Publishing Committee · BATTLE CREEK, MICH. · May 27, 1858
Charitable Gambling.
Within the last few months our citizens have frequently been called upon to contribute to eleemosynary, religious, or industrial institutions, and the pecuniary success of nearly all these appeals doubtless suggests many agreeable reflections upon the enlightened liberality of this great city. It is gratifying to know that the poor have been fed and clothed, and the helpless outcasts of society, or the vagrants of our streets, brought under moral or educational influences, by private contributions, at no public cost; and the readiness with which those who are blessed with wealth and prosperity have dispensed their charities has been the cause of no little self-gratulation.
Our complacency at these happy results, however, should not blind us to the means by which, in many cases, they have been accomplished, and which may possibly, while curing one evil, engender another. It may surprise many who have been, as they supposed, innocently and honestly contributing to charitable objects, to learn that all the while they have been ministering to an offence against public morals, which, upon reflection, none would condemn more earnestly than themselves; and that their charitable motive has been in fact a selfish one, not having within it the elements of charity. Under the guise of charity, a practice abhorrent to morality and forbidden by the constitution and laws of the State, has been openly indulged in, and the public invited to give it the sanction of their approval.
It has become very much the fashion, during the10winter months, of late years, for ladies to hold Fairs for the purpose of assisting charitable or religious institutions, at which all kinds of articles, adapted to the season and its kindly offices, are offered for sale. Young ladies scarcely out of their teens, and staid matrons, on these occasions assume the duties of shop-women, and vie with each other in their efforts to dispose of the articles which they are commissioned to sell.
There is nothing very dangerous about this, certainly. The mere selling of the articles for a fair price, or even for an exorbitant price, if the buyer chooses to pay double or treble what the tradesman next door is willing to take, is perfectly harmless. But this is not the whole attraction, nor the chief attraction, of most of these fairs, as those of our readers who have attended the many that were held a few weeks ago very well know. From facts that have come to our knowledge we are convinced that the greater part of the large sums of money collected at them were realized by lotteries or "raffles," a species of gambling quite as culpable as faro or rouge et noir, or the many games of chance at which money is won, whatever may be the popular sentiment on the subject. However mortifying it may be to our self-complacency, it is nevertheless true, that the legitimate purposes of the Fair were not deemed sufficiently attractive to procure the attendance of visitors. As they could not be induced to buy articles, even for a charitable object, it was found necessary to devise some more exciting stimulus to their benevolence, and accordingly they were invited to risk a small sum for the chance of acquiring an article perhaps a hundred times its value, and thus combine the excitement of gambling with the dispensation of charities. Charity becomes very fascinating in this shape, and it was astonishing to see how persons never distinguished for offices of benevolence, all at once become deeply interested in the object for which the Fair was held, and crowded the tables at which the chances were dispensed, while those for the sale of articles was passed by with neglect. The Fair, the proceeds of which were to minister to the wants of poverty or ignorance-stricken outcasts, soon became one great lottery office, and in every direction busy throngs were buying chances, or awaiting the announcement of the lucky number.
Doubtless nine-tenths of the participants in these adventures did not imagine that they were transgressing any moral law, or if they did, quieted their consciences by saying that it was done for charity. They would probably all agree in denouncing gambling at public places or private clubs, and yet, indirectly, they were ministering to their own taste for it, and, what is worse, by giving a sort of respectability to the practice, were offering a most pernicious example to others. It was a still greater error to suppose that this conduct was dictated exclusively, or indeed principally, by charitable motives. Charity never appeals to the appetite for gain; she must be approached in all singleness of purpose, or she ceases to be charity, but is transformed into the blind and fickle goddess who is the fit patroness of the gaming table. It is impossible to make money out of one's charities—the thing becomes at once a business speculation, (in the present case, one of the most reckless character,) devoid of philanthropic motive, and no sophistry can make it otherwise.
The practice to which we have adverted, is one which it has always been peculiarly difficult to eradicate. Suppress it in one form, and it is pretty sure, after an interval, to reappear in another, and always in a disguise calculated to deceive the unthinking. Our ancestors were familiar with it under the name of public lotteries for charitable or educational institutions, and hospitals and colleges were built with the funds thus collected. The recent sale of Columbia College property has recalled the fact that this institution was mainly established by one of these lotteries. Art unions for the disposal by lotteries of pictures and statuary were also in favor for many years, and the encouragement to art which they were supposed to afford withheld attention from their effect upon public morals. Charity fairs are the latest phase, and as our readers are pretty well aware, flourish abundantly in a soil only too prolific. We regret to add that they are not the least pernicious form; for the discredit which they must eventually bring upon the practice of dispensing charities, and the indirect encouragement they offer to vice, cannot be over-estimated.
Only one thing remains to be done, and that is to discountenance the practice altogether, in whatever shape and under whatever circumstances it may appear. No gilding will hide the immoral element which is its germ. Nor can the specious but false philosophy of Burke, that vice loses half its evil by losing all its grossness, ever render it healthful or palatable. Charity can only suffer when brought into association with it, and it would perhaps be better that the dispensation of charities should diminish, if they are to be continued at such a cost, than that the morals of the community should be thus insidiously sapped. The constantly increasing indulgence in gambling, under every form, which is so melancholy a feature in our social system at the present day, particularly among young men, demands that no encouragement in this shape should be afforded to it.—Sel.
SELECTIONS.
Rich and Increased in Goods.
THE members of the Laodicean church had a name to live, but were dead. In regard to their spiritual state, they were emphatically denominated lukewarm. They had drawn around them the form of religion, but never heartily engaged in the practice of its duties; they were strangers to its transforming efficacy, its living influence, and heavenly consolations. To this lifeless indifference the Lord Jesus expressed his aversion: "I would that thou wert cold or hot," &c. The word, cold, here, denotes the moral state of those who are wholly alienated from religion; the term, hot, relates to the pious temper of those who fervently love Christ and his institutions; the lukewarm are such as are in reality too destitute of religion to be called spiritual, and yet, externally, have too much the appearance of it to be esteemed carnal. The form of religion they affect as an honor, or a safeguard; the power of it they imagine would be burdensome; they choose not to appear openly on the side of error and impiety, but are more unwilling to live conformably to their profession; their policy is such that they venture little, and such is their folly, that they lose all.
In the text the Laodiceans are accused of being in this deplorable state, and a remedy for their spiritual maladies is pointed out.
I. Their moral disease is exposed in its symptoms, its character, and its aggravations.
1. Its symptoms are formality, indecision, listless stupidity, lukewarmness; with all the various traits of those professors of religion who love supremely their temporal interests and private happiness.
2. Its character is thus noted: "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." All these epithets relate to the unsoundness of their foundation. The two first, "wretched, and miserable," are general, describing their condition to be lamentable, if not hopeless; the three last, "poor, blind, naked," are more particular, referring to those great defects in the foundation upon which they were building, which rendered their state so pitiable and dangerous. Thou art "poor"—devoid of righteousness and true holiness before God. There are the true riches, the riches of Christians; and he that does not possess them, is poor and miserable, how large soever be his mental gifts or earthly treasures. Thou art "blind"—without divine illumination, void of spiritual light; and so neither knowing the disease nor the remedy; the evil of sin, or the necessity of Christ. Thou art "naked"—in a shameful, defenceless, and exposed condition; without the garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness, and shield of faith.
3. The aggravations of this deadly Laodicean disease are thus stated: "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not," &c. Alas, to what absurdity and impiety does spiritual delusion lead! To be destitute of holiness, and without Christ, were sufficiently awful; but, while in this state, to boast of spiritual riches, is most miserable. To have the very symptoms of death, and yet confidently protest that we are healthy and safe, is lamentable indeed!
II. A REMEDY is prescribed: "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see."
1. Let us consider what is here recommended. These metaphors represent the most superb and valuable things. Gold tried in the fire—true holiness, Christian graces that have been tried and proved. White raiment—the righteousness of the saints. Eye-salve—the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
2. Whence may these blessings be obtained? Buy of me, saith Christ. Ordinances, ministers, angels, cannot communicate them to you. Christ, the repository of all graces, alone can confer them.
3. How are they to be acquired? Not by purchase, as these pretend who build the notion of merit on the words, buy of me. The exigency of the case destroys this conceit; for what can they who are poor, and wretched, and miserable, and in want of all things, offer in return for these divine riches? Doubtless to buy, as the phrase is used here, is cordially to receive, in the way of his own appointment, what Christ offers to bestow. Thus it is elsewhere written: "He that hath no money, let him come and buy wine and milk, without money, and without price."
In view of what has been said, three observations offer themselves to our consideration.
1. That many professors of religion are under very great and dangerous mistakes in regard to their character.
2. That true holiness is exceedingly valuable, and greatly enriches the soul.
3. That we may safely account that only to be true holiness which will endure all the tests appointed for its examination.
The first observation naturally arises from the scope of the text, which is to awaken and convince unsound professors.
The second is suggested by the use which the Holy Ghost makes of the richest things in nature, to represent the unspeakable worth of Christian graces.
The third is derived from the very significant metaphor of gold tried in the fire; by which I understand a real work of grace, manifesting and proving itself to be such during the closest inspection, or under the severest trial. For whatever puts the reality of one's holiness to the proof, whatever scrutinizes and tries it, is to him what fire is to gold. Hence we read in Scripture, "Thou hast tried us as silver is tried." Again, "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried." —Flavel.
THE SECOND ADVENT.
By William W. Everts
I was much surprised, some time since, when looking over a late collection of hymns, on reading one on the coming of the Lord. It was written 144 years ago. How much it sounds like those enlivening songs of our Second Advent brethren, by which they produced such tremendous effects in 1844. Hear it:
Thus saith the church's Head
The judge of quick and dead;
Quickly I come:
Let my redeemed pray,
O Lord, make no delay;
Thus all my saints shall say,
Lord, quickly come.
Let them with one accord,
Shout their returning Lord;
Welcome him near;
Soon shall he come again,
Soon shall we with him reign,
Soon shall his foes be slain,
Soon he'll appear.
Earthquakes and storms attend,
Rocks, hills and mountains rend;
Who shall abide?
Heavens melt and thunders roar,
Seas swell and rend the shore;
Hope sinks to rise no more;
Rocks cannot hide.
See how the lightnings blaze;
Jesus his wrath displays;
Vengeance appears;
Lift up your heads on high
You suffering company,
Now your redemption's nigh,
Banish your fears.
Jesus who died for sins,
Now in his glory reigns;
Claiming his own;
Father, I will, saith he,
Those thou hast given me,
Should all my glory see;
Sharing my throne.
Let the redeemed throng,
Make sovereign grace their song;
Mercy adore;
Ascribing salvation
To him who fills the throne,
And to the Lamb alone,
Forevermore.
[W. W. E.]
Methodism and Slavery.
THE New York East Methodist Conference, yesterday, after routine business, took up its second resolution on Slavery, and the Rev. Mr. Roche, M. D., of Philadelphia, occupied two hours in telling stories about how the slaveholding Methodists of the Philadelphia Conference had treated him. During the last eighteen years he has been stationed on slave territory for two years—at Smyrna, Delaware. Nearly half an hour was consumed in telling a story of the moderation of the British in sparing a tree that was very much prized by their American enemies. He hoped they would at least exhibit no less consideration for their Southern brethren, and concluded by extolling the great moderation of the Philadelphia Conference in declining to consider the charges preferred by the Rev. Mr. Quigley last month, in the Philadelphia Conference, against the Rev. J. D. Long, of publishing ungodly lies about the brothers in Christ belonging to the Conference, who happen to hold slaves.
This brought out Mr. Long, who is at the Conference, with his book, "Pictures on Slavery," and who declared that the Philadelphia Conference refused to consider the charges against him, because there was nothing in his book but the truth.
The book is very general in its statements of facts, which are few for a volume of 400 pages. Mr. Long estimates that there are 6,000 slaves now owned by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, more than were owned by the whole Church, North and South, in 1845. He states that Samuel Green, a free colored man, of Dorchester Co., Md., and a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment last year for having in his possession a11copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin; that Dorchester Co. is almost exclusively a Methodist county, and the Methodists of the State could have him pardoned at any moment they might desire. Mr. Long, in a picture of a class-meeting gives the following report of what was said by
HENRY BANNING.—"Brethring, my soul is hot—hot as pepper. Before I sought de Lord I was a very bad negro; I got drunk, and took de name of de Lord in vain; but now I am a new creature in Christ Jesus, and on my way to Hebben. I toats de witness in my breast! Bless de Lord! I feel dat my name is written on his hands."
Mr. Long handed us the following advertisement, which appeared in the Cambridge Herald, (Dorchester Co., Md.) of Oct. 28, 1857:
$300 REWARD.—Ran away from the subscriber, from the neighborhood of Town Point, on Saturday night, 24th inst., my Negro Man, AARON CORNISH, about 35 years old. He is about five feet and ten inches high, black, good-looking, rather pleasant countenance, and carries himself with a confident manner. He went off with his wife DAFFNEY, a Negro Woman belonging to Reuben E. Phillips.
I will give the above reward if taken out of the county, and $200 if taken in the county; in either case, to be lodged in Cambridge (Md.) jail.
LEVI D. TRAVERSE.
Oct. 28, 1857.
The Rev. Levi D. Traverse is a local preacher, belonging to the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Reuben E. Phillips is a brother in good standing.
The church edifice in Cambridge was built some years ago, and deeded to trustees to be held for the Methodist Episcopal Church, so long as its discipline shall tolerate Slavery. Judge Lecompte, of Kansas notoriety, was a convert in a revival which took place in this church soon after its dedication.
The position of the Methodist Church on Slavery since John Wesley said that "American Slavery was the sum of all villainies," has varied considerably. The first discipline, adopted in 1784, required members to free their slaves within twelve months, and prohibited the admission of slaveholding members, besides making it a capital offense to buy or sell slaves, or to give them away. This lasted for twenty-four years, when so much of it was repealed as related to private members. In 1836 the General Conference sent out the exceedingly Pro-Slavery pastoral address, of which the venerable Dr. Bangs avowed himself the author on Monday. Preachers were tacitly allowed to hold slaves, and in 1844 only the most strenuous opposition of New England and the West prevented the ordination of a slaveholding Bishop. To-day, although the main body of slaveholding Methodists have withdrawn from the church and established the Methodist Episcopal Church South, two Conferences (the Philadelphia and Baltimore Conferences) cover territory in which are Methodist Church members owning six thousand slaves. One of these (the Baltimore Conference) passed the following resolutions in March, 1857:
Resolved, by the Baltimore Conference, in conference assembled, That we highly deprecate the agitation of the Slavery question, which has already resulted to the great detriment of the political and religious interests of the country.
Resolved, That, as heretofore, we will oppose with zeal any aggression which shall be attempted by the abolition agitators of the country.
The struggle in the New York Conference is now upon the point whether the discipline should be altered so as to exclude slaveholders decisively, and whether the Methodist pulpit and press should be used against Slavery; in short, whether it should be considered as a sin. The New York Conference has no authority in the matter, and no change can be effected until the General Conference meets in 1860. But it can manufacture public opinion by expressing its own, and, perhaps, influence the general conduct of the Methodist press and pulpit, by showing what sort of delegates it will send to the next General Conference, as the New York delegation, if radically Anti-Slavery, will give that side so great a preponderance in the next General Conference, that the discipline will be altered, the sinfulness of slaveholding recognized, and editors and ministers instructed to write and preach against it.
[Tribune.]
The Value of Time.
WHEN the Roman Emperor said, "I have lost a day," he uttered a sadder truth than if he had exclaimed, "I have lost a kingdom." Napoleon said that the reason why he beat the Austrians was, that they did not know the value of five minutes. At the celebrated battle of Rivoli, the conflict seemed on the point of being decided against him. He saw the critical state of affairs, and instantly took his resolution. He despatched a flag to the Austrian head-quarters, with proposals for an armistice. The unwary Austrians fell into the snare—for a few minutes the thunders of battle were hushed. Napoleon seized the precious moments, and, while amusing the enemy with mock negotiation, re-arranged his line of battle, changed his front, and in a few minutes was ready to renounce the farce of discussion for the stern arbitrament of arms. The splendid victory of Rivoli was the result. The great moral victories and defeats of the world often turn on five minutes. Crises come, the not seizing of which is ruin. Men may loiter, but time flies on the wings of the wind, and all the great interests of life are speeding on, with the sure and silent tread of destiny.
The Sea of Galilee.
By D. M. C.
This lake is also known in the gospels as the sea of Tiberias, and Gennesareth; and in the old Testament as the sea of Chinnereth. It is about thirteen miles in length, and six in breadth; and is formed by the Jordan, which traverses it from north to south, and then flows on to the Dead Sea, sixty miles south.
No other sheet of water in the world is endeared to the Christian by so many pleasing associations. Some ten miles to the west lay Nazareth, the home of Christ during his childhood and youth. On its western shore lay Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida of Galilee, where "most of his mighty works were done;" while the other Bethsaida was but a few miles north of its north-eastern shore. Around this lake a large part of the Saviour's public life was spent. More than one blind man there experienced his miraculous power, and opened his eyes to behold first of all his benefactor's face, and then the blue waters of this charming lake. Here the majority of his disciples lived; and by its side, while "sitting at the receipt of custom," or "mending their nets," they were called to become "fishers of men." It was on these waters, sitting in Simon Peter's boat, that Christ preached to a multitude on shore. Upon one of the neighboring hills, he taught many thousands at once, healed their diseases, and fed them all with five loaves and two fishes. Here, too, on two occasions—at the commencement of his ministry, and after his resurrection—his command filled the nets of the apostles with unprecedented draughts of fishes. Somewhere on the south-east side of the same sea is the "steep place" down which the frightened Gadarenes saw their whole herd of swine plunge, and perish in the waters. The Saviour often crossed this lake in his labors of love; and twice he had occasion to allay the fears of his disciples by calming the storm-tossed waves: once waking from his quiet sleep in the hinder part of the boat, to chide them for their lack of faith; and once coming out to them by walking on the sea, in the fourth watch of the night, as they were "toiling in rowing."
Thus the whole region is rendered sacred by incidents in the life of our Lord. The traveler irresistibly feels that His footsteps and smile have forever hallowed these hills, that his voice yet echoes from these shores, and his "Peace, be still," yet rests on these pure and peaceful waters. In many respects, however, a great change has here taken place, since the time of Christ. Then the shores were filled with a teeming population; towns and villages crowded the banks, and boats swarmed on the waters. Now, the only remaining town is Tiberias, a city in ruins, containing about 2000 inhabitants, and wretched and filthy to the last degree. It is a common saying, that "the king of the fleas holds his court at Tiberias." Instead of a large fleet of fishing-boats, only one can now be found on its waters. The round hills that come boldly down to the sea are now bare of trees; and though covered with a delightful verdure after the wintry rains, become parched and desolate under the summer sun. Yet this sea and these hills are the same that our Saviour himself beheld; the main features of the scene are unchanged. The lake lies embosomed in a deep basin, more than three hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and enclosed on all sides, except near the inlet and outlet of the Jordan, by hills that rise steeply hundreds of feet in height; while in the background on the east side, are mountains over a thousand feet high. The range of heights stretching around the sea itself is broken by occasional shady ravines and water courses; and here and there is separated from the sea by a level and exceedingly fertile plain. In one of these plains Capernaum used to stand, but now it has wholly disappeared. Far away in the north, mount Hermon lifts its snow-capped crown to the sky, with the majesty of a summit that has looked down on the coming and going of a hundred generations.
The region of this sea bears marks of volcanic action, and hot springs still exist on the shore south of Tiberias. The waters still swarm with fishes, as in the days of the apostolic fishermen. The whole scene is marked by a grand but serene beauty, and the Christian visitor reluctantly tears himself away from it. A recent American traveler, while out upon the sea, encountered a tempest like those described in the gospels: sudden, swift, and violent, it swept down on the sea from the upper hills, and threw it into commotion as in a moment. He was unable to make head against it, and was driven over to "the coast of the Gadarenes." The same traveler bathed several times in its clear and sweet waters, and was reminded of the words of an old Scotch friend of his boyhood, who said to him, "When ye grew up to be a mon, mayhap ye'll go wanderin' up and doon the hills of the world. But doan ye forget that gin ye're thirsty, there's the sea of Galilee; and gin ye're hungry, there's the loaves that fed feeve thousand there by the sea; and when ye get tired and tired out, and want to lay your head doon on any stoun and rest it—but the storms are a' hard—there's Heem that sayed on the same sea, 'Cume unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will geeve ye rest.'"
BY D. M. CANRIGHT.
An Eccentric Prayer.
PROFESSING Christians, of all names, are too negligent of personal duty in laboring for the conversion of others. They devolve responsibility upon ministers and men in official station, and forget the obligation resting on every one to enter the Master's vineyard and work for him. Many unconverted persons awakened to seriousness, have reason to say, "No man careth for my soul." The Morning Star tells the following story in rebuke of this negligence on the part of christians:
Almost a year since, a gentleman of wealth and talent, resident in the State of Rhode Island, was very anxious for several years, but had not consecrated himself to God. His experience, trials and difficulties, were very much like those of other men who desire eternal life more than they desire to obey God, and he continued in darkness. Finally he opened his mind to the minister of the place, and asked him to pray for him, and consented to pray for himself. That first prayer was peculiar, and as other communities may be troubled with the same difficulty that was prominent before the mind of this man, we will put the prayer on record. He might have been expected to pray for himself first, but he did not. His prayer was, "O Lord, cure this people of the lock-jaw. Here I have been anxious for salvation for years, and no man except Mr. B. (the man who was with him,) has ever said a word to me on the subject of religion. O Lord, cure them of the lock-jaw." A very eccentric, yet significant prayer. How many people there are who profess to love God and the souls of men, but they have the "lock-jaw," their mouths are closed, they are dumb upon the subject upon which they should converse the most frequently and most earnestly. The impression which this makes upon the mind of the sinner is that their profession is spurious, that they do not love God, that there is no reality in religion, no necessity of regeneration.
A Fault-Finder.
William Dawson silenced a fault-finder whom he met in Leeds, the day after he had occupied one of the pulpits of that town, in the following manner:
Gent. I had the pleasure of hearing you preach yesterday.
Mr. D. I hope you not only heard, but profited.
Gent. Yes, I did, but I don't like those prayer-meetings at the close. They destroy all the good previously received.
Mr. D. You should have united with the people in them.
Gent. I went into the gallery, where I hung over the front, and saw the whole; but I could get no good; I lost, indeed, all the benefit I had received under the sermon.
Mr. D. It is easy to account for that.
Gent. How so?
Mr. D. You mounted the top of the house; and on looking down your neighbor's chimney to see what kind of a fire he kept, you got your eyes filled with smoke. Had you "entered by the door"—gone into the room, and mingled with the family around the household hearth, you would have enjoyed the benefit of the fire as well as they. Sir, you have got the smoke in your eyes.
Probability that the United States would be a theme of Prophecy.
By S. D. Baldwin
BY S. D. BALDWIN, A. M., PRESIDENT OF THE SOULE FEMALE COLLEGE.
THE whole history of the world is therefore given prophetically at different times, and all points of great interest to the church are embraced in prophecy. There is not a single age since the oral prophets, but is the subject of their predictions; nor is any great nation whose existence virtually affects the church, neglected by them, unless the United States be the nation.
Indeed, every epoch of the christian world, and every era is duly chronicled and described. Now among all the epochs, and eras, and nationalities that have ever appeared on earth before and since christianity, none has ever been so replete with good to man and blessings to the church, as the epoch and era of the United States. Its rise was the great epoch of the freedom of christianity. Never before, from the days of Christ, was the church freed from foreign domination; never before since its union with the State, was the control over its purity taken away, and temptation to impurity and corruption removed. The severance of church and State is one of the greatest and most blessed events with which the church was ever favored. No country ever existed, that in so short a space, affected the world so much, and did so much for the good of the cause of God and humanity; and yet ours is but the state of infancy. Now, then, we ask a question: How can it be that all other nations affecting the cause of God, and man, should be specially and repeatedly predicted by prophets, and our country, which has done more good than all others, not be mentioned by the prophets.
The prophets mention the minutest facts, and the smallest countries and villages that affected God's ancient and his modern Israel; and how happens it that not a word is said of America? Egypt and Greece, Edom, and Moab and Tyre, and Damascus, Sidon, and all the little towns of Asia Minor, and the Levant, come in for a share of notice, and all the mighty empires affecting the church are carefully enumerated; the divisions of the Roman empire were specially noticed, down to the end of them all, and yet no notice given of a christian country that gives more comfort and relief to the christians and the distressed than was ever given by all the world put together? How can it be possible that this country was left out of prophecy? how came it to be the alone proscribed nation in all the prophetic calendar? Can the greatest epoch, the brightest era in the history of christianity be unnoticed in the Scriptures, while all others of minor note are emphasized with a will? Surely not.—U. S. in Prophecy, pp. 153-8.
Flavel on Faith.
By John Flavel
THE gospel offer of Christ includes all his offices, and gospel faith just so receives him, to submit to him as well as to be redeemed by him; to imitate him in his life of holiness, as well as to reap the fruits of his death. It must be an entire receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As it is Christ's glory to be "the door" of salvation, so it is faith's glory to be the golden key that opens that door.
Faith is the means of our spiritual livelihood and subsistence; all the other graces, like birds in a nest, depend upon what faith brings in to them. It provides our ordinary food, and our extraordinary cordials; "I had fainted unless I had believed."
A pardon which thou canst not read without tears of joy, is brought thee by the hand of faith.
Faith apprehends or receives the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus, wherein the soul, how guilty and sinful soever it be in itself, stands faultless and spotless before the presence of God: all bonds to punishment are, upon believing, immediately dissolved; a full and final pardon sealed. O precious faith, who can sufficiently value it?—Sel.