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Review and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 2.

The Little Season of Rev. 6:11

Review and Herald

Dec 23, 1873

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 23, 1873

The Little Season of Rev. 6:11.

By Uriah Smith

AFTER speaking of the martyrs who had fallen under the long period of papal persecution, John says in Rev. 6:11:—
“And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
In Thoughts on the Revelation, pp. 105, 106, this verse is explained as follows:—
“The white robes. These were given as a partial answer to their cry, ‘How long, O Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?’ How was it? They had gone down to the grave in the most ignominious manner. Their lives had been misrepresented, their reputations tarnished, their names defamed, their motives maligned, and their graves covered with shame and reproach, as containing the dishonored dust of the most vile and despicable characters. Thus the church of Rome, which then molded the sentiment of the principal nations of the earth, spared no pains to make her victims an abhorring unto all flesh.”
But the Reformation begins to work. It begins to be seen that the church is the corrupt and disreputable party, and those against whom it vents its rage are the good, the pure, and the true. The work goes on among the most enlightened nations, the reputation of the church going down, and that of the martyrs coming up, until the corruptions of the papal abomination are fully exposed, and that huge system of iniquity stands forth before the world in all its naked deformity; while the martyrs are vindicated from all the aspersions under which that Antichristian church had sought to bury them. Then it was seen that they had suffered, not for being vile and criminal, but “for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” Then their praises were sung, their virtues admired, their fortitude applauded, their names honored, and their memory cherished. White robes were thus given unto every one of them.
“The little season. The cruel work of Romanism did not instantly cease as the light of the Reformation began to dawn, Not a few terrible outbursts of Romish hate and persecution were yet to be felt by the church. Multitudes more were to be punished as heretics and join the great army of martyrs. The full vindication of their cause was to be delayed a little season. And during this time, Rome added hundreds of thousands to the vast throng of whose blood she had already become guilty. See Buck’s Theological Dictionary, Art., Persecution. But the spirit of persecution was finally restrained, the cause of the martyrs vindicated, and the little season of the fifth seal came to a close.”
A brother writes from Greenville, Mich., under date of Dec. 17, 1873: “Some claim that the prediction concerning their brethren being killed, has not been fulfilled this side the Reformation, but is to be fulfilled in the time of trouble yet future. Can you give any history showing that Christians were put to death between the opening of the Reformation and the end of papal supremacy in 1798?”
In the extract given above from Thoughts on the Revelation, “Buck’s Theological Dictionary, Art., Persecution,” is quoted as authority for the statements there made. As these seem to be questioned, we transcribe the following from Mr. Buck’s testimony relative to persecutions that have been inflicted upon Protestants since the Reformation:—
“Persecution of Christians by those of the same name. Numerous were the persecutions of different sects from Constantine’s time to the Reformation; but when the famous Martin Luther arose, and opposed the errors and ambition of the church of Rome, and the sentiments of this good man began to spread, the pope and his clergy joined all their forces to hinder their progress. A general council of the clergy was called; this was the famous council of Trent, which was held for nearly eighteen successive years, for the purpose of establishing popery in greater splendor, and preventing the Reformation. The friends to the Reformation were anathematized and excommunicated, and the life of Luther was often in danger, though at last he died on the bed of peace. From time to time, innumerable schemes were suggested to overthrow the reformed church, and wars were set on foot for the same purpose. The invincible armada, as it was vainly called, had the same end in view. The inquisition, which was established in the twelfth century against the Waldenses (see Inquisition) was now more effectually set to work. Terrible persecutions were carried on in various parts of Germany, and even in Bohemia, which continued about thirty years, and the blood of the saints was said to flow like rivers of water. The countries of Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary, were in a similar manner deluged with Protestant blood. In

“HOLLAND,

and in the other Low Countries, for many years the most amazing cruelties were exercised under the merciless and unrelenting hands of the Spaniards, to whom the inhabitants in that part of the world were then in subjection. Father Paul observes that these Belgic martyrs were 50,000; but Grotius and others observe that there were 100,000 who suffered by the hand of the executioner. Herein, however, Satan and his agents failed of their purpose; for in the issue, a great part of the Netherlands shook off the Spanish yoke, and erected themselves into a separate and independent State, which has ever since been considered as one of the principal Protestant countries of the universe.”

“FRANCE.

“No country, perhaps, has ever produced more martyrs than this. After many cruelties had been exercised against the Protestants, there was a most violent persecution of them in the year 1572, in the reign of Charles IX. Many of the principal Protestants were invited to Paris under a solemn oath of safety, upon occasion of the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French king’s sister. The queen dowager of Navarre, a zealous Protestant, however, was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized. Coligny, admiral of France, was basely murdered in his own house, and then thrown out of the window to gratify the malice of the Duke of Guise; his head was afterward cut off, and sent to the king and queen mother; and his body, after a thousand indignities offered to it, hung by the feet on a gibbet. After this, the murderers ravaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered, in three days, above ten thousand lords, gentlemen, presidents, and people of all ranks. A horrible scene of things, says Thuanus, when the very streets and passages resounded with the noise of those that met together for murder and plunder, the groans of those who were dying, and the shrieks of those who were just going to be butchered, were everywhere heard; the bodies of the slain thrown out of the windows; the courts and chambers of the houses filled with them; the dead bodies of others dragged through the streets; their blood running through the channels in such plenty that torrents seemed to empty themselves in the neighboring river; in a word, an innumerable multitude of men, women with child, maidens, and children, were all involved in one common destruction; and the gates and entrances of the king’s palace all besmeared with their blood.”
“From the city of Paris, the massacre spread throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw above two hundred into gaol; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the Protestants, they executed their fury on those they had imprisoned; and calling them one by one, they were killed, as Thuanus expresses, like sheep in a market. In Orleans they murdered above five hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with the spoil. The same cruelties were practiced at Angers, Troyes, Bourges, la Charité, and especially at Lyons, where they inhumanly destroyed above eight hundred Protestants: children hanging on their parents’ necks; parents embracing their children; putting ropes about the necks of some, dragging them through the streets, and throwing them, mangled, torn, and half dead, into the river. According to Thuanus, above 30,000 Protestants were destroyed in this massacre; or, as others affirm, above 100,000.”
“But what aggravates these scenes with still greater wantonness and cruelty, was the manner in which the news was received at Rome. When the letters of the pope’s legate were read in the assembly of the cardinals, by which he assured the pope that all was transacted by the express will and command of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope should march with his cardinals to the church of St. Mark, and in the most solemn manner give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the see of Rome and the Christian world; and that, on the Monday after, solemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva, at which the pope, Gregory XIII., and cardinals were present; and that a jubilee should be published throughout the whole Christian world, and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France. In the evening, the cannon of St. Angelo were fired to testify the public joy; the whole city illuminated with bonfires; and no one sign of rejoicing omitted that was usually made for the greatest victories obtained in favor of the Roman church.”
“But all these persecutions were, however, far exceeded in cruelty by those which took place in the time of Louis XIV.

“ENGLAND

has also been the seat of much persecution. Though Wickliffe, the first Reformer, died peaceably in his bed, yet such was the malice and spirit of persecuting Rome that his bones were ordered to be dug up, and cast upon a dunghill. The remains of this excellent man were accordingly dug out of the grave, where they had lain undisturbed four-and-forty years. His bones were burnt, and the ashes cast into an adjoining brook. In the reign of Henry VIII., Bilney, Bayman, and many other reformers, were burnt; but when queen Mary came to the throne, the most severe persecutions took place. Hooper and Rogers were burnt in a slow fire. Saunders was cruelly tormented a long time at the stake before he expired. Taylor was put into a barrel of pitch, and fire set to it. Eight illustrious persons, among whom was Ferrar, bishop of St. David’s, were sought out, and burnt by the infamous Bonner in a few days. Sixty-seven persons were this year, A. D. 1555, burnt, among whom were the famous Protestants, Bradford, Ridley, Latimer, and Philpot. In the following, 1556, eighty-five persons were burnt.
“James I. succeeded Elizabeth. He published a proclamation, commanding all Protestants to conform strictly, and without any exception, to all the rites and ceremonies of the church of England. Above five hundred clergy were immediately silenced, or degraded, for not complying. Some were excommunicated, and some banished the country. The Dissenters were distressed, censured, and fined, in the Star-chamber. Two persons were burnt for heresy, one at Smithfield, and the other at Litchfield. Worn out with endless vexations and unceasing persecutions, many retired into Holland, and from thence to America. It is witnessed by a judicious historian that, in this, and in some following reigns, 22,000 persons were banished from England by persecution to America.”

“IRELAND

has likewise been drenched with the blood of the Protestants, forty or fifty thousand of whom were cruelly murdered in a few days, in different parts of the kingdom, in the reign of Charles I. It began on the 23d of October, 1641. Having secured the principal gentlemen, and seized their effects, they murdered the common people in cold blood, forcing many thousands to fly from their houses and settlements naked into the bogs and woods, where they perished with hunger and cold.”
The authorities which Buck cites in support of his statements are as follows: “Limborch’s introduction to his History of the Inquisition; Memoirs of the Persecutions of the Protestants in France, by Lewis De Enarolles; Comber’s History of the Parisian Massacre of St. Bartholomew; A. Robinson’s History of Persecution; Lockman’s History of Popish Persecution; Clarke’s Looking Glass for Persecutors; Doddridge’s Sermon on Persecution; Jortin’s ditto, ser. 9, vol. iv; Bowers’ Lives of the Popes; Fox’s Martyrs; Woodrow’s History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland; Neale’s History of the Puritans and of New England; and History of the Bohemian Persecution.”
It is evident that no part of the events to transpire under the fifth seal are yet future; for they have all been fulfilled, and we are now living under the sixth seal. The opening of this seal was marked by the great earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755. The great feature of the fifth seal was the Reformation, from its first inauguration till the power of persecution was fully broken, during which time many of the fellow-servants of the great army of martyrs which had gone before, were, according to the foregoing historical statements, put to death, as they had been.
U. S.

THE NIGHT COMETH.

Time’s sun is fast setting, Its twilight is nigh, Its evening is falling In cloud o’er the sky; Its shadows are stretching In ominous gloom; Its midnight approaches, The midnight of gloom,
Then haste, sinner, haste! there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee.
The vision is nearing The Judge and the throne! The voice of the angel Proclaims, “It is done.” On the whirl of the tempest Its Ruler shall come, And the blaze of his glory Flash out from its gloom.
Then haste, sinner, haste! there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee.
With clouds He is coming! His people shall sing; With gladness they hail him Redeemer and King. The iron rod wielding, The rod of his ire, He cometh to kindle Earth’s last, fatal fire.
Then haste, sinner, haste! there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee.
Sel.

The First and Great Commandment.

The following article is from Dr. Cumming’s Scripture Readings on Matt. 22: 34–40. It is a forcible exposition of the relation which exists between the law and the gospel, and adds another to the many existing proofs that no one ever thinks of taking the position that the moral law has been abolished till forced by the admission of its existence into conclusions which he wishes to avoid. Dr. C. says:—
“Well, ‘when the Pharisees,’ after having been once repelled, ‘had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which—ποῖα—of what sort—what is your description of—‘which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus then summed up the whole decalogue in two short, but comprehensive, epitomes—the first embraces the first four commandments, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’—the second embracing the last six commandments, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ In the moral law on Sinai, it was negative—‘Thou shalt not.’ In the summary of it by Jesus it is presented in its positive aspect—‘Thou shalt love God, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ It is explained elsewhere, that love is the fulfilling of the law. The great question, then, is, How shall man get the seed of love replanted, or resown, in his heart? The answer is, We love God because he loved us. God’s intense love to us produces responsive love in our hearts to him. Thus, Christianity is the only provision for replanting love in the human heart, and giving, not only pardon by an atonement, but sanctification by the Spirit, or obedience to the moral law.”
“The question put by the lawyer, whose object was to ensnare Jesus by provoking a reply that might be turned against his popularity with the crowd, and in favor of the designs and desires of the scribes and Pharisees, might be literally translated, and indeed ought to be translated, not, ‘which is the great commandment in the law?’ but, ‘Of what sort is the great commandment in the law? What is your description of it? What is its character? How do you describe it? In what language do you express the leading and prominent commandment in the law?’ He played into the hands of the scribes and Pharisees so far, because they often made the rigid, mechanical observance of one law an atonement or warrant for the breach of another law, the breach of which was agreeable to their taste, and convenient to their habits; and he, being accustomed to hear that one law was better than another, and that amid all the laws there was some chief and leading one, asked our Lord, ‘Which of the ten is the chief one? and what sort of one is it? and how does it bear upon our responsibilities? Tell me what sort it is.’ He did it, tempting Jesus, not for information, but in order to ensnare him; but our Lord, just as we saw he did on their asking him, ‘Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?’ overlooked the motive that dictated the question, and replied to it with as much magnanimous forbearance as if they had asked from the purest motives, and desired from the very heart to have the best and choicest information. He answered at once, ‘The great commandment is not, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image;” nor is it, “Remember the Sabbath day;” nor is it, “Thou shalt not steal;” but it is, first and chiefest, the emotion that the heart should feel toward God; and second, what is its shadow, and never absent companion, the feeling that the heart should cherish toward every other heart that beats in the world. The first and great commandment is not one of the first four singled out for supremacy over the remaining three, but it is that feeling within which covers all the four commandments of the decalogue that relate to God; and secondly, and subordinately, the feeling within that covers the remaining commandments of God, and relates to all your duties to your neighbors and brethren of mankind.’
“Now, the first four commandments are embraced in the words, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ Now this law man first broke. It was the chief commandment that man first violated in Paradise. He was placed under this law; he broke through it; and in doing so, he lost that tendency to God, that dependence upon his touch, control, and paternal government that would be equivalent in material things to the earth breaking loose from its attraction to the sun, and wandering eccentric from its orbit into the wilds of infinite and endless space. By the disruption of this primal tie, this first and chiefest affection, love to God, man lost his anchorage ground, and was at sea without star above, or hope before. He broke loose from the great central government, and became, in the language of Scripture, a lost son, a stray sheep, dead in trespasses, an enemy, a stranger, without hope, and without God in the world.
“Now, after this, the Bible does not assert that no moral excellence survived in man, and experience does not warrant us in saying so. There are many beautiful traits that still survive man’s first loss; but these beautiful traits are like ivy about a ruin, they only serve to conceal the gigantic deformity that is within and beneath them. Whatever excellence survives in man’s heart is just the remainder of what he once was. There is enough to tell us how magnificent he was in his original relationship to God, and there is enough to prove to us what a terrible dislocation, what an awful wreck, sin has made of the once fair and beautiful vessel of humanity. The Scripture does not assert that man is without any trace of what he was, or that he has no moral excellence. ‘If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children;’—there is the affection of parents to children, and of children to parents. There are men constitutionally honest and generous—so just, that they would spurn to do an unfair thing—so honorable, that they would shrink from the thought of a mean thing; and these graces, if I may call them so, are in their place beautiful. But what we say is, that man has lost the spring and source of all virtue that is beautiful before God, and that he has parted with that supreme and vital feeling, love to God, which gives beauty to every grace, vitality to every virtue, and makes the good tree bring forth, not only fair and fragrant, but good fruit in the sight of God and man.”
“Now, it is repeatedly asserted in Scripture that in the absence of this love to God no outward act has any excellence in his sight. It may, I repeat, be excellent in the sight of man; weighed in human scales, and submitted to human appreciation, it may seem most valuable; but till the fruit be connected with love to God, or the parent stem—till what you do springs from what you feel toward God, there is not that which will make it acceptable in the sight of God. There is no real, lasting, moral vitality in the branch, plant it in any soil you like, however fertile it may be in this world, until it be grafted in the parent stem, partake of its sap, and bear blossom from its union with it. The most splendid acts are but splendid sins, till they are quickened with this divine life. Whatever is done by an unconverted man is a sin, when tested by a holy and heart-searching God. It is our relationship to him, and his relationship to us—it is our restoration of sonship in reference to him, and the revelation of his Fatherhood in reference to us, that communicates a new beauty, gives real life, and makes truly useful and good all the fruits, virtues, sacrifices, or good deeds, that man is able to do by grace and through the Spirit in this present life.”
“The constant assertion of Scripture also is, not only that nothing can be really good and lasting without this, but that man is by nature wholly destitute of this. He may not be destitute of many beautiful virtues, but he is wholly destitute of love to God. Nay, he is not only destitute of love to God, but he has the very opposite emotion, and cherishes the very opposite feeling; that is, hatred to God. He may love an idol he has cut from the marble, or a sentimental being he has called up in his imagination, and think that by loving such a being he really loves God. But this is only making an idol suitable to his taste, and loving that idol instead of the true and righteous God; and thus, love is not only withdrawn from God, to whom it is supremely due, but it is communicated and transferred to other objects, to which it was not due at all. The fact is, the feeling of love survived the fall, and man must have something to occupy the niche that God forsook when the sinner fell. The original law was, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ God has forsaken us, because we have forsaken him; but the feeling of love, with which man was created, is just as inseparable from his heart as the feeling of hunger or thirst is from his physical economy. Having lost God, the true object, whom he no longer loves, because that God condemns him for what he is and for what he has done, he finds other objects upon whom he concentrates that love, and who occupy the place that God originally filled. He puts the creature in the place of the Creator, and loves the former vastly more than he loves the latter. If man had no love at all surviving, then he would seek nothing to take the place of God; but because he has still the affection of love, though the Object be gone, he gropes about for another object to lean upon and love, and give the sacrifice of his feelings and his religious worship to. Hence, there never has been a nation without a god. An atheist really and speculatively is, I believe, an impossibility. We never can get rid of the impression that there is a God. We may modify our apprehensions very much of that God, or we may give our worship to an idol, an image, or a sentiment; but something greater than himself, and more lasting than life, man instinctively worships, adores, and trusts in. But supreme love to the true and the only God by nature he has not; on the contrary, I have said, he hates him.”
‘You say, “How can we hate God?” We do not know him. We love our natural conceptions of God. Poets write the most beautiful poetry, and orators make the most eloquent speeches, upon God’s beneficence and power; but God, as a holy God, who will hate, punish, and extirpate sin, is a God whom man cannot love. The best evidence of this is, that the intrusion of God many a day, many an hour, and into many a thought, would be so grievous an infraction of your peace, that your heart would recoil from it, and give utterance to the wish, not dogma, ‘No God,’ and show that there is latent in its depths an instinctive enmity, where you thought there was only approbation, complacency, and love.”
“Whatever change has been wrought in man, the great requirement of God still remains, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ This law is not repealed by the gospel. It is obligatory upon you and me, upon angels and archangels, and all created intelligences. It is binding on us all, it is the essence of Heaven, it is the atmosphere of the blessed, it is the tie that knits a happy universe to God, the disruption of which would be ruin and misery to the creature, and dishonor to that God who still says, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.’”
“And, therefore, this leads me to notice how this love can be restored in the heart of man. How, then, is the element of enmity to be swept out, and the heart to breathe henceforth love to God, and the tie broken in Paradise to be reknit in more than its pristine peace and strength? That question meets its answer from the cross of Christ. The law is exacting love—‘Thou shalt love;’ the cross is pardoning love. We hear from the law the constant exaction, ‘Thou shalt love,’ and we feel that it is as impossible to love as to rise from the earth, and seat ourselves amid the fixed stars; and the longer we listen to a God exacting what we feel from our nature to be an impossibility, the more hardened and exasperated we become; and thus, the repetition of the law, instead of producing love, only increases the enmity that was within us, till we hate God only the more as he repeats the command, ‘Thou shalt love.’ But unless there be love, there is no life, there is no salvation, there is no happiness. The way, therefore, that God has taken to produce it, is by the cross. He there proclaims at once this great truth, ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;’ and we, hearing that God so loved us, that, to express the intensity of that love, he spared not his own Son, listen to these glad tidings, and study the manifestation of this love; we learn that God, who loved us in our Eden glory, loves us as much in our ruins now, and our confidence is at once restored. We venture to approach a God pardoning, not exacting, proclaiming his love to us, and saying nothing about our love to him, and, in the language of John, ‘We love him, because he first loved us.’ In other words, the plan of the law is to insist upon love, ‘Thou shalt love;’ the plan of the gospel is to say nothing about what we owe to God, but to say much about what God has done for us. God’s way to produce love in the human heart is, silence about our duties to him, reiterated utterance of his love, and sacrifice, and interposition for us; and we come to regard God no longer as exacting duties that we cannot discharge, but only as bestowing blessings that we never deserve; and by the very nature of our constitution, and by the very nature of this manifestation of disinterested love, there is produced responsive to it in our hearts the beginning of that love which casteth out fear, and is only perfected in the everlasting life of the world that is to come.”
“But even this manifestation of God’s love to us would not produce this love in us to him, did he not give also the Holy Spirit to take of the things of Christ, what he said, did, suffered, and purchased, and to apply them to us, so that, taught by the Holy Spirit, and having God’s love to us, revealed, expounded, unfolded, and impressed upon our hearts by him, we come by that divine influence to love him who first loved us; and the moment this is done, man is restored to the orbit in which he was first placed; he is restored to his original relationship to God; he no longer sees God on Sinai exacting duties that he cannot pay, but hears him in the still, small voice of Calvary, bestowing mercies that he did not deserve; and he cannot help breaking forth into feelings of gratitude and responsive love to him, who thus, in spite of our sins, loved us, and, in order to remove our sins, gave his Son to die for us; and we come to love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, who so loved us that he spared not even his own Son, but gave him up unto death for us all.”
“This love, then, when once implanted in the human heart, will grow day by day in vigor, in influence, and in power. It is not a dead thing, but a living germ planted in the living heart; and, nourished by the Holy Spirit of God, it grows up into increasing love, till it has no fear, and never can experience any failing. The more we contemplate the object that we love, the more we shall be struck with the greatness of his love. The more we study the cross, the more impressed we shall be with the magnificence of the love that raised it; and thus looking unto God loving us, we shall be changed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, growing in love to him, not by hearing his exacting law, but by ever studying, ever meditating upon the sin-pardoning sacrifice upon the cross; and we shall feel more an allegiance grow within us that has no comparison, and an affection nourished within us that can have no equal, till at last we, too, shall understand what that meaneth, ‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.’ Luke 14: 26.”
“We have now, in this love planted in the human heart, the spirit of all obedience to God’s law. Plant the love in the human heart which the cross necessarily generates, and you put in every heart the root that spreads out in all the branches of the moral law. The law is fulfilled in one word—love. Love is the decalogue in a monosyllable; and the decalogue are but the branches that spring from this root—love in the human heart. Hence, evangelical preaching, which shows alone how this love can be generated, alone guarantees that there shall be obedience in the life. Justification by faith is the preface to sanctification of life, or obedience to all the requirements of the law. The believer obeys the law, not in order to be justified, but because he has been justified. Love to the Justifier necessarily delights in obeying the law that he has laid down. Outward obedience to holy law is just the outer life that springs and is developed from the inner life of love to God.”
“And wherever there is this love to God, there will be assimilation to him. The very nature of love is to produce likeness. The painter who selects a great master for his study, instinctively catches his style, and imitates his painting. The poet or the musician, whatever be the profession, who prefers a certain master, naturally and instinctively falls into his modes, forms, traits, and distinguishing characteristics. And the Christian, whose heart is supremely set upon the great Master, and Teacher, and Legislator of all, instinctively but progressively will be assimilated to his character, and become like Him whom he sotruly and deeply loves. ‘Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect,’ is an absurdity as addressed to the unconverted man; it is the most beautiful, possible, and welcome address to him who loves God with all his heart, and soul, and mind. And the longer you live in the light of the countenance of Him who is love, the more sharply and distinctly the lines of the long effaced and faded image of God will be restored and thrown up, till at last you are found bearing the likeness of him who loved you, the sons and children of our Father who is in Heaven.”
‘And if you are the subjects of this love, you will love all that bears the superscription of God. You will love the Sabbath as an angel from the realms of the blessed, as an emissary from the brighter and the better land, as a fragment of Heaven, a foretaste and an earnest of the Sabbath that remaineth for the people of God. You will love it, not because it is a respite from the labors of the week, but because it bears upon its bright brow the signature of your Father in Heaven. You will love the house of prayer. It is a tent that is pitched on the Sabbath, in which God meets you, and holds communion with you, as he did with Adam in the cool of the day, and amid the bowers and walks of Paradise. You will prefer a day in God’s courts to a thousand in the Crystal Palace. You will regard every service that you join in, every sermon that you hear, as a spring in the valley of Baca, drinking from which you are strengthened for the journey that is before you.’

Godly Sincerity.

We live in an age and a country wherein many other swollen shams are bursting besides cotton balloons. The escaping gas that inflated them is by no means a pleasant smell. Institutions that were thought solvent are exploding. Reputations that had swelled to great bulk are bursting. What is still more sad, there are frequent collapses of Christian character, which God and holy angels must look upon with infinite pity. There is but one remedy for these portentous shams. As light is the only cure for darkness, so the only cure for these flagrant falsehoods of profession and pretense, is to be found in what the apostle Paul calls “godly sincerity.”
This may be defined as an honest endeavor to seem to our fellow-men just what our God actually knows us to be—no more and no less. It is opposed, on the one hand, to that cowardly distrust which refuses to take responsibility and to let our light shine for the glory of our Lord. It is equally opposed to the public profession of what we have never felt, and to claiming credit for what we have never possessed. It is simply truthful speaking, and truthful living. Oliver Cromwell hit the idea exactly when he said to the artist who tried to make his rough and rugged face look handsome on canvas: “Paint me as I am, or I won’t give you a shilling.”
The honest-hearted Christian will not feign to be what he is not, nor tell God a pious lie, even in his prayers. He will not groan out a contrite confession of the very sins that he is rolling, as sweet morsels, under his tongue. He will not, in his prayers, attempt to impose upon his fellow-men a character which he knows that he cannot impose upon God. Sometimes when I have listened to a very glib confession of utter “worthlessness,” I have felt inclined to speak out: “Brother, that is just what we all think of you.” He would probably reply, in a rage: “I am just as good as you are, any day.” Would it not be a good thing to offer a subscription paper at once to some of those voluble Christians who make such superlative professions of love to Christ, in the prayer-meeting? I am afraid that the collapse would be as sudden and as ludicrous as that of the unhappy balloon which sunk into a pile of rotten rags a few days ago.
Now, half the trouble which many people take to be smooth and worthless impostors in religion would make them genuine Christians. A lie is a great deal harder to tell than the truth. It is actually harder to be a successful hypocrite than to be a successful Christian. In the one case, God is continually helping us. In the other case, God is hindering us, and all the time is exposing us to detection and disgrace. It is really easier to possess a sincere heart-piety and to let that inward light shine out naturally from the countenance and the conduct than it is to go through life wearing the mask of false profession. To be a true Christian is a constant joy. To seem to be one when we are not, is to wear a hateful, galling yoke of bondage. In order to keep up appearances, an insincere professor is incessantly obliged to do many things which are exceedingly distasteful and even loathsome. He must utter many a solemn falsehood which sticks in his throat. He must forfeit all self-respect. He must perform many a penance, and call it a pleasure. He lives in the constant dread that his mask may slip aside and reveal his real character. For no man ever went through a whole false life of professed piety without awakening occasional suspicion of his “godly sincerity.” Sometimes a sudden emergency jerks the mask aside and exposes the dissembler. Oh! what a wretched life is led by him who, in trying to “keep afloat” before his fellow-creatures, is constantly striving to calk up those fatal leaks which he knows are sending him to the bottom! What a horrible thing it must be, too, for a morally responsible being to feel in his inmost heart that he is hanging his hopes for eternity on a spider’s web.
There is but one remedy for such a living lie. It is “the truth as it is in Jesus” embraced and practiced. The only cure for a false life is a new heart, sought from the God who loves to give it. When the outward conduct is inspired by the “Christ who liveth in” us, then it is as natural and normal to live godly as it is for a healthy person to breathe. The conduct is but the outward expression of the inward principle. The clock-face reports the right time of day because the interior works are in good order. The conduct becomes the measure of the soul’s graces. There is no exaggeration in order to be “seen of men;” and there is no concealment for fear of being singular or unpopular. The heart loves Christ. The will obeys Christ. The understanding is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The hands are busy for him doing good, and the purse opens at the touch of a conscience which is owned by Christ. Such a sincere faith makes a sincere tongue and a sincere life. Its possessor is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Such sincerity is power. It is argument irresistible. It is eloquence that no skepticism can withstand. In the pulpit it is the virtue that hides a multitude of sins against rhetoric and æsthetics. The man “believes, and, therefore, speaks,” and when he speaks out of a genuine experience and a heart filled by the Spirit, others are forced to believe also. Sincerity was the secret of Whitefield’s power. His intellectual resources were scanty; but to him God was all and man was nothing. He cried aloud to guilty sinners whom he actually knew were hanging over the verge of hell.
There are many who, if they cannot do much else for their Saviour, can, at least, do this: They can live out a godly sincerity. They can be true to Christ. Our first counsel to every one who would make his life a spiritual power, is, Be true! Our second counsel is, Be true! The third is like unto it, Be TRUE!
“Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the soul’s famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly, and thy life shall be A grand and holy creed.”—T. L. Cuyler, in Independent.
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