—THE Northumberland coal-miners have accepted a twelve and one-half per cent reduction in wages.
—MONCASI, who attempted to assassinate the king of Spain, has been sentenced to death.
—A NOTE from the Czar gives assurance of his desire faithfully to respect the treaty of Berlin.
—THE Porte has accepted the principle of the rectification of the Greek frontier.
—A TELEGRAM from Berlin states that Germany will occupy the whole of the Samoan Archipelago.
—THE total number of deaths in the South from yellow fever is reported at 18,921.
—THE Afghans are preparing for war, and late dispatches indicate that hostilities may commence soon.
—Nov. 18, snowstorms of exceptional severity were prevailing in the north of England and throughout Scotland.
—A DISPATCH from Rome says that the very Rev. Monsignore McCabe, Vicar General to the late Cardinal Cullen, has been selected to the Archbishopric of Ireland, and will probably be made cardinal.
—GENERAL LOMAKINE'S Russian expedition, marching from the Caspian Sea in the direction of New Turkistan, by constant fighting has reached the Upper Attrek Valley. A Russian corps 8,000 strong, also stands on the road to Balkh and Herat.
—THE Porte has handed the Eastern Roumelian Commissioners a draft of a constitution for Eastern Roumelia. It embraces provisions for a partly elective council general, and popular election for certain local officers. The Commissioners have accepted the Porte's draft.
—THE elections for members of the Great Council of the Canton of Geneva resulted in favor of the Democratic Conservative party. This insures the return of dispossessed Catholic priests, the cessation of the religious war, and the eventual separation of the Church and State.
—PELEGRA, a malady which commences with the skin, but impairs the digestion, and finally becomes fatal, has attacked 40,000 Lombard peasants. The disease is induced by overwork, want of cleanliness, unhealthy dwellings, and eating flour made from damaged maize.
—A DISPATCH from Rome, dated Nov. 14, says that violent storms have been raging throughout Central Italy, and the damage caused by them is almost unparalleled. Travel on all railways between Rome and the North is interrupted. The 15th, the Tiber had overflowed its banks, and the lower part of the city was inundated. It is expected that the flood will become as widespread as the disastrous one of 1870.
—THE iron firms of Ashton, Hyde, Staleybridge, Newton, and Guidebridge, England, give notice of a reduction of two shillings per week in the wages of workmen. The Bolton cotton spinners have decided to make a reduction of 5 per cent in the wages of their employes. The cotton manufacturers of Glasgow will reduce the working hours one-third. This will affect 8,000 employes. At Blackburn 8,000 operatives are out of employment.
—THE new Art Museum in Boston is profusely decorated with panels of terra cotta, which is also used in the construction of mullions, window caps, sills, etc. All kinds of terra cotta articles are now made in this country. It will stand heat better than any other known substance, as indeed it well may do since it is subjected, during the process of manufacture, to a temperature of 2,000 degrees (Fahr). Nor is it liable to crack if cold water is thrown upon it when in a heated condition.
—THE Afghans, the dominant race in the kingdom of Shere-ali, now menaced by England, call themselves Jews and claim to be descended from King Saul. In defense of these claims it is asserted that they are unquestionably of the Jewish type, are divided into tribes, clans, and families, that they practice the ceremony of the scape-goat, and celebrate their religious rites on the hills. There is, however, no trace of Hebrew dialect in their language. In other respects their religion is that of the Mohammedan Sonnites, and they regard the Sultan as the legitimate successor of the Caliphs.
Two Little Flocks of Kids: Lions and Shepherds
By Talmage
“AND the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids.” 1 Kings 20: 27.
With thirty-three kings roaring drunk in one tent this chapter opens. They were allies plotting to crush the Lord’s Israel. You know when a lion roars how a flock of kids will shiver and huddle together. You know that one lion can conquer a thousand kids. A great battle opens. The army of the Syrians, under General Benhadad, a vast multitude, as strong as lions. The army of Israel, under Ahab—few and weak, “like two little flocks of kids.” Who beat? The lions, of course. No: the kids. After the battle was over there lay dead on the field one hundred thousand Syrians; and twenty-seven thousand Syrians having fled along by a great wall, the wall topples and crushes them to death; so that what the swords could not do the bricks accomplished. So, in every issue, everything depends upon whether God is on the side of the lions or the kids. Which was the mightier weapon, great Goliath’s sword or little David’s sling? All David’s ammunition was five smooth stones from the brook, and he had five times more ammunition than was needed; for he only used one of these stones in bringing down Goliath, and he had four weapons left for any other kings that might attack him. So, in the great conflict between Christianity and its enemies, everything depends upon whether God is on the side of the shepherd boy or the giant.—Talmage.
TWO PICTURES.
THE POOR RICH MAN AND THE RICH POOR MAN.
In the excellent address delivered by Mrs. Matilda Fletcher to “Farmers’ Wives and Daughters,” at the Nebraska State Fair, we meet with two pictures of farm life, which are so suggestive, that we reproduce them here, regretting that we have not space for the entire lecture.
FIRST PICTURE: THE POOR RICH MAN.
A short time since I visited at the home of one of these gentlemen: a good man, and a gentleman he supposed himself to be. To eat, to sleep, to accumulate money and land, was the extent of his aspiration; and yet at family prayer he informed God complacently that he “presented himself and family a living sacrifice to the service of Heaven.” Living, indeed! He was the deadest sacrifice extant,—dead to all grace and harmony and form, of color, of feeling. He had hundreds of acres of grain, extensive woodlands and orchards, droves of horses and herds of cattle; and his great barn of a house had not a single carpet or picture, only the very plainest furniture, and not enough of that. His extensive library consisted of Patent Office reports, “Robinson Crusoe,” “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and a few interesting volumes upon horse-doctoring and sheep-raising. Good enough books in their way, and perhaps necessary to him, but not a book or a picture to minister to the eager young souls clustering about his hearth. His wife was a silent, broken-spirited woman; his eldest boy had fled to the far West, hoping upon some crag or peak of the dear old mountains to catch a glimpse of the sunshine of life; the eldest daughter, a sweet, intelligent girl, was maid of all work. In the evening she came and sat in my room until a late hour, and I was not surprised when, in sentences broken with tearful emotion, she gave me an account of her trials. One thing was, they never had anything to lighten their labor; no sewing, washing, or wringing machine, nor even a pump in the cistern; but she merely referred to this; she was willing to work, and work hard. The burden of her complaint was, that they never had anything to make the home attractive or home-like. Once she had planted some flowers, but the father had mowed them down as a sinful waste of time. She moaned again and again, “We never have anything beautiful or nice, and we are so unhappy, mother and us children;” and yet the dear heart kept saying, “Father is a good man; he doesn’t understand how we suffer.”
THE RICH POOR MAN.
I went with my young friend one day to visit the “poor farmer,” the man with “only forty acres and one team,” and the grounds about his home were like a lovely park. The house was a little brown gem of a cottage, with green blinds, and dainty green trellis-work here and there, with vines and flowers, while a great spreading oak, at a little distance beyond the shrubbery, gave it all such a restful, comforting look that we were prepared for anything to come, even in the line of miracle. As we passed to the door we deliberately paused at the threshold to survey its fresh loveliness. The farmer was there, as it was evening, and he never works late except in great emergencies. He wore a fresh linen suit, with gay slippers. It was decidedly the children’s hour, and they, five in number, were distributed around papa. The mother was reading aloud in a new book. Her dress and hair had received attention, and the appointments of the whole house and of the farm, as I took pains to ascertain, were in good taste and wholly for the use and happiness of the family. Every room was carpeted, and, although there were no expensive adornments, there were pretty lithographs and engravings; there were delicate shells, and vases and bouquets in abundance. There was a liberal supply of books, but their real library consisted in an excellent array of papers. A poor man, indeed! He lived for the happiness of his family, and he was rich and blessed in their love and intelligence. He could well afford to smile at the abundance that dwarfed and enslaved his rich neighbor.—Inter-Ocean.
LESSONS FOR BIBLE CLASSES.
By G. H. Bell
LESSON XXII.—APARTMENTS OF THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY.
QUESTIONS.
1. For what did the priest first make an atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month? Lev. 16:11–14.
2. What was the next step in the important services of that day? Verses 15, 16.
3. What work of cleansing was performed in the first apartment? Verses 18, 19.
4. After he had made an end of reconciling, or purifying, both holy places, and also the altar, what did he do? Verses 20–22.
5. What was then done with the scape-goat? Verse 22.
6. What was employed in cleansing the worldly sanctuary? Heb. 9:7.
7. What must be employed in cleansing the heavenly sanctuary? Heb. 9:12.
20. In speaking of what he saw, what does John say of the opening of a door?
21. What door must this be?
22. What did John see in his vision that is not noticed in Isa. 6?
SYNOPSIS.
When the high priest had completed the work of making an atonement for the sanctuary, to cleanse it, he went to the door of the tabernacle, and laying both his hands upon the head of the scape-goat, confessed over it the sins of the people. Then the goat, bearing the sins of the people, was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and there released.
Thus we see that the worldly sanctuary was cleansed by the blood of sin-offerings; so the heavenly sanctuary must be cleansed by the blood of Christ; for the priests of the worldly sanctuary served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, and Christ is the great sin-offering, of which those of the worldly sanctuary were but types.
The heavenly sanctuary must have two apartments; for the holy places of the earthly sanctuary were patterns of things in the heavens,—figures of the true holy places.
From Heb. 9:8; 10:19, some infer that Christ ministers only in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary; but the Greek word here translated holiest, is hagion, a noun in the plural number, meaning holy places. In Heb. 8:2 the same word is translated sanctuary, and in Heb. 9:24, holy places. In the Douay Bible it is rendered holies in all these passages; and in Macknight’s translation, holy places.
So we see that when these passages are properly rendered, they show positively that our Lord does minister in both apartments of the sanctuary above.
Both Isaiah and John had a view of the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, both saw the golden altar, both saw the throne of God with the holy beings near it, and both heard the same words.
In speaking of what he saw, John says that a door was opened in Heaven, not into Heaven; this door must have been the door of the sanctuary. John also saw the seven lamps of the golden candlestick, and in Rev. 11:19 he says, “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.”
G. H. BELL.
SHERMAN CITY CAMP-MEETING.
By James White
Four camp-meetings have now been held in the State of Kansas the present season. One was held in May, at Neosho; and three others have been held in the months of October and November. The annual Conference was held at the first meeting in the spring, at a central point. The three autumn meetings have been held at three points in the State from north to south. The last, the Sherman City camp-meeting, has been held in a community cursed by the blighting influence of opposition to the health reform, and to the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.
This meeting appeared small when compared with our camp-meetings in older States, yet it was large when compared with the attendance at the Methodist camp-meeting held on the same ground two months ago. The country is new, and the meeting was located at a great distance from villages of importance, where there is but here and there a humble dwelling.
The Sherman meeting commenced Oct. 31. There were ten family tents and a large number of covered wagons on the ground, besides two congregational tents. One of the large tents was used as a chapel for conference and prayer meetings, and the other was divided into apartments for families. There were not far from one hundred brethren and sisters on the ground. It seemed to be a general gathering of the scattered ones. They were gathered from Southeast Kansas, from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, and some from Iowa and Michigan. Mrs. W. attended the Richmond meeting near Topeka, which was much larger than the Sherman meeting, and was on the ground at this last meeting one day in advance of us. When Elder Bourdeau and the writer reached the ground, sixth-day, November 1, Elder Haskell was preaching to a good audience. Mrs. W. preached in the afternoon. Few here had ever heard her, and the deepest interest was felt in what she had to say. The brethren continued to come in until the sun went down, reminding us that the holy Sabbath was at hand.
A general gathering of the entire camp was called as the sacred hours of the Sabbath drew nigh. At this meeting we took the stand and made remarks appropriate to the occasion; then we enjoyed a season of prayer. It was evident to all that the presence of the Lord of the Sabbath was with us. This interesting meeting was more than one hour in length. After a brief intermission, Elder Bourdeau gave a discourse on the subject of redemption, and was followed by remarks from the writer until the time to retire had come.
Elder Haskell was on the ground in advance of us, and had erected a comfortable tent, furnished with a board floor, covered with a plain carpet; in this tent was a good bed, a table, a stove, chairs, and other things necessary for a week’s sojourn in camp. Here we were made comfortable, and found rest in sleep such as we ever enjoy in tent life. The weather has been dry and very mild, excepting the slight chill of evening and morning. While we write, it is as mild as a Michigan September morning.
Sabbath morning we spoke for nearly two hours to a tent full of eager listeners, on the words: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10. Elder Haskell spoke in the afternoon on the subject of sacrifice.
And as the sun was sinking in the west, and the close of the Sabbath drew nigh, the camp was assembled under the large tent to take leave of our dear friend, the blessed Sabbath. At this meeting we spoke quite fully of the proper manner of observing the Sabbath, and especially of guarding both ends of it. We stated that while it is yet light on sixth-day, complete readiness should be made for the Sabbath, embracing chores, bathing, and change of clothing; the family should be assembled in the best room in the house, and one or two chapters should be read from the blessed Bible by the light of day, and the entire family should be bowed in prayer, waiting for the coming of the Sabbath. And the best definition of family prayer is, a brief prayer from each one of the family.
When an earthly friend is expected, preparations are made with care. How much more should we prepare for the Lord of the Sabbath to come into our homes and hearts at the very introduction of holy time. Be in season. If there is a period of from thirty to eighty minutes between the full light of day and the darkness of night, it is much safer to give the Lord’s Sabbath the benefit of the entire period of doubt as to the beginning of the day. Let the hour of prayer cover the ground, that the first end of the Sabbath be not marred. The close of the Sabbath should also be guarded. The season of prayer should cover all ground of doubt as to the close of the day, and upon our knees we should part with the Sabbath as with a very dear friend.
At seven in the evening, Mrs. W. spoke to a crowded tent on the subject of Christ’s triumphant ride into Jerusalem. It was very evident that the interest of the meeting was deepening.
First-day morning there were probably five hundred persons on the ground. In the forenoon we spoke for nearly two hours, giving the reasons of our faith and hope, and Mrs. W. spoke on the subject of Christian Temperance in the afternoon. Her appeals to slaves of intoxicating drinks and tobacco were pointed and forcible. One gentleman remarked that he could listen to that woman on the important subject of temperance twelve hours, and not get tired on his rough board seat. Elder Haskell preached in the evening.
Monday was a day of labor. The morning meeting in the large tent continued five hours, from nine till two, and during nearly all this long meeting Mrs. W. occupied the stand, excepting the season of prayer for those who had come forward to seek the Lord. This meeting closed victoriously. Strong cries for mercy and grace to endure, and also shouts of victory, were heard. In the afternoon we spoke on the subject of baptism, after which six were buried by Elder Cook in the creek near by.
In the evening Mrs. W. spoke to a tent crowded with eager listeners, upon the subject of Bible sanctification. This was a clear, powerful, and timely discourse, in which the bogus sanctification of our time was shown up in its true character.
Early Tuesday morning the camp was called up to appear in the large tent for a morning meeting. Our beloved Bro. Santee was to be set apart to the work of the gospel ministry by the laying on of hands. We gave a short discourse appropriate to the occasion, and after the congregation had given a unanimous vote of approval, prayer was made by Eld. Haskell in connection with laying on of hands by Elders Haskell, Cook, and White. Charge by the writer. This was followed by breakfast, and the usual hurry and noise of axes and hammers taking down our cotton city. And away drove those hardy Kansas farmers, with their families, to their rural homes. That which everybody says, is supposed to be true. The united testimony of all our people on the ground is this morning that this meeting, from commencement to close, has been the very best they ever attended. And the outside attendance has been good and orderly. The general compliment has been that this has been the most orderly and most neat and cleanly and respectable camp-meeting they ever attended.
Kansas is a good field of labor. Kansas is increasing her population faster than any other State in the Union. The people are generally poor, but intelligent and ready to read and hear, and investigate the reasons of our faith and hope. But there is a great want of laborers in this extensive gospel field. God pity the people of Kansas, and send help to those who are perishing for the bread and water of life. It is now expected that their general camp-meeting and annual Conference for 1879 will be held at a central point about the tenth of May. And we are under promise, if the Lord will, to be at that meeting on our way from Texas to Colorado.
Tuesday afternoon, Elder Haskell, Mrs. W., our daughter (Mrs. J. E. White), and the writer, took the train at Oswego, Kansas, for Dallas, Texas. At Muscogee, Indian Territory, we found a good hotel, where, to our happy disappointment, we found the best of accommodations. Wednesday we reached Dallas, dusty and weary, but glad that our journey of about one thousand miles from Battle Creek, Mich., to Dallas, Texas, was at an end. We tarried for the night at the home of Bro. Cole and family, and Thursday came to the good and comfortable home of Bro. McDearman. Here our daughter met her parents, brother, and sister, who have all been brought near the door of death by the fever which has prevailed in this State during the past season. Our coming to them is timely. They have a large house and warm hearts, but as they move about they look more like walking corpses than living men and women. We remain here until Wednesday, the 13th, when we go to the Plano camp-meeting.
At present we can only say of Texas that the weather is mild and dry. We already suffer with the heat. Our post-office address at present will be Denison, Texas, where we may spend the winter. Elder Bourdeau remains awhile in Kansas, then he will visit his French brethren in Illinois. After the Plano camp-meeting, Elder Haskell will return to Battle Creek, and labor in New York, New England, and elsewhere. As we write, a gentle rain is falling, which betokens more clear, cool, and healthful weather. J. W.
THE PROPHETIC CONFERENCE.
Of this conference just held in New York, as previously noticed in the REVIEW, the papers the past week have had more or less to say. One effect of the conference is already very apparent, and that is it is developing the real infidelity which exists among the different denominations on the question of the second coming of Christ. The leading religious journals do not consider it beneath their dignity to speak out in reference to such a meeting and the views there advocated; and in speaking, their real opinions come to light. Their views of prophecy are little less than astonishing. One thinks prophecy can be understood only after it has been fulfilled! Why, then, was it given? Of what conceivable use is it? After the Lord has come, we shall all know it; but we can know nothing of it beforehand. Such is their position.
It is true that all men will at last be Adventists. But one class will become convinced when it is too late to receive any benefit from such conviction. All the antediluvians were at last converted to the preaching of Noah; but their conversion came too late to be of any advantage to them. They were probably acting on this profound principle that they could not understand prophecy till after it was fulfilled, but after that they would know all about it. And so they did; but they perished in their foolish experiment.
Another thinks that though prophecies in the past have all been fulfilled literally, it does not follow that those in reference to the second coming of Christ are to be fulfilled in the same manner. But why should we not take them so? Why abruptly and violently depart from the rule established by all previous fulfillments, with no apparent occasion for so doing? Such a course can be explained only on the ground that persons prefer to spiritualize all these prophecies, to correspond with their preconceived opinions.
The destruction of the world by the flood was literal. The overthrow of Sodom by fire and brimstone was literal. As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so, says Christ himself, shall it be in the day when the Son of man is to be revealed. Could he teach any more explicitly that the prophecies of his second coming are to be taken literally? And if they are not to be taken literally, how shall we take them? Thus these teachers would take away from us the key of knowledge.
Another considers it the “gospel of despair” to suppose that “the thousands of millions of the world’s present population are about to be suddenly and utterly surrendered to the devil, leaving nothing better than the history of Sodom and Lot as the type of this world’s history even under the dispensation of the gospel of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Tell it to a Jew, but not to a Christian.”
But unfortunately for this writer, this is the very illustration which Christ himself uses to set forth the condition of the world at his coming. As it was in the days of Lot, thus shall it be in the days when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 17:28-30. If we put off this coming to the end of the millennium, does it help the matter any? Does it grate any less harshly upon the mind to suppose that after all men have been converted, and so lived a thousand years, they are to suffer such a terrible apostasy that Christ at his coming would scarcely find faith on the earth, and all but a few would perish at last, after so much light and glory, like the antediluvians and the Sodomites? What kind of a gospel is this?
Tell it to a Jew, says this writer, but not to a Christian. Just so the Jews said in reference to the great facts of Christ’s first advent. Tell them to a Christian, but not to a Jew. Thus both Jews and Christians have shown themselves to be in the same condition: each ready to accept the truth rejected by the other, but both equally blind to the truth which belongs to their own time.
PREPARED FOR THE TRUTH.
THE following from a sister in Georgia shows how the hearts of the people in places of which we have no knowledge are being prepared for the reception of the truth. From such cases as those mentioned herein, may we not suppose that there are myriads in a similar condition, waiting and hungering for the truth? And when we think of the shortness of time, and the increasing difficulties and perils of the way, to what zeal and energy should we be moved to place the light before those who are stretching up their hands to God for it, and to whom God designs that we should be instrumental in bearing it, since by his providence he has placed it in our hands. The letter is dated Reynolds, Ga., Nov. 13, 1878, and reads:—
“Over a year ago, a few first-day Adventists here were conversing together, and one remarked that we were at a standstill; no progress being made by us, nor by our paper, The Crisis. Another said, ‘It seems to me we ought to have a sealing message.’ Not two weeks after, the Lord sent Bro. Taylor and wife to teach us the way more perfectly. In one hour after he came, he had a room full of hearers. He hung up his chart and explained it. As soon as he spoke about the sanctuary, we all felt that here was something for our attention. He staid with us and preached fifteen sermons, and fifteen signed the covenant to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. We have had regular165prayer-meetings and Sabbath-school from that time. Since we have entered the school of Christ, we find that we were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and we have gone to work to buy gold, eye-salve, and white raiment.”
An account of the general meeting in Reynolds then follows, which we omit, as it was given by Bro. Taylor last week.
LIKE THE WORLD.
This is the death-knell to all spiritual life and prosperity. Any class of professing Christians of whom it can truthfully be said that they are like the world, have sealed their doom unless by speedy reformation they shall recover themselves from this snare of the enemy.
A sister writes from Indiana: “How does it come that S. D. Adventists dress so much like the world? Three years ago, when our camp-meeting was held at Bunker Hill, it was very easy to tell who were Adventists and who were not. But I am sorry to say that at our last camp-meeting the present season, one could not tell an Adventist from a person of the world, unless by personal acquaintance. If we are the peculiar people that are to be brought out in the last days, must we not dress more plainly, putting into the cause the extra time and money which fashionable dressing would involve?”
This sister, no doubt, has too much ground for her anxious inquiry. But there is one fact to be borne in mind, and that is, that our camp-meetings are every year calling out a larger number of those not of our faith, and whose dress would not accord with the profession we make. Some of these may perhaps, unless care is taken, be supposed for some reason to be S. D. Adventists, and thus the conclusion may be drawn that S. D. Adventists are becoming like the world.
This mistake has sometimes been made in regard to the church in Battle Creek. Quite a proportion of our congregation every Sabbath is made up of people of the world or of other denominations; and in the matter of adornment and costly array, the dress of some of these would be such as any one acquainted with the Bible standard must at once condemn. And as these have been taken for members of the church, the report has gone out in some instances that the church in Battle Creek was fearfully backslidden in the matter of dress, whereas the persons referred to were not members of the church at all.
We would not be understood by this as saying that there is no departure among us from the teaching of the Bible, or even from our former simplicity, in this respect. It is plain to be seen that there is, and that the evil is fast growing upon us. It calls for serious consideration and alarm. What can be done? This, at least, can be done. Every one who sees the evil can keep himself or herself from it. It must be, after all, an individual work. We judge from our sister’s letter quoted above that there was at least one on the Indiana camp-ground who could be distinguished from the world. Let her maintain her integrity. Let all others who, like her, see the evil, do likewise. Thus there will be an influence, which, although it will not help the personal responsibility of those who are carried away by the foolish fashions of the day, will nevertheless be a testimony in the church in behalf of simplicity and right.
ADMISSION OF MEMBERS INTO THE CHURCH.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
Among the most solemn and marked events in a person's religious experience should be his conversion, baptism, and admission into the church of Christ. Indeed, if these are a reality, they are the most solemn events in all one's spiritual life. They mark the point where a soul breaks away from darkness into light, where it turns from Satan to God, from a path that leads to hell to the one which leads to eternal glory. Here the soul is born anew, and all its relations and motives are changed. If a person at this time is soundly converted to God, he always looks back upon these events with the deepest interest, and with pleasure. If, on the other hand, his conversion is not deep and genuine, he soon comes to regret these steps, and they are a source of sorrow to him in all after life. Hence it seems very proper that great care should be exercised over this sacred and important work.
The minister in charge of the work is the one who always gives tone to these solemn events. Candidates are passive in his hands, and do as he directs. Therefore, the minister should study the subject carefully, and in the fear of God take that course that will be productive of the greatest good.
Seventh-day Adventists have not been very formal in any of their worship. This is not to be regretted in most cases, yet in some respects it is. In the matter of receiving members for baptism and admission into the church, in many instances we think a great improvement might be made. Indeed, we have heard the most of our leading brethren express regret at the little care that is taken in this solemn matter. At the camp-meetings this is particularly the case; we are always in a hurry, with a great many things to do. Baptism generally comes about the last thing, when there is the greatest hurry. Persons do not decide to seek the Lord until about the last day. What is done must be done quickly or not at all. There is no organized church there to formally receive them; hence frequently persons come forward, rise up and speak once or twice, express a desire to be baptized, and immediately are taken to the water and baptized, with very little examination. Perhaps this is unavoidable in most cases, yet it is to be regretted. But there is no reason why a different course may not be pursued at home in our churches.
Then there is another thing to be considered,—the way persons are admitted into the church. Generally, some brother makes a motion to receive them, and they are accepted by a rising vote, and this is all. They make no promises, no pledge, nor is there anything done particularly to impress them with the solemnity of the act. This subject came up at the Minnesota camp-meeting last spring, and was discussed at some length. There it was suggested that it would be a great improvement to have more form and ceremony on receiving members into the church.
When we came to Bowling Green, we resolved to carry out these impressions. We held meetings here over a week. At different times persons came forward to seek the Lord. We took down their names, and then made it convenient to talk with them. Finally, on the Sabbath about twenty-five came forward. We took all their names, and ascertained that most of them wished baptism and admission into the church. Their names were then read before all the brethren, with a request that if any one had any objections to any of these persons, or had any advice to give them or suggestions to make in regard to them, that they would come to us privately and talk it over. We requested that the parents of all those under age should talk with us about their children, and talk with the children themselves. We stated that these cases would be taken up the next day. This gave us a good opportunity to find out the character and standing of each candidate.
The next day we got all the candidates together alone, and carefully examined each one as to his convictions of sin, determination to bear his part in family devotions, meetings of the church, and expenses of the cause; to lay aside all jewelry and extravagance of dress, abstain from parties of pleasure, the use of tobacco, etc. This gave us a good opportunity to advise young persons about obedience to their parents, older ones about flirtation, and companions about family duties. Furthermore, by this course, brethren were free to come to us in private and express their views on different persons, which they would not do in public. The result was that several were advised to wait awhile, for various reasons.
Then we gave out that on Sunday evening those who were accepted would be publicly received into the church before they were baptized the next day. Our church was crowded to its utmost capacity. About twenty persons, old and young, were to be admitted. The front seats were vacated, and each one came forward as his name was read. Then, as each case had been thoroughly examined, all were voted into the church unanimously. We then invited them to stand upon their feet, and taking each by the hand, set before them the solemnity of the step they were taking, committed them to the grace of God, and extended to them the right hand of fellowship in behalf of the church. The house was as still as a funeral, and it was one of the most solemn and touching scenes we have witnessed in a long time. Tears flowed freely, and we believe that the Spirit of God witnessed to this beautiful ceremony. After all had thus been received, we knelt down and had a sweet season of prayer for them.
We felt so well pleased with this way of admitting members that we think we shall ever follow it in the future. We are satisfied that it will make an impression upon candidates concerning the solemn step they are taking, and their duty to God and the church, which will be a help to them in after life.