Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Dec 20, 1853
A DISCOURSE.
By Charles Fitch
BY CHARLES FITCH.
"Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Jer. v, 29-31.
THE object of this discourse is to show the application of the foregoing text of sacred Scripture to the existing state of things in the professed religious world.
I. THE PROPHETS PROPHESY FALSELY.
II. THE PRIESTS BEAR RULE BY THEIR MEANS.
III. THE PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE IT SO.
IV. WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE END THEREOF?
I. The Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful and true witness, has taught us, in his own interpretation of the parable of the tares of the field, that the children of the wicked one, the tares, are to grow together with the children of the kingdom, the wheat, until the harvest, which is the end of this world; when the angels, the reapers, shall gather the wicked as tares and cast them into the fire, and they shall be burned; and that then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
The false prophets tell us, however, that the time is coming in this world, when "none shall say to his neighbor or his brother, Know the Lord, for all shall know him, from the least of them to the greatest of them." In this they directly contradict Christ, who says the children of the wicked one are to grow here until the harvest, which is the end of this world. To make out their theory, however, the false prophets say that not all shall know the Lord, but that there shall be some wicked among the righteous, at the very time when God says "all shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest of them."
Thus the false prophets contradict God. The wicked shall not dwell in this world to the end of it, because all shall know the Lord. But all shall not know the Lord, because there will be some tares, or wicked, until the harvest, which is the end of this world. Let them choose for themselves on which horn of the dilemma they will be transfixed. They are false prophets, for they contradict God. The truth is, both of these declarations of God shall stand. The wicked will dwell in this world until the end of it, when they will be burned as tares in the fire; for this earth itself, as we are told by Peter, is reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But there shall be, according to God's promise by Isaiah, to which Peter refers, new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; and there, "and then, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father;" and then "all shall know him, from the least of them even to the greatest of them, and none shall say to his neighbor or his brother, Know the Lord."
Again. God tells us by Paul, in his epistles to the Thessalonians, that "the man of sin, the son of perdition," (which is well understood to mean the Roman Catholic Church,) "is to be consumed with the spirit of Christ's mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of his coming;" which coming shall be "with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." The prophet Daniel, speaking of the same power, says it "shall make war with the saints, and prevail against them, until the Ancient of days shall come;" which he explains to be the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven to take his dominion and glory and kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him; which is the time, as Daniel teaches, when the judgment shall set, and the books be opened.
But the false prophets tell us, that, before the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven to judge the world there shall be a thousand years, and some say "three hundred and sixty thousand, probably," during which the kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; a period of great duration, when "there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain."
How, then, can the enemies of the saints make war and prevail against them, until the Ancient of days, the Son of man, comes, and the judgment is set and the books opened? We see, again, that the false prophets contradict God.
The truth is this. The "man of sin" shall remain until Christ's coming, and then be destroyed. He shall make war with the saints and prevail against them, till the Ancient of days appears, and the judgment shall set and the books be opened—and then the bodies of them who have opposed the saints, shall be given to the burning flame; after which "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for ever even FOR EVER AND EVER." This is no temporal millennium, after which the saints are to be dispossessed, and the wicked are again to inhabit the earth.
Again. The false prophets tell us, that at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, by the universal spread of the gospel and the conversion of all nations to the truth.
But the Bible says, that at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the third woe cometh, when the Lord God Almighty, which is and was and is to come, shall take to him his great power and shall reign—and the nations shall be angry, and God's wrath shall come, and the time of the dead that they shall be judged—and God shall give reward unto his servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear his name, great and small—and shall destroy them that destroy the earth.
Then let the world understand that the false prophets prophesy a lie unto them—for when the seventh trump shall sound, and its attending wo be poured out, it will be found to consist, not in the conversion and salvation of all nations, but in their destruction by the great power of the Lord God Almighty.
Again. The false prophets say, that, after Christ, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, shall take possession of the nations, by converting and saving them, and there shall be a millennium of peace and safety—the wicked shall again prevail, and the prevalence of Christ's kingdom on earth shall cease. But God has said by Daniel, in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, "the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."—So also it is declared, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, by great voices in heaven, "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."
O, wonderful and horrible thing! thus to deceive men with this promise of a long period of unprecedented peace and safety, when God is just ready to pour out all the vials of his wrath. If the truth were faithfully and fearlessly proclaimed, multitudes would be made sensible of their danger, and would seek and find a place of safety while there is hope. But being deceived by this cry of peace and safety, from these false prophets, they will be emboldened to continue in sin until they perish. This is the very time predicted by Paul, 2 Tim. iv, 3: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables."
Hence the FABLE of a golden age, a glorious millennium of peace and safety to this world, previous to the coming of Christ for the destruction of the ungodly. This is the very thing to gratify those who lust for the things of earth. I know there is a time coming when "the Lord will comfort Zion, when he will beautify her waste places, and make her wilderness as Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord." But this must be the time spoken of in the Revelation, when the new heavens and new earth shall appear, "and the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain; and there shall be no more curse." Then only can there be a state of things like Eden, where was no evil. When God's curse is removed, then, in the restitution of all things, "the wilderness shall be as Eden and the desert like the garden of the Lord." But will God destroy the earth, after he has thus restored and beautified it, and made it like the garden of the Lord? Never. This is to take place in that new earth, which God says shall remain before him. See Isa. lxv, 22.
To promise the fulfillment of these glorious things to this accursed world, which God has reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, and thereby cry peace and safety to the wicked, and lull them asleep in their sins till they perish, is horrible—horrible—horrible! Shall not God visit for these things? Shall not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Thus do the prophets prophesy falsely.186
II. The priests bear rule by their means.
In consequence of this fable of a glorious millennium to this world, which for almost six thousand years has been lying under the curse of God, and bringing forth continually its thorns and thistles—a fable which false prophets have invented; the priests at this time bear rule over the people, and keep them at ease in sin. By preaching and praying much about this expected time of peace and safety, they turn the attention of men aside from the immense importance of being prepared for the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord, which is at hand, "when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up, and the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God." Some, in faithfulness to God and the souls of men, are raising the note of warning, endeavoring to show the people that "the end of all things is at hand;" that "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh;" that "yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry:" that the signs which were to precede the Lord's appearing and the end of the world are fulfilled, and that consequently the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, to gather his elect, and cast the wicked into a furnace of fire, is near, even at the doors. But while these are endeavoring, by the terrors of the Lord, to persuade men to flee from the wrath to come, the priests, on the authority of the false prophets, are crying, "the end is not yet;" "my Lord delayeth his coming;" "peace and safety;" there are a thousand years yet, and probably three hundred and sixty thousand years of such peace and safety as the world never saw, before Christ will come to destroy it. This declaration is made and reiterated by priests of all names and sects—orthodox and heterodox—from the most rigid adherent to the doctrine of future endless punishment, to the most unblushing advocate of no punishment for sin beyond this life. Those who utterly abhor each other in the professed priesthood, are agreed to say the Lord delayeth his coming, and to promise long peace and safety to this world, which God has cursed and reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Not that all professed ministers are knowingly and wilfully uttering falsehood. They are deceived, and are deceiving one another, and deceiving the people; and thus vast multitudes are bound together in the same deception. If a man appears with the truth on his lips, entreating the people to shake off their deathlike lethargy, and arise and trim their lamps, and be ready to meet their coming Lord, the priests are ready to warn and admonish, and even entreat the people not to hear. In this way they bear rule by the means of the false prophets.
III. The people love to have it so.
This is true of great multitudes who call themselves God's people. Their love to Christ has waxed cold, and consequently they do not love his appearing; but, like Demas, they do love this present world, and therefore any fable, however groundless, which promises them long enjoyment in possessing the trifles of this world, is gladly received: they love to have it so. Others, who are doubtless truly and devotedly the children of God, have been so long accustomed to anticipate a temporal millennium, that their affections have become strongly entwined around it, and they are now manifestly unwilling to give up the long-cherished expectation, even for that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. They cannot say with the Apostle, "our conversation (politeuma, i. e. citizenship) is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."—The glorious coming of the Lord, and the glorious resurrection of all the righteous, and the establishment of Christ's kingdom, and glory, and dominion, which shall never pass away, nor be left to other people, are all eclipsed from the minds of such, by the millennium which false prophets have thrown between them and their approaching Lord. Thus the people love to have it as the false prophets and the priests have taught them, that the Lord delayeth his coming.—Some love the thought from a desire to gratify worldly lusts, and others because of a confirmed habit of regarding a temporal millennium as a truth which it is sacrilege to touch; and all are exceedingly backward, if not entirely unwilling to admit that there is evidence that our glorious Lord will soon appear.
They love to have it that the coming of him, whom they profess to love above all other beings, is yet far distant. They say, some of them, that Christ cannot be sufficiently glorified in his everlasting kingdom, unless his coming is delayed until the number of those prepared for heaven shall greatly exceed the multitude of the lost; notwithstanding Christ has himself declared that "many go to destruction, and few find life;" [Matt. vii.] that "many are called but few chosen." O, it is horrible! truly horrible! to look into the Bible, and examine the overwhelming proofs that the coming of Christ, and the day of dreadful destruction upon the wicked is at his door, and consequently that their last opportunity of making their peace with God is now fast wasting away; and to behold prophet and priest combined together to say, "my Lord delayeth his coming," and to promise peace and safety to a world devoted by its Maker to speedy destruction! Said an unconverted man, recently, after listening to the truth relating to the second coming of Christ, "Where are our ministers? We have been paying them to tell us the truth, and they have kept it from us; and now Christ is just upon us, and we are unprepared." So it is; and many, very many, doubtless, have thus been deceived to their own eternal undoing. How is it, that when the apostles, even in their day, so repeatedly alluded to the fact that the end of all things was at hand, those who live almost eighteen centuries nearer that great and notable day, are now taking it upon them to teach that it is far off! If not willful deceivers, they must be deceiving others, in consequence of being themselves deceived. They must, on this infinitely momentous subject of Christ's second coming to judge the world, be blind leaders of the blind. May the Lord, in mercy, save both the leaders and those who are led, from falling together into the tremendous ditch which is just before them, and from which there is no recovery! Neither Christ, nor one of the apostles, has anywhere hinted at anything like such a period of peace and prosperity previous to the resurrection of the righteous, as these prophets and priests are promising the world; nor does the Old Testament furnish any ground for it, except as those glorious promises, which are to be fulfilled to the righteous above, in their eternal state of blessedness, after the destruction of this accursed world, and of the wicked with it—are dragged into this unhallowed work, and made to promise immense periods of "peace and safety" to a world which God's own word has reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. O Thou, who alone art able to open the understandings of men, that they may understand the Scriptures, in things pertaining to thy kingdom, lead all who call themselves by thy name, to "cry after knowledge, and lift up their voice for understanding—to seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure;" and then may they truly understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God, in things appertaining to the glorious appearing of our blessed Lord and Saviour! And O, be merciful to the souls, who, by the cry of peace and safety, have hitherto been encouraged to go on in their sins!
I am aware that many will say, "we utter no cry of peace and safety, though we declare that the Lord's coming is not now at hand." But it is only necessary to notice who they are who listen with approbation to such as say, "the end is not yet," and to observe the manner in which they are affected by it, to see clearly that it is regarded by them as a cry of peace and safety, and that it does exert this very influence on their minds. All cold-hearted, worldly-minded professors of religion, all unconverted sinners, skeptics, Deists, Atheists, Universalists, and all the vicious and abandoned of every grade, love to be told that the Lord's coming is not at hand. This is a pleasant sound to them, and they approve and applaud all such as exert themselves to show that the Lord's coming is far distant; and I freely admit that there are many deceived souls among those who, we believe, are the true children of God, who are still attempting to make it appear that their Lord will yet be long absent. The wicked, however, do show that their fears are greatly lulled to rest when told that there are no good reasons for believing that their Lord will soon come. Say, if you please, "we tell the wicked that there is not an hour's safety for them, though the coming of the Lord is distant, since they may be called any moment to die;" but there is nothing in the thought of death that can scarcely begin to be as effective in rousing men to prepare for what is before them, as in the thought that Christ will soon appear in the clouds of heaven to judge and reward them according to their works.
IV. And what will ye do in the end thereof?
I know that there are many who ask, what will be the result of saying the end of all things is at hand? But I read in my Bible, Isa. lxvi, 5: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified—but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." I have learned to tremble at the word of the Lord. I can say with one of old, "My flesh trembleth because of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments." I am afraid, when I read in the Bible what is coming upon the wicked, and coming soon, right soon. For "he that testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly." It was declared near eighteen hundred years ago, and therefore must now be at the door. But what will those do who have prophesied falsely, in saying that the Lord's coming is far off, and the priests who have borne rule by their means, and the people who have loved to have it so—who have taken delight in being deceived? What will they do when the coming of the Son of man shall be seen as lightning from the one part under heaven to the other part under heaven; when it shall come upon them as a thief in the night; when they shall still be saying "peace and safety, and behold sudden destruction?"
O, ye thoughtless, unbelieving ones, what will ye do in the end thereof; when "the people shall be as the burnings of lime, and as thorns cut up shall be burned in the fire; when the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall consume the sinners thereof out of it;" when "the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and the proud and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch;" when the Lord shall visit for these things, when his soul shall be avenged on such a nation as this, O, what will ye do in the end thereof? Unbelievers, false prophets, priests that bear rule by their means, people that love to have it so, what will ye do in the end thereof?—Sec. Ad. Lib. No. xvi.
"BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN."
Oh! deem not they are blessed alone
Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep;
The Power who pities man has shown
A blessing for the eyes that weep.
The light of smiles shall fill again
The lids that overflow with tears;
And weary hours of woe and pain
Are promises of happy years.
There is a day of sunny rest
For every dark and troubled night;
And grief may hide an evening guest,
But joy shall come with early light.
And thou, who o'er thy friend's low bier
Sheddest the bitter drops like rain,
Hope, that a happier, brighter sphere
Will give him to thy arms again.
For God has marked each sorrowing day,
And numbered every secret tear;
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay
For all its children suffer here.
THE DECALOGUE.
By Editor
[In the last Review we gave an article on the Decalogue from the Wesleyan. The writer gives articles on each of the commandments in that paper which are, with a very few exceptions, excellent. But our space will not allow us to copy them entire. We give the following extract from the article on the second commandment, and much of the article on the fourth commandment.—Ed.]
“It is a significant fact that the Roman Catholic Church has left out of all her catechisms this commandment. They profess indeed to give ten, but do so by making two out of one of the others. This is readily accounted for in the fact that Popery in all its essential doctrines is a system of the basest idolatry, and in its arrogant presumption claims the right to pervert, alter or expunge the truth of God.187
How early in the history of the world idol worship began to be practiced, or how it was introduced, we have now no means of knowing. The natural heart in its state of alienation from God soon became captivated by objects of sense rather than faith, and gave the supremacy to the susceptibilities rather than reason, and man lost all knowledge of the worship of the Almighty. With that loss arose the demand for something to fill the void thus created. If God be not worshiped, some other object will receive the homage of the heart of man. The idea generally prevalent that the most grand and useful objects as the sun, moon, stars, and such like, were among the first to engross the religious attention of men is doubtless correct. After these, most probably, the spirits of the departed dead regarded as sacred and objects of reverence were esteemed to be gods, then followed the worship of idols, formed by men's hands. Job xxxi, 26, 28, has a reference to the worship of the heavenly bodies, showing that in his day the practice must have been common. Hesiod informs us that early in the history of the world demons or departed men who were supposed to inhabit the middle regions between earth and heaven, amounted to more than thirty thousand, all of which were regarded as objects of worship. Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, on the authority of God, passed sentence of death upon those who consulted departed spirits. And John the Revelator, (ix, 20,) notes it as one of those fearful iniquities which brought the swift judgments of God upon men. What first led men to the practice of the worship of demons we are not informed, but it is not improbable that it was a state of mind somewhat similar to that into which those now denominated spiritualists, are brought. From the act of consulting spirits to obtain knowledge of the spirit world the distance is not great to the act of worshiping them.
The violation of the second commandment is a sin probably much more prevalent and of much greater magnitude than will seem at first thought. The entire pagan world which is more than three-fourths of the inhabitants of the globe; the Romish church dominant throughout the greater part of Europe and powerful in the remaining portions of Europe and America; and all those of the Protestant world who pervert the truth of the Bible—in reference to God's character and attributes are idolaters. A large proportion of the remainder worship and serve the creature more than the Creator; still other thousands bow at the shrine of Mammon and the vain pleasures and honors of the world captivate the hearts of very many more so that the number of the human family who are worshipers of the true God, is exceedingly small, and but a remnant can be saved.
“Beside worship paid to saints and angels, relics, images, &c., this church authorizes that worship be paid to the virgin Mary and to the Pope. Dr. Cumming, of England, makes mention of a book called the ‘Psalter of the blessed St. Bonaventura,’ in which Bonaventura brings out most fully and practically the decree of the Council of Nice to render worship to the virgin Mary. To do so he took the Psalms of David, and wherever in any Psalm the word Lord or God occurred he expunged it and substituted for it the name of the Virgin. An extract from that reads as follows: ‘Take the 19th Psalm. The heavens declare the glory of Mary and the perfume of thine ointment is diffused among the nations. Pant after her ye lost sinners and she shall lead thee to the haven of indulgences. Let the heaven of heavens praise her and let all the earth glorify her name.’ Again in the 95th Psalm. ‘O come let us sing unto our lady, let us heartily rejoice in Mary the Queen of our salvation,’ &c., to the end. This is not an obsolete work, confined to the dark ages, and discarded by the church. A collect of the church used every year, containing a prayer that the worshipers may be instructed in the doctrine of the blessed St. Bonaventura. Beside this Dr. Cumming states that he had procured ten successive editions of this Psalter, one dated 1836 and one dated 1844.
Again. A creed was set forth in 1838 to be subscribed by Hungarian converts from Protestantism to Popery, the fifth article of which reads, ‘We confess that the most holy Pontiff ought to be honored by all, with divine honor, with more than even what is due to Christ himself.’ And the 11th article is, ‘We confess the Pope has power of altering Scripture, or increasing or diminishing it at his will.’ This is not what Popery used to be but what it now is in the 19th century.
The same author above referred to says, that in the year 1839, Lignori, a Roman Catholic theological writer was canonized after twenty different examinations of his writings, in all of which they were pronounced faultless. Four (4) Popes declared them absolutely perfect, hence, his doctrines are of the highest authority. This author teaches as follows: On the fourth commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, &c., the Pope can decree that the observance of the Sabbath shall continue only a few hours. On the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ Lignori says, ‘Those who are confined in prisons may slay themselves, or commit suicide for the purpose of avoiding the certain sentence of death.’ On the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ he says, ‘A servant can according to his own judgment compensate himself for his labors if he thinks that he deserves more wages than he has received.’ Thus the Papal power annuls the commandments of God setting itself above God, and pronouncing that to be void which God has declared to be eternal and unchangeable.”
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
By J. M.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Ex. xx, 8-11.
The law authorizing the Sabbath to be kept holy to the Lord, was not a mere ceremonial statute which should pass away with the bringing in of another dispensation, but an enactment which is intended to hold authority over man so long as he is upon the earth. Whatever portions of the judicial laws of Moses may have been abrogated, whatever of the types and symbols which were shadows of the heavenly things—a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ may have given place to the good things which came to us in Christ; yet the ten commandments remain untouched—unchanged.
There were religious observances enjoined upon the Jewish people, which have no authority over us. But the Sabbath was not made for the Jews—not made for any one nation of the earth; but for man—for the entire race. Its advantages, and blessings, and objects, and duties, are no less valuable under the Christian dispensation than under the Mosaic. Whatever the gospel has done to enlarge and extend our privileges, it has not curtailed them. We point to the period of the bringing in of the gospel, as an introduction to the enjoyment of special graces and special mercies. But did the coming of Christ disannul the authority of the Sabbath, did it set aside the law appropriating the seventh of man's time to religious uses, then would it have proved, in that particular at least, an injury rather than a blessing.
Never can man do without the Sabbath. His physical, his mental, his moral and religious well being, demand it.
The finger of God not only engraved the command, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," on a table of stone, but on the mental and bodily constitution of our race; and wherever we find the true christian, it is engraven on the fleshly table of his heart. Physicians of great eminence and number, have attested the Sabbath as a day of rest from toil. One affirms, "That a longer life and a greater degree of health are the sure results of a careful regard to the law of the Sabbath." Dr. Mussey says, "There cannot be a reasonable doubt that under a due observance of the Sabbath, life would on an average be prolonged more than one-seventh of its whole period." Dr. Farre maintains in his testimony given before the British house of Commons, "1st, That men who labor but six days in the week will be more healthy; and 2d, they will do more work and do it in a better manner."
No less valuable is the Sabbath for man's mental well being. The mind cannot be confined perpetually in one given direction. It must have a change of application; hence the truth of the statements of a certain writer who says, "Without the Sabbath, the work-shops of the world would resemble the wards of some mighty hospital, tenanted by the pining victims of immense toil. Manhood would in one or two generations lose all its characteristic strength. Youth would be smitten with fatal blight ere it had attained half its growth, and hale-old age would become a prodigy, to be wondered at in the land."
The moral and social welfare of society also certify the sacredness of this day, and the absolute necessity of its strict observance. Without public religious worship, disorder, and confusion, and moral death would reign universal in society. But religion is valued only when the Sabbath holds a place in man's affections. Let it be abolished, or changed from its holy purposes into a day of festivity and mirth, of unbridled amusement and pleasure, and soon, very soon the temple will be abandoned; the word of God will be forgotten; the family altar will be taken down; virtue and morality will become extinct, and society will rapidly approach to dissolution and death, amid scenes of anarchy and blood, like to that never to be forgotten period of the French Revolution.
It is not merely nor chiefly however because it secures rest from toil, because it secures mental growth, because it tends to preserve the moral and social well being of community, but because of the sanctifying influence upon the soul that we prize the Lord's day. The fact that we are heirs of eternity, makes it a matter of tremendous importance that we obtain a fitness for heaven. The opportunity afforded for religious improvement, for the promotion of true holiness in man's heart, for becoming acquainted with God and the truths of the Bible, makes the Sabbath a day of joy and rejoicing to the christian. Accordingly we find that the annals of christian biography do not mention one single man or woman of eminent christian character, who was at the same time a Sabbath breaker. Nor has any church been distinguished for spirituality and winning souls to Christ, while regardless of the Sabbath. On the other hand, almost every notorious criminal began his dread career by Sabbath breaking, and the greatest dejections of christian churches have been characterized by disregard of the Sabbath. The history of Romanism is a forcible proof of the truth of this remark.
Thus we are furnished with the most direct arguments of the sanctity of the Sabbath, in the universal demands of our race. The Sabbath was made for man. The elevation and perfection of humanity, no less than the growth and expansion of christianity, asserts its necessity. David felt the most devoted attachment to the temple of the Lord when he exclaimed, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." But what are your temples or christian churches without the Sabbath? Abolish the Sabbath, and these must crumble to the ground.
For the perpetuity of the Sabbath, we have then the irrefutable arguments drawn from the fact that God has made it a part of the moral law; that he instituted it not for a nation, but the race; that the great purposes of man's elevation and sanctification chiefly depend upon it; that the New Testament specifically enjoins it by the example of the early church, and from the strict observance of the Lord's day, subsequent to the time of the apostasy. To these add another consideration, God has set his seal of approbation upon the righteous observance of this day and his seal of disapprobation upon its profanation. His providential government of the world has marked it as a sin of no trifling moment. For this sin, God's heaviest judgments were poured out upon the Jewish nation. (See Nehemiah xiii, 17.) By the prophet Jeremiah also he publishes the solemn decree:—"Thus saith the Lord, if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerus188lem, and it shall not be quenched." (See Jer. xvii, 24-27, and Eze. xxii, 23-38.) Sabbath desecration was one of the great sins and curses of the children of Israel. With their violation of this command, began their repeated apostacies from God, which led to their destruction as a nation.
Subsequent nations no less truthfully speak the will of God in this particular. Where it has been hallowed, morality and good order, and liberal forms of government, and general prosperity have prevailed. Where it has been discarded, the reverse has invariably been the case. To the life and health-giving power of the christian Sabbath over us as a nation, we are indebted for the civil and religious privileges we enjoy; and if you would sow the seeds of infidelity, of profligacy, of vice and of general ruin, just lay the foul hand upon the christian Sabbath. Our national existence very much depends upon the revival and perpetuation of the elevated sentiments of morality and religion: those high thoughts and noble purposes; those holy affections and sacred principles with which the early fathers of this land were inspired, and which induced in them a devoted attachment to the Fourth Commandment.
The question will here arise, what constitutes the proper observance of the Sabbath? For an answer, see Isaiah, 58th chapter, 13th and 14th verses. In this is forbidden all worldly conversation and of implied necessity, all thought wholly upon secular business, all pursuits of pleasure and amusement; there is required a cessation from the ordinary business of life, and a consecration of the time to religious uses. God intended the Sabbath to be decidedly a religious day; and to use its sacred hours in festivity and mirth, in excursions of pleasure, in writing letters of friendship or business, in seeking new relaxation from toil or in obtaining repose and quiet for the physical man, is a profanation of the day; is robbery of God.
My brethren, hearer, reader, let your Sabbath thoughts, Sabbath conversation and Sabbath acts be such as will tend to sanctify your hearts and hallow your lives; and then, and only then will you meet its great purposes. Oh, remember the fact that you are an heir of eternity, and if you lose Sabbath privileges you are lost for ever.
Christian, if you would have the power of godliness reign in your soul, if you would live by faith, if you would overcome the world, if you would have your affections fixed on things above and not on things on the earth, spend well these golden opportunities of becoming rich towards God—these days of the soul's gain.