p. 181 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 3, No. 23. (6/7/1877)

THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.

HELD IN OAKLAND, CAL., APRIL 1–17, 1877.

In this form we give a synopsis of the lectures presented at this Institute, the aim being to give principal facts, dates and references, with as few words as will serve to connect them. The lessons are not intended to measure the recitations. A lesson embraces an entire subject; but some of these occupied a number of recitations in the class.

CLASS QUESTIONS ON LESSON VII. WITH ANSWERS.

1. If the Romans crucified Christ, how can it be said that the Jews crucified him?

ANS. The Romans reserved to themselves the power of inflicting capital punishment. The Jews could try and condemn, but the Romans must have the disposal of the sentence. The Jews showed what they would do by condemning Christ on the conflicting testimony of false witnesses, and clamoring vehemently for his crucifixion. The Romans showed their spirit by giving him up to death, at the same time acknowledging that they were sacrificing an innocent person; for Pilate admitted that there was no cause of death in him. The Jews clamored for his death, because his pure teaching, his unostentatious and holy life condemned their pride, hypocrisy and extortion. The Romans were perhaps the more ready for his death through fear, from a political stand-point, of his claims as king of the Jews. It is evident that great capital had been made out of this point against him; for even the ignorant and brutal soldiery as soon as he was delivered into their power, went through all the mock ceremonies of royalty. In almost all the representations of the crucifixion, will be seen the banner with the significant letters S. P. Q. R., Senatus Populusque Romanus, The Senate and People of Rome. This showed Rome’s presence, and its sanction of the crucifixion. The Jews might have prevented it; so might the Romans. But both joined in it, and so were both equally responsible, the one to condemn, the other to execute.

2. Are our names written in the book of life at birth, or at conversion?

ANS. Evidently, at conversion; otherwise the names of all would at some time be there; but Rev. 17:8 speaks of some whose names are never found there. As this book is called “the Lamb’s book of life,” it seems more consistent to suppose that the names of those only are entered there who acquire some interest in the work of Christ as the Lamb of God, or the offering for the world; and that they are entered in the book when they thus make a profession of his name.

3. Some who have heard and understood the Sabbath question, and kept the Sabbath for years, are now keeping Sunday. Have such received the mark of the beast?

ANS. As already explained, the mark of the beast, in the light of the prophecy, can be received only when the issue comes between the claims of God’s law, and the institution of the beast, and a person deliberately chooses the latter knowing it to be in opposition to God’s requirements. That crisis has not yet come; and hence we do not say that any one now has the mark of the beast. That any one who has ever known the truth and kept the Sabbath, is now conscientiously keeping Sunday, we very much doubt. We venture to assert that it is a matter of policy merely. It does not seem possible to us that it could be otherwise. Still the strange workings of a mind that is enveloped in darkness, wholly deceived, is something we cannot comprehend or explain.

4. What is meant by receiving the mark in the forehead and in the hand?

ANS. As the forehead represents the seat of the mind and judgment, receiving the mark there may be explained as giving the assent of the judgment to the institution of the beast and his requirements. Many no doubt will so fall under the power of deception as to finally enthusiastically endorse the teaching of this anti-Christian power as the truth. The hand is the agent of outward action, and to receive the mark there may indicate compliance by some outward sign, as a matter of policy without compromising the judgment or the affections. The requirements of the truth are more strict. The Lord must have his mark or seal in the forehead and nowhere else. He must have the mind and heart; for nothing else is obedience such as he requires. The beast is not so particular; and if a person cannot sincerely endorse his work, and so receive the mark in the forehead, he will be satisfied if he will by yielding a formal compliance, receive it in the hand.

5. Is a person’s destiny sealed when he has received the mark of the beast?

ANS. Undoubtedly. When a person is so far gone either in deception, or a willingness to withstand the plain requirements of God, to save himself from persecution, that he will take such a step, he must be beyond recovery. And this is doubtless the turning point with him. The period of probation with the last generation in this country, runs to this issue and terminates. When the worshipers of the beast have received his mark, the servants of God are all sealed with God’s seal, Rev. 7:1–4; 14:1, and then the plagues begin to fall, Rev. 16, beginning with the very ones, who, in worshiping the beast and receiving his mark, have committed the highest offense against Heaven.

6. Would the Catholic, believing that his church has the right to command sacred days, have the mark of the beast, and the Protestant the mark of the image?

ANS. The objection against this supposition is that we nowhere read that the image has any mark. All that seems to be done in reference to the image is to worship it. Two powers are involved in this conflict, God and this anti-Christian power symbolized by the beast. There are but two marks to distinguish their respective followers: the mark of the beast and the seal of God. On the one side are the beast, the two-horned beast, and the image; but one mark, the mark of the beast, is common to them all.

7. Could those who are living outside of this government, and do not regard the first day of the week with any sacredness be said to have the mark?

ANS. We think not. But the first plague which falls upon those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image, will take those in every country who worship the beast and receive his mark, and in this country such as receive the mark and worship the image.

8. When are the beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire? at the beginning or the end of the thousand years?

ANS. At the beginning. Rev. 19:20. The scene described in this chapter from the 11th verse is undoubtedly the second coming of Christ; and it is at this time that the beast and false prophet are taken and consigned to this doom. This is what Daniel describes, Dan. 7:11, when he says that the beast was destroyed and his body given to the burning flame; and Paul, when he says, 2 Thess. 2:8, that “that wicked,” the papacy, shall be consumed by the spirit of Christ’s mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. The scene at the end of the thousand years, Rev. 20:10, 13–15, seems to be a repetition, on a larger scale, of that which occurred at the beginning. The devil, says John, “was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet” were cast, as we should read it according to the literal construction of the passage. They were cast there a thousand years before, at the coming of Christ. Thus the same term is used to describe what takes place at the beginning of the thousand years, and also at the close, the destruction of the wicked being largely due in both cases to the consuming glory of the presence and power of God; “for our God is a consuming fire” (to the wicked), Heb. 12:29; accompanied more or less with the manifestation of literal fire, which at the end of the thousand years is so heightened and intensified that the elements melt with fervent heat, 2 Pet. 3:10, and the heavens and the earth flee away from the presence of Him who sits upon the great white throne, resolved into their ultimate gases by the intensity of the last purifying fires. From the elements thus cleansed from the curse and sin, the new heavens and earth appear. 2 Pet. 3:13.

9. Job 14:12 says that man riseth not until the heavens be no more. Are we to understand by this that the heavens pass away at Christ’s second coming?

ANS. The word used by the Septuagint in this passage does not convey the idea of cessation of existence, as in our English version, but that of breaking up and dashing together, like the onset of two armies in battle. The word is defined by Liddell and Scott, “to tear or break up, to dash to pieces.” “Passive and intransitive, to break or fall to pieces, to burst out, and crush together.” This agrees accurately with the commotion which New Testament writers declare will take place in the heavens when Christ appears. Matthew says, “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” Matt. 24:29, and John declares that the heavens then depart as a scroll when it is rolled together. Rev. 6:14. What Job affirms is that the dead shall not awake out of their sleep till this breaking up of the heavens takes place; and other writers affirm that this takes place when Christ comes, which is the time for the resurrection of the dead.

LESSON EIGHT.

THE SABBATH.

As we have seen that the third angel’s message brings out a company who are distinguished as keepers of the commandments of God, the inquiry is a natural one in what respect obedience to the message would lead a person to differ with other religionists in his efforts to keep the commandments. The only essential controversy in regard to the commandments among those who hold them to be still binding has reference to that precept which enjoins the Sabbath. If in order to keep the commandments we must keep the seventh day of the week, and almost all professors of religion are keeping the first day of the week, here is a distinction as marked as the language of the third message would lead us to infer. Thus is our attention called directly to the Sabbath by the third angel’s message, as well as by the subject of the sanctuary.

And there is consistency in this; for as the first message brought us to the hour of God’s Judgment, or the cleansing of the sanctuary, when the temple of God was opened in Heaven, the ark was seen, and the attention of the people was called to the law contained in the ark, the third message which follows the first, and is the representative of the truth during the period of the cleansing of the sanctuary, ought of consistency to bring out the same fact respecting the law; and we see that it does.

The evidence is now in order, to show that the seventh day is still the Sabbath of the Lord, and must be kept as such. The only command in all the Bible for the observance of the Sabbath is the fourth precept of the decalogue. But the nine other precepts are moral and hence immutable and eternal. Even those who contend for the abolition of the law, would not dare to advocate in any civilized community, that men were not under obligation to do or refrain from doing, just what those commandments say. Is the Sabbath like these others, immutable and perpetual? If not, why was it put in with these as one of them? and again, if not, what reason can be given to show why and in what respect it is not like them?

The Sabbath commandment is the only one in which God has seen fit to set forth the reason why it was given. It is therefore more explicit than the others. Respecting the others we may necessarily infer that they existed from the beginning of the world, but respecting the Sabbath we know that it dates from the beginning, from the record itself. The fourth commandment points back to the creation: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” This day we are to remember and keep holy. It is a marvel that any one should consider this commandment indefinite, enjoining only a seventh part of time, or an institution independent of a day. The act of God in resting had reference to a day. The blessing and sanctification had reference to a day. It is a day that we are required to keep, and it is the particular day on which he rested. Let those who call it indefinite tell us how it could be more definite than it is.

Turning to the record to which the fourth commandment points us, Gen. 2:2, we read that “on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” God performed no part of his work on the seventh day. The fourth commandment says that he made the heavens and the earth and all that in them is in six days, which would not be the case if he made any portion of them on the seventh day. Dr. Clarke says that the Septuagint, Syriac and Samaritan versions read sixth day in Gen. 2:2, instead of seventh day. But such a criticism is unnecessary, and it is not best to plead for a different translation unless there is clear and urgent reason for so doing. The expression in verse 3, “in it he rested” means the same as in verse 2 “on it he ended his work.” It means simply that on that day, and during that day, he ceased from his creative work. The entire day was devoted to rest; and this was the first essential act toward the Sabbatic institution. This made it the Lord’s rest-day, but laid no obligation on men concerning it. He then blessed it. This did not pertain to the day that was past; for past time cannot be blessed; but it referred to the seventh day for time to come. Every seventh day from that time was a blessed day. This would indicate how it should be regarded; but the next act completed the work: He sanctified it. Sanctify means to set apart to a holy use. This could not pertain to the day that was past, but to the seventh day for time to come. It was not set apart for God’s use; for he needs no such day; but Christ said it was made for man. This sanctification was therefore the giving of a command to Adam for its observance. The claim of Sabbath opponents that there is no command in the Bible for the observance of the Sabbath till Sinai, falls to the ground; for here is the record that such a commandment was given. And all the human race then received that command through Adam and Eve their representatives. And this sanctification of necessity introduced the weekly cycle; for Adam must begin to reckon as soon as the commandment was given; and when the next seventh day was past he must begin his count again, and so on. The week owes its origin to these facts. It can be traced to no other.

*(To be Continued.)

The Present and Future.

By James White

We were very happy to meet Elders Canright and Haskell at Battle Creek the 25th. The General Conference Committee will remain in council until June 4. The matters under consideration relate to the work in all its branches, throughout the entire harvest field. The subjects now before us are, equality in raising means, the proper distribution of laborers, the pioneer sheet for 1878 for the T. and M. workers to use, the establishment of the Atlantic Press, and to perfect as far as possible the system of tract and missionary work.

Elder Canright brings most cheering news of the work in the State of New York. More has been done in that State since he commenced his labors there, ten months since, than had been accomplished in the State in five years before that time. Elder Canright reports that New York puts six tents into the field this season. Both Elders Haskell and Canright are in possession of facts as to the great work the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is doing in the East, in converting scores, if not hundreds, and favorably impressing whole communities that are reading, which are calculated to feed the missionary fires in the breasts of our faithful T. and M. workers. We are laying plans for a general effort from all the States to commence in good season for 1878. Our discerning people and T. and M. workers are fully satisfied with the SIGNS, and are giving it a wide circulation.

The work in the South is receiving particular attention. Elder S. Osborn of Kentucky has been with us several days. He reports one hundred and sixty Sabbath-keepers within the bounds of his mission in Kentucky and Tennessee. They have an organized Conference. That mission, from first to last, has not cost the General Conference five hundred dollars, including the cost of their tent, and is now self-sustaining. Bro. Osborn is one of our hard-working, faithful men.

The manner of raising means, not only to properly support our ministers and to carry forward tract and missionary work, but also to build up and sustain our institutions, will be thoroughly canvassed. We see this great evil amongst us: Only a few of those who constitute our present rapidly growing membership have taken stock in our Publishing Associations and our College. Those who have recently cast their lot in with the Seventh-day Adventists do not take stock in these worthy and indispensable institutions. There is a wrong here that must be corrected.

There are no reasons why those who enter the vineyard at the eleventh hour should not work sharp this last hour. God bless them! Let them have their penny, as well as those who have borne the burden and heat of the day; but all the circumstances will fully justify these last in putting their time and means into the cause in good earnest.

We think that the old hands who have been sacrificing largely all the way from five to twenty-five years in the past, would not be grieved if those who enter the vineyard as the sun is nearly set, should come nobly forward to the work with their means. They should do this. Our ministers should preach equality in bearing the burdens of the way.

Our system of benevolence to support our ministers is equitable, scriptural, and right. It touches the poor man so very lightly that he does not feel it, and brings the burden on the wealthy who can bear it without the least difficulty. Why not establish equality in raising means to sustain other branches of the cause? Let those who have taken but little or no stock in our institutions answer this question.

It will require time and faithful, patient labor to bring all our people up to equality in bearing the burdens of the way. This is not the work of a day. It must be taken hold of with a will, combined with patient toil. The people must first be instructed, then tenderly entreated, and, if necessary, repeatedly and persistently urged to do that which is scriptural and right in the sight of God.

Our Eastern brethren have raised $10,000 to furnish the Pacific Press with presses, types, and other printing material. We recommend that no certificates of stock be issued to these Eastern brethren, unless they urge it, as the majority of stock must be represented at the annual meeting of our Pacific Association, either by person or proxy; and it would be difficult to have this large amount of Eastern stock, held by so many persons, represented.

The cause on the Pacific Coast is in a healthy and growing condition. The few that were members in 1875 nobly raised about $20,000 for the Pacific Press. Those who have joined the little army on the coast since that time, and who will join it by the autumn of 1878, will be as able to raise $20,000 more as the old hands were to raise that sum in 1875.

These new hands, these eleventh-hour men, are scattered all along the coast from Mexico to British Columbia. There are no reasons why our good people in Oregon and Washington should not take stock in the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association. As fast as these new hands take stock, it should be refunded to Eastern brethren, to put into the Atlantic Press, which must be established very soon. Our Eastern brethren did well to send $10,000 to California to help there in time of need, until new friends could return it. This they did with pleasure. And now if equality shall be established on the Pacific Coast, as in other parts of the great field, then Eastern brethren will have the double joy of lifting twice with the same means, first on the Pacific, and second on the Atlantic.

“Why does J. W. suggest so many changes?” impatiently inquires some narrow soul who can see but little importance to the work outside his own neighborhood. We confess to suggestions of change, and it would be strange if we did not make some mistakes. May God guide and help.

Were we connected with a cause that had gotten its growth, and had found a fixed position, like that of Lot’s wife, and had no more growth than some of our denominational neighbors, we could go around in the circle of our limited work without seeing the necessity of a change.

But our growth makes changes necessary. The Battle Creek church and congregation changed from a private house to their house of worship number one, then in a few years to number two, and soon to number three, and soon must move again. In a cause like ours, spreading everywhere, and where every man of our available forces is demanded at some post of duty, new missions opening, and new laborers entering the gospel vineyard, new plans and broader plans will ever be necessary, demanding change until the great work shall be finished.

The present is a time of the deepest interest to those who love the Lord, and his truth, and sinners, also, in and out of the nominal churches. There is a general waking up to the importance of the near future in all the wide field. May God guide us in all our plans for the future, and may he move on the hearts of all our people to help by their labors, their prayers and their means, in their execution to his glory, and to the advancement of his cause. J. W.

Closing Meetings in California.

By Uriah Smith

SABBATH, May 19, we had the pleasure of meeting with the brethren in Santa Rosa according to appointment. Members of surrounding churches were in, so that their pleasant and commodious house of worship was well filled. Two services were held, terminating with a social meeting, in which the limited time was well filled, the testimonies of those who spoke showing that they were intelligently and soundly converted to the truth, and filled with love for its principles and progress.

Sunday at 3 P. M., spoke in Healdsburg. When the appointment was given out, the proprietor of the opera house, the largest audience room in the place, not only freely offered our brethren the use of his house, but requested that the meeting be held there. The people responded in the same liberal spirit, and the largest number ever gathered in that house or in the place, as we were informed, came out to hear. They gave most excellent attention as we tried to show from the far-seeing visions and positive testimony of the prophets that we have about reached the last station of the world's journey through its period of probation, and in some individuals an apparent spirit of carelessness at the commencement gave way to a spirit of thoughtful consideration before the close.

Monday evening spoke in Petaluma, the Presbyterians granting the use of their house of worship for the meeting.

Commencing the Sabbath, May 25, spoke to the little church in San Jose and a few who came in from without to their hall of worship. Sabbath morning spoke to the church in Oakland. Sunday evening stopped at Dixon where Brn. Healey and Stephens are holding a tent-meeting with increasing interest, and spoke to about 300 assembled in the tent. Monday evening spoke to the church in Woodland, in their good house of worship. Tuesday morning we joined, at Sacramento, a company eastward bound, and now write from the train as it moves slowly on toward its destination.

Though these visits to the churches were but flying visits, it was a privilege thus to be able to meet with more of the brethren before leaving the State. We return East abundantly pleased with our experience in California. Many friends have contributed to make our brief stay among them most pleasant and agreeable, to be, we are well aware, but poorly repaid by the thanks we now return them, and the assurance we can give them of grateful remembrance in the future. And we are especially pleased with the strength which has thus far been developed in the State in behalf of the cause of truth.

We return East feeling new interest in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and the cause on the Pacific Coast, and new hopes for its prosperity in the future. As we took our final leave of San Francisco, by steamer, the sun hung midway in the western heavens, and marked a dazzling path of light across the waters of the spacious bay, directly out through the golden gate—fit emblem, thought we, of the path which the truth has opened in this noble State. There is before the church here a path of light, a path of prosperity, if they walk in the light, a path which will lead at last not merely through a golden gate, but through a pearly gate into a golden city. From all lands there leads such a way of light to the haven of rest; and if we pursue it, wherever we are, we reach at last a common goal, the heavenly harbor, the light of which outdazzles every earthly emblem.

“And the glory of God like a molten sea, Bathes the immortal company.”

U. S.

The Day of Judgment.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WHOEVER receives the Bible as the word of God must accept it as a settled fact that at some time in the history of this world there will come a final day of Judgment, the second advent of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the harvest of the world. That there should be a final day of reckoning at the close of human probation, is reasonable. The cases of men can then be impartially settled. Hence, as the Judge of all the earth is sure to do right, he has appointed a day of Judgment. Let us read a few plain scriptures upon this point. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:14. “The Judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:10. “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment.” Matt. 12:36. “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for that city.” Matt. 10:14, 15. “Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” Acts 17:31.

These scriptures are as plain as positive statements can be. The day of Judgment is not an indefinite event, but it is a day appointed, fixed and settled by the great God. That this day comes near the close of this world's history is evident from every reference to it. The language of Peter upon this point very plainly locates the day of Judgment at that period: “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7. Jude, speaking of that great day, says: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day.” Jude 6.

The book of Revelation, which relates almost wholly to last day events, plainly tells us that the day of Judgment comes under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the last one. Thus it says: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:15, 18. Then the time when the dead shall be judged does not come till the sounding of the seventh trumpet. One more text will suffice upon this point: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works.” Rev. 20:12, 13.

This is a plain description of the Judgment. It is closely connected with the resurrection of the dead. All men will be judged at that time, small and great. For this day of Judgment men are frequently exhorted to prepare. Exhortations to repentance are based upon the fact that we shall be brought into this Judgment. Promises of reward for obedience are to be fulfilled at the day of Judgment. The punishment of the wicked is to take place at the day of Judgment. God's righteousness is to be vindicated at that time. Then his saints are to be delivered. This, therefore, is the great and important event for the human race. D. M. CANRIGHT.

The Two Theories.

By John Matteson

1. The righteous and the wicked shall be rewarded and punished in the day of Judgment. The day of Judgment begins where probation ends, and ends with the lake of fire beyond the thousand years.

2. The righteous go to Heaven as soon as they die, and the soul, or real man, enjoys immortal glory in the presence of God. But the wicked go immediately after death into hell fire and receive their punishment.

Now let us look upon these two theories in the light of Matt. 25:31–41.

1. The Son of man has not yet come in his glory, with all the holy angels. The second coming of Christ is still in the future. So far we agree.

2. The nations spoken of which shall be gathered, and then separated one from another, include all the righteous and all the wicked that ever lived upon the earth. For when he says to them on his right hand, “Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom,” this must embrace all the righteous; otherwise some would be left out of the kingdom. And when he says to those on the left hand, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,” it must refer to all the wicked who receive their final punishment in the lake of fire. On this we must also agree.

3. Now then, upon the principles of the second theory we have:

1. All the righteous and wicked once separated, and placed respectively in Heaven and hell. Then in the Judgment they are all taken out, mixed together, and then separated the second time. There is no avoiding this; for it is plainly stated, that when Christ comes, he shall separate the righteous and wicked “one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” Does it look reasonable or scriptural that Christ will do this work of separation twice; first at death, and then in the Judgment have them all mixed together again and try the work of separation once more?

2. Christ is represented as saying in the last day to all the righteous, “Come, inherit the kingdom.” Whereas by far the greater part of them had inherited that kingdom a long time ago. Then righteous Abel might well say, Lord, why do you tell me to come and inherit the kingdom? Have you forgotten that I have been with you in the kingdom these six thousand years? And so the whole host of patriarchs, apostles, and martyrs. They have been with Christ hundreds and thousands of years in glory. Why, then, does he tell them to come, and to inherit the kingdom. There must be a mistake in that theory.

3. Christ is represented as saying to the wicked in the Judgment day, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Whereas millions of these poor men, according to said theory, have come right out of hell fire, and some have been burning there for six thousand years. You might imagine them rising up scorched, and singed, half crippled, with distorted faces, gnashing their teeth, blaspheming and cursing, saying, “Good heaven! we have been tormented in this terrible fire these five thousand years. And

now do you bid us return? What do you do that for? We are well acquainted with that horrible place.” (If any take the position that the fire is not literal, it does not better their theory any, for if they have been in torment, whether by fire or any other means, it does not alter the argument.)

Surely theory number two is terribly lame, and contrary to the Bible and common sense.

Now let us examine theory No. 1.

1. The righteous and wicked all go to one place when they die. “Because man goeth to his long home. . . . Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Eccl. 12: 5–7. Surely man means the whole human race. And the body of every man goes back to the earth; and the spirit of those bodies returns unto God who gave it. If the dust means the bodies of all, wicked and righteous, then the spirit does also embrace the spirit of all, righteous and wicked. There is no getting away from this.

2. Then in the great Judgment day the King shall resurrect every man, and cause spirit or breath to “enter into them again.” Eze. 37: 5. And they shall live. Then the Lord will separate the righteous from the wicked, as he calls forth the righteous in the first resurrection unto life, and the wicked in the second resurrection unto damnation. John 5: 28, 29. This is all consistent and scriptural.

3. Then shall the King for the first time extend the gracious invitation to his glorified saints, “Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And the righteous, robed in honor and glory, enter upon the possessions of the heavenly kingdom.

Then for the first time does he also bid the wicked to depart into everlasting fire. They must die the second death. May the Lord help us to prepare for the solemn decision.

JOHN MATTESON.

Kansas Camp-Meeting.

WHILE enjoying a visit at my brother’s in Canton, Mo., I received a card from Bro. White requesting me to attend the Kansas Camp-meeting. I arrived at Ottawa the 23d. The meeting is now past, and we are able to report a good degree of progress.

The meeting was not nearly so largely attended as was expected, owing to the recent heavy rains, by which the streams were raised so high it was impossible to travel with teams in some parts of the State. The railroad bridge, as well as the wagon bridge, was taken away at Lawrence. There were about 250 Sabbath-keepers tented on the ground.

As the meeting fairly opened it became evident that a spirit of depression was resting on the minds of most of those present, with some amounting to discouragement. The attendance being small, the disappointment of many that Bro. and Sister White did not come, only one speaker being present from abroad, and the finances of the conference being deficient, all conspired to make the outlook gloomy.

Bro. Ayers, the President, came with a full determination to refuse to bear the responsibility of office during the next year. Of course some were discouraged for personal reasons, being backslidden. But the clouds early began to break away and the light increased unto the close. Burdened souls were set free; several made their first start in the cause; 14 were baptized.

At the conference of last year $200 were drawn in advance on the pledges, of the then coming year. This year there was a deficiency of $376, on the pay of the ministers; a new tent 50x70, had been purchased, but was unpaid for, and some small sums were due on camp expenses. But this deficiency was all made up at this meeting, mostly by donations of ready money, with some pledges on short time, so the conference commences another year with all debts paid and a good prospect for the future.

This money was raised with very little urging and nothing that could really be called begging. With eight new churches received into the conference, and five unorganized companies taken under its care, the brethren and sisters felt that the labor performed was worthy of the hire allowed to it, and every dollar was given with a cheerful good will. The new tent is needed. The president was re-elected and all the ministers start out with new strength and courage. The proportion of new faces seen at the meetings was unusually large. Bro. Stover informed me that there are about sixty new converts in his section. The weather was excellent, though the nights were rather cool as a season of heavy rains was just past.

The “First-day Adventists” once held a tent-meeting here, and preached “definite time” for the Lord’s coming. I was told by the editor of the paper in Ottawa, that prejudice existed here because of the general belief that we set the time for the advent. This we had to wear away, and we are now informed that the attendance would have been much larger if the meeting had continued longer. This leaves a good prospect for a tent-meeting here at some future day. But our congregations were good in the main. Sunday morning it was evident that the church members mostly attended at their own churches, but in the afternoon and evening the attendance was large. Better order I never saw at any out door meeting. When the congregations were largest, there was no noise nor confusion about the camp. Without any guard, nothing was disturbed day nor night.

I think the prospect before this young and growing conference is decidedly encouraging. Five ordained ministers, and four licentiates, all in the prime of life, youthful, vigorous and energetic, and others beginning to feel the burden of the work. The utmost harmony prevailed in all their councils. Openings before them are abundant, calls for labor coming from every direction.

Ottawa, Kan., May 30, 1877.

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