Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 2, 1877
IRONCLADS
A bold advance in the construction of iron-clad ships has been decided upon by the Italian Government in respect to the two vessels which are to excel the Duilio and the Dandolo. The new ships are now begun, but it will probably be six years before they are complete. They are to be unrigged turret-ships, propelled by twin screws. They are to be much larger than the largest ships in the British navy, and much faster, in addition to which they will be much more costly. The most powerful engines in her Majesty’s fleet are those of the Inflexible and the Dreadnought, working up to between 8,000 and 9,000 indicated horse-power. But this enormous amount is to be at least doubled by the engines of the Italian ships. According to present conclusions, the armor will be steel, probably a metre thick, or fully half as thick again as the maximum armor of the Inflexible. What guns these colossal ships are to carry is as yet undetermined, but it is not unlikely that in ordnance, as well as in other respects, the forthcoming ships will transcend all predecessors.
THE STRATEGY OF SLOW PRESSURE.
THERE are a number of people who look upon the Turco-Russian war as a “failure,” because the fighting doesn’t begin on the Danube. They seem to think that Russia has assumed the offensive with a great flourish of trumpets, and that she is bound to go ahead with the performance, like any other spectacular exhibition. But the Russians do not look on it in this light; they want to so carry on this war that its work will endure. This work is no less than the obliteration of Turkish power in Europe.
Already the relations of Roumania to Russia are so close as to make the former almost a part of the Russian Empire. The Danube is now practically the northern boundary of Turkey. Wallachia and Moldavia are already lost, and Russia’s slow campaign has conquered these and secured them, probably forever, almost without striking a blow. The march from Kischeneff to the Danube was a feat of swiftness. Russians can be fast enough when it is necessary. They are halting now, because more is to be gained by waiting than by victories which might startle all Europe. Every day of delay strengthens the Russians and weakens the Turks.
The desperate measures to which the Porte is resorting in his death agony show his pitiable weakness. He has ordered a levy en masse for men, and forced loans for money, and still gets very little of either. At Constantinople there is impotence, sloth, divided counsels, revolutionary intrigue, tyrannic temper, monstrous pride, omnipresent corruption, jealousy, suspicion, irresolution, and imbecility. Every day of delay makes the government of the Porte weaker at home, more despised and hated abroad. The armies are badly clothed and equipped, wretchedly fed, and poorly officered. The discipline, never good, is now worse than ever. The hospital accommodations are insufficient and the troops are swept off by a deadly typhus and the plague; the heats of summer and bad food will bring dysentery also.
Conceding to the Turks individual valor and fanatical devotion to the Sultan and to the Crescent, they will hardly be able to withstand the disciplined onset of the Russians. The problem in Bulgaria will not be like that in Armenia. There the armies are small, and the fortresses of Varna, Rustchuk, and Schumla, poorly manned. Armies of siege will be left to isolate these, and the great army will push beyond the Balkans and dictate the peace near Constantinople. The slow campaign will win. —Baltimore Gazette.
A SAMPLE OF SPIRITUAL SLATE-WRITING.
By P. R. Ladd
I wish to give an account of a sitting that I had a day or two since, by invitation, with C. N. Watkins, who has been stopping with A. H. Longley in Liberty Hall block. Once in his room, I seated myself at a table on which were two slates and a piece of blank paper. After cutting the paper into small strips, I was requested to write the name of my spirit friends on them and roll them up, so that I could not distinguish one from the other. This over, as they lay in a pile on the table, I was requested to point with a pencil to each one separately, and when three raps came on the table to take the one indicated in my hand. The first one I pointed to, three raps were distinctly heard, and as I held it in my hand Mr. Watkins gave a name that was on it, which I found on unrolling it to be correct. In this way we went through the list, he giving the name correctly in every instance.
He then gave a description of a lady friend that he said thought a world of me, and was with me nearly all the time,—at least he had seen her with me every time he had seen me. He said that she influenced me more than I would be willing to admit, and asked me if I had not such a friend in the spirit world; and told me to write down the names of all I could think of. I then wrote down the name of my wife who passed away in 1854, and a cousin and a niece that have passed away since. With the pencil I pointed to one of them, when three slight raps were heard, and, on unrolling, the name he gave was found correct. On pointing to the second, three loud raps were given, that could be heard in the next room. He gave the name “Roxelana Clapp Ladd, my wife,” which was just what I had written on the pellet. He said, “This is the person I have seen, and she will give you a communication on the slate.”
He then broke off a piece of slate pencil about the size of a small pea and laid it on one of the slates, first asking me to examine them and see if there was any writing on them,—and I can swear that there was none,—and placed the other slate over it, and, holding them out to me, told me to take hold of them, which I did, holding them firmly together, both his hands being in plain sight, and mine also. Instantly I heard the pencil writing as distinctly as I should if I had been using it myself. In a short time three raps were heard to signify the communication ended. He removed the top slate and left the bottom one in my hands, on which was written the following communication, directed to me:—
Summer Land.—My Dear One, My Husband: How glad I am to see you here to-day, and to tell you that I still think as much of you as when living. Keep on working for the cause of truth, and may right ever triumph over wrong, and may all hypocrites be cast into outer darkness, just the place where they are trying to escape from, is the wish of one who loves you and is standing on the shores of time beholding you ever in your work; and I come now to tell you that I am with you always. Your own loving wife, ROXELANA CLAPP LADD.”
I will add that what makes this particularly satisfactory to me is the handwriting. The moment the slate was removed I saw at once that it was the person’s whose signature it bore; if I can swear to my own, I can to hers as well. Now here is a fact. I did not write it, and, if I can swear by my senses, Mr. Watkins nor any other visible human agent did. Who did? This is the question for the world to answer; and when it has done it “the mystery (of life) of God” is solved (See Rev. 10:7; Col. 1:26, and Matt. 13:11), which is already, as far as I am concerned. The closing sentence of Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field’s address before the alumni at Williamstown, July 3, as reported in your paper, is no uncertainty, or need not be. He says: “But we may be marching not only to death but to life. Our leaders for whom we mourn, we should rather rejoice, for they have got the victory. Perhaps they are looking down from the shining battlements to beckon us upward.” There is no “may be” or “perhaps” about it with me, for it is God’s eternal truth.—P. R. Ladd, in Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
England's Staggering Alcohol Consumption in 1876
The people of England are beginning to turn their attention very earnestly to the frightful effects of the wide-spread traffic in alcoholic liquors. Mr. Dawson Burns recently sent a communication to the London News, containing some statistics of startling significance. He states that in 1876 there were purchased more than twenty-nine million gallons of British spirits, more than eleven and a half million gallons of foreign and colonial spirits, more than eighteen million gallons of beer, and eleven million gallons of British wine, cider, etc.,42making a total of intoxicants for the year 1876, of 102,732,898 gallons. The original cost of all this is £133,632,021; add to this the increase in retail prices, and it makes a total of £147,000,000. Those who do not move outside sober circles and never study estimates of national habits, would hardly believe it possible for a Christian nation to produce such figures in the nineteenth century. It involves some eighty-one million gallons of alcohol, a quantity sufficient, if distributed among all the inhabitants of the earth, and swallowed at one time, to kill every man, woman, and child then living on the globe.
THE JUDGMENT'S ROLLING ON.
THERE'S a sound of muttering thunder in the distant eastern sky,
And the flash of lurid lightning flits athwart the wondering eye,
And many a cheek grows pallid at the seer's warning cry,
The Judgment's rolling on.
The plow has left the furrow to be molded into spears,
And the sword is wrought of pruning-hooks with strange portentous fears,
While many a watchman's crying, in these grand prophetic years,
The Judgment's rolling on.
The wicked nations of the earth like drunken men shall reel,
’Mid the shock of marshalled armies and the clash of glittering steel,
And the cannon's mouth shall thunder out in wild terrific peal,
The Judgment's rolling on.
“The whole creation travaileth and groaneth until now,”
As the myriads upon myriads to Apollyon's mandates bow,
But there's nothing that can hinder God's irrevocable vow.
The Judgment's rolling on.
’Tis “thus far, and no farther” that the wicked one can go,
With his sowing and his reaping in this fallen world of woe,
For Jehovah, whom we're trusting, is his all-avenging foe.
The Judgment's rolling on.
The armies of the heavens on their steeds of spotless white,
With the “King of kings” for Captain, clothed in robes of living light,
Make haste their preparation for great Armageddon's fight.
The Judgment's rolling on.
The heavens soon shall open for the coming of the Lord,
Ye can almost see the glory, O ye saints who trust his word;
Ye shall hide in his pavilion while the floods of wrath are poured.
The Judgment's rolling on.
On the riven Mount of Olivet his burning feet shall stand,
With his enemies before him, gathered out of every land,
He shall scourge the wicked nations with his dreadful sword in hand.
The Judgment's rolling on.
“Come ye blessed of my Father!” to the righteous he will say,
Ye shall wear the conqueror's diadem that fadeth not away,
And shall sit on thrones of glory bearing universal sway,
Forevermore, amen! —Sel.
A BIG GUN.
The nations are making great preparations for the destruction of human life and property. Herr Krupp, of Germany, is a very noted manufacturer of heavy artillery guns. He is now about completing a steel gun, weighing eighty tons. The calibre is about sixteen inches; the ball weighs 1650 pounds, and the powder charge 396 pounds. The cost of the gun, exclusive of the carriage, is $100,000. The Russians have purchased the great Krupp gun that was on exhibition last year at the Centennial. Mr. Krupp is making one like it for the Turks.
He has constructed plans for a 124-ton steel breech-loader, with a calibre of over eighteen inches, and throwing a shot weighing a ton, having a charge of five hundred pounds of powder. The estimated cost is $167,000, besides the carriage, which is to weigh about sixty-two tons.—Crisis.
THE TORPEDO.
The following interesting item we clip from the San Francisco Chronicle:—
“In the war which has just begun the end of which no mortal wisdom can foresee, new engines of death and destruction which have heretofore been unknown to maritime warfare will probably play an important part. The great iron-clads, carrying 81-ton guns and throwing projectiles of the weight of over sixteen hundred pounds, will be called upon to meet new and mysterious forms of danger. The Turkish waters are said to be full of torpedoes constructed by English skill, which are capable of destroying in an instant the most powerful war vessels that were ever launched.”
“It is reported that the British Admiralty have been making experiments with a terrible engine of destruction known as a ‘rocket float,’ which can be driven, by the propelling power of a prodigious rocket, the distance of three or four miles in less than half a minute. In the bow of the float a quantity of gun-cotton is arranged with a percussion cap in such a manner that a powerful explosion ensues the instant that it comes into collision with any obstacle. If the float is accurately directed toward a ship, and started on its devastating errand at the distance of several miles, it will reach the objective point before any change in its position can be made.”
“Another torpedo which moves beneath the surface at the rate of twenty miles per hour has been invented. The French naval authorities have tested still another submarine torpedo, moving at about the same rate, and pronounced it a success. The probability is, a new era in naval warfare will take its date from the present European struggle.”
Spanish Law Disrupts Protestant Worship in Cadiz
Under the new ecclesiastical laws in Spain, the Catholic prelates and priests have almost unbounded opportunities to annoy the Protestants in their assemblies for public worship. For example, a Protestant congregation of four hundred at Jueves Santo were interrupted while at worship by the entrance of two armed policemen, who ordered the preacher to break off his sermon and dismiss the congregation. It appears that the Bishop of Cadiz had complained that, although the doors were closed, the preacher’s voice was heard in the street, and the service was therefore “a public manifestation” and a violation of the laws.
SEVEN FEATURES OF RESURRECTION GLORY.
By S. A. Blackwood
An Address by S. A. Blackwood, Esq., at the Wimbledon Prophetical Conference, May, 1877.
I regard the convening of this Conference as an act that is loyal to our King. It reminds me of those, who, in the days of David, when all the tribes of Israel were at strife, said, “Why speak ye not of bringing the king back?” In all the evangelistic teaching and preaching that we are privileged to have, very little indeed is spoken of bringing the King back, and it is to promote that that we are gathered together for a few days.
I believe there are many signs and indications that the King is very near now. We may regard as one sign of it this Conference, and the Conference to be held next week in Freemasons’ Hall, by brethren who, although they perhaps do not agree with us entirely in ecclesiastical or prophetical views, yet are one with us in this—they want to see the King coming back.
It was when the word sounded from the ranks of Israel that King David seemed to hear it, and he sent this word immediately unto Zadok and Abiathar, and the elders of Judah, saying, “Ye are my bone and my flesh,” the very terms which our King applies to his church, his mystical body. And he said to them, “Why are ye the last to bring back the king?” The people who ought to have been the first, aye, his own brethren, they were the last, and that touched them, “and he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man.” They came unitedly, and sent this word unto the king, “Return thou, and all thy servants.” So the king returned, and came to Jordan, and Judah came over to meet him, not in the air as we shall meet our King, but to conduct him over Jordan.
I trust our King is bowing the hearts of his people in some measure now, so that good results may follow from such gatherings as these.
However much our intellectual perception of the different schemes of prophetical interpretation may differ or agree, we must all unite in hoping and praying that a deeper longing and more fervent desire than ever may be awakened that the King may soon come back. It may be that, as in those days the king waited for the invitation, so our King is waiting for unanimity—waiting for all his people to become united in the longing desire and prayer for his early return. God grant it speedily. May these promises make our mouths water, as when the pilgrims reached the land of Beulah, and got some good looks through the telescope, it set their hearts on fire to get to the Celestial City. I wish now to dwell briefly upon a beautiful
CLUSTER OF SEVEN PROMISES
contained in Rev. 22: 3–5, which bring before us some of the glorious results of the approaching second advent of our King—seven characteristics of the glorified resurrection saints in the Heavenly Jerusalem, “the many mansions of our Father’s house in Heaven.” Like the patriarchs, we must embrace the promises (Heb. 11: 13), and not merely look at them, and touch them, and then let them go. The seven promises in Rev. 22: 3–5, read as follows:— “There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads; and there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
There are all the seven, and there is a centre one, like the centre of the seven-branch candlestick, from which they seem to originate—that one at the beginning of the fourth verse, “They shall see his face.” There is the centre promise—all the others are glorious, but that excels them all; that is the best. Why, it is what you are longing for. It is not the reigning you so much care about, it is not the glory, but the once-marred face and the pierced hand you want to see. It is not the magnificence, but it is the face of your King you want to see.
1. Let me point out those seven promises in their connection. “There shall be no more curse.” This points to the extermination of every accursed thing. It is not merely the curse, but the accursed thing, that the words seem to imply. The promise will then be fulfilled—“The God of peace shall bruise Satan under our feet.” Surely also with Satan, sin, introduced by him, will be removed, every trace of sin’s sad story shall forever pass away. We do not know to what extreme confines of God’s universe Satan, and sin, and they that have part in the lake of fire, will be banished. But here they are entirely lost sight of. “There shall be no more curse.”
Nor shall there be any more death. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. There shall be no sin, nor pain, nor crying, nor any such thing. There will be an end of it once for all and forever. How can we picture to our imagination what a time that would be? Satan, sin, and death gone, creation no longer groaning and travailing, the time of the glorious liberty of the sons of God come. In vain, I say, we try to fancy it, but it is real, for we read of these promises, “These are the true and faithful sayings of God.” Then, indeed, “shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our own God, shall give us his blessing.” The thorn, and the thistle, and the briar shall no longer be the memento and witness of the curse that has been introduced by sin. “The earth shall bring forth her increase.”
2. But, again, “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it” (i. e., in the Heavenly Jerusalem). What does that imply? It denotes perfect government. For six thousand years man has been trying his hand at government. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and I think it is very much the same now—confusion. It does not matter whether it be despotism or constitutional government, parliaments or sultans, wherever you look the world still stands sorely in need of a righteous and equitable government. Man has been trying his hand, and has lamentably failed, and the six thousand years (so far as we can trace the times of man’s existence on this earth) of man’s history bear witness to urgent need for the Desire of Nations to establish everywhere his kingdom.
The perfect government of Christ will be an absolutism. He will be the fountain of all authority, and the whole universe will be subject to him. Oh, how glorious that will be! “The throne of God and of the Lamb.” Perfect government. Ah! you see the name of Jesus is there—the Lamb. In some wonderful way, only hinted at in a few parts of God’s word, it seems that not only has Christ by his blood redeemed his church from hell, but has cleansed the very precincts almost of Heaven and heavenly places. He has acquired a right, not only to the headship over his people, but to the dominion of the universe, that God may be all in all.
3. The third feature is, “his servants shall serve him.” Perfect service! Why, that is what you long for. You are even now trying to serve him. You want to do so, but how often you are hindered; how often the weakness of your head and your heart hinders you; how often the feebleness of mind and body—how often the rising up of sin in your soul hinders you; but then you shall have no let or hindrance in his service. Then the prayer you have so often uttered, that you want to “serve him in holiness and righteousness all your days,” shall have its complete fulfilment. Perfect government will bring about, as its immediate result, perfect service. You will never be wearied then—never tire in his service, never tire of his service. Yes, our glorious lifetime throughout eternity will be characterized by continual service. You will not want to be idle then; for it will be a time of glorious activity, and his servants shall serve him in his temple day and night forever. The whole universe of God is our Father’s house, and I do not know whether our sphere of service will be among worlds millions and millions of miles distant, but we shall doubtless fly swiftly, like angels that excel in strength and that do his commandments and hearken to his voice and his word.
What a change from the wretched, imperfect, lukewarm service that you and I are so conscious of! Selfishness comes in continually. But this is to be swallowed up in Christ, and self is to be lost sight of in his glorious service.
4. And now comes the center promise, “They shall see his face.” The Queen of Sheba said of King Solomon’s servants, “Happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee.” We are told that they continually saw the king’s face. But they had to go out of the king’s presence sometimes to get their meals, and to do his errands, and to obtain rest. Not so, however, with our service hereafter in glorified resurrection bodies. We shall always be in his presence, delighting ourselves in the nearness of the King. Oh! what a sight that will be to behold his face, which was marred more than any man’s; that brow that was crowned with thorns for you, for me; the countenance from which the cruel soldiers plucked off the hair! Well may we exclaim with David, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.” You have never been satisfied yet;—you have tasted the streams of earth, and have found that this world cannot give durable satisfaction. Even in the moments of most prayerful communion we only see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face. Blessed day! “Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” come quickly.
5. “His name shall be in their foreheads.” Perfect likeness, perfect resemblance, will follow an uninterrupted vision of the King’s face. That is what we want. Has not God put down deep into your heart the desire to be like him—a longing for holiness—a consciousness of unholiness? Nothing will completely satisfy your soul but the sight of Jesus Christ and the changing of your body of humiliation into the likeness of his glorious body, every part of it being wonderfully and fearfully made anew and transfigured (like the bodies of Moses and Elijah when they stood on the mount), and permeated and penetrated with Christ’s likeness, because his name will be in your foreheads.
“We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” It is because we do not see him now as he is that we are so unlike him. It was when men could see him a little more clearly as he is that they were transformed. It was when Moses had spent forty days and forty nights with God on Mount Sinai that the skin of his face shone, though it was only in a ministration of condemnation. It was when Stephen looked into Heaven and saw the Son of man standing at the right hand of God that his very enemies saw his countenance as the face of an angel. It is when men look at Christ that they become transfigured as he was. If you and I look more constantly and more steadfastly into Heaven, turning away our eyes from beholding vanity, we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,”—no gradual process; not like the gold, which now has to go through the furnace; not as the china, which has to be passed through the fire again and again; not as all earthly things, that have to be refined—but in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, at the sound of the trump. When Christ comes, we shall be changed, and shall perfectly reflect his image. His name shall be in our foreheads. The name is the character; the character of our Father, our God, our Saviour, will be perfectly reflected on us; and then unto him shall be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end.
When his name shall be in your forehead, you will then never know what it is to be ashamed of Christ. We know now how the fear of man bringeth a snare, and how, sometimes, unlike true soldiers, almost we would fain take the number off our helmet or forage-cap and not let it be seen to what regiment we belong, when ashamed to confess Christ as fully as we ought before men; but then there will be no temptation to be ashamed of Christ. We shall perfectly resemble him, and perfectly reflect him. In our foreheads will be the character of God, and we shall be unmistakably recognized and manifested as partakers of the Divine nature.
6. “And there shall be no night there, and they shall need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.” Here we need the light of the sun and the night of rest; but no material light will be required there. You will never be fatigued, or want to go to sleep. Your head and heart will never ache, and, still better, there will be no spiritual night. Believers now have their times of darkness, and they long for uninterrupted enjoyment of the light of God’s presence. Well, there “the Lord God will give them light.”
There will be no night of perplexity or misunderstanding. Christians will not differ or strive about points of doctrine, or ordinances, or church government. All will be harmoniously settled then. There will be no night, because we shall have the mind of God without the weakness and imperfection of sinful flesh. What a blissful prospect! If there is anything that makes the heart of a man of God ache, it is strifes, and misunderstandings, and harsh judgments, and the cruel interpretations sometimes put on Christians’ conduct by their brethren. But perfect light will then enable the saints to understand one another in one moment, intuitively, “for the Lord God giveth them light.”
It is not a borrowed light nor a created light, for it will come straight from God himself. I do not know what those words imply in their fulness, but I know that they contain everything that can be needed to satisfy and gladden the hearts of God’s children; for God is Light, and Jesus is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Father.
7. “And they shall reign forever and ever,”—though they are servants and serve him day and night in his temple, yet they reign. The saints shall be seated on thrones of royal dominion, and wear unfading crowns of glory, and sway sceptres of irresistible authority. To speak of these topics is exhilarating and refreshing to our souls. Let us cherish these seven promises in our hearts. Let us look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh. What days we are living in! Surely there is enough to make us cry with increased earnestness,—“Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” come quickly. It may be that you and I will be among those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, and shall be changed from mortal to immortal without dying (1 Thess. 4: 16, 17; 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52). God help us all to stand upon our watch tower, and be looking, and longing, and waiting, and praying for Christ speedily to come to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe.—Christian Herald, London, Eng.
MARRIAGE AND THE SABBATH.
By O. Davis
The reasoning of Jesus on the marriage institution, when questioned by the Pharisees touching its obligations, has seemed to me worthy of consideration in its bearing upon the Sabbath question.
The Pharisees asked him if it was lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause. As they asked for the law in the case, let us note carefully where Jesus gets the law by which the institution should be governed. Does he go back to Moses’ day to find the true law by which God designed that the institution should be regulated? No. Does he go back to the days of Abraham, of Noah, or of any of the patriarchs who lived after the fall, to find the law? No. Where does he go, then? To the institution as it was established from the beginning. For did he not know that the works were finished from the foundation of the world?
We will let Jesus speak for himself: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Here he finds the true marriage law, the institution just as God, the Creator, gave it to man. But the Pharisees reply, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put43her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.” How clearly this language of Jesus recognizes the wisdom of God; and that God does not need to mend his work or to have fallen man mend it for him. Even Jesus himself does not undertake to mend it, but simply cites us to it as that which is just right and just calculated to meet the wants of man. He upholds the institutions of his Father, and shows that he is indeed a loyal son. How true the language of Jesus, “I have glorified thy name.” And truly, where should we expect to find the institutions made for man in their purity, and as best adapted to meet his wants and regulate his life, except where they came from the hands of his Creator? And did not the Creator himself call his works good, and say that they were finished? And if the works were finished by the Creator, can they be improved by poor fallen man? Does not the language of Jesus imply that all attempts to change the institution have only detracted from its high and holy purpose?
Now, if this reasoning of our Saviour’s is true (and who that has any faith in his mission can doubt it?), does it not apply with equal force to the Sabbatic institution? It was made at the same time, for the same people, and by the same God. Jesus says that the Sabbath was made for man. Then, according to the example that Jesus has set us, where shall we look to find the institution as God made it? We must do as directed by Jesus in the case of the marriage institution, read how it was in the beginning. Did God see the end from the beginning in the case of the marriage institution, thus being enabled to adapt it to the wants of his creatures, and make a mistake in the case of the Sabbatic institution? Do we glorify God by such a position? Do we not dishonor him, and show that we are not his loyal subjects?
With the subject thus before us, how clear the language of Scripture, “The law entered that the offense might abound”! The law does not originate the obligations it enforces; it is given to secure our obedience to them. They grow out of creation itself; and were it possible to take away the law, the obligations would still exist. Hence, it is a recognized declaration of the New Testament that “whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law”; and that “sin is the transgression of the law.”
Then, is it not true of an institution made for man and necessary to him, that it should not be changed from what it was when it came from the Creator’s hand? Man in his Eden state was in harmony with God and his institutions, and when he fell, was it not the mission of his Saviour to bring him into harmony with God and his institutions again? And this is the very foundation of his reasoning with reference to the marriage institution that we have been considering; and it applies with equal force to the Sabbatic institution.
O. DAVIS.
ACQUAINT THYSELF WITH GOD.
By Knox
Acquaint thee, O mortal, acquaint thee with God;
And joy, like the sunshine, shall beam on thy road;
And peace, like the dew-drop, shall fall on thy head;
And sleep, like an angel, shall visit thy bed.
Acquaint thee, O mortal, acquaint thee with God;
And he shall be with thee when fears are abroad,—
Thy safeguard in dangers that threaten thy path;
Thy joy, in the valley and shadow of death.
—Knox.
THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS.
By E. P. D.
“Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt. 13: 30. In verses 37 to 44 the explanation of the above parable is given. Christ is the sower; the righteous are the good seed; the field is the world; the tares are the wicked, and the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels.
The whole is a figurative summary of the work of redemption; and, as such, it fills an important place in the present message of truth, standing out in bold opposition to the doctrines of the age to come and the temporal millennium.
John, the banished prophet, is rapt in vision. He beholds a white cloud, and seated upon it the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle, a symbol of husbandry. Thus he holds in his hand the ensign of his authority as the householder of the parable; and the crown denotes the termination of priestly ministration and redemption. The harvest is come, and from his exalted throne he views the scene. It presents a sad appearance. The tares have overgrown the wheat and threaten to destroy the entire field. “The time is come to reap.” And thus we read, “I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.”
“And I saw another sign in Heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. . . . And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.” Rev. 15: 1, 6. “And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.” Chap. 16: 1, 2.
From the opening to the close of this remarkable chapter, seven angels are represented as engaged in pouring out upon the wicked the vials of wrath. Like bundles of tares, they are bound with the bands of death, to be burned in the great conflagration, at the consummation of the general Judgment. The wheat now remains to be gathered into the barn; and so we read: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; . . . and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Glorious consummation! Ministered to by angels in the hour of temptation; shielded by angels in the day of wrath; gathered by angels as golden grain into the garner of the Lord. Thus the work of the harvest is over. The field is reaped; and though the yield was small, none were lost, but all were safely deposited in the world of glory. The gathered tares only remain to be burned, when the once blighted field shall spread its rich mantle of foliage, and lay again its carpet of living green; when the glory from the temple of the Lord shall cap the hills with gold, and fill the verdant valleys with noontide light!
Then shall the precious seed of the Lord flourish, with no tares to choke it round. To this end we sing:—
“Come, come, thou conquering One;
Reign thou upon thy throne
In glory bright.
Then shall the ransomed raise
Unceasing songs of praise
Throughout eternal days
In realms of light.”
E. P. D.
A MEEK AND QUIET SPIRIT.
By F. W. Morse
The word of God calls a meek and quiet spirit an “ornament,” and declares that it is of great price in the sight of God. 1 Pet. 3: 4, 5. There is no doubt but that a meek, quiet, and holy trust in God is equally precious and lovable in all, men or women, old or young.
There is no virtue in an ease-loving, listless inaction in God’s work,—a spirit that fears the storms of opposition and the frowns of popular prejudice so much more than God, that it does simply nothing to advance the truth. Those are slothful servants who keep always on the sunny side of popular opinion, keep just as quiet as possible about unpopular Bible truth,—not truly meek, but cringing, and servile toward errors and wrongs upheld by popular opinion. No honor or ornament this sort of meekness and quietness, not in the records of Heaven, certainly. “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8: 38.
But there is a calm, meek, and heavenly trust in God, the very soul of true energy and power, which we all must have in order to honor God and advance his cause. Oh, how saddening to see and hear contention and strife among those who profess the truth! Often there are feverish anxiety and chafing, aggravating broils in the family and out of it. With many who profess Christ there is a fair outside show to the world, but in the family they are like hot water and firebrands. Oh, the value of a meek and quiet spirit! It is worth buying, even if it costs all. F. W. MORSE.