murder is committed, and the blood of the innocent flows freely (Gen. iv, 8), and the productions of the earth decrease. Verse 12. Still the course of man is sinful, and as he multiplies, transgression abounds, until God says, “the wickedness of man is great in the earth,” “and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually.” God bears with man until the warning of mercy is rejected and salvation is slighted. The heavenly dove droops its wings and leaves the guilty to drink Jehovah’s wrath. The fountains of the great deep are broken up, and the windows of heaven are opened. The flood of waters cover every high mountain. Golden rocks are buried in the bowels of the deep. Worthless, shapeless, ragged rocks appear. The earth’s surface is broken by high mountains, deep valleys and caverns. The tree of life and Paradise, once eastward in Eden, have been removed and are now in the city of God, on high. Paradise lost by transgression, can be obtained by obedience. Rev. xxii, 14. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Earth’s mortal scenes, where is hunger, thirst, and all the perplexities incident to this life, where man is compelled to get his living by the sweat of his face, may be changed for a world of glory where sorrow will never be known. “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.” Rev. vii, 15, 17.
This earth, now groaning under the curse, will soon be free from its burden, and the curse purged away. The New Jerusalem will come down from God out of Heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. I hope to be there.

THE MOURNER'S PLEA.

By M. E. Guilford

My soul, O God, on thee relies; Bear thou my fainting spirit up; Grant me thy grace in rich supplies, Now, while I drink grief's bitter cup. O let thy Holy Spirit, Lord, Restrain each murm'ring thought, or sigh. Wisdom and love to me accord, As to thy throne for aid I fly.
I pray thee check my rising tears; Faith's healing balm to me impart; Dispel my gloomy doubts and fears; Diffuse sweet hope within my heart, And gently bend my will to thine. In all things I'd submissive be; I would not murmur, nor repine, But calmly trust my all to thee.
Be thou, my hope, my comfort, guide Me while on earth I sadly roam; Be thou my stay, whate'er betide, And safe conduct me to that home, Which lies beyond grief's chilling tide, Beyond death's cold, relentless power, Where joys, eternal joys, abide, And peace doth yield its Eden bower.
O may thy promise, Lord, sustain Me till I reach that heavenly land, Where loved ones I shall meet again, A re-united, happy band. No more by sin nor sorrow pressed, No more bowed down with anxious care, In Heaven we'll dwell among the blest, And all its wondrous glories share.
M. E. GUILFORD. Castalia, Ohio.

The Sermon.

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
PREACH THE WORD. 2 Tim. iv, 2.

THE GOSPEL NOT PREACHED TO THE POOR.

The following article from the Atlantic Monthly needs no comment, save a few of the New-Testament descriptions of the state of professed Christians in the last days. See 2 Tim. iii, 1-5; iv, 3, 4; Rev. xiv, 8, &c. Men will admit, that all the characteristics which would pertain to a fallen Christianity, are visible in the popular churches of these days, and will even comment with great severity and sarcasm upon the fact, and yet, with a strange inconsistency, refuse to admit that they have fallen.
“Is there any thing in America more peculiar to America, or more curious in itself, than one of our ‘fashionable’ Protestant churches—such as we see in New York, on the Fifth Avenue and in the adjacent streets? The lion and the lamb in the Millennium will not lie down together more lovingly than the Church and the World have blended in these singular establishments. We are far from objecting to the coalition, but note it only as something curious, new, and interesting.
“We enter an edifice, upon the interior of which the upholsterer and the cabinet-maker have exhausted the resources of their trades. The word ‘subdued’ describes the effect at which those artists have aimed. The woods employed are costly and rich, but usually of a sombre hue, and, though elaborately carved, are frequently unpolished. The light which comes through the stained windows, or through the small diamond panes, is of that description which Mr. Verplanck, in an unfortunate moment, styled ‘dim religious.’ Every part of the floor is thickly carpeted. The pews differ little from sofas, except in being more comfortable, and the cushions for the knees are as soft as hair and cloth can make them. It is a fashion at present, to put the organ out of sight, and to have a clock so unobtrusive as not to be observed. Galleries are now viewed with an unfriendly eye by the projectors of churches, and they are going out of use. Everything in the way of conspicuous lighting apparatus, such as the gorgeous and dazzling chandeliers of fifteen years ago, and the translucent globes of later date, is discarded, and an attempt is sometimes made to hide the vulgar fact that the church is ever open in the evening. In a word, the design of the fashionable church-builder of the present moment is to produce a richly furnished, quietly adorned, dimly illuminated, ecclesiastical parlor, in which a few hundred ladies and gentlemen, attired in kindred taste, may sit perfectly at their ease, and see no object not in harmony with the scene around them.
“To say that the object of these costly and elegant arrangements is to repel poor people would be a calumny. On the contrary, persons who show by their dress and air that they exercise the less remunerative vocations are as politely shown to seats as those who roll up to the door in carriages, and the presence of such persons is desired, and, in many instances, systematically sought. Nevertheless, the poor are repelled. They know they cannot pay their proportion of the expense of maintaining such establishments, and they do not wish to enjoy what others pay for. Everything in and around the church seems to proclaim it a kind of ecclesiastical club, designed for the accommodation of persons of ten thousand dollars a year, and upward. Or it is as though the carriages on the Road to Heaven were divided into first-class, second-class, and third-class, and a man either takes the one that accords with his means, or denies himself the advantage of traveling that road, or prefers to trudge along on foot, an independent wayfarer.
“It is Sunday morning, and the doors of this beautiful drawing-room are thrown open. Ladies dressedwith subdued magnificence glide in, along with some who have not been able to leave at home the showier articles of their wardrobe. Black silk, black velvet, black lace, relieved by intimations of brighter colors, and by gleams from half-hidden jewellery, are the materials most employed. Gentlemen in uniform of black cloth and white linen announce their coming by the creaking of their boots, quenched in the padded carpeting. It cannot be said of those churches, as Mr. Carlyle remarked of a certain London one, that a pistol could be fired into a window across the church without much danger of hitting a Christian. The attendance is not generally very large; but as the audience is evenly distributed over the whole surface, it looks larger than it is. In a commercial city everything is apt to be measured by the commercial standard, and accordingly a church numerically weak, but financially strong, ranks in the town not according to its number of souls, but its number of dollars. We heard a fine young fellow, last summer, full of zeal for everything high and good, conclude a glowing account of a sermon by saying that it was the direct means of adding to the church a capital of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.
“He meant nothing low or mercenary; he honestly exulted in the fact that the power and influence attached to the possession of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars were thenceforward to be exerted on behalf of objects which he esteemed the highest. If therefore the church before our view cannot boast of a numerous attendance, it more than consoles itself by the reflection, that there are a dozen names of talismanic power in Wall street on its list of members.
“But suppose the doctor should leave you?” objected a friend of ours to a trustee, who had been urging him to buy a pew in a fashionable church.
“Well, my dear sir,” was the business-like reply; “suppose he should. We should immediately engage the very first talent which money can command.”
“We can hardly help taking this simple view of things in rich commercial cities. Our worthy trustee merely put the thing on the correct basis. He frankly said what every Church does, ought to do, and must do. He stated a universal fact in the plain and sensible language to which he was accustomed. In the same way these business-like Christians have borrowed the same language of the world, and speak of men who are ‘good’ for a million.
“The congregation is assembled. The low mumble of the organ ceases. A female voice rises melodiously above the rustle of dry-goods and the whisper of those who wear them. So sweet and powerful is it, that a stranger might almost suppose it borrowed from the choir of heaven; but the inhabitants of the town recognize it as one they have often heard at concerts or at the opera; and they listen critically, as to a professional performance, which it is. It is well that highly artificial singing prevents the hearer from catching the words of the song; for it would have rather an odd effect to hear rendered, in the modern Italian style, such plain, straightforward words as these: ‘Can sinners hope for heaven Who love this world so well? Or dream of future happiness While on the road to hell?’”
The performance, however, is so exquisite that we do not think of these things, but listen in rapture to the voice alone. When the lady has finished her stanza, a noble baritone, also recognized as a professional, takes up the strain, and performs a stanza, also, at the conclusion of which, four voices, in enchanting accord, breathe out a third. It is evident that the ‘first talent that money can command’ has been ‘engaged’ for the entertainment of the congregation; and we are not surprised when the information is proudly communicated that the music costs a hundred and twenty dollars a Sunday.
“What is very surprising and well worthy of consideration is that this beautiful music ‘does not draw.’ In our rovings about among the noted churches of New York—of the kind which ‘engage the first talent that money can command’—we could never see that the audience was much increased by expensive professional music. On the contrary, we can lay it down as a general rule, that the costlier the music, the smaller is the average attendance. The afternoon service at Trinity Church, for example, is little more than a delightful gratuitous concert of boys, and man, and organ; and the spectacle of the altar brilliantly lighted by candles is novel and highly picturesque. The sermon also is the fashionable length—twenty minutes; and yet the usual afternoon congregation is about two hundred persons. Those celestial strains of music—well, they enchant the ear, if the ear happens to be within hearing of them; but somehow they do not furnish a continuous attraction.
“When this fine prelude is ended, the minister’s part begins; and, unless he is a man of extraordinary bearing and talents, every one present is conscious of a kind of lapse in the tone of the occasion. Genius composed the music; the ‘first talent’ executed it; the performance has thrilled the soul, and exalted expectation; but the voice now heard may be ordinary, and the words uttered may be homely, or even common. No one unaccustomed to the place can help feeling a certain incongruity between the language heard and the scene witnessed. Every thing we see is modern; the words we hear are ancient. The preacher speaks of ‘humble believers,’ and we look around and ask, where are they? Are these costly and elegant persons humble believers? Far be it from us to intimate that they are not; we are speaking only of their appearance, and its effect upon a casual beholder. The clergyman reads, ‘Come, let us join in sweet accord,’ and straightway four hired performers execute a piece of difficult music, to an audience sitting passive. He discourses upon the ‘pleasures of the world’ as being at war with the interests of the soul; and, while a severe sentence to this effect is coming from his lips, down the aisle marches the sexton, showing some stranger to a seat, who is a professional master of the revels. He expresses, perchance, a fervent desire that the heathen may be converted to Christianity, and we catch ourselves saying, ‘Does he mean this sort of things?’ When we pronounce the word Christianity it calls up recollections and associations that do not exactly harmonize with the scene around us. We think rather of the fishermen of Palestine, on the lonely sea-shore; of the haunted fugitives of Italy and Scotland, we think of it as something lowly, and suited to the lowly—a refuge for the forsaken and the defeated, not the luxury of the rich and the ornament of the strong. It may be an infirmity of our mind; but we experience a certain difficulty in realizing that the sumptuous and costly apparatus around us has anything in common with what we have been accustomed to think of as Christianity.
“Sometimes, the incongruity reaches the point of the ludicrous. We recently heard a very able and well-intentioned preacher, near the Fifth Avenue, ask the ladies before him whether they were in the habit of speaking to their female attendants about their soul’s salvation—particularly those who dressed their hair. He especially mentioned the hair-dressers; because, as he truly remarked, ladies are accustomed to converse with those artists, during the operation of hair-dressing, on a variety of topics; and the opportunity was excellent to say a word on the most important. This incident perfectly illustrates what we mean by the seeming incongruity between the ancient cast of doctrine and the modern people to whom it is preached. We have heard sermons in fashionable churches in New York, laboriously prepared and earnestly read, which had nothing in them of the modern spirit, contained not the most distant allusion to modern modes of living and sinning, had no suitableness whatever to the people or the time, and from which everything that could rouse or interest a human soul living on Manhattan Island, in the year 1867, seemed to have been purposely pruned away. And perhaps, if a clergyman really has no message to deliver, his best course is to utter a jargon of nothings.”

The Surest Way to Happiness

'The Emperor of Germany, Sigismund, being asked the surest mode of obtaining happiness, replied, “Only do in health what you promised to do when you were sick.”

Trust the Lord

Trust the Lord with all thy heart.

THE BOW IN THE CLOUD.

By ANGELIA J. EDMUNDS

Tuesday evening, May 28, 1867, after the many gloomy days of rain, what a joy filled our hearts when the bright rays of the setting sun shed a halo of splendor abroad, dispersing in a moment all the melancholy forebodings of nature, and causing the yet descending rain drops to sparkle and glisten like diamonds in the sunshine. While I was thinking that the light I then looked upon must be but a shadow of the glory that will fill the earth when the curse is removed, I heard an exclamation, “A rainbow in the east.” My friends, doubtless every one of you like myself hastened to gaze upon the lovely scene, the bow of promise.
Poor sinners, while you were gazing with admiration did not your hearts thrill with a feeling of pleasure? Did you not feel to exclaim, There is a Creator whom I should worship? If you would repent of your sins, if you would make Jesus your friend, what glory you might behold in Heaven. “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.” Eze. i, 28. Oh! that poor sinners would heed the still small voice that is constantly warning them. John, on the isle of Patmos, saw the throne of God in Heaven surrounded by a rainbow. And soon we may stand on the sea of glass before that throne, having harps of gold. We shall cast our crowns before it saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. iv, 11.
Once it rained forty days and forty nights, “and the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.” All flesh was destroyed off the face of the earth except Noah and they that were with him in the ark. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every thought of the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
It is now as it was in Noah’s time. Go where we may we see nothing but wickedness. God cannot bear with poor sinners much longer. By nearly every tongue does he hear his name taken in vain, and every other commandment is as extensively broken; but he will not deluge the earth again with water, for he said, “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Gen. viii, 22. “And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.” Gen. ix, 11. “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Verse 16. My friends, while you and I looked upon the rainbow God looked upon it also and remembered his promise. In a little while “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” 2 Thess. i, 8, 9. Soon saints will be permitted not only to see the rainbow of bright glory that surrounds the throne in Heaven, and the exceeding and eternal weight of glory that fills the place where they need no light of the sun, for “the Lamb is the light thereof;” but they will enjoy a home where there are no long stormy days, no dark nights, neither of nature nor of the soul; there we shall bask in the smiles of our Creator forever.
ANGELIA J. EDMUNDS.

Notes on Genesis.

CHAPTER xiv, 12: And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him : and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
‘The Hagarenes, Saracens, and various other tribes of Arabs, are allowed to have descended in great measure from Ishmael. Scott. ‘They have,’ says Brown, ‘always been a nuisance and plague to the nations around them; infamous for theft, robbery, revenge, pillage and murder.’ There is no safety in traveling through their country except in large armed caravans. ‘But though almost every noted conqueror, whether Hebrew, Egyptian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, Roman, Tartar, or Turkish, hath pushed his conquests to their borders, or even beyond, into Egypt, or Arabia Felix, not one has been able to subdue these Ishmaelites, or deprive them of their freedom. The mighty Shishak, king of Egypt, was obliged to draw a line along their frontiers, to protect his kingdom from their inroads. The Assyrians under Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib, and the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, greatly harassed them, and almost extirpated some of their tribes; Isa. xxi, 11–17, Num. xxiv, 22, Jer. xxv, 23, 24; xlix, 28–38. Provoked with their contempt, Alexander made vast preparations for their utter destruction; but death cut short his purpose. Antigonus, one of his captains and successors, provoked with their depredations, more than once, but to his repeated dishonor, attempted to subdue them.—Flushed with his eastern victories, the Roman Pompey also attempted it; but his army being recalled when they had hopes of success, these wild Arabs pursued them, almost at their heels, and dreadfully harassed the Roman subjects in Syria. Augustus made one or more fruitless attempts to subdue them. Trajan, one of the most powerful emperors, and most valiant generals of Rome, with a mighty army, determined if possible to conquer them, and laid siege to their capital. But storms of hail, scarce ever seen in that country, tempests, whirlwind, swarms of flies, . . . terrified or repulsed his troops as often as they repeated their attacks. About 80 years after, Severus, another warlike emperor, determined to punish them for siding with his rival, Niger, by an utter reduction of them. But, after he had made a breach on the wall of their principal city, an unaccountable difference between him and his beloved and faithful European troops, obliged him to raise the siege, and leave the country.’ [In the 7th century,] Mohammed arose, and under him and his successors, they subdued a large part of the world. After a time indeed, the power of the Mohammedans was transferred to the Turks, who have repeatedly attempted to subdue the Saracens, or Arabs : but, instead of succeeding, they have for above three hundred years been obliged to pay a large tribute to them, for the safe passage of their pilgrims to Mecca, the city which is the center of their religion! The descendants of Ishmael also lived as ravagers in the neighborhood of the Israelites and Edomites, and other descendants of Abram, and yet were never subjugated by any of them. See Newton on the Prophecies.—Scott.
‘Thus their manner of life and history for 4000 years, is alone an absolutely demonstrative argument of the divine origin of the Pentateuch. To attempt its refutation, in the sight of reason and common sense, would convict of most ridiculous presumption and excessive folly.’—Dr. A. Clarke.
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