Review and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 9. (8/24/1876)

Review and Herald

Aug 24, 1876

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 24, 1876

An Appeal to the Unconverted and Backsliders.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

TEXT: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Cor. 6:2.

Dear Reader: I want to ask you a few solemn questions. I want them to go home to your own heart. Are you a Christian? Have you made your peace with God? Have you put away all your sins? and are you doing the will of Christ? If you should die to-day, are you ready? or are you living on from day to day without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world? Are you unprepared for the solemn Judgment? Have you once known the Lord and then turned away from him? If this is your condition, I want to make one solemn appeal to you, and I hope you will consider it earnestly and carefully. Do not hear it carelessly, nor pass it by lightly. It is for your own benefit that I make these remarks. I have many good and overwhelming reasons why you should turn square about this very day, and prepare for eternity. Shall I name some of these reasons? and will you think of them?

Your life on earth will be but very short at the longest. The allotted age of man is seventy years; but very few, comparatively, reach even this age. More than one-half die under thirty years of age. But granting that you may live to the allotted age of man, it will be but a moment as it were; it will very soon be past. James says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:14. You arise in the morning and behold the dew on the grass; you return to your breakfast and again go out to your work—the dew is gone, the grass is dry. Just so is man; to-day he is here; to-morrow he is gone forever. And Peter says all flesh is as the grass, and as the blade of grass. In the spring see that grass. How beautiful it looks! how full of life! It appears as though it might live forever; but look on that field again in August. The grass is yellow and dead. Its life is ended. Just so with you. You may be enjoying the strength of youth or of manhood now, but very soon all this will end. Look at the flower; see that rose. Oh, how fresh! how beautiful! It looks as if it never would die. But, alas! look on it again in a day or two. It is faded and withered, and its leaves are falling: its race is ended. All these are fit emblems of the fleeting life which you are now living on earth.

Could we live a thousand years, such a life would seem very, very long; but yet even then an end would come. The fifth chapter of Genesis is a sad commentary upon the history of man. Although those old patriarchs lived from six hundred to nine hundred years, yet the record of each one ends in this short sentence, “And he died.” How solemn those few words, “And he died.” So has closed the record of all the millions that have lived upon our earth.

Two thousand years ago, Xerxes, a great Persian king, assembled the largest army the world ever saw—about five million men. They were gathered at the foot of the mountain. He ascended the height above, that he might have a view of them all. As he beheld that vast multitude,—soldiers in uniform, captains, generals, and great warriors, their glittering spears, their shining armor, their fierce array, and felt that he was the ruler of them all, that his word could move that mighty host hither and thither, his heart was filled with pride. But soon a change came over him. His countenance fell, and he began to weep. His friends asked him why he wept. He replied that he was meditating as to where all this vast host would be in one hundred years—dead, all dead, still and silent in the dust, and himself lying with them! This was a true thought. How many ages have rolled by since that time, and those soldiers have all been slumbering with the dead. So it will soon be with us. To-day, like the generation before us, we are alive, full of the ambitions and the passions and the business of life. But in a short time this will all be over with us, and our generation, our race, will be ended. Go back three hundred years, and Luther was alive. He was surrounded by a generation of living men in every age and condition of life. He appealed to them solemnly, earnestly, to give their hearts to God and prepare for the Judgment. But most of them were too busy or too careless to heed his warnings. But, dear reader, where are they now? Luther is dead, they are all dead,—men, women, and little children.

The other day I saw a copy of the Boston Gazette, published in 1772. That was more than one hundred years ago. The articles in that paper were written by the hands of living men. The type was set by the fingers of living persons. Those sheets were handled by living beings, and those words were read by eyes of the living. But though that frail sheet of paper still survives, not one of that then living host is alive now—not one. Is it so, reader, that you and I are not as enduring as the paper in your hands? Think of it, this paper on which I am writing, this paper which you are reading, as frail as it is, is more enduring than we ourselves. It can be preserved ages on ages, but we must soon turn to corruption; and this is true of you. Your father is dead, your mother is dead, your uncles and aunts are dead, your brothers and sisters are dead, perhaps your children are dead; many of your neighbors are dead, have died by your side. You are like them; your race must also soon end. My brother, my sister, what are you doing? How are you spending these fleeting moments? Are you improving them as you should? Are you preparing for eternity, for the Judgment, for the dread hereafter? You have no time to spare. You should be up and about the work now. My text truly says, “Behold, now is the day of salvation; behold, now is the accepted time.” To-morrow may be too late. You have no assurance of it.

Death with you is absolutely certain. Whether you live till Jesus comes or die before, your probation will close in either case. God has said, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment.” Heb. 9:27. What a solemn fiat concerning us! “It is appointed.” God has appointed, hence there is no evading it. Appointed unto us to die. Then the very next thing in the future will be the Judgment. There is no evading it, there is no getting around it. Again the Lord says, “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war.” How true this statement is, “There is no discharge in that war.” We must all be brought face to face with the Judgment. If there is war and a man is drafted, he may pay a ransom for himself, or he may hire a substitute to take his place. He may run away and evade the officers, or he may get discharged. There are a thousand ways to get out of the war.

But, says the word of God, speaking of death, “There is no discharge in that war.” You may be beautiful in form and features, but that will not save you; you may be young, but that will not save you; you may have the strength of Samson, but yet you must die; you may have the wisdom of Solomon, but this will not save you. You may have the riches of a kingdom, but you cannot buy off. No man can die for you, your friends around you cannot save you. To death and the Judgment, you must come. Every time the sun sets it is bringing that dread hour one day nearer. Every beat of the pulse numbers one less moment for you to live. You know that this is so,—you will not deny it. You who now are alive reading this paper, listening to these words—you will one day realize in your own person just what we are to-day saying. My friend, are you prepared to face the Judgment? If you are not, let me earnestly appeal to you to stop now in your foolish career; turn right about; begin this moment; set your house in order; prepare to meet your God.

A few weeks ago, after an absence of thirteen years, I returned to my old home, where I was born and where I lived till I was twenty-one. I went back to the old farm. Every hill and hollow was familiar to me; every tree and rock, every mark, reminded me of some scene in the past. When I was there the last time my father was alive. With him I had been over every rod of ground on that farm many times. Together we had talked, and worked, and hoped, but where is he now? I went to the graveyard; there was a new-made grave. My father was dead and lying there. Then I inquired for the old neighbors. Our neighbor on the right hand was dead. Our nearest neighbor on the other side was dead, and so there was scarcely a family but had lost one or more since I was there. A large number of my schoolmates, young men and women of my age, with whom I had associated in parties, in pleasure, and in the church, with whom I had studied, side by side, in classes so many times,—many of these were now silent in death. I was so sadly reminded of the vanity of all earthly things that I did not wish to return again. But what is now true of them will soon be true of us all. Then how important that we prepare for this solemn event.

Death often comes very suddenly, when least expected. David expressed this truth pathetically when he said to Jonathan, “As thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.” It is like stepping, or walking, in the dark. One does not know but the next step he takes will precipitate him headlong into the jaws of death. Death is all around us, everywhere and constantly. It is in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the food we eat. When we think we are the most secure, we are perhaps in the greatest danger. When we are dreaming of a long life, our last hour may have come. What slight accidents, seemingly, often prove our death. A man walks out of his house, and is brought back a lifeless corpse. We get into a wagon, and meet death. We go to our work, and death is there. We take the cars or the boat, and suddenly death is on every hand.

How many illustrations we have all seen of this. It is not simply the old that die suddenly. It is not the feeble, but it is more frequently the young, the strong and the careless, those who are least expecting it. Just the other day, where we were stopping, there was a young couple just married. They ate their dinner together, and parted with laughter and jesting. The young husband went to his work at the mill. Before night the boiler exploded and he was thrown fifty feet into the air, and came down a lifeless mass of flesh. How little did they dream that that was his last day, his last meal, his last parting with his wife. But just so death is going here and there, taking his victims from our midst every day. We flatter ourselves that we shall escape, but so do all.

I was once preaching in the evening in a crowded hall, when a young man came and sat by my side. I knelt down and prayed by his side, and we sang together out of the same book. We talked together after meeting, but that night at one o’clock he died, without one minute’s warning. So it is everywhere we go. Dear reader, if it shall be your lot to be called thus suddenly, are you prepared? Are you willing to go up to the bar of God and risk the issues of the Judgment just as you are this minute? If you are not, then let me admonish you to get ready immediately.

Your destiny through an endless eternity hangs upon the actions of this short life which may terminate in a moment. This is a fearful thought. ETERNITY! who has weighed the meaning of that awful word? ETERNITY! who can measure it? Did you ever stop to carefully consider what this means, and where it will end? It would be well for you to try to grasp this idea as far as you can. Think of one thousand years in the future. That is a great while. Then go beyond this and try to conceive of one hundred thousand years. Oh! how long a time that is, but that is not eternity. Stretch your imagination a little further and think of one hundred million years. Lay this paper down and see if you can comprehend the thought. One hundred million years! but that is not a moment compared to eternity. To eternity there is no end at all. It is on, and on, and still on. Let your mind penetrate into the future, just as far as you possibly can, and still that is not eternity.

Let us illustrate: Suppose that God should grant to you to live in Heaven just as many years as there are particles of dust in all this big earth of ours? This would seem to be almost an endless life. Yet if the Lord should take away from our earth one grain of sand this year, and one next, and so on, each year taking one, the time would come when this mighty earth would all be exhausted, and then you would have to die. This would not be eternity. The man who had secured eternal life would still have just as long to live as before. And then when we consider that that life is to be free from all pain and sorrow, is to be perfect happiness, who can comprehend what a wonderful treasure eternal life is? My brother, how can you be so foolish as to peril this boon and lose it, for the vanities of this world, the uncertain pleasures of sin? And yet you are risking all this, day after day and year after year. As an ambassador of Christ, I earnestly beseech you to awake to your awful danger while there is time. If you do not

wake up now, you will when it is too late. May God bless these words to the awakening of your conscience.

Some will make their bed in hell. This may be an unpleasant picture to dwell upon, yet we may better dwell upon it now than to dwell in the unquenchable fire hereafter. Not every one will be saved, some one will be damned. The word of God is very plain upon this point. God does not warn men of things which will never happen, and yet you know that the Bible paints everywhere, in most terrible threatenings, an awful punishment hereafter.

While we do not believe this punishment will be eternal torment, yet we must believe that it will be a real, tangible punishment, a real lake of fire in which the wicked will suffer severe and continued pains, and, finally, extinction. Paul says, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” 2 Cor. 5:11. Yes, God has terror in store for the wicked. Once more we read: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” Rev. 21:8. Reader, this will prove to be no idle fancy. It will be literally true. The blessed Jesus once said: “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:41. Again he says, “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 13:40–42.

When such a person as the tender-hearted Prince of Peace warns us of such a terrible thing as this, we must know that something awful is meant. Somebody will feel in his own person the punishment here threatened. Somebody will be damned; somebody will go into the lake of fire. We may talk of this now very coolly. We may philosophize and speculate about it; we may jest about it, and put it off as a thing of the imagination. But some day it will come as a dread reality; then it will rise up before us in all its terror, as we see no way to escape, see that it has really come, feel its consuming flame kindle around us and know that we ourselves must enter that burning lake. Oh! the terror that will seize the lost soul!

Reader, you are in danger of that lake yourself. If you are unreconciled to God, if you are unpardoned, if your name is not in the book of life, if you are not God’s child, to-morrow your doom may be sealed, and your portion forever settled. Will you brave it out to the bitter end? Will you risk the wrath of Heaven? Will you despise the warnings of the book of God? Will you turn a deaf ear to all the entreaties of your friends? Will you stifle the convictions of your own conscience? Will you go against the dictates of your best judgment? Will you grieve away the Spirit of God? Oh! will you trifle away the day of your probation, with such terrible, terrible consequences before you?

My brother, I lay my hand upon your arm, and I beseech you to stop; if you do not, these warnings will rise up and meet you in the Judgment. I invite you to carefully consider these solemn words of the Lord: “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as a desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.” Prov. 1:24–30.

(Concluded next week.)

WAITING FOR THE MORNING.

“Watchman, what of the night?” Isa. 21:11.

What of the night, watchman, what of the night? The windy gale sweeps by, The thick shadows fall, and the night-bird’s call Sounds mournfully through the sky; What of the night, watchman, what of the night?

The night is dark, it is long and drear, But who, while others sleep, Is that little band who together stand, And their patient vigils keep?

All awake is the strained eye, And awake is the listening ear; For their Lord they wait, and watch at the gate, His chariot wheels to hear.

Long have they waited, that little band; And ever and anon, To faith’s clear eye the dawn seemed nigh, The night seemed almost gone.

What of the night, watchman, what of the night? Though the wintry gale sweeps by, When the darkest hour begins to lower We know that the dawn is nigh.

Courage, ye servants of the Lord, The night is almost o’er; Your Master will come and call you home, To weep and watch no more. —Songs of the Night.

THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART 1.

By A. C. Spicer

In Genesis, (Concluded.)

Attention is here called to the septenary period, and to the use of the full number seven in Genesis, and then we pass their consideration for the present, reserving a full discussion thereof till the same subjects are reached in Exodus.

The use of the full number seven, so as to be significant, we notice in Gen. 4: 15, 24; and the mention of the septenary cycle, which has its basis in the fact that God worked six days in creating the heavens and the earth and the things therein and rested on the seventh day, is noticeable in Gen. 29: 18, 20, 27, 28, 30; and in 33: 3; and 41: 26, 33; especially so in 29: 27, 28 where the week is specifically mentioned, and in 41: 26, 33; where the representative seven years of plenty and seven years of famine are foretold by Joseph.

The last chapters of Genesis are full of profound interest, presenting as they do the characters of Israel (Jacob) and Joseph, so fully in conformity with the requirements of the moral law as to leave not the least doubt that they were fully instructed therein and kept the commandments of God.

We will now close this examination of Genesis by a brief

SUMMARY

of our observations and conclusions therefrom.

1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Jacob and Rachel and their household evidently understood this commandment definitely. It may be paraphrased thus: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” This obligation clearly seems to have been known by Adam, Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Lamech, Abraham, Melchisedec, Isaac, Jacob, and even by the Assyrians, Ruel and Laban, and by the sons and household of Jacob,—more, by nearly all the ancients—just as definitely and as well as by the generations of Israel after the giving of the law formally from Mt. Sinai. Indeed, it seems almost, from the record in Genesis, that the knowledge of God and of his commandments, and the obligation to worship him was more general, and was heeded with more scrupulous care by the ancients than in later times. But this seeming may be only a result of the brevity of the ancient record.

2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” &c. Jacob and Rachel and their household were evidently instructed in this commandment. Gen. 31: 19, 30-35; 35: 1-5.

4. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” &c. The Sabbath was instituted in Eden and given to man before his fall by transgression. Gen. 2: 2, 3.

5. “Honor thy father and thy mother,” &c. Noah and his sons understood this commandment, and Ham was cursed for violating it. Gen. 9: 21-25.

6. “Thou shalt not kill.” Cain’s guilt and confession exhibited his knowledge of this commandment, Gen. 4: 13; while in verse 23 Lamech confesses to a violation of it, and in verse 24 says: “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and seven,” thus exhibiting his understanding of the enormity of the crime. Furthermore, God definitely and formally announced to Noah, Gen. 9: 5, 6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”

7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” If it may be doubted that Adam and Eve were directly taught this precept by God personally, and fully instructed in the law of chastity and purity, as suggested above, it is certain that even Pharaoh of Egypt possessed a knowledge of the sin of adultery as was manifested in the case of Sarah, Gen. 12: 14-20; while from chapter 20 we not only learn that Abimelech, king of Gerar, knew it to be a sin, but also that God directly instructed Abimelech in respect thereto in very strong and positive language.

Gen. 38 shows in the plainest language, in the case of Judah and Tamar, that this commandment was known, that the violation of it was a great sin, and that those guilty of this sin were denominated and characterized by language of reproach, nearly the same as now used. So also is it positively certain that Joseph persistently refused to be seduced into this sin, saying, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

8. “Thou shalt not steal.” Jacob, Rachel and Laban apparently understood this eighth command, as did the sons of Jacob; and the crime of theft is denominated by these persons by its proper name, and by them regarded as deserving the greatest punishment, even death.

10. “Thou shalt not covet,” &c. The violation of this commandment must necessarily precede the violation of the eighth; and as it appears that that precept was known and its violation regarded as a very great sin, so this tenth one must have been known. Besides, it is shown that covetousness was one of the great sins of Adam and Eve in Eden; that Cain coveted the divine favor received by Abel and became envious, and exhibited guilt. Jacob was scrupulously careful not to even appear to covet any thing of Laban’s. Jacob and his sons manifested the same scrupulous care in respect to any thing that belonged to the governor of Egypt. The same care is often manifest in Abraham’s life. Finally, from chapters 18: 19, and 26: 3-5 we learn definitely that Abraham “kept the way of the Lord;” “kept his charge” (in respect to God’s covenant with him, and the circumcision and the sacrificial offerings therefore required), “his commandments, his statutes, and his laws,” which he was to teach in turn to his children and household, and command obedience thereto.

CONCLUSIONS.

1. Fact: Before the transgression in Eden, the representatives of the race were placed on probation or trial, and were held responsible for rectitude of conduct, subject to God’s government and providence, with a law, or system of laws, whose sanctions were everlasting life as the reward for obedience, and death as the penalty for disobedience. Inference: Therefore moral law, or a system of moral laws, to guide the conduct of man in the development of moral character, was seen by God to be essential to man in his state of innocence and before his fall by sin, the same as since his sin.

2. Fact: The Sabbath institution and the marriage institution were made for man before his fall by sin. It appears also that the Sabbath institution was just as definitely and especially given to man then and there in Eden by God, as was the marriage institution. Though upon the first of these institutions is based the fourth commandment of the decalogue as subsequently given from Mt. Sinai in language adapted to the then existing conditions and relations, and upon the second is based the seventh commandment, yet these institutions do neither of them derive their sacredness from the decalogue; but the fourth commandment guards and protects the sacredness of the Sabbath institution, while the seventh guarantees that of the marriage institution. Inference: Law being essential to regulate and govern the conduct of man in his relations to his fellow-man and to his Maker in a state of innocence (as seen), as well as in a state of sin; and as, in a righteous government, where and when the reason for a law exists, there and then that law must be, therefore the whole law must have been given in Eden.

3. Fact: God’s government, from the nature of his character, must have been, from the first, a government administered in justice and righteousness. Inference: Therefore, the law regulating and protecting the Sabbath and the law regulating and guarding marriage (which institutions must have been essential to man from the first or they would not have been given), essentially as subsequently engraved on the tablets of the law, must have been given to Adam before the fall by sin, and to his immediate posterity after the transgression.

4. Fact: These two institutions and their regulating and protecting laws were no more essential to man to regulate and govern him in his relations to his fellow-man and his Creator, either before or after he had sinned, than each of the other precepts of the decalogue. All ten precepts of the moral code were and are essential to provide for all relations and all duties and to secure all rights and all rectitude, and any code less inclusive than the decalogue would have been, and would now be, incomplete and imperfect as a rule for the development of moral character, and a law for the government of a moral life and a moral community. Inference: Therefore, the other eight precepts of the decalogue must also have been given to man at first in Eden, to guard from the beginning all the sacred interests which they are respectively designed and adapted to secure and protect.

5. Fact: From the creation of man God has been accustomed to hold him responsible for rectitude of conduct and a strictly moral life, and in all times and places to reward the obedient and punish the disobedient. To this fact all the ancients, obedient and disobedient, equally bear testimony. That sanctions by rewards and punishments have been administered to man by God, either directly by special providences, or by general laws, is a universally attested and universally known and acknowledged fact. But rewards and punishments were and are sanctions of law. And these sanctions, as administered anciently and from the beginning, were general in character and of universal application, and were evidently designed to enforce and secure general and universal moral rectitude of life. No one was exempt from their application. Inference: Law, then, or a system of laws, must have existed then and there at and from the very first existence of man, which these sanctions were designed to enforce, and must have been general and universal in character.

6. Fact: These sanctions—rewards for obedience and punishments for disobedience—were from the first existence of man in Eden, and before the fall, as far as revealed, and ever after the sin of the race, of the same uniform nature and character, substantially, as since the incorporation of the decalogue on Mt. Sinai. Inference: Therefore the law or system of laws, to which those attached as appropriate and enforcing sanctions, must have been substantially the same as the decalogue.

7. Fact: Adam and Eve, at and from the very first, were held responsible for moral rectitude of conduct, as were all their immediate and remote posterity subsequently. They were promptly punished for their first disobedience, as their posterity were ever punished for disobedience subsequently. But it would have been unjust and contrary to the known character of God and of his providences and government, to have held man responsible to law and to have punished him for a violation of a law of which he was ignorant, which had never been published, of which he had never had nor could have any knowledge. Enlightenment—knowledge—is essential to moral action, and hence to moral responsibility. Inference: Therefore, the moral law must have been taught to man before his fall, and must have been proclaimed to all thereafter who were held responsible thereto, and must have been known by all those, as a people, in all ages, who transgressed the same and were punished therefor; as well as by those who obeyed and were rewarded.

8. Fact: Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, and Abel’s sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain’s, because it was of the firstlings of the flock and required the shedding of typical blood. On descending from the ark after the flood had subsided (Gen. 8: 20, 21), “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar,” which the Lord approved. Would either of these, unaided and untaught of God, have been led to offer such sacrifices? Certainly not. And would either of them, untaught of God, have been able to understand that those offerings were typical of the great sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross, for sin, and that blood was to be shed typical of Christ’s blood to be shed four thousand or two thousand years thereafter? And would Noah, untaught of God, have been led to make the distinction between the clean and the unclean of beasts and of fowls that he did, and just in accordance with the law of sacrifices and ceremonies, as afterwards given by God? Manifestly he would not. Abraham was directly instructed by God, afterward, to make offerings to him just in agreement with the Mosaic ceremonial ritual, which Abraham did. Gen. 15: 9, 10. And in Gen. 22, we have the memorable account of the grand trial of Abraham’s sublime faith and obedience, in his being asked to offer his only and greatly beloved son Isaac a sacrifice to God.

Again, note this fact, the law of sacrifices and ceremonies is based directly upon the moral law of the decalogue, and is designed to honor and enforce the moral law, by providing types of the great atonement for sin, in the violation of that moral law. Now, is it reasonable to suppose that the ancients, including Cain, Abel, Noah and Abraham, were so definitely and carefully instructed in the ceremonial law of sacrifices (and we will here include the law of circumcision as the token of the covenant with Abraham), which was secondary and based on the moral law as primary (and designed to aid, for a limited time only, in securing obedience to said moral law and conformity therewith as well as to keep alive faith in a promised atonement for sin), and were yet left ignorant of, and uninstructed in, the primary moral law—the

decalogue? By no means. Inference: It is therefore again inferred that the moral law, substantially as engraved on the tables of stone and delivered from Mt. Sinai, was promulgated, entire, in Eden, and immediately after the first transgression of man, and was carefully taught to those ancient people, and a knowledge thereof transmitted from generation to generation down through all those centuries to the day of its repetition and formal reannouncement from Mt. Sinai; for that knowledge must have been essential to, and coextensive with, man’s responsibility to the law, which responsibility everywhere appears.

A. C. Spicer.

THE NEW BODY.

By Ruckert

Earth shall give back to me the form she held in trust; No more of what was mine shall molder in the dust.

The raiment I laid off and gave the grave to keep, I shall put on again when I have slept my sleep.

The same old garment still, yet new and clean and bright; The mother for her child, has washed it over night. —Ruckert.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

By Eliza H. Morton

Love is an attribute of the heart. I pity the individual who has never felt its sweet influence; indeed, I doubt if there ever was an intelligent person who did not love something. It may be the wealth of the heart’s affections is lavished upon a companion, a child, a friend, earthly treasure, a pet animal, or even a plant; but still the heart loves, and that love keeps it alive. Oh! the coldness, the bitterness, the barrenness, the hardness of a life without love! Language cannot describe it. The mind of man cannot imagine it. It may be many are not aware that they love, but if the veil were taken away they would see they do love, and love fervently. The painter loves his art; the mechanic loves his trade; the botanist loves flowers; the geologist loves rocks; and all have more or less love for the works of nature.

Earthly friends may prove unkind, untrue, and unsympathizing; earthly pleasures may be interrupted; earthly treasures may be taken from us; a painful, aching void may be left in the heart, and we may be bitterly disappointed with the world; but there is a friend that “sticketh closer than a brother,” One whose love is so amazing as to demand our souls, our lives, and our all, in return. It is this love which is the source and fountain of all true love. In it we may find full and free course for our heart’s affections. As the heart was made to love something, is it not right that it should lavish its warmest, best affections upon the Creator? What earthly friend is there so sympathizing, forgiving as He who laid down his life for us? In trying to comprehend this love our minds become wearied and overwhelmed, and we are satisfied to rest content, knowing that it is so.

The love of God is a pure stream, a living fountain, a satisfying portion, a hiding-place from the wintry storm, a shelter from the noon-day heat, “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” This love invites you to come. It promises you in this world, peace, rest, a calm happiness, and the joy of loving the “King of Glory” and being loved by him; and after this life a position higher than the highest earthly office, a title grander than that of the greatest earthly monarch; and an inheritance richer than all the fabled wealth of the Orient. Who can afford to spurn the love of God?

ELIZA H. MORTON.

Allen’s Corner, Me.

KINDNESS AND TACT.

Many years ago a minister was going one Sabbath morning to his school-room. He walked through a number of streets, and as he turned a corner, he saw assembled around a pump a party of little boys playing marbles. On seeing him approach, they began to pick up their marbles and run away as fast as they could. One little fellow not having seen him as soon as the rest, before he could succeed in gathering up his marbles, the minister had come up and placed his hand upon his shoulder. They were face to face, the minister of God and the poor little ragged boy who had been caught in the act of playing marbles on the Sabbath morning. And how did the minister deal with the boy? That is what I want you to notice.

He might have said to him: “What are you doing here? You are breaking the Sabbath. Don't you deserve to be punished?”

But he said nothing of the kind. He simply said:—

“Have you found all your marbles?”

“No,” said the boy, “I haven't.”

“Then,” said the minister, “I'll help you.”

Whereupon he stooped down, and began to look for the marbles, and as he did so, he remarked:—

“I liked to play marbles when I was a little boy very much, and I think I could beat you.” “But,” he added, “I never played marbles on the Sabbath.”

The little boy's attention was now arrested. He liked his friend's face, and began to wonder who he was. The minister said:—

“I am going to a place where I think you would like to be. Will you come with me?”

Said the boy, “Where do you live?”

“In such a place,” was the answer.

“Why, that's the minister's house!” exclaimed the boy, as if he did not suppose that a kind man and a minister of the gospel could be the same person.

“Yes,” said the man, “I am the minister myself; and if you will come with me, I think I can do you some good.”

Said the boy, “My hands are dirty; I can't go.”

“But,” said the minister, “here is a pump; why not wash them?”

Said the boy, “I'm so little, I can't wash and pump at the same time.”

“Well,” said the minister, “if you'll wash, I'll pump.”

He at once set to work and pumped and pumped; and the boy washed his hands and face till they were quite clean.

Said the boy, “My hands are wringing wet, and I don't know how to dry 'em.”

The minister pulled out a clean handkerchief, and offered it to the boy.

Said the boy, “But it is clean.”

“Yes,” was the reply, “but it was made to be dirtied.”

The boy dried his hands and face with the handkerchief, and then accompanied the minister to the door of the Sabbath-school.

Twenty years after, the minister was walking in a street in a large city, when a tall man tapped him on the shoulder, and looking into his face, said:—

“You don't remember me?”

“No,” said the minister, “I do not.”

“Do you remember twenty years ago, finding a little boy playing marbles round a pump? Do you remember that boy's being too dirty to go to school, and pumping for him, and speaking kindly to him, and taking him to school?”

“Oh!” said the minister, “I do remember.”

“Sir,” said the gentleman, “I was that boy. I rose in business and became a leading man. I have attained a position in society, and on seeing you to-day in the street I felt bound to come to you and say that it is to your kindness, and wisdom, and Christian discretion—to your having dealt with me persuasively—that I owe, under God, all that I have attained, and what I am at the present day.”—Sel.

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