Review and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 12. (3/7/1871)

Review and Herald

Mar 7, 1871

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 7, 1871

The Seventh Day on the Round World.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

The recent article on this subject was called out by the fact that Dr. M. G. Kellogg of California had become troubled with the idea that a definite day is not possible to all the inhabitants of the earth. Not that any practical difficulty exists in California in the way of observing the Sabbath as it comes in the westward course of the sun from that land where we know that the Almighty proclaimed it in giving his law, but this brother became perplexed over the supposed difficulty in the case of the Alaskans, and of those who sail around the globe. Dr. K., in the height of his perplexity, wrote an article on this subject for the World's Crisis, which its Editor told him he meant to issue in tract form. He also sent the substance of that article to me, requesting a reply, which was given in the REVIEW for Feb. 14. After reading this reply, Dr. K. writes requesting further notice of his difficulty.

The argument showing the existence of a line dividing between the commencement and the termination of the course of day, gives occasion to a statement of several objections. He does not take his stand to deny such a line; for to do this is really to deny the actual existence of the definite first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh days of the week; for there must be a line from which each day begins the circuit of the globe. In other words, as the day does not begin “all round the world at once,” there must be some point at which its course begins, and with which it terminates that course. It is manifest that each day of the course begins earlier as we go eastward. But we can keep going eastward till we complete the circuit of our globe, and thus reach the very point from which we set out. But every one can see from this fact that the act of tracing the day backward and finding that it begins one hour earlier for each fifteen degrees that we go east, can be continued only for a certain distance; for there is another side to that matter. We can circumnavigate the globe in a westerly direction also. And if we do it, we shall find that each day begins later by one hour for each fifteen degrees that we go westward. But this also can be continued only for a certain distance; for as the day grows earlier and yet earlier as we follow it back eastward toward its source, or starting point, so does it grow later and yet later when we follow it forward toward the west, to the point where that course terminates. And when we reach this point, we shall find that one side of the line is necessarily twenty-four hours distant in time from the other. For if you stand on the west side of that line, you stand at the commencement of the course of day; if you stand on the east of that line, you stand at the termination of that course.

If any deny this, they must virtually assert that as day begins earlier and still earlier in going east, and as you can go east till you arrive at the very point whence you set out which is a palpable untruth. Again as the day begins later and still later as you go west, and as you can go westward round the world till you reach the very point whence you started, you do, from these premises, prove that the day begins here latest of all, which is also a manifest falsehood. As two opposite and palpable falsehoods can thus be proved from the premises of those who deny the fact that each day of the week has a commencement and a termination to its course, those premises are manifestly untruthful and false. There must be, therefore, a line whence the course of day begins, and candor requires an acknowledgement of this fact from all men who have their attention called to the evidence in the case.

But Dr. K. inquires, “Is the existence of such a line calculated to produce harmony in the settlements through which it may pass, and is it in harmony with the wisdom and justice of God as manifested in all other of his works?”

But in this question he overlooks the argument which has been adduced to prove that this line is found in the Pacific Ocean. For it is a fact that the west coast of the Pacific is just one day in advance of the time on its east coast, a plain proof that the line dividing the commencement of the course of day from its termination is found in the Pacific. And it is also a fact that a line from north to south may be drawn through the Pacific, through the midst of Behring’s Straits, and touch no body of land unless, perhaps, some very small islands. Such a line cannot be drawn through the Atlantic. And thus in the providence of God, the line exists in the only place where it is possible that such a line could be established. And the supposed difficulty in its maintenance through the heart of the inhabited continent is entirely obviated.

Again Dr. K. inquires, “If God intended that the Sabbath should be observed with reference to such a line, would he not in his revealed word, and most emphatically in his Sabbath law, have informed men that such a line existed, and have given them directions how to keep the Sabbath in those countries through which said line might pass?”

To this we answer that God has made no revelation in the Bible of the fact that the world is round, or that it revolves on its axis, instead of standing still and having the sun go around it. In due time, men could ascertain these facts for themselves. He did in his Sabbath law give men permission to labor on the six days of the week which he had used in the work of creation, and he did command them to hallow the day on which he rested. Now each of these days must begin and end at some point. And the providence of God which causes each day to go round the world in the apparent path of the sun from east to west, has also caused the course of empire to compass the earth in this same direction. And thus the course of civilized man has been with the sun from Asia westward across the face of the globe to the western coast of America. And so that providence of God which first made the waters a barrier, has plainly indicated where that line should be, or to speak more accurately, has actually established that line as a matter of fact. And as it passes through no countries, but leaves them all either on one side or the other, there is no such necessity for specific directions as Bro. K. supposes.

He inquires further, “Would not God have established some natural barrier or waymark on the earth extending from pole to pole, that should plainly indicate that the Sabbath begins its journey from thence around the world westward?”

We think he did do this on the third day when he gathered together the waters unto one place, and when he saw that it was good. Gen. 1. And it is a fact that this barrier does now exist, and that in the course of God’s providence, day begins twenty-four hours earlier on the west side of that ocean than on the east side of it.

Bro. K. wishes to know how we can carry the beginning of God’s rest from the meridian of Eden to that of Behring’s Straits. But in the first place we answer that the site of Eden cannot be determined, and is not therefore entitled to any particular weight as an objection. The standpoint of the Holy Spirit in describing the events of the creation week, or rather in marking the time in that chapter, must be where twilight existed on that morning when light was first created; and where it also existed on the evening of the fourth day when the sun began its rule, which points, by the way, must be identical, as we may show in a future article. The providence of God has established the line of transition from one day to another to be in the Pacific, and even were this some distance to the east of Eden, it would constitute no real difficulty in the way of the definite seventh day in Eden.

Dr. K. adduces the case of the American Indians. He says that as they came eastward to America from Asia by the way of Behring’s Straits, it is important that we should be able to show how they could preserve the correct reckoning of the week, and yet cross the line of transition from the beginning of the course of day to the termination of that course. But we have this to say of the Indians that they are the descendants of those that did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Rom. 1. They preserved no knowledge of the Scriptures, and retained only the vaguest idea of the divine Being. The most civilized portion of the native Americans, viz., the inhabitants of Mexico, were at the time of their conquest by the Spaniards, observers of human sacrifices! The American Indians retained neither the Sabbath nor even the division of time into weeks, and so the question of difficulty in the way of their preserving a correct reckoning of the week is of no consequence at all. It is proper to add, however, that it is not absolutely certain that they did come to America by way of Behring’s Straits. But it is certain that civilized man retaining the Bible, the gospel, and the reckoning of the week, has compassed the globe westward with the sun. The providence of God has done for mankind everything that has been necessary, both in preserving to them the knowledge of the true seventh day from creation, and in definitely marking the course of each day around the world.

Bro. K. inquires whether if civilization had compassed the world eastward from Asia instead of westward, the day line would not be found in the Atlantic instead of in the Pacific. Unquestionably had the providence of God been just the reverse of what it has been, the result would have been the opposite of what it is. But the westward course of day, of civilization, and of the gospel, plainly bears the mark of God’s power. And as it is certain that time began to be reckoned in Asia, and that the day goes westward around the world and not eastward, it is really impossible for us to conceive of the dividing line being found in the Atlantic instead of the Pacific.

The meridian of 180 degrees east or west from the observatory of Greenwich, England, has only an accidental connection with the fact that the day line actually exists in the Pacific Ocean. It is true that this meridian is but a few degrees to the west of Behring’s Straits. But the fact that day on the west coast of the Pacific is twenty-four hours in advance of day on its east coast, is wholly independent of any attempt to reckon longitude by geographers or astronomers.

Bro. K. seems to think that Moses must have intended to identify the names of rivers and countries before the flood with those after that event. Now nothing is more natural than that the sons of Noah, on taking possession of the earth after the flood, should give to the rivers and countries of the New World, names with which they were familiar in the world before the flood. But a little consideration must show that antediluvian geography cannot be identified with the geography of the world that now is. Take the case of the river Gihon (Gen 2 : 13) which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. Now Ethiopia or Cush is either the southern part of Arabia, or it is a country of Africa south of Egypt. No river compasseth Arabia, and none of any size flow through it. If it be said that the Ethiopia intended is Central Africa, and that the Nile is the river Gihon, we answer, first, the Nile does not compass this Ethiopia, and second, instead of flowing from the supposed site of the garden to compass this land, it flows in the opposite direction. Of the antediluvian world, Peter says: “The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Pet. 3. And we think the probabilities very strong that the greater part of the antediluvian world is now beneath the waters of the ocean.

As to the day line in the Pacific Ocean, we accept that providence which has given us this line in the only part of the world where it can possibly exist. And we have shown that there is no proof whatever to indicate that the original day line was located through Western Asia. Certainly no one can show that there is an essential difference between the existing day line and that which was originally established by the Creator.

Bro. Kellogg concludes his letter in the following words:

“I most sincerely regret my rashness in sending anything to the Crisis. May God forgive me.”

We are satisfied that when the facts are fully appreciated, instead of furnishing an argument as they have long been supposed to do, that the seventh part of time is the real intent of the fourth commandment, they will be found to present an unanswerable argument in vindication of the definite seventh day.

Why Watch and Wait?

By Dr. Cumming

“Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.”—MATT. 25: 13.

The promise of the Saviour’s coming is the key-note of prophecy. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go.” Again, “He will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” Again, “Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour.” “We shall appear with him in glory.” “The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.” Again, said that ancient and afflicted emir, seated in the sunshine on his eastern plains, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Even Balaam, who practiced evil, but was inspired to prophecy good, could say, “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion.” The Psalms are full of predictions of the advent of our blessed Lord. In the 50th Psalm, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice;” or in the New-Testament language, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” And the Saviour himself tells us, in language the most graphic, “The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” And Peter says, “When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” And John in the Apocalypse says, “Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him.” When Jesus said, at the close of that splendid vision which irradiated with its noonday splendor the lonely island on the bosom of the Ægean, “Surely I come quickly,” the last words of John, the beloved disciple, who outlived the 11, and died at the age of 80, with which he closed his vision, were these: “Amen;” so let it be. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Christ is the end of creation and redemption; he is the perfection to which all imperfection soars; the glory to which all the fallen creation aspires; the great model to which humanity in its noblest specimens shall be conformed; the Sun of Righteousness, in whose light we shall see light.

But what is there in the promised advent of Christ that makes his advent the desire and the aspiration of all that know him? We desire his speedy approach because we shall see him as he is, not as he was—the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief, wounded and stricken for our transgressions—but crowned with the diadems of creation, providence, redemption; angels adoring, and prostrate millions casting their crowns in flashing showers at his feet, and saying, “Not unto us, but unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” If we believe in what he has done; if we love him as the author and the finisher of our faith; as the friend longs for the presence of his best friend; as the family longs for the return of its parent and its head; as the bride longs for the arrival of the bridegroom, whom he comes to accept as his wife; so must we, like John, desire the advent of him who comes to right a creation that has gone wrong, and to restore a glory that has passed away like a vision. Surely, when he comes amid welcoming shouts and hosannas, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” we too will praise and glorify and worship him.

When he comes, the glass through which we see darkly shall be removed; the mists that darken our vision will drop from our eyes; the atmosphere that is now so hazy will be disinfected and purified, and we shall see the King in his beauty, and the land that is now afar off—we shall see him as he is. Even at present the words which he has inspired and consecrated for the knowledge of him are very imperfect. There is a sense in which the Bible is an imperfect book; that is to say, it must come short, as all human speech must fail to express an infinite glory, to delineate a divine beauty, or to enumerate the excellences of him who is the chief of ten thousand, and altogether lovely. The best of photographs is but an imperfect representation of the original; the best and most inspired passages of Scripture but imperfectly set forth his glory; finite vehicles cannot contain infinite excellences, finite language cannot define an infinite, glorious, and gracious Being. When he comes, the portrait will be superseded

as unnecessary. The sacramental memorial of his death will be annulled; for we shall need no reminiscence or memorial of One who is no longer absent, but present in the midst of us, the light, in a sense intenser than it ever was realized before, that lightens the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.

When he comes, we shall be like him. At present, the best of us are very unlike him. Read the perfect biography, then turn over the leaves of memory, and read your own. What contrast! It is not comparison, it is all but absolute contrast. But a day comes when he returns to earth, according to his own glorious promise; when we shall be like him; our hearts true in every beat; our intellects clear and keen as when they first came from the creative touch of God; our consciences the perfect echo of the perfect will of our Father in Heaven; all the faculties of our souls an accordant and adoring priesthood, because inspired by the breath of his Spirit, giving forth strains of music we never reached before. These bodies of ours, which have been so much deteriorated by sin, and are so great obstructions to its powers, shall be restored and reconsecrated. Between Eve in ancient Eden before the fall, and the fairest of her daughters upon earth, there is, I do not say an infinite, but a very great contrast. In every instance, bodily as well as morally, the gold is become dim, the fine gold is changed; the wine is mixed with water; the crown of glory and of beauty is fallen from our heads. But at that day we shall rise in resurrection robes; the cold and corruptible garments of mortality consigned to the grave. There will be left no trace of corruption, or imperfection, or aught of the ravages and taint of a great primal sin. Eye, and ear, and all our senses, shall be perfect as they shall be pure. This mortal shall put on immortality; this corruptible shall put on incorruptibility. Every sense shall be an inlet to joy, every sensation shall be as blissful as it is pure.

All things that offend shall be cast out; all things that are decayed shall be made new. Is not that a blessed hope? a glorious expectation? Whatever sin has done in our flesh shall be undone; every trace of imperfection, every mark of evil—every groove upon the brow—those deep grooves that record the history they would fain compress in very little space shall all disappear. Now they remind us of the brown sea-sand, from which the tide of life has long been retreating. These grooves the retreating tides of life leave behind—the memorials of a thousand cares, the deep-graven reminiscences of many troubles; the mysterious hieroglyphs that we can’t read, but that God can interpret; ah! what anxieties, what griefs, what struggles, what pains, what afflictions, do they prove we have waded through in seeking the blessed shores, where all cares are strangers, and all sorrows have fled; and where if tears be ever shed they must be tears of excess of joy, not tears of broken hearts and bruised spirits. It is a blessed hope that we shall be like Him.

The Bridegroom will come, and those on whom the cold shadow of death has lain for many a long and weary year, he will waken from the sleep of death and bring with him. The babes that fell from the tree of life, and the gray-haired men that withered by the wear of years by its branches, the fair, the beautiful, the holy ones that we would have kept because we loved them, will all reappear, with not one blemish left upon a single brow; not one rude mark remaining on the spirit, not one sting in any heart; all sensations bliss, all sights beauty, all sounds music. The bride shall receive the bridegroom, and she shall no more go out; “and there shall be no more tears.” How beautiful the apocalyptic passage; it is almost music to hear it: “And there shall be no more tears, nor sorrows, nor crying, nor death; all things shall be made new.”

When our blessed Lord comes, all creation will be purified and reconsecrated. Some think that this earth has become so vile that the sooner it is extinguished the better. They think that it is unworthy of God to retain an orb so poor and so sin-stained, and that it had better be cancelled and a lovelier placed in its orbit. There is no prediction of such a catastrophe in the Bible. The deeper we penetrate the arena of nature, the clearer is the proof that annihilation is not possible, and certainly is not fact. But apart from this, would it not be a grievous loss were a world of so historic antecedents as ours expunged from its orbit, and dismissed over the depths of oblivion forever? What! shall the atmosphere breathed by the incarnate God cease to exist? Shall the flowers that those eyes looked on, and the sweet sound of brooks, and waves, and winds, those ears heard, be all extinguished forever? Shall the Mount of Olives, from which he rose; the Mount Tabor, on which a transient gleam of his glory rested, be thrown down? Shall Calvary and Gethsemane be only names of things that no longer are? I cannot believe it; all the instincts of my nature revolt against the idea, and the instinctive desire in our hearts to perpetuate and preserve those historic scenes of the past, are ripples from the great tide of eternity, and in their measure they tell us God will not destroy scenes that superstition may in this imperfect economy pervert, which Christians treat only as they deserve, when they reverently remember them.

To destroy the earth would be to acknowledge and seal the success of Satan. What was the devil’s attempt? To get the earth and us with it. What is he now? He is the prince of the power of the air. We don’t see him, but he walks in our homes; he is here or there, for he goeth about seeking whom he may devour. He or his servants may now be whispering, “Oh! it is all nonsense; don’t believe these things; you have your business to attend to, you must not enter into religious speculations.”

Such a result would interrupt or reverse the great process that God has constantly pursued, and end the analogy that runs through all inspiration. The great law in revelation is not to destroy, and create other things instead, but to take old things and purify and restore them, so as to make them what they were or should be. All the Saviour’s miracles are indications of this. When he opened the eyes of the blind, he did not take out the old orbs, and put in new ones, but he renewed the old ones. And when he unstopped the ears of the deaf, or laid the fever of the sick, or made the lame leap as the roe; or when he quickened the dead—these and indeed all his miracles were restorative and beneficent, as well as miraculous and divine. And therefore we believe the earth will not be destroyed. Indeed, Scripture expressly promises “a new heaven and a new earth.” St. John does not say, I saw another heaven and another earth, as he would have said if it had been something substituted for the old. But does not “new” mean “another”? Certainly not. For instance, we read, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” Does not that mean that his identity disappears, and that he becomes another man? Not at all; he is changed, regenerated, transformed, and becomes new only in the noblest and intensest sense of that word. So this earth will be made a new earth; it will be disinfected and purified; the last fire will refine it as gold and silver; and Jesus the great High Priest will wave his priestly hand over it, and on that earth which has shared in our descent and has become corrupt, literally, I believe, not figuratively, its deserts will rejoice, its solitary places will blossom like the rose, the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them. These are not stray fancies, but assured facts and prophecies that must be accomplished. God has so written it in his holy word, and he will so arrange it in his providence.

Have we any proximate evidence of when he will come?

About three or four o’clock in the morning of June we can see the first beams of light beginning to peep over the distant horizon; then the first rays of twilight tell you that the sun is hastening to rise, and shed his morning beams upon the green earth. Equally can we calculate when winter, and spring, and summer, and autumn, come. We can do more; we can calculate the orbit of a comet, and predict on scientific grounds the probable date of its return. But no calculus of ours can determine the day or the hour when the Son of Man cometh. Yet if he has been pleased to lay down signs, in his own word, which he commands us to read, and which it is our privilege and should be our delight to read, then, by comparing the facts of history, the phenomena of the age, the events that transpire amidst the nations of the earth; many running to and fro, and knowledge being increased; the gospel already preached to all nations as a witness, after which the Saviour says the end shall come; the troubled sky of Europe; the startling scenes of the last ten years; plagues and pestilences in diverse places,—we must say, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” The prophets of peace all told us, in 1851, when the first Crystal Palace appeared a beautiful creation in Hyde Park, “The millennium is come; peace now is inaugurated; there will be no more war.” Thousands were carried away with the dream, and fancied that the dawn of the millennium was about to begin. But all who read their Bibles, and thought and read correctly, felt that anything more absurd or preposterous than such an expectation could not be entertained. Ever since that first beautiful creation onward to the last that appeared in the west of London in 1862, there have been more wars, and more terrible wars, more slaughter, more convulsion of nations, more changing of thrones, more revolutionary paroxysms, more upheaving of the continent of Europe, than has been known probably since the French revolution in 1793. These things are all shadows on the dial, indicating substance somewhere; the echoes of the warning voices, sounded by the Saviour and written in the gospel, when he told his disciples, and through them his believing people in future ages, When you shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, and people against people; pestilences, famines, earthquakes in diverse places, then you have the budding of the fig-tree; the summer is near, the everlasting summer; “and then shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”

If we look not only at the world at large, but at the condition of the church universal, we ask, Was ever the visible church in such commotion, in such convulsions, as it is now? Some churches with skepticism eating into their very hearts; others, again, with popery without a pope, or rather with many popes, very inconsistent, but very real, coming over them like a dark eclipse; others quarreling about forms and ceremonies; and every visible church in Christendom in a state of fermentation; as if God were about to teach, what churchmen of all denominations are so reluctant to learn, that there is no perfect church till the perfect Lord come; that the tares will grow with the wheat. My churchmanship is so low that I have come to the conviction that the best church on earth is simply a recruiting station for the true church which is in Heaven; and that the greatest archbishop, and the most eloquent preacher on earth, are simply recruiting sergeants, gathering in and enlisting converts for the army of the living God.

When the Saviour comes, what will he do? He will come to prove that redemption is no failure; that his own word is no fable. Some cry, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were.” Others say, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry.” But the believer says, Come Lord Jesus, come speedily. And when he comes, he will show that not one jot has fallen from the least promise, but all has been exactly fulfilled; that Christianity, in the numbers of its converts, in the splendor of its victories, in the results and issues of its conflicts, is no failure, but has the pre-eminence in all things. That ancient servant Moses, that stern prophet Elijah, and all that believe in the Lamb, shall meet on a mountain, the glory of which shall not fade, and in a day which shall have no night, and a blessedness which shall have no end. It will be seen that redemption was no mistake, that Christianity was no cunningly devised fable; that all that it predicts, but which thousands scoff at; that all that it claims, which thousands repudiate, it truthfully predicted and justly claimed; all things made new; God in the midst of his people; the bride presented to the bridegroom; creation restored; the earth animated by a new spirit; and all things purified, glorified, elevated, ennobled, will attest, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of a great multitude, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”—Dr. Cumming.

CONSECRATION

By Emily L. Carnight

I have resolved to go to that bright land Far far above, in yonder azure dome, And on this resolution take my stand, To live for God, and live for him alone. Following where'er he leads, be it through weal, or woe, Putting my trust in him, I have resolved to go.

I have resolved to go, though oft my spirit

Is led astray by some alluring sin; But in the blood of Jesus is my merit; To keep me pure, I'll surely trust in him, Knowing his will to lead and keep me while below, And guide me up to Heaven; I have resolved to go.

I have resolved to go to that fair land; Thanks be to God, I need not go alone; Friends good and true, I find on every hand, Far on the journey to our heavenly home. Friendship, and truth, and love, o'er all my pathway glow, To cheer me on the way, I have resolved to go.

I am resolved to go—God waits on high; And Jesus pleads for me before the throne, And angels great and strong are ever nigh, To bear me on to my eternal home. Thither, my God, let all my best affections flow, Gather my treasure there, where I've resolved to go.

EMILY L. CARNIGHT. Battle Creek, Mich.

The New French Government.

FRANCE begins to extricate herself from the chaotic condition in which she has been for half a year. The representatives of the whole nation, elected by universal suffrage, have met as a National Assembly, and have chosen a provisional government, of which that veteran statesman of France, Adolphe Thiers, is the President. Only a few organs of the Red Republicans advocated the continuance of the lawless state which is now ended, and insisted to the last that no election should be held until the last man of the invading army had been expelled from French soil. It has all along been the opinion of most candid observers that the Government appointed in Paris in September should be repudiated whenever an appeal would be made to the whole people; and this expectation has now been verified. The composition of the National Assembly is in itself a disapprobation of the course pursued by Gambetta, Rochefort, and their associates.

All the foreign governments have hastened to recognize the new government. Germany, in particular, has dispelled the anxiety which was felt by many German Liberals and many liberal sympathizers with the course of Germany all over the world, lest she should use her whole influence for the overthrow of the republican form of government, and the restoration either of the Orleans or the Bonapartes. She unreservedly recognizes the administration of Thiers as the only lawful government of France, and thus pays a much more real and substantial homage to the principle of national sovereignty than the fanatical Red Republicans have ever done. The conduct of Germany and the other Great Powers of Europe implies the assurance that should France, through a Constituent Assembly, declare her preference for a republican form of government, her decision will be respected by all other countries of Europe. The republican form of government has as yet not been adopted by the great European nations; but its real basis, the principle of national sovereignty and the right of every people to dispose of its own destinies, is silently admitted by princes, as well as peoples, and when the true representatives of republican principles shall succeed in converting the undoubted majority of one of the European peoples to the republican creed, no great resistance to the establishment of a republic need be feared on the part of any foreign power.

The first utterances of the National Assembly of Bordeaux were not in favor of any particular form of government, but in favor of a harmonious coöperation of all moderate parties for the establishment of a provisional government possessing the confidence of the people. For the present, the maintenance of a republican administration naturally commended itself to the Assembly as a necessity, and it very judiciously chose a man who has been all his life long a firm adherent of moderate republican principles, M. Grevy, as its Provisional President. He received the votes not only of his own party, but of all the other parties, with the exception of the Red Republicans, and probably of a few ultras of the Bonapartists and Legitimists. On the other hand, the moderate Republicans did not hesitate to vote for M. Thiers as Provisional President of the Republic, though he has always been, and is believed still to be, an adherent of the Orleans family. In the ministry chosen by Thiers, the moderate Republicans and the Orléanists are about equally represented. Thus these two parties united are at present in the ascendant. Their union, of course, cannot last long, and one of them must sooner or later seize the reins of the Government. At present, the Orléanists are believed to have the best prospect.

While our paper is going to press, nothing is yet known about the conditions of peace. The general opinion is, that France cannot and will not refuse to accept the ultimatum which Germany may propose. As Germany will not prolong the armistice which will expire in the course of the present week, the momentous question of peace or war will be decided before our next number is issued.—The Methodist.

How the Jews Like It.

DOES any one believe that, if Judge Strong could procure the mention of the Deity in the Constitution, he would rest satisfied? That would be absurd, for next to an atheist, a deist is, to a godly person, the most hateful creature that breathes, and the next step would be the adoption of Christianity as the national religion. This would at once logically exclude the Jews from all participation in the Government, for it would be highly inconvenient that a Christian country should have laws made for it by people who not only denied, but crucified, the Saviour. Having progressed so far, our reformers would naturally direct their attention to the blaspheming Unitarians, whom they consider as almost equaling, if not exceeding, the Jews in iniquity; and the Christianity of the constitution would here assume a decided Trinitarian government. The next question to be determined would be, whether the Roman Catholics, whom many Protestants regard as no better than pagans and image-worshipers, are to be admitted as Christians within the view of the Constitution; at this point, the controversy would reach its climax, and would become as imbittered as only those contests can which are waged for the purpose of deciding which party possesses the real secret of brotherly love and good will to all men. Whether the Romanists or the Calvinists gained the ultimate victory, the result would be equally disastrous to the best interests of religion, morality, and progress. While there is, presumably, no danger that the people of this country will ever be so entirely forsaken by their usual good sense as to enter on so ruinous a career of religious dissension, we must remember that, for nations as for individuals, there is no safety except in adhering strictly to correct and approved principles. The fathers of our institutions weighed all the arguments carefully before arriving at the determination that civil liberty and prosperity could only be secured by the most rigid separation of the Church from the State. Experience has shown the wisdom of their conclusion, and the States of Europe, incited by our example, are gradually, but steadily, conforming their practices to our theory, and cutting loose from old habits which had almost become a part of their nature. Shall we now put on their cast-off tinsel, and, having helped to rescue them from all errors, fall in, irretrievably, ourselves? Let us, then, beware of entertaining or encouraging, in any way, the anachronistic and narrow-minded proposals of Judge Strong and his fellow-bigots.—Jewish Times.

Strong Characters.

STRENGTH of character consists of two things—power of will and power of self-restraint. It requires two things therefore for its existence—strong feelings and strong command over them. Now it is here we make a great mistake; we mistake strong feelings for strong character. A man who bears all before him, before whose frown domestics tremble, and whose bursts of fury make the children of the household quake—because he has his will obeyed, and his own will in all things, we call him a strong man. The truth is, that is the weak man; it is his passions that are strong; he that is mastered by them is weak. You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. And hence composure is very often the highest result of strength. Did we never see a man receive a flagrant insult, and only grow a little pale, and then reply quietly? That man is spiritually strong. Or did we never see a man in anguish stand as if carved out of solid rock, mastering himself? or one bearing a hopeless daily trial remain silent, and never tell the world what cankered his home peace? That is strength. He who, with strong passions, remains chaste; he who, keenly sensitive, with many powers of indignation in him, can be provoked and yet restrain himself and forgive—these are the strong.—F. W. Robertson.

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