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Review and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 14

CONDUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPEL.

Review and Herald

September 17, 1867

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 17, 1867

CONDUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPEL.

By C. A. Osgood

A SHORT SERMON BY C. A. OSGOOD.
TEXT. “Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.” Phil. i. 27.
The gospel is a message of divine truth, and is good tidings to our unfortunate and sinful race. And our Lord before his ascension to Heaven commanded his disciples to proclaim this message in all the world. Divine truth is not theoretical only, but also practical. It consists not alone in correct ideas in the head, but also in right feelings in the heart, and right conduct in the life. The holy lives of those who have received the gospel, have often confounded and convinced skeptics whom no arguments could reach. And indeed, the success of the gospel cannot be complete unless its holy and benevolent principles are acted out by its adherents. As Christ’s disciples do this, they let the light they have received so shine before men that they see their good works, and are led to glorify God.
Under the latest edition of the gospel, the third angel’s message, it is no less important and necessary, than in former ages, that those who receive it should act in accordance with its solemn truths, and so walk worthy of God who hath called them to his kingdom and glory.
The word “conversation,” in our text, and indeed in most places in the Bible, has a wider signification than as commonly used at the present time. It includes not only what we say, but what we do. The real sense of the text is: Let your behaviour be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.
We will then for a few moments contemplate some things in human conduct which are, and some which are not, “as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”
And, 1. As the gospel is a gospel of peace, if we would walk worthy of it, we must as much as it is possible, “live peaceably with all men.” Angry words and actions do not become the followers of Him, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he suffered, threatened not,” and who, in this respect, left us an example that we should follow in his steps. A “meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price.” And this spirit acted out by Christians, especially when provocations arise, sheds a lustre on the religion the gospel teaches; while angry and harsh expressions, murmuring and fault-finding, coming from them, make religion appear very unlovely.
2. If we would live as becometh the gospel, we must “walk humbly with God” and men. Jesus, the “author of our faith,” humbled himself very low for our sakes. Sin has puffed us up with pride. But God’s grace is designed to bring down every high thought, to make us as little children before God. To indulge in boasting or vain glory, or any species of pride, is to be unlike the Saviour, does not indicate that we have been converted to God, does not recommend the gospel; but on the contrary tends to hinder the influence of truth. The humble Christian exalts God, exalts Christ, exalts the gospel.
3. A proper concern for the interests of others, that leads us to make sacrifices for their good, is becoming the gospel. We should not live for ourselves alone, but for others’ good. Jesus Christ became poor, that we might become rich; made himself of no reputation, that we might attain to high honors; suffered, that we might be happy; died, that we might live. We are required to have “this mind which was also in him.” Living lives of self-denying benevolence, we imitate his glorious example, we shed a blessed light around us, and act as the gospel teaches. When we live under the influence of selfishness we are in darkness ourselves, and our examples make the darkness around us more dense.
4. The influence of the gospel upon individuals is progressive. The mighty work of preparation for the Judgment is not done in a moment. The child of God by constant growth, is to become matured, a full-grown man in Christ Jesus. He is to “grow in grace” and Divine knowledge. He is to run with perseverance the Christian race, and never stand still till the Master appears, or he sleeps in death. Thus, Paul, after running this race many years, said, “This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” An increase of piety, a growth in knowledge and usefulness, a greater interest in those things which God has promised, as time advances, accords well with the design of the gospel.
5. To have our conduct in accordance with God’s word we must be “temperate in all things.” We are living when “the end of all things is at hand.” This is an age when multitudes walk in the “lusts of the flesh,” “revelings and banquatings.” And “they think it strange” that “we do not run to the same excess of riot.” Now is the time when the signs in the heavens are in the past, when the coming of the Saviour is very near, and when our Lord himself exhorts us not to be “overcharged with surfeiting,” and so the day of his coming come upon us unawares. Now is the time more than ever before, when very many make a God of their appetite. The gratification of the appetite, with such, absorbs the heart’s affections; costs more time, expense, and thought, than the worship and cause of God. These, many of them, are not aware that they are the “enemies of the cross of Christ,” but such is the fact. God wants in these last days, not a weak and sickly people, but those who by their strength, beauty and mental clearness, can honor him and be better fitted to be soldiers of the cross. In order to attain to this we must be strictly temperate.
6. We must manifest in our behaviour the absence of worldly-mindedness. This is an age when the love of the world prevails to an extent that is alarming. Men are intensely selfish. They desire to be quickly rich. Numbers are “heaping up treasures for the last days, which will eat their flesh as it were fire.” The gospel says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” The Saviour bids us not to be “overcharged with the cares of this life.” He knew that if our hearts should become overcharged with these, we would lose our interest in present truth, and continuing so, we should slumber on till the time of preparation for his coming would be over. How inconsistent is a spirit of worldly-mindedness, in those who profess to look for Jesus. How it hinders people from inquiring after truth! and how does it cause them to despise it!
7. The gospel teaches us to use the powers of speech in a way to glorify God. His grace can tame unruly tongues. The 144,000, on Mount Zion, Rev. xiv, 5, will be those in whose mouth no guile will be found. We must be truthful. We must fulfill our promises. We must not be deceitful. Filthiness, foolish talking and jesting, must not be once named among us, if we would let our conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. “Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment.”
8. The gospel message is earnest. It speaks in warning tones. It threatens those who do not obey it with “the wrath of God without mixture.” We livein a grand and awful time. The harvest of the earth is ripening. The wicked are growing worse and worse. The meek are seeking meekness. “Many shall be purified, made white and tried.” Probation’s hours are growing less and less. In a little while it will be said; “He that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be righteous still!”
How earnest then ought we to be in all our religious duties? How diligent, that we may be found of the Lord without spot and blameless?”

ACROSS THE RIVER.

By ERVILLA BILLOWS

There are rivers that roll o’er the golden sand, Through the midst of this realm so fair, And the beautiful gardens of God are fanned, By the wonderful breezes, soft and bland, That sweeten the heavenly air.
There are beautiful fields on the further side, Where the host of the ransomed stand, There are mansions of beauty beyond the tide, And the light that beams o’er the waters wide, Is a light from the better land.
There’s a city whose gates are of pearly white, Whose glories forever shall stand, And there ne’er shall gather the shades of night, For the glory of God is the sun and the light, In the midst of this blissful land.
There are triumphal songs which the victors sing, There are crowns which the ransomed wear, And the vaults of the heavenly arches ring, And they gather in homage around their king, While their conqueror’s palms they bear.
How I long to be safe on that further shore, To join with the glorified throng, Mid the forms of those we have loved before, Who left us mourning in days of yore, Mid the band of the blood-washed throng.
We shall join in song which the angels sing, As they stand out on the heavenly plain, We shall play on a harp with a golden string, And the height of the heavenly vault shall ring, With the praise of a Saviour slain.
Selected for Review by ERVILLA BILLOWS. Clarence, Mich.

The Sermon.

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
PREACH THE WORD. 2 Tim. iv, 2.

SABBATH AND SUNDAY IN CINCINNATI.

The following from the Chicago Daily Tribune of Aug. 15th, will be of interest to our readers:
“The Sunday question is exciting some controversy at Cincinnati. A clergyman of that city, Rev. N. Summerbell, has preached and published a sermon to show that the divine appointment of the seventh-day of the week, to be observed as the Sabbath, has never been changed, and that there is no authority for the substitution of the first day of the week (Sunday,) except custom, enforced by a Roman decree in the fourth century. He holds that it is impossible for custom, even when enforced by the edict of a Roman Emperor, to set aside a Divine ordinance. He makes the broad assertion, that ‘those ministers who testify against the Sabbath, (the seventh-day of the week,) contradict their uniform pulpit teaching.’ That the early Christians did not regard the seventh-day, he pronounces wholly irrelevant as against the plain words of the Decalogue. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible treats of the subject under two distinct heads, entitled respectively, ‘Sabbath’ and ‘Lord’s Day.’ It shows that the two have no connection, and that it is a misnomer to call Sunday (the dies solis of the Emperor Constantine,) the Sabbath.”
Below we give an abstract of the sermon referred to in the foregoing, taken from a Cincinnati paper of July 29, 1867:

THE SABBATH NOT DONE AWAY BY CHRIST.

[Abstract of Sermon preached in Cincinnati by N. Summerbell, July 28, 1867.]
Genesis ii, 2, 3: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.”
This is the institution of the Sabbath. It antedates all Jewish or Gentile institutions or nations. It was made not for the Jew, but for man. God rested, giving us divine example. God sanctified the day, and as long as the day lasts, and as far as the day extends, the sanctification reaches.
The law was afterward placed in the Decalogue, every one of the laws of which is eternal in its nature, and irrepealable. No man can point to any other law of the ten and say this is repealed. Therefore it is an error to regard the fourth commandment as repealed. To be repealed the sanctification must be removed by the same power that sanctified. The law must be repealed as plainly as it was made. God made the Sabbath “for man;” gave it to him for a blessing, a joy, a “delight;” therefore those who argue against it, calling it Jewish, and its observance unchristian, bear witness that their spirit is at war with God.
I. The example of Jesus proves that he did not change or do away the Sabbath.
First Example.—Jesus, after his baptism, returned to Galilee, and “straightway, on the Sabbath day entered into the synagogue and taught.”
Second Example.—“When the Sabbath was come he began to teach.” Mark vi, 2.
Third Example.—“He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke iv, 16.
Fourth Example.—“He came down to Capernaum and taught on the Sabbath days.”
These examples show that it was the custom of Jesus to observe the Sabbath. Those who profess to be his disciples should follow his example.
II. When the hypocritical Pharisees accused Jesus of violating the Sabbath, because he allowed his disciples when an hungered to rub out the corn to eat on the Sabbath, he referred them to such Sabbath-keepers under the law as David and the priests in the Temple. The former eating the shew bread only lawful for priests, and the latter profaning—that is, doing labor in offering the sacrifices on the Sabbath, and were blameless. He thus convinced that there were exceptions to the rigid observance of the law, by past precedents under the law; then announced himself Lord of the Sabbath, and informed them that it was made for man; that is, for man’s benefit.
When they again accused him of violating the Sabbath, because he healed on the Sabbath day, he convicted them of duplicity by their own custom of relieving even a brute on the Sabbath. Thus Jesus explained his conduct by no future “is to be” changed, but the past, “had been,” under the law, and by their own Sabbath-law-abiding customs. Every excuse is, therefore, removed from those who would accuse Jesus of changing or doing away the Sabbath. In his instructions to his disciples that they should pray that their flight from Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv, 20) be not on the Sabbath day, Jesus supposes the Sabbath to be in force forty years after his resurrection. When he had finished his work he rested in the grave over the Sabbath, and arose on the first day of the week, when the “Sabbath was past,” to his new work.
III. The disciples, like their master, observed the Sabbath. Though the spices were prepared, yet they visited not the tomb, but “rested the Sabbath according to the commandment.” And the Sabbath being past, some hasten to the sepulchre to the work of embalming on the first day of the week, and others are traveling to Emmaus, over seven miles distant.
IV. The same rule held good with the apostles afterward, when they ordered attendance to money affairs on the first day of the week, (see 1 Cor. xvi, 2,) but were uniformly found preaching on the Sabbath.
1. At Jerusalem, Acts xv, 21, where the apostle James presided, Paul was a delegate, and Peter a speaker. This first council refers the Gentiles to the Scriptures “read in the synagogue every Sabbath day,” thus proving that they both knew and approved the stated, general, and regular worship of the Gentile Christians on the Sabbath.
2. Not only, therefore, the Jews at Jerusalem, but the Gentiles at other cities, understood the Sabbath to be the day of worship. At Antioch, “On the Sabbath day Paul preached.” The Gentiles requested preaching on the next Sabbath. (Why not on the morrow?) On “the next Sabbath-day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” Acts xiii, 14, 42, 44.
At Philippi they “On the Sabbath day went out by the river side, where prayer was wont to be made,” and preached and baptized. Acts xvi, 13.
At Thessalonica “Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them” and preached three Sabbath days. Acts xvii, 2.
At Corinth Paul taught the word of God every Sabbath for a year and six months, that is, over seventy consecutive Sabbaths. Acts xviii, 4.
Such was the “custom” of the divine Lord, and such the “manner” of the true disciple. Jesus “taught on the Sabbath days,” as was his custom. Paul “every Sabbath,” as was his manner. And the Gentile Christians heard the Scriptures “every Sabbath-day.” No contrary can be called evangelical Christian, English divines to the contrary notwithstanding.
V. The Lord’s Day—Rev. i, 10. There is no doubt but John, by the Lord’s day, signified the Lord’s holy Sabbath, as the Scriptures never call any other day the Lord’s; and there is no evidence that John meant any other day.
VI. The objection founded on Col. ii, 16, “Let no man judge you in meat, drink, new moon, or the Sabbath day;” has, as seen by the preceding verses, reference to the ceremonial law, and its new moons and Sabbaths therewith connected, as in Isa. i, 13, “Your new moons and Sabbaths my soul hateth.” These Sabbaths were the rest days of the many feasts and moons, and had no reference to the Sabbath of the Lord. These were against us, Col. ii, 14, but done away by Christ; but the Sabbath was made for (us) man. The same is true of the days. (Rom. xiv, 5.)
VII. Appeals to the fathers and to tradition are of no force against the positive law of God. Jesus says that men “make void the law of God by their traditions.” (Mark vii, 7–13.) Nor is the assertion that the law of the Decalogue was done away true. Jesus said that whosoever does away the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven. He told the young man to do the commandments. Paul said the law is holy, just and good. “Do we,” said he, “make void the law? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.” Not one other of the Ten Commandments will any true man say is done away. Then why the fourth? God made the Sabbath for man—for man’s good, for rest, for a “delight,” for a sign. To the good it has ever been a delight. It is, and ever has been, a sign by which the good were distinguished. In arguing against it, therefore, men bear witness against themselves, for the good love the day.
“Day of all the week the best; Emblem of eternal rest.”
The fact that the Romans, in the fourth century, changed the day, is the secret of much that is said against it. But men have no right to change God’s law without Divine authority, and then make their own change a pretext for disobedience.
For the “Review.”

THE STREET SCHOOL AND ITS FRUITS.

By D. F. NEWTON

“Oh, it is a saddening sight, When children go astray, Forsaking what is good and right, To walk in Satan’s way.”
Marble-playing, copper-pitching, chess and checkers, fox and geese, are often stepping-stones to the gaming-table. Many of the most dissolute, degraded, miserable, and abandoned, date their first moving steps ruinward to marble-playing, the chess-board, or what is erroneously termed an innocent game at cards.
How, then, can parents, especially religious parents, consistently permit their children to engage in them? Time is lost, worse than lost, precious, golden moments, for which God will call you to account. A seared conscience, a callous heart, a turning away from the path of life to the path of death, is sure to accompany these games sooner or later.
Yet, strange as it may appear, professed ministers of the gospel are publicly advocating these time-killers—missiles of Satan—commending them to parents for the amusement of their children! Wicked! wicked! shameful! shameful! “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.” Prov. i, 10; also iv, 14, 15.
Recently two boys were playing at marbles, and several, as is usual, were looking on to see how the game went; and it went very peaceably for a time. At last, “You cheat,” burst from one, “You lie!” cried the other. “Tell me I lie?” cried the first with an angry scowl. “Call me a cheat?” rejoined the second. “Call me a cheat again and you take that,” doubling up his fist in the other boy’s face. “Get out,” cried the first, jumping up in a passion, “or I’ll pitch into you.” And pitch into each other they did like a couple of bull-dogs. It was a regular fight, until one got the nosebleed, and the other was kicked over in the dirt.
A city missionary in an eastern city, visited a man in jail waiting his trial.
“Sir,” said the prisoner, tears running down his cheeks, “I had a good home education; it was my STREET education that ruined me. I used to slip out of the house, and go off with the boys in the street. In the street I learned to lounge; in the street I learned to swear; in the street I learned to smoke; in the street I learned to gamble; and in the street I learned to pilfer. Oh, sir, it is in the street the Devil lurks to work the ruin of the young!”
Some boys are always in the street. They sleep and eat at home, but they live on the street; seek amusement on the street; do all the work they have to do on the street; receive their education on the street; they enter society on the street; and the Devil enlists themin his service on the street. O parents, all the grace in the world cannot save them if they go much on the street.
“There is no remedy for time misspent; No healing for the waste of idleness, Whose very languor is a punishment Heavier than active souls can feel or guess. O, hours of indolence and discontent Not now to be redeemed! ye sting not less Because I know this span of life was lent For lofty duties, not for selfishness.”
—D. F. NEWTON, Author of "Home Thrusts."

ARE THE OARS LYING IDLE?

By M. J. COTTRELL

Are the oars now lying idle? Art thou drifting with the tide? If ’tis thus there’s no advancement? Swiftly backward you will glide.
You perchance will fail to see it, Watching others at thy side, And so weary with hard rowing, Pause to rest, nor heed the tide,
But it surely bears those backward Who have ceased to ply the oar; Rouse! nor think of resting, brother, Till we reach the other shore.
Are the oars now lying idle? Does the stream so calm appear, That you think there is no danger, Just to rest one moment here?
Brother, there’s an under-current, You perceive it not I know, For the surface seems quite tranquil, But ’tis there with steady flow,
And that steady under-current, Bears all backward, slow but sure, Who would seek for ease and comfort, Idly resting on the oar.
Are the oars now lying idle? Do you think that you have made Such advancement that no longer You to ply the oar have need?
Do you think that you are gaining Faster than some other one? And that this is valid reason For the oars to be laid down?
Rouse thee brother, there is danger! Work with vigor for thy life, Work and watch, for all thy pathway Is with unseen danger rife.
Listen, brother, I beseech thee, To the warning I would give, I, too, often fail in weakness, For myself I often grieve.
But I’ll try to watch and labor, Ply the oars with faithful hand; And I wish to greet thee, brother, If I reach the heavenly land.
M. J. COTTRELL.

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

THERE are many things of which we have a much more vivid perception at some times than at others. The thing is before you; but sometimes you can grasp it firmly—sometimes it eludes you mistily. You are walking along a country path, just within hearing of distant bells. You hear them faintly; but all of a sudden, by some caprice of the wind, the sound is borne to you with startling clearness. There is something analogous to that in our perceptions and feelings of many great facts and truths. Commonly we perceive them and feel them faintly; but sometimes they are borne in upon us, we cannot say how. Sometimes we get vivid glimpses of things which we have often talked of, but which we had never discerned and realized before. And for many days it has been so with me. I have seemed to feel the lapse of time with startling clearness.
I have no doubt, my reader, that you have sometimes done the like. You have seemed to actually perceive the great current with which we are all gliding steadily away and away.—Fraser's Magazine.

THE TREASURES OF THE WICKED.

By J. A. James

Every man is treasuring up stores for eternity; the good are laying up “treasures in Heaven where moth and rust doth not corrupt;” the evil and impenitent are treasuring up “wrath against the day of wrath.” What an idea is this! Treasures of wrath! Whatever the impenitent man is doing, he is treasuring up wrath. He may be getting wealth; but he is treasuring up wrath. He may be forming pleasing connections; but he is treasuring up wrath. Every day adds something to the heap. Every oath the swearer utters, there is something gone to the heap of wrath. Every lie the liar tells, there is something gone to the heap of wrath. Every licentious act the lewd man commits, there is something gone to the treasure of wrath. Every day he lives in sin, the book of God’s remembrance records it against him. The impenitent man has a weightier heap of wrath to-day than yesterday; he will have a weightier to-morrow than he has to-day. When he lies down at night, he is richer in vengeance than when he rose in the morning. He is continually deepening and darkening his eternal portion. Every neglected Sabbath increases his store of wrath; every forgotten sermon adds something to the weight of punishment. All the checks of conscience, all the remonstrances of friends, all the advice and prayers of parents, will be taken into account, and will tend to increase the treasures of wrath laid up against the day of wrath.—J. A. James.

REWARDS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH.

By Joseph Clarke

Some contend strongly against bestowing merits and rewards upon the young, as an incentive to industry, or application to study.
I have no doubt but that rewards may be injudiciously bestowed; but I am just as confident, that a system of rewards in schools, or families, when properly managed, may become a very great help, both in respect to discipline, and as an aid to the teacher in inducing his pupils to habits of application.
As to the principle, we have high authority in the example of our Heavenly Father, who rewards those who seek him. He does not put off the suppliant wholly to the final day of rewards, but gives him the earnest of his Spirit to encourage him on in the narrow way. Without this reward, so often and generously bestowed, how utterly discouraged would the pilgrim often become as he treads the rough pathway of life; but with it, he becomes strong, so that he could and often does walk by faith alone; but then tokens of God's love had previously strengthened him for the hour of darkness.
The child often treads what is to him a rough and thorny path; the kind words of parents and teachers encourage his youthful mind, but often the stimulus to exertion is lacking. True he is told of the rewards of diligence which he will reap in mature life; but that is too distant, and besides he does not know that he will live to realize those rewards.
Often, very often, the child tires of the long, tedious columns of awkwardly-formed words; and does he not discover the absurdity of using e hard, when k would answer the same purpose; and e soft when s would do just as well? And is not the spelling-book often an Egyptian bondage to him, for full four or five years of his tender childhood? And shall he not have a little merit for every perfect lesson, and a larger premium for every hundred perfect lessons, or for every sixty lessons? And is not a pretty deportment-merit for every day of good behavior a nice thing? and a punctual-merit for coming to school in season, is not this nice? Especially when Mr. John Atwater, Box 4024, Chicago, Ill., furnishes a whole set, sufficient for a school of thirty pupils, a whole term, for one dollar and fifty cents?
I am no agent for our Quaker friend, Mr. Atwater; but I would recommend teachers and parents in want of such a help to get Mr. Atwater's “School Government,” of the same address. It saves talking and urging. It saves discipline and much anxiety of mind.
JOSEPH CLARKE.
Portage, Wood Co., Ohio.

COME TO JESUS.

By D. C. WOLCOTT

Blessed words! How significant to the earth-weary pilgrim, whose heart beats with troubled fear, as temptations assail, and discouragements press heavily upon him! The journey that he has undertaken is long and perilous. Foes beset him on every hand. The city he desires to reach cannot be distinguished in the distance. He is fainting in the wilderness. Is there no friend to whom he may fly for succor, and obtain strength to enable him to prosecute his journey? Ah, yes! He can come to Jesus, assured that he will receive him with open arms, and grant the required strength. He that hath said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” is ever near. His ear is ever open to the cries of all who come to him pleading for grace and strength. It will be given.
The care worn pilgrim can now press on his way rejoicing, his heart filled with gratitude and love to this compassionate friend who ever sticketh closer than a brother. He can now almost see the spires and turrets of the celestial city. He feels that his journey will soon be ended, and that he will receive the promised inheritance, even eternal life in the kingdom of God.
And those who are strangers to the love of God, may come to Jesus. Yes, all that will come, may come and partake of the water of life freely. Only come feeling your need of Him who is mighty to save, feeling that in none other name is there salvation, and Jesus will receive you. He will not turn any away empty who thus come to him. Strength will be imparted sufficient for your wants. You will feel the presence of his sweet Spirit in your hearts; will rejoice in his love which is full and free; and ultimately have part in that kingdom, where Jesus will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
D. C. WOLCOTT.
Battle Creek, Mich.

A MARK OF RELIGION.

There are many marks by which a vain religion may be distinguished from that which is genuine. All religion is vain which does not influence the conduct and which does not soften and change, and which does not govern and direct, the affections. It is not meet to assert that all is vain which does not immediately elevate the Christian to the perfect standard of Christian piety, but that all is so, which does not exert a ruling, and an increasing influence over the conduct, the heart, and the temper. Where the heart is not humbled, where sin is not hated, Christ is professed in vain. Where instead of humility, pride maintains its sway, where instead of gentleness and meekness being followed, passion and rage still mark as unchanged the temper, where a misplaced word or slighting expression or look is sufficient to occasion a storm of anger, religion is vain. Practical piety is described as love and patience and works of faith and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Faith, without its works, love without its labors, hope without patience, all are vain, and mark a vain religion.
VALUABLE ADVICE.—The Rev. Charles Simeon said: The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of adhering to the following rules, which I have laid down for myself in relation to such matters.
1. To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others.
2. To believe nothing of the kind until I am absolutely forced to.
3. Never to drink in the spirit of one who circulates an ill report.
4. Always to moderate as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed toward others.
5. Always to believe that, if the other side were heard, very different accounts would be given.
To bless God for mercies, is the way to increase them—to bless God for miseries, the way to remove them.

KEEP your temper.

Notes on Genesis.

CHAP. xvii, 20. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
It was not to be foreseen by human sagacity that a man's whole posterity should so nearly resemble him, and retain the same inclination, habits, and customs through all ages. These, and the Jews, have alone subsisted as a distinct people from the beginning. 1. The Arabs, as well as Jews, boast a common descent from the father of the faithful. 2. Both are circumcised, and profess to derive the custom from him. 3. Both had originally twelve patriarchs, who were their princes or governors. 4. Both marry among themselves, and in their own tribes. 5. Both are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments to all ages of the divine predictions. Seeing the particulars related of Abraham and Ishmael verified in their posterity, we have, as it were, ocular demonstration for our faith.—Bp. Newton.
Chap. xviii, 4, 5. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
We read of cheese in Homer, Euripides, Theocritus, and others; yet they never mention butter; nor hath Aristotle a word about it, though he hath sundry observations about cheese. For butter was not then known among the Greeks.—Bp. Patrick.
Washing the feet was the first, shade the second, and bread the third requisite for the refreshment of the dusty, weary traveler; each offered in proper order; “for,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “eating immediately after exertion or fatigue is very unwholesome. The strong action of the lungs and heart should have time to diminish, before food is received into the stomach; as otherwise, concoction is prevented, and fever, in a greater or less degree, produced.”
Verse 6. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
“Nearly fifty-six pounds of bread were baked,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “whence we may conclude that they were great eaters in those days (see also Homer, Odyss.), used much exercise, were probably of larger stature, as well as longer lives than we.”
Verse 8. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
[Butter.] The Heb. word denotes rather cream, or more properly, sour or curdled milk. This last is a favorite beverage in the East to the present day. [In Palestine oil was used for butter, probably as in the south of Europe.]—Robinson.
Verse 23. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Abraham does not plead that the wicked may be spared for their own sakes, or because it would be too severe to destroy them. This would be siding with sinners against God! Thus Christ makes intercession for sinners; not by arraigning the divine law, not by alleging aught in extenuation of human guilt; but by pleading his own obedience unto death.—Fuller in Scott.
Verse 32. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.
[Ten.] Probably Abraham thought he had now got within the limits of Lot's family. Not a soul seems to have been won over, by Lot's residence in the place, to the worship of the true God.—Fuller.

Without Charity, Nothing.

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity; I am nothing.”—I Cor. xiii, 2.
On this text John Wesley gives the following remarkable case of a person endowed with the spirit of prophecy, yet receiving no profit for lack of the more essential heavenly graces. It is a notable instance of the exercise of spiritual gifts, and hence a good proof of their perpetuity, in this dispensation. At the same time it is a warning to all not to let any special endowment lead to a neglect of genuine heart work, which alone will give us acceptance with God, and without which we shall surely fall. We quote from his sermons, Vol. ii, p. 284:—
“Though I have the gift of Prophecy!”—of foretelling those future events which no creature can foresee; and “though I understand all [the] mysteries” of nature, of Providence, and the word of God; and “have all knowledge” of things, divine or human, that any mortal ever attained to; though I can explain the most mysterious passages of Daniel, of Ezekiel and the Revelation;—yet if I have not humility, gentleness, and resignation, “I am nothing” in the sight of God.
A little before the conclusion of the late war in Flanders, one who came from thence gave us a very strange relation. I knew not what judgment to form of this; but waited till John Haime should come over, of whose veracity I could no more doubt, than of his understanding. The account he gave was this:—
“Jonathan Pyrah was a member of our society in Flanders. I knew him some years, and knew him to be a man of an unblamable character. One day he was summoned to appear before the board of general officers. One of them said, What is this which we hear of you? We hear you are turned prophet, and that you foretell the downfall of the bloody house of Bourbon, and the haughty house of Austria. We should be glad if you were a real prophet, and if your prophecies came true. But what sign do you give, to convince us you are so; and that your predictions will come to pass? He readily answered, ‘Gentlemen, I give you a sign. To-morrow at twelve o’clock, you shall have such a storm of thunder and lightning, as you never had before since you came into Flanders. I give you a second sign: as little as any of you expect any such thing, as little appearance of it as there is now, you shall have a general engagement with the French within three days. I give you a third sign: I shall be ordered to advance in the first line. If I am a false prophet I shall be shot dead at the first discharge. But if I am a true prophet, I shall only receive a musket ball in the calf of my left leg.’ At twelve the next day there was such thunder and lightning as they never had before in Flanders. On the third day, contrary to all expectation, was the general battle of Fontenoy. He was ordered to advance in the first line. At the very first discharge, he did receive a musket ball in the calf of his left leg.”
And yet all this profited him nothing, either for temporal or eternal happiness. When the war was over, he returned to England; but the story was got before him: in consequence of which he was sent for by the countess of St——s, and several other persons of quality, who were desirous to receive so surprising an account from his own mouth. He could not bear so much honor. It quite turned his brain. In a little time he ran stark mad. And so he continues to this day, living still, as I apprehend, on Wibsey Mooreside, within a few miles of Leeds.
Continue reading: ANOTHER EFFORT AGAINST THE SABBATH.