Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1880
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
ISRAEL LEAVES SINAI.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
NEARLY a year did the children of Israel continue to encamp at Sinai. Here their worship took more definite form, and they were more thoroughly organized preparatory to entering the land of Canaan, of which God would soon have given them possession had they not been rebellious. Arrangements were here made to have everything pertaining to their journey done with order and exactitude. To the tribe of Levi was assigned the sacred work of caring for and bearing the tabernacle and its belongings. This tribe was divided into three parts, according to the descendants of the three sons of Levi, and to each division was given a specified portion of the work.
The tabernacle was to occupy a central position in the encampment. Close by in front of it Moses and Aaron were to pitch their tents. On the south side were to be the Kohathites, whose special duty it was to care for the ark and the other furniture belonging to the tabernacle. And on the north side were the Merarites, whose particular part it was to take charge of the pillars, sockets, boards, etc.; while in the rear were placed the Gershonites, who were to take charge of the coverings and hangings of the tabernacle.
In all their journeyings they were required to observe perfect order. Every tribe bore a standard with the sign of their father's house upon it, and under that particular standard they were required to pitch their tents. Whenever the ark moved, the entire camp journeyed, the different tribes marching in order under their own standards. Just in front of the ark marched Moses and Aaron, and near to them came the sons of Aaron, each bearing a trumpet. Through these they were to signify to the people the directions which they received from Moses. Special instruction was given to the people, so that they understood the sounds of the trumpets, and directed their movements accordingly.
A special signal was first given by the trumpeters to call the attention of the people. Then all were to be attentive and obey the certain sound of the trumpets. There was no confusion of sound in the voices of the trumpets, therefore there was no excuse for confusion in movements. The head officer over each company gave definite directions in regard to the movements they were required to make. None who gave attention were left in ignorance of what they ought to do. If any failed to comply with the requirements God gave to Moses, and Moses to the people, they were punished with death. They had no excuse to offer that they knew not the nature of these requirements, for they would only prove themselves willingly ignorant, and would receive just punishment for their transgression. If they did not know the will of God concerning them, it was their own fault. They had all the opportunity of knowing that others had, therefore their sin was regarded by the Lord the same as if they did hear and then transgressed.
And if any man from curiosity, or from lack of order forgot his position, and touched any part of the sanctuary, or furniture, or even came nigh any of the workmen, they were punished with death. God did not leave his holy tabernacle to be borne, and erected, and taken down, indiscriminately, by any tribe who might desire to do it. Persons were chosen to the office who could appreciate the sacredness of the work in which they were engaged. And these men appointed of God were directed to impress upon the people the especial sacredness of the ark and all that appertained thereunto, lest they should look upon these things without realizing their holiness, and by making sacred things common should be cut off from Israel. Everything pertaining to the most holy was to be regarded with reverence and holy awe.
The Lord would manifest to Israel in the explicit directions given them, that he is a God of order, that he would have everything connected with his work move forward with regularity and system. The Lord changeth not, and he is just as pleased now as then to have his ministers cultivate a love for order and discipline, that their efforts may be characterized by neatness, thoroughness, and exactitude. By precept and example they should educate the people to work in harmony. If order and discipline are essential to the success of an army on the battle field, how much more essential are they to the success of those who have enlisted in the army of the Lord.
Perfect order characterizes all the movements of the angels of God. We are in the world as the children of Israel were in the wilderness, to be fitted for the heavenly Canaan, and the society of holy angels. We should carry out as far as possible in our families and in the church the order and harmony of Heaven. Angels of God often turn away in grief from those who excuse disorder and confusion as very trivial matters; they are not authorized to bless such. All who desire and expect the co-operation of the heavenly messengers must work in unison with them. Satan understands that success will only attend unity of action. He well knows that independence, self-exaltation, and pride caused him to lose paradise, and he is constantly tempting others to rebel against order and discipline that they may share his fate.
The delay of the Israelites at Sinai was a necessary part of their discipline. The millions of people had started out from Egypt with enthusiastic hopes and eager expectations of marching direct into the land of their promised inheritance. But instead of this they were compelled to wander up and down in the barren wilderness with no prospect of making a home. This was the result of their own course of disobedience, which placed them in a position where God could not establish them in the promised land. If they carried their murmurings and jealousy into the land with them, they would degenerate as a people, and become more offensive to God than those whom he would drive out before them; for just in proportion as they had received light, and God had manifested his marvelous power to them, would be their sin in distrust and rebellion.
The Levites were specially honored of God to bear responsibilities, because they had not been swerved from their allegiance to him, and had not united with the others of Israel in worshiping the golden calf. Although it was painful for them to bear the sword against their brethren and kinsmen, they had been faithful and true to execute all the commands of God in punishing with death those who persisted in justifying their apostasy and idolatry.
When the signal was given for the encampment to move from their home at Sinai, to many it was a welcome sound. While engaged in building the sanctuary, their busy activities had served to keep them contented; but that work being accomplished, inactivity was becoming wearisome. Even the toils of their journeying were more welcome to them than to have nothing to do. But while some desired the change, many were loth to leave the place. They had encamped so long in that vicinity that it had become their home. They had learned to love to look upon the sacred mount upon whose hoary peaks and barren ridges the grand and awful glory of God had so often been displayed. The scene seemed to be engraven upon the tablets of their hearts. With many the place was so closely associated with the presence of God and holy angels that it seemed too sacred to leave thoughtlessly or even gladly.
These granite walls had been lifted that God might here gather to himself a people apart and separate from every other nation, to repeat to them his holy law. And now they were about to take up their line of march, they knew not whither. All eyes were turned anxiously toward the pillar of cloud, to see in what direction it was moving. And when it started in an easterly direction, where were presented only the mountain masses huddled together black and barren, some became sad, others dissatisfied and gloomy. But at the proper signal from the trumpeters, the entire camp set forward, each tribe occupying the exact position specified by the Lord, and bearing the standard of their father's house.
THE ONE HOPE.
By Sabine Baring-Gould
THROUGH the night of doubt and sorrow,
Onward goes the pilgrim band,
Singing songs of expectation,
Marching to the promised land.
Clear before us through the darkness
Gleams and burns the guiding Light;
Brother clasps the hand of brother,
Stepping fearless through the night.
One the Light of God's own presence
O'er his ransomed people shed,
Chasing far the gloom and terror,
Brightening all the path we tread;
One the object of our journey,
One the faith that never tires,
One the earnest looking forward,
One the hope our God inspires.
One the strain that lips of thousands
Lift as from the heart of one;
One the conflict, one the peril,
One the march in God begun.
One the gladness of rejoicing
On the far eternal shore,
Where the One Almighty Father
Reigns in love for evermore.
Onward therefore, pilgrim brothers,
Onward with the Cross our aid;
Bear its shame, and fight its battle,
Till we rest beneath its shade.
Soon shall come the great awaking,
Soon the rending of the tomb;
Then the scattering of all shadows,
And the end of toil and gloom.
—Sabine Baring-Gould.
STEADY WORKERS.
THAT was a suggestive answer of the little boy, who, when asked if his father was a Christian, replied that he was, but that he did not work much at it at present. A similar remark was lately made by a working man at a religious meeting in Liverpool.
He said, "I used to be an 'odd job Christian,' but now I am working full time."
I am afraid there are too many "odd job" Christians; too many who engage now and again in the work of the Master, but who cannot be relied upon for steady work. In this connection it would be well to remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Even the slow, steady worker is better than the most skillful "odd job" worker. Reader what kind of a worker are you?
Can you answer this question? You should answer it, and more, you should answer it decidedly; answer it now. You know what you have been, what you are now; but there is no telling what you may be. The blessed Master calls on each of us to work in his vineyard. "Whatsoever is right," says he, "I will give you." The great want of our Zion is steady workers.—Sel.
THE VOICE OF THE DAY OF THE LORD
By R. F. Cottrell
DAY OF THE LORD.—NO. 6.
THE VOICE OF THE DAY OF THE LORD
DURING the manifestations of divine wrath, at the commencement of the day of the Lord, "The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hail-stones." Isa. 30:30. Of the kings and rulers of earth which set themselves in battle array, and take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, it is said that the Lord shall "speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." Ps. 2.
This voice of the Lord is predicted in many places of Scripture, and always in connection with the battle of the great day, or, in other words, the treading of the wine-press of the wrath of God. The prophet Joel gives a description of the assembling of the nations, and the descent of the "mighty ones" from Heaven to the battle, "to judge all the heathen round about." (Comp. Rev. 19:11, and onward.) The sickle is put in, for the harvest is ripe; the wine-press is full, the vats overflow, "for their wickedness is great." And in this connection it is said, "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Joel 3:9–17. Mark the effect of the Lord's voice — the heavens and the earth shall shake. The Zion or Jerusalem from which the Lord utters his voice, is not on earth, but in Heaven. It is what Paul calls, "Jerusalem which is above"—the "heavenly Jerusalem." This will be evident from the quotation which follows:—
"The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord." Jer. 25:30. This takes place at the pouring out of the seventh vial. "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great." Rev. 16:17, 18.
Thus we learn that when the great day of the Lord's wrath begins, the voice of the Almighty comes from his holy habitation on high, from the heavenly Jerusalem, from his temple, and his throne which is between the cherubim, and the effect is, the heavens and the earth shake, mountains and islands are moved out of their places. "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6:12–17. "The powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Matt. 24:29, 30. By comparing the scriptures we discover their harmony and beauty. The shaking of the heavens and the earth immediately precedes the second advent of the Son of man. What causes this shaking? The voice of God, which comes from the throne in Heaven, saying, "It is DONE." What is done? The seven last judgments of God —the vials of his wrath which are to desolate the earth of all its tribes—have been poured out. But why come these desolating judgments?—why does the curse devour the earth? Because of sin, which is the transgression of God's law—the ten commandments. The question is answered fully and clearly in the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah. After foretelling the utter desolation of the earth, the Spirit of truth continues: "The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse hath devoured the earth," etc.
Here the reason is plainly given. It is the violation of the laws of God. He has never published but one entire code of moral laws, and that code is the ten commandments. These laws have all been transgressed, but one of them has been changed by men. They have changed the ordinance. This I think is the Sabbath law. It is the law concerning which a change is pleaded in excuse of its violation. All laws are ordinances; though there is a clear distinction between moral laws and the ceremonial ordinances of the church in either dispensation. The "everlasting covenant," which men have broken, and the violation of which brings the curse, consists of those laws of which the Sabbath ordinance is a part. This is proved by the following scriptures:—
"And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:12, 13. This proves what covenant was given to Jacob for a law. Our next testimony will prove that "the same" is the everlasting covenant. "Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; even the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant." 1 Chron. 16:15–17. If the Bible can prove a proposition, our proposition is proved. The covenant promises to Abraham related to the new earth. They made him "heir of the world;" and he looked, according to God's promise, for "a city that hath foundations"—"the heavenly Jerusalem." See Rom. 4:13; Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:10, 14. This is Abraham's inheritance; and in this inheritance the "everlasting covenant" will be kept by him and all his seed; and the Sabbath commandment will not be excepted. See Eze. 37:24–26; Isa. 66:22, 23.
The way is now open to understand the language of the apostle: "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as things that are made, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain." Heb. 12:26, 27. See the context. God's voice shook the earth when he confirmed the holy principles of his divine law, speaking the ten commandments to all Israel from the summit of the burning mount. Terror seized the people, and even Moses, who was accustomed to receive communications from Heaven, said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." The great Jehovah has promised to utter his awful voice again. It comes, this time, from on high—from his holy hill—and all the earth shall hear. He speaks in vindication of those righteous principles which he before promulgated from Sinai. His sore judgments are poured out upon the transgressors of his law, his justice stands approved while his terrific and vindictive voice exclaims, It is done! "The earth is moved exceedingly." It reels to and fro like a drunkard. It is moved out of its place like a cottage; and because the transgression thereof is heavy upon it, "it shall fall and not rise again." See Isa. 24:19, 20. O sinner, what will you do in that day? Can you stand before the exceeding terror of that voice, which, when uttered in comparative mildness, made Moses, the man of God, exceedingly fear and quake? Thank God! there now is hope. A refuge in Jesus will be a shelter from the storm. His love still pleads. O, forsake your sins and embrace him now. Receive the "kingdom that cannot be moved," and be of those that cannot be shaken, but remain.
False shepherd, beware! You that are flattering yourself and your hearers that God's holy law has been abolished or changed. That voice by which it was uttered will soon convince the world that "God can never lie nor ever change." There will be a howling among the shepherds, those who, professing to be servants of God, have spent their strength in fighting that law which is the truth, and used their influence to people the regions of despair and death. O, professing minister, take timely warning and escape their fate! R. F. COTTRELL.
IS EVOLUTION SCIENCE?
By President D. S. Gregory
It is not the purpose of this paper to show that development, or even evolution, is either contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures or atheistic.
There are many of us who think that there is a doctrine of "development"—or "evolution," if you please—which is not only theistic, but also consistent with a pretty rigid doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures. We believe, with M. Janet, that any rational theory of evolution neither excludes nor renders useless final cause, and, therefore, is not atheistic.
The point which we make is one which men of broad and comprehensive philosophy almost universally make. It is not that evolution is not scriptural, nor that it is not compatible with the received theology; but that it is not science. Please credit us not with "judicial blindness," but with the same desire for truth which animates the editor of The Independent, and give us the same right of free thought. The question is one of scientific truth. Is evolution true, or is it false? If true, we desire to know it to be so and to believe it with all the heart. Let the truth prevail, though the heavens fall. We most heartily indorse your indorsement of Dr. Patton's words, and insist upon their application to science, as well as to religion. We must have something more than assertion. We demand proof. But, if evolution be false, we want to know that and to treat it accordingly. For reasons which seem to us good and sufficient, we do actually believe that the doctrine of evolution, which you say "we are all taught in our best schools, by our scientific authorities, almost without exception, and we laymen in science are, therefore, compelled to believe," is unscientific and false. On that ground, and on that alone, we reject it, just as we reject the superstitions and irrational dogmas of the theologians.
The question may be settled by appeal either to scientific authorities or to scientific principles.
If the appeal be to scientific authority, the question is not to be settled by counting noses or comparing avoirdupois. Who are the scientific authorities? All the teachers of science in our colleges and technical schools? There are many industrious, scholarly, and able men who are teaching philosophy in our schools, with a breadth of understanding and depth of research certainly not inferior in the average to that of the teachers of the physical sciences; but who would think of appealing to them as "authorities" in philosophy, and matching the vote of any one, or any score of them, with that of Professor Bowen, or President Porter, or President McCosh, or of the few other men of their order? The opinion of a thousand of the ordinary teachers might have absolutely no weight, as opposed to one of the "authorities" in philosophy; in fact, would have little weight in any event, except as backed with most cogent reasons. With just as little propriety can the mass of teachers of science in our colleges be appealed to as "authorities." They may be able and earnest men, rising men, and destined to become distinguished; and yet the opinion of a thousand names of them weigh only as a feather when cast into the scales against a scientific conclusion of an Agassiz, a Henry, a Dana, or a Guyot.
In short, there are only a few scientific authorities, in any proper sense, before whom even those "laymen in science" who propose to keep their mental freedom and their manhood should think of bowing. Who are these authorities? If the word of such men as Professor Tait is to be taken, they are not the mere experimentalists, the men of facts and display. Facts are not science, nor is the brilliant experimental and rhetorical display of them. As a showman, Professor Tyndall may be a scientific Barnum, and yet have little weight as against Faraday, a man without such showy qualities. The authorities are not the dreamers, the men of phantasy. Bacon's words concerning such men are as true to-day as when he first uttered them. The Haeckels can never be scientific authorities. Exact science, according to Professor Tait, is an altogether different thing:—
"That which is properly called physical science is the knowledge of relations between natural phenomena and their physical antecedents, as the necessary sequences of cause and effect, these relations being investigated by the aid of mathematics—that is, by a method in which the processes of reasoning, on all questions that can be brought under the categories of quantity and of space-conditions, are rendered perfectly exact."339
The men of breadth and depth who are masters of these processes, and who push out their investigations into the regions beyond, are the authorities in science. They are not all evolutionists, but are mainly on the other side. Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, John William Dawson, and Arnold Guyot agree in pronouncing the doctrine of evolution unscientific and false. They and such as they are the "authorities" on this side the ocean, and the unanimous vote of the professors against them should, as a mere expression of opinion, have but little weight. Exact science on the other side of the waters protests with equal weight of authority against confounding evolution with science. Mivart, the most accomplished naturalist in Great Britain, has pronounced it a "puerile hypothesis." Lionel Beale, the authority in biology, rejects it utterly, declaring that "correlation," its assumed principle, "is the 'abracadabra' of mechanical biology." Virchow, "the foremost chemist on the globe," a man, in phrase of the London Times, "opposed to every species of orthodoxy and altogether innocent of faith," affirms that "all real scientific knowledge has proceeded in the opposite direction," and styles the circles of materialistic evolutionists "bubble companies." Professor Tait declares that the evolutionists are "not in the slightest degree entitled to rank as physicists"—i. e., they are excluded from the ranks of exact science. Sir William Thompson, by his investigations in mathematical physics, has taken away from the evolutionist the ages upon ages absolutely essential to the maintainance of his hypothesis. These are the characteristic views of the scientific authorities abroad, the men who have a right to say something on this subject.
If, on the other hand, the appeal be to scientific principles, the question is not to be settled by enumerating assertions or estimating the force of spent breath. Give us thoroughly grounded principles. Science, so-called, which is not based on solid and sufficient reasons, will as inevitably go down as will a theology resting on like slender basis. The ages have as little respect for irrational science as for irrational religion.
The scientific authorities agree with the logicians and philosophers that three things are essential in any complete inductive science: exact observation of facts, correct interpretation of the observed facts, and consistent logical construction of the results of the observation and interpretation into scientific system.
The scientific authorities, waiving the rights of authority, demonstrate in the name of exact science that evolution violates these fundamental principles. It has no solid basis of carefully observed facts. It does not correctly interpret the facts it adduces. As a so-called scientific system, it is not the product of the consistent logical embodiment of the results of observation and rational explanation of facts. In other words, it is not science.
The philosophers and logicians prefer the same charge against the evolution doctrine. It is not science. It assumes, rather than investigates or proves. It uses deduction where only induction is logically and scientifically admissible. In short, it comes very near to being a return to the method of the Middle Ages, which so long stood in the way of scientific progress. As the philosophers and logicians are the authorities in logical and scientific method, we are warranted in assuming that the criticism of Ulrici, of Halle, or of Professor Birks of Cambridge University, or of Professor Bowen of Harvard University, on the scientific value of the hypothesis of evolution is worth a thousand times more than that of the average teacher of science in our schools.
Is it any wonder that, in the interests of clear and exact thinking, such men as President Seelye sometimes become a little impatient with the so-called scientists? Take, as an illustration of the quality of the so-called science, the well-known passage from Mr. Darwin:—
"The early progenitors of man were, no doubt, covered with hair, both sexes having beards. Their ears were pointed and capable of movement, and their bodies were provided with a tail. . . . The foot . . . was prehensile, and our progenitors, no doubt, were arboreal in their habits, frequenting some warm, forest-clad land. . . . At an earlier period the progenitors of man must have been aquatic in their habits."
When men laud this as "advanced science," we have to say that it is simply a double "no doubt" and a "must have been" resting on a hypothesis which is conceivable, but has not a fact to support it. We protest, in the name of sound thinking, against the almighty mustbeity with which the evolutionist constructs his system; and we do it for the same reason that we protest against the equally potent mustbeity and perseity of the speculative philosophers and theologians. Let us have men quoted as authorities who are in reality authorities. Let us have real science, and not sham science. It is, doubtless, true that evolution is taught in many of our colleges. We have known some of the young men whose faith has been wrecked by it. So much the worse for the science in our colleges. Still, we have the fullest faith in true science, and so we have in the religion of the Bible, and we have just as much in the consistency and harmony of the two; but we doubt whether the faith of men in either science or the Bible will ever be increased by teaching that "evolution is science."—President D. S. Gregory, D. D., in The Independent.
The Fear of the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Faults of the Good and Bad
A WHITE garment appears worse with slight soiling, than do colored garments much soiled; so a little fault in a good man attracts more attention than do great offenses in bad men.
ARE ALL DAYS ALIKE?
By T. M. Steward
THE assertion is so often made that "there is no difference in days," that I would like to present a few thoughts on the subject. The Bible is the only book that pretends to give us any instruction in reference to the origin of the days of the week, so we will go to that for light. It gives us an account of the beginning of the weekly cycle of just seven days. In the first chapter of Genesis, we learn how the first six days of this cycle were made. They were employed by the Creator in labor, and were consequently designed for working days.
"Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." Ex. 20 : 9. If they were to do all their work in six days, there are but six working days." "The gate . . . shall be shut the six working days." Eze. 46 : 1. This text leaves us to infer that there is one day in each week that is not a working day. Let us turn to the record of the first weekly cycle, and we shall find how the Creator was employed on the seventh day. Gen. 2:2: "And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Six days for work—one day for rest. Who dare say all days are alike?
"In it [the seventh day, the Sabbath], thou shalt not do any work." Ex. 20 : 10. Jesus says, "The Sabbath was made for man"—for all mankind. Mark 2 : 27. Then again, God has especially honored the seventh day. Gen. 2:3: "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Ex. 20 : 11. "Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." God never rested on either of the first six days of the week, but he did rest on the seventh day. He never blessed or hallowed either of the first six days, but did both bless and hallow the seventh day.
The Sabbath is the Lord's day. Gen. 2 : 3; Ex. 16 : 23; 20 : 8, 11; Isa. 58 : 13; Mark 2 : 28; Rev. 1 : 10. Please read Isa. 58; Prov. 28 : 9. He calls the seventh day holy, "my holy day." Isa. 58 : 13. He "hallowed it," or made it a sacred or holy day. Ex. 20 : 11. Moses said of it, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." The Lord showed marked respect for the Sabbath while feeding the children of Israel with manna from Heaven. Ex. 16 : 26: "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none."
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Ex. 20 : 8. Do not keep it to make it holy (for we cannot make a day holy by keeping it), but keep it because it is holy. Are days holy? No, only one day of the seven, and that is the seventh day. The Lord complains of his people for shutting their eyes to his Sabbath. They put no difference between the holy and profane; they claim that all days are alike, losing sight of the sacred or holy character of the Sabbath, and thus he is profaned among them. Eze. 22 : 26.
After God has bestowed such especial honor upon one, and only one, of the seven, can we say, There is no difference in days, but one is just as holy as another? Those who say this make God a liar and his word false. This is a fearful charge, truly. "Let God be true, and every man a liar." "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." Ps. 119 : 160.
T. M. STEWARD.
SAVED BY A THREAD.
A BOLD adventurer went alone into the catacombs of Rome. Few men with a guide even, dare to tread those hideous caverns of darkness and the dead. Fastening a thread at the entrance, and taking a spool in one hand and a lamp in the other, he plunged into those subterranean solitudes. Impelled by a passion for historic lore, his excited curiosity found ample gratification. Around him were scattered, in confusion, the ruins of Roman magnificence and art. Imagination was busy in rebuilding, from those fragments, the grand structures of Rome's faded splendor. Self-forgetful, in his intense interest, and heeding not his steps, he stumbled and fell. Instantly his light was extinguished. The spool flew from his hand, and was lost. A horror of darkness surrounded him. In vain he searched for the lost thread. Overcome with the strange oppression of fear, he fainted. When he revived he found the spool in his hand, which he must have found before, and held unconsciously during his swoon. Following the thread, he soon saw glimmerings of light, and came forth from the catacombs, saved by a thread!
Our planetary world is a vast catacomb. Around us are strewn the ruins of former ages. Beneath our feet is the dust of past generations. Human experience seems a very uncertain light to guide us, judging from the constantly occurring failures of men. We cannot penetrate with certain vision one moment into the future. We know not the hidden mysteries of a coming hour.
One eye alone penetrates the future. He dwelleth in the light. He knows all the intricate paths and hidden events of coming time. His word and Spirit are our guides. They never mislead. It may require careful stepping, anxious watching and confiding trust; but they will lead our fainting souls through the chilling gloom of earthly darkness to the open portals of endless day. The thread of divine truth, carefully followed, will lead our bewildered feet to unfailing light.—Domestic Journal.
IT'S NO USE.
It is said that a country woman went into a store on Hanover St., Boston, one day, and, putting four dollars on the counter, remarked to a clerk: "There; fourteen years ago—'twill be fifteen this fall—I bought something next door, and gave them a dollar bill; but they couldn't give me the change, so they sent a boy into the next shop, and he brought me back the change for five dollars instead of one. I took it, but 'taint no use; I ain't going to keep it any longer; so there it is, all back again." And before the astonished clerk had time to make any inquiries, she was gone.
Poor woman. She had endured fourteen years of trouble for a single sin, and at last had to confess and make restitution. It was well that she had courage and grace to do it finally.
We heard of an old, grey-headed man who took a returned missionary aside one day, and confessed to him how fifty years before when they were boys together he picked up and kept a quarter of a dollar which the missionary lost, and tried in vain to find. "I have carried the load on my conscience," said he, "for fifty years, and I would not carry it fifty years longer for the whole world." And so he paid him back a silver dollar, and begged that he would forgive the sin committed so long ago.
It is of "no use" to sin. If you have done wrong, make it right; and the quicker you do it, the better; life is uncertain; time is short, sin is a heavy load here, but it will be heavier still to bear it before the judgment-seat of Christ. Make haste, then, to get rid of every sin; fly to Christ for pardon and for peace, and make ready to stand accepted and blameless in the Judgment day that is "near and hasteth greatly."
A SMILE.
Who can tell the value of a smile? It costs the giver nothing, but is beyond price to the erring and relenting, the sad and cheerless, the lost and forsaken. It disarms malice, subdues temper, turns hatred to love, revenge to kindness, and paves the darkest paths with gems of sunlight. A smile on the brow betrays a kind heart, a pleasant friend, an affectionate brother, a dutiful son, a happy husband. It adds a charm to beauty, it decorates the face of the deformed, and makes a lovely woman resemble an angel in paradise.