Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 17, 1883
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
The Church's Great Need.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
A REVIVAL of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be the first work at our camp-meetings. There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing to bestow his blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it. Our heavenly Father is more willing to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. But it is our work by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer, to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us his blessing. A revival need be expected only in answer to prayer. While the people are so destitute of God's Holy Spirit, they cannot appreciate the preaching of the word. But when the Spirit's power touches their hearts, then the discourses given will not be without effect. Guided by the teachings of God's word, with the manifestations of his Spirit, in the exercise of sound discretion, those who attend our camp-meetings will gain a precious experience, and returning home will be prepared to exert a healthful influence in the churches.
The old standard-bearers knew what it was to wrestle with God in prayer and to enjoy the outpouring of his Spirit. But these are passing off the stage of action; and who are coming up to fill their places? How is it with the rising generation? are they converted to God? Are we awake to the work that is going on in the heavenly sanctuary, or are we waiting for some compelling power to come upon the church before we shall arouse? Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.
There are persons in the church who are not converted, and who will not unite in earnest, prevailing prayer. We must enter upon the work individually. We must pray more, and talk less. Iniquity abounds, and the people must be taught not to be satisfied with a form of godliness without the spirit and power. If we are intent upon searching our own hearts, putting away our sins, and correcting our evil tendencies, our souls will not be lifted up unto vanity; we shall be distrustful of ourselves, having an abiding sense that our sufficiency is of God.
We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement. The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan's devices.
The adversary of souls is not permitted to read the thoughts of men; but he is a keen observer, and he marks the words; he takes account of actions, and skillfully adapts his temptations to meet the cases of those who place themselves in his power. If we would labor to repress sinful thoughts and feelings, giving them no expression in words or actions, Satan would be defeated; for he could not prepare his specious temptations to meet the case. But how often do professed Christians, by their lack of self-control, open the door to the adversary of souls! Divisions, and even bitter dissensions which would disgrace any worldly community, are common in the churches, because there is so little effort to control wrong feelings, and to repress every word that Satan can take advantage of. As soon as an alienation of feeling arises, the matter is spread before Satan for his inspection, and the opportunity given for him to use his serpent-like wisdom and skill in dividing and destroying the church. There is great loss in every dissension. Personal friends of both parties take sides with their respective favorites, and thus the breach is widened. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Criminations and recriminations are engendered and multiplied. Satan and his angels are actively at work to secure a harvest from seed thus sown. Worldlings look on and jeeringly exclaim, "Behold how these Christians hate one another. If this is religion, we do not want it." And they look upon themselves and their irreligious characters with great satisfaction. Thus they are confirmed in their impenitence, and Satan exults at his success.
The great deceiver has prepared his wiles for every soul that is not braced for trial and guarded by constant prayer and living faith. As ministers, as Christians, we must work to take the stumbling-blocks out of the way. We must remove every obstacle. Let us confess and forsake every sin, that the way of the Lord may be prepared, that he may come into our assemblies and impart his rich grace. The world, the flesh, and the devil, must be overcome. We cannot prepare the way by gaining the friendship of the world, which is enmity with God; but by his help we can break its seductive influence upon ourselves and upon others. We cannot individually or as a body secure ourselves from the constant temptations of a relentless and determined foe; but in the strength of Jesus we can resist them. From every member of the church a steady light may shine forth before the world, so that they shall not be led to inquire, What do these people more than others? There can be and must be218a withdrawal from conformity to the world, a shunning of all appearance of evil, so that no occasion shall be given for gainsayers. We cannot escape reproach; it will come; but we should be very careful that we are not reproached for our own sins or follies, but for Christ's sake.
There is nothing that Satan fears so much as that the people of God shall clear the way by removing every hindrance, so that the Lord can pour out his Spirit upon a languishing church and an impenitent congregation. If Satan had his way, there would never be another awakening, great or small, to the end of time. But we are not ignorant of his devices. It is possible to resist his power. When the way is prepared for the Spirit of God, the blessing will come. Satan can no more hinder a shower of blessing from descending upon God's people than he can close the windows of heaven that rain cannot come upon the earth. Wicked men and devils cannot hinder the work of God or shut out his presence from the assemblies of his people if they will with subdued, contrite hearts, confess and put away their sins, and in faith claim his promises. Every temptation, every opposing influence, whether open or secret, may be successfully resisted, "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
We are in the great day of atonement, when our sins are by confession and repentance to go beforehand to judgment. God does not now accept a tame, spiritless testimony from his ministers. Such a testimony would not be present truth. The message for this time must be meat in due season to feed the church of God. But Satan has been seeking gradually to rob this message of its power, that the people may not be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord.
In 1844 our great High Priest entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to begin the work of the investigative judgment. The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before God. When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pronounced upon the living. How precious, how important are these solemn moments! Each of us has a case pending in the court of Heaven. We are individually to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. In the typical service, when the work of atonement was performed by the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary, the people were required to afflict their souls before God, and confess their sins, that they might be atoned for and blotted out. Will any less be required of us in this antitypical day of atonement, when Christ in the sanctuary above is pleading in behalf of his people, and the final, irrevocable decision is to be pronounced upon every case?
What is our condition in this fearful and solemn time? Alas, what pride is prevailing in the church, what hypocrisy, what deception, what love of dress, frivolity, and amusement, what desire for the supremacy! All these sins have clouded the mind, so that eternal things have not been discerned. Shall we not search the Scriptures that we may know where we are in this world's history? Shall we not become intelligent in regard to the work that is being accomplished for us at this time, and the position that we as sinners should occupy while this work of atonement is going forward? If we have any regard for our souls' salvation, we must make a decided change. We must seek the Lord with true penitence; we must with deep contrition of soul confess our sins, that they may be blotted out.
We must no longer remain upon the enchanted ground. We are fast approaching the close of our probation. Let every soul inquire, How do I stand before God? We know not how soon our names may be taken into the lips of Christ, and our cases be finally decided. What, oh, what will these decisions be! Shall we be counted with the righteous, or shall we be numbered with the wicked?
Let the church arise and repent before God of her backslidings. Let the watchmen awake, and give the trumpet a certain sound. It is a definite warning that we have to proclaim. God commands his servants, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." The attention of the people must be gained; unless this can be done, all effort is useless; though an angel from Heaven should come down and speak to them, his words would do no more good than if he were speaking into the cold ear of death. The church must arouse to action. The Spirit of God can never come in until she prepares the way. There should be earnest searching of heart. There should be united, persevering prayer, and through faith a claiming of the promises of God. There should be, not as in ancient times, a clothing of the body with sackcloth, but a deep humiliation of soul. We have not the first reason for self-congratulation and self-exaltation. We should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. He will appear to comfort and bless the true seekers.
The work is before us; will we engage in it? We must work fast, we must go steadily forward. We must be preparing for the great day of the Lord. We have no time to lose, no time to be engaged in selfish purposes. The world is to be warned. What are we doing as individuals to bring the light before others? God has left to every man his work; every one has a part to act, and we cannot neglect this work except at the peril of our souls.
O my brethren, will you grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause it to depart? Will you shut out the blessed Saviour, because you are unprepared for his presence? Will you have souls to perish without the knowledge of the truth, because you love your ease too well to bear the burden that Jesus bore for you? Let us awake out of sleep. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
LOOKING FOR CHRIST.
By Mrs. Sigourney
"Unto them that look for him, he shall appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation."
Night forsakes her ebon seat,
Gathered mists in volumes fleet,
Dawn upon the mountain gray,
Tremble with prelusive ray,
Till the lifted gate of morn
Purples where the day is born,
And that glorious orb doth rise,
Eye of earth and sea and skies.
Thus 'mid shades of ancient time,
Patriarchs gazed with faith sublime,
Seers invoked the promised light,
Prophets sought its vision bright,
Till on Bethlehem's blessed glade
Burst the beam that ne'er shall fade,
And the raptured matin song
Swelled from Heaven's resplendent throne.
Saviour, come! our spirits wait:
Enter with thy regal state!
If our darkening sins prevail,
If our dawn of hope be pale,
Wake that star, whose aspect sweet
Led the sages to thy feet;
Wake that sun whose holy ray
Brightens to eternal day!
—Mrs. Sigourney.
Life and Death.
LIFE and death as phenomenal words need no definition or explanation, for they designate phenomena with which we are all familiar. Scientists and metaphysicians may inquire into their interior signification, and dispute about the real source and essence and meaning of these phenomena; but for all practical purposes these terms need no definition. The same is true of all the ultimate and antithetical terms that are in common use in our language, or in any language. Their meaning is so obvious that any attempt to define them, like the attempt to demonstrate an axiom, tends only to obscure the subject and confuse the mind.
Life as a phenomenon of nature is everywhere visible. So is death. The one is set over against the other. Hence they are called antithetical terms. They explain each other. If the one be known, the other must also be known. But death is not simply the antithesis of life, as darkness is of light, and cold is of heat. It is more. It implies a previous life. It denotes the loss of what was once possessed. We do not predicate death of a stone or a lump of clay. We say they are lifeless. They are not dead, because they have never had life and have never died. "Lifeless" is the proper negation of "life."
Neither can we predicate degrees of death as we can of many other terms. It is an absolute and ultimate term. Nothing can be said to be dead so long as there is any life in it. It may be almost dead, or about to die, but it is not dead till all life is utterly extinguished.
We sometimes, however, use the term death proleptically, or by anticipation of what is sure to follow; as when we say of one who is attacked by a fatal disease, or has received a fatal wound, "he is a dead man." But we can use this figure only with reference to the actual death in view.
It is true of all words that have their application to material and physical things, that they are susceptible of secondary and tropical uses; for we have no other way of speaking of things that are beyond the reach of our senses than by the use of such terms.
All spiritual truths are represented by terms that have a physical or material base. It is by means of the resemblance which they are supposed to have to sensible things that we can at all apprehend them. Hence the necessity in treating of these higher truths, not only of using these physical terms, but of adhering strictly to the idea expressed by them, if we would understand ourselves or be understood by others. For, unless the strictest analogy be preserved, we might as well use one term as another, or no terms at all, for no definite idea would be expressed by them.
A man's life may be said to be in the hands of another, who has the power to take it from him. Or a child may be said to be dead to his parents when his life is entirely lost to them. We readily understand such figures of speech. But if the analogy be far-fetched or obscure, our meaning will be obscure in the same degree. This is the reason why some metaphysical speculations are so hard to be understood. The terms that are used suggest no analogy to our minds. This is why some sorts of poetry convey to us no meaning, or are susceptible of almost any interpretation our fancy may dictate. This was just the secret of the Delphic oracles. They were intentionally couched in tropical terms of ambiguous application. This is just the use to which theological speculators would put the oracles of God—the Sacred Scriptures. By interpreting the language of Holy Writ in a tropical sense, they may put into it any meaning their fancy or philosophy may require.
There are no words in the Bible that have suffered more from this kind of treatment than these two words, life and death; for they are two of the most important words in the whole Bible. The whole controversy between ourselves and those who hold to the deathless nature of man centers in these two words. They are the two hinges on which the whole question turns. If they are to be taken literally when referring to the destiny of man, as we maintain, then our opponents have no ground to stand on for one moment. They must give up the case at once. It is absolutely necessary to the maintenance of their position, that the literal and ordinary meaning of these two words should be taken out of them, when the destiny of man is spoken of; and, as they must have some meaning, another must be found and put into them, that will harmonize with their doctrine concerning the immortality of all men.
We hold that the Scriptures mean just what they say, when they set forth death as the sure result of sin, and endless perpetuity of life as the portion of the righteous only. We believe that Jehovah meant just what he said, just what Adam must have understood him to mean, when he promised him perpetuity of life only on condition of obedience, and threatened him with death in case of disobedience. He could not have understood these words in any other sense, nor did he, till the tempter suggested another meaning—a figurative meaning—as he still continues to do to all who will listen to his interpretation.
We hold that when men now die in consequence of sin, they actually die; and that they live again, not because they are immortal and must naturally live on, and live forever, but only by the gracious purpose of God as made known in the gospel of Christ who is the resurrection and the life; and that through him, and him only, another life, a higher and better, an eternal life, is given to his redeemed people; and that the second death of the unsaved is also an actual death, from which there is no resurrection.
They hold, on the other hand, that to the active, conscious, sensitive life of man there is no end, no literal death, as in the case of every other living creature upon the earth; that both the first death and the second death, spoken of in the Scriptures as the consequence of sin, denote a state of sin and misery which, if the sinner is not recovered from it, will be endlessly perpetuated in hell; and that the life, the everlasting life which Christ gives to his redeemed people, is a state of purity and blessedness endlessly perpetuated in Heaven.
Now we believe that such trifling with the plain declarations of God's word is utterly unwarranted, sacrilegious, and subversive of the truth. In the name of the Master, whose word is the supreme rule of our faith, we protest against it, and insist on accepting and understanding these words—life and death—as meaning just what they seem to mean.—"Life Everlasting," by Prof. Pettingell.
A Sketch of my Experience.
By James B. Goodrich
BY ELD. J. B. GOODRICH.
I EXPERIENCED religion at the age of thirteen in 1843, under the labors of Eld. Richard Gower, a Christian Baptist but a believer in the soon coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. He accepted the truth as far as he saw it under the proclamation of the First Angel's Message (Rev. 14 : 6, 7), and fell asleep in July, 1850.
Through the influence of some of my associates, I soon gave up in discouragement, and remained in a backslidden state for about fifteen years. I then heard a discourse on the nature of man, showing that all are mortal, and that at death they go into the grave and remain in an unconscious state until the appearing of Christ, when judgment is pronounced. Then, if righteous, they come forth unto the resurrection of life, and if wicked, unto the resurrection of damnation.
This subject attracted my attention, and I began to search the Scriptures to see if these things were so. When fully convinced that I was mortal and that eternal life and immortality can only be obtained through Christ, and that it is to be put on at the resurrection of the just, I considered the subject of too much importance to be treated with indifference. I at once made up my mind to live a different life; and in December, 1858, I confessed my backslidings and took my position to live out the teachings of the Bible to the best of my ability, by the grace of God assisting me.
The Bible became my daily companion, a precious treasure. It was my meditation all the day, and was the joy of my soul. I loved to talk of Christ and what he had done for me. Blessed Saviour! How I loved him; he saved me from my sins. I felt as though I could not do too much for Him who did so much for me. I had a deep anxiety for the salvation of others, and I thought that if I would tell them of God's great goodness and mercy to me and of his willingness to save, they would believe, and in September, 1859, in the town of Hartland, Me., I made my first effort to speak in public, using this for my text: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." Isaiah 28 : 16. The house was well filled and the Lord blessed in the effort.
I encountered much opposition on the sleep of the dead, and was told by some of my friends that if I preached such a doctrine I would never see sinners converted to God. Others earnestly pleaded with me to give up my views on the subject, and preach eternal life in misery (for thus it must be if the wicked exist eternally in torment), so that sinners would repent and be saved. But I believed then as now, that it is not necessary to preach a falsehood and ask God to bless it, in order to get men converted to him. There is beauty and loveliness in the truth, that commends itself to every candid mind, and we learn that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Rom. 2 : 4.219In my thirst for a knowledge of God's righteousness I became troubled over the Sabbath question. I could read in the Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but my religious teachers said that Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week, and that we were to keep Sunday to commemorate that event. I had an interview with one of the ministers who I, thought would give me the necessary information on the subject, and wished him to tell me why he called Sunday, or the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath when the Bible said that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. He told me the Sabbath had been changed from the seventh to the first day in memory of Christ's rising from the dead on that day. When I asked for the text to prove it, I was cited to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where the women came to the sepulcher upon the first day of the week. I turned and read in Luke where the women rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment, and very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to perform that work which they would not do on the seventh day.
Not finding any relief from my perplexities, I remained in this unsettled condition until the year 1864, in the month of March, when it pleased the Lord to send Eld. J. N. Loughborough to Hartland village, and I heard two discourses, and in April I attended a series of meetings by M. E. Cornell. After hearing a sermon upon the subject, "Who Changed the Sabbath?" showing that it was the papal power, in fulfillment of Daniel 7 : 25, that had thought to change God's law and thereby exalted himself above God, 2 Thess. 2 : 4, I could no longer offer to God the observance of the first day instead of his original institution, and be an honest man. So I took my position to walk in the light of the Third Angel's Message, the last Sabbath in April of 1864.
I was told by many of my First-day Adventist friends that I had left Christ and gone back under Moses and got into bondage; but my experience for about nineteen years has taught me that what David says is true, "I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts." Ps. 119 : 45. "Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments," is the language of my heart. I praise God for the light of the Third Angel's Message, now that the work is so rapidly progressing, and the signs of Jesus' soon coming so clear that none need be in the dark, for the Lord is causing the nations of the earth to speak in their perplexity, "the sea and the waves roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."
May God help us to look up for our redemption draweth nigh. Jesus will soon come and take his children home. "Even so, come Lord Jesus," and come quickly. Amen.
Hartland, Maine, April 20, 1883.
Ignorance Is the Mother of Impudence
IGNORANCE is the mother of impudence.
"Blood Theology."
By The Presbyterian
DEATH FOR SIN.—"The soul that sinneth it shall die." Ezek. 18:4.
REMISSION.—"Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Heb. 9:22.
"This is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Matt. 26:28.
PROPITIATION.—"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Rom. 3:25.
JUSTIFICATION.—"But God commendeth his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom. 5:8, 9.
REDEMPTION.—"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." Eph. 1:7.
"Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.
"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Rev. 5:9.
"The church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20:28.
RECONCILIATION.—"Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Eph. 2:13.
"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." Col. 1:19, 20.
PURIFICATION.—"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Heb. 9:13, 14.
"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." Heb. 13:12.
"The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7.
TO SCOFFERS AT A "BLOOD THEOLOGY."—"He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Heb. 10:28, 29.
TO BELIEVERS IN A "BLOOD THEOLOGY."—"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Heb. 13:20, 21.
—The Presbyterian.
"The Breath of Life."
By A. A. Phelps
AN ILLUSTRATION.
A FEW years ago, the body of a murderer hanged in Glasgow was subjected, about an hour and a quarter after his execution, to the action of a battery. One pole was applied to the spinal marrow at the nape of the neck, and the other to the sciatic nerve in the left hip, when the whole body was thrown into a violent tremor as if shivering with cold. On removing the wire from the sciatic nerve to a nerve in the heel, the leg was thrown out so violently as nearly to overturn one of the assistants, who tried in vain to prevent its extension. On directing a current to the principal muscle of respiration, the chest heaved and fell, and labored breathing commenced.
When one of the poles was applied to a nerve under the eyebrow and the other to the heel, the most extraordinary grimaces were produced. "Every muscle of the countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expression in the murderer's face." Several spectators were so overcome by the sight that they had to leave the room, and one man fainted. In the last experiment, the forefinger, which had previously been bent, was instantly extended, and shaking violently, with a convulsive movement of the whole arm, seemed to point to the persons present, some of whom thought that the body had really returned to life.
For the above fact I am indebted to the textbook on natural philosophy written by Prof. Quackenbos. It is a forcible illustration of "the breath of life" which was originally breathed into man's physical organism and constituted him a "living soul." Electricity is a subtle and powerful element which seems to pervade all nature. I do not say this is the vitalizing element which sets the human machinery in motion, but it may at least help us to understand how that heaven-inspired breath could produce the marvelous effect ascribed to it.
Mark how the electric current, in the foregoing case, caused a dead man to look and act like a live one. Yet no one believes that electricity is a living personality—a sentient soul—a conscious spirit. Why, then, is it necessary to invest "the breath of life" with the attributes of conscious personality? There is no such necessity. People do so from the force of habit. They follow their traditional teachings, without stopping to search either the word or works of God.
Why not take the record just as it reads? There is nothing said about an inbreathed immortal soul. I believe "the breath of life," of Gen. 2 : 7, means exactly the same as "the spirit," of Eccl. 12 : 7. But the spirit of man is not the man himself any more than the steam which propels the engine is the engine itself. God's philosophy teaches man's unity—a physical organism vitalized—both the elements employed being essential to a living man; so that in the event of death neither the animating principle nor the lifeless body will fill the bill. Man's philosophy teaches that "the breath of life" is an interior man, dwelling awhile in the exterior man, and then moving out into still greater freedom and knowledge.
This philosophy lays the foundation for Spiritualism, Mormonism, Purgatory, and almost every false religious system that ever cursed the world. The churches have quite generally adopted this double-entity theory. In doing so, they have gradually lost their interest—and too often their faith in the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the distinctive day of Judgment. I prefer the old Bible theology.—A. A. Phelps, A. M., in Bible Banner.
"Diversities of Gifts."
You want to build a house. You employ men of different trades—stone-cutters, brick-layers, carpenters, plumbers, plasterers, painters. You expect each to do his own work; but all to conform to the plan which you have prepared. What if the carpenter should complain of the brick-layer for building the chimneys of brick instead of wood? and the stone-cutters complain of the carpenters, because they use wood for the floors instead of stone? Suppose the painters should insist that the mason ought to use a brush instead of a trowel, etc.? How ridiculous they would make themselves! But who has not seen churches whose members acted just as absurdly? God is trying to use them to build up his spiritual house. He has given to each his own work, and taught him, by the Spirit, how to do it. But each stands with the tools in his hands watching some fellow-worker, and wondering why they two don't work just alike. Nay, he often criticises the work of those who are doing their part in their way, instead of doing it in his way.
Let every Christian rejoice if God has given him any gift. It is blessed to be even a door-keeper in the house of the Lord—blessed to have even one talent intrusted to us to use for so good a Master, and in so glorious a cause.
Let every Christian be glad that others have gifts that he has not—glad, for the sake of the Saviour and of the perishing world, that somebody can do what he cannot. If he is ignorant and cannot speak to edification he should rejoice that he has brethren who are eloquent. If he is poor and cannot give much money to sustain and extend the cause of Christ, he should rejoice that he has brethren who are rich.
Let every Christian co-operate cordially in his sphere, and according to his gifts; not expecting that everybody else will do just as he does, but hoping and praying that his fidelity in the least may stimulate those to whom much has been given, and recognizing their right to work in their own way, feeling that they are responsible to God and not to him.
Let no Christian try to measure others by his standard, or himself by theirs. The gift that seems least to us, may be the greatest in the sight of God. The humble visitor who brings the poor to the Sabbath-school and the sanctuary, may do more good than the eloquent preacher.—Occident.
The Book of Daniel.
Apropos of recent discoveries in the field of Assyrian exploration, it may not prove uninteresting to point out here that it is owing to Sir Henry Rawlinson that a very curious point in the book of Daniel has been cleared up. Belshazzar, it will be remembered, promised to make Daniel “third ruler in the kingdom.” It had long struck many critics as odd that the promise should have been “third ruler” only, and not “second,” seeing that the design of the sovereign was evidently to make him the next important personage to himself in the Government of Babylon. Now for many years it was supposed that the Belshazzar of the Scriptures and the Nabonidus of the Assyrian records were one and the same person. Hence there were some striking discrepancies between the two accounts, the Biblical and the Babylonian. Daniel's Belshazzar was a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, but Nabonidus was not of the family of Nebuchadnezzar at all; Daniel's Belshazzar died in the city the night it was taken, but Nabonidus, when Babylon was taken, was spared by the conqueror, who actually made him Governor of Carmania! These appeared hopeless discrepancies, until Sir Henry Rawlinson, in 1854, found certain clay cylinders in a corner of the Temple of the Moon, and, deciphering the inscriptions impressed upon them, solved the difficulty. Nabonidus refers to the latter as “Belshazzar my eldest son, the offspring of my heart.” Nabonidus had married the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar in order to strengthen his position as king, and Belshazzar was the issue of this marriage. Hence Belshazzar was a grandson of the Nebuchadnezzar of the Bible. But as Nabonidus was an interloper, he ruled conjointly with his own son, sharing the kingdom, and thus soothing the susceptibility of those who stood up for the rightful line represented by Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. Belshazzar ruling in Babylon was, therefore, himself only a deputy king—was himself only the “second ruler” in the kingdom. Hence it was that the utmost honor he could promise the Jew Daniel was, that he should be “third” in the kingdom, he himself being the second.—Jewish World.