Earlier text: General ArticlesA SEVENTH PART OF TIME.
By W. H. Littlejohn
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN. WERE the seventh-part-of-time theory so commonly arrayed against the Sabbath of the Lord carried out, it would prove destructive of the highest interests of society. When we speak of society and the confusion which would be created in it by a general and practical indorsement of the tenet before us, it is not with reference to that temporary disturbance which would arise from a change of views, but it is that permanent disorder which would result from the inauguration of a line of public policy which can never be reconciled with a state of things every way normal and necessary. With this understanding of the declaration which stands at the head of this division of the subject, we see the weight which, if true, it ought to have in this discussion. For, as God the Creator and God the Lawgiver are one, certain it is that he has not approved in the first capacity that which he has condemned in the last; i. e., if God in his omniscience, has so related us to each other, socially, that a Sabbath which is not fixed would be a curse, then he has never given us such an one. That this would be the case, however, might be illustrated from every walk in life. Take, for example, the commercial world. In it men are intimately connected with, and largely dependent upon, each other for success. So true is this that even the most common transactions are seldom perfected without the joint action of several individuals, and, in many cases, that of a much larger number. Now let a certain portion, say one-seventh, of your business men retire each day from the active scenes of life. A glance reveals the fact that those who are not of this number would find themselves vexed and annoyed at every step, if not prevented from making any progress whatever, by the absence of those whose presence was to them indispensable in order to the accomplishment of their designs. This would be especially true with those more complicated organizations which have been created for the purpose of facilitating an exchange of commodities between cities and nations; such as railroad corporations, which are wholly dependent for success upon the united and timely effort of many individuals, scattered along a line stretching for hundreds, and sometimes for thousands, of miles. In fact, it may well be questioned whether they would not, from the very necessity of the case, perish immediately upon, and as a consequence of, the introduction of the change proposed. Again, it would prove fatal to our educational system, since it is wholly dependent for success upon classification, and this can never be maintained, except through the regular attendance of pupils, a thing which would be altogether out of the question should they or their parents act upon the plan suggested. But, as we have neither time nor disposition to examine in detail the many institutions which we so much cherish, and which distinguish civilized from barbarous life, in order to trace the effect which will be produced upon each, we propose to show at once that it would prove ruinous to them all, since it would utterly subvert that upon which they must depend for existence; viz., law and order. While there is much in human governments to be regretted, there is, also, much which is commendable; and it is difficult to see how they could be dispensed with so long as men are either criminal in intention, or liable to err in judgment. Hence we are instructed in the word of God that we should be subject to the powers that be, as they are ordained by him; that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's; that rulers are a terror only to evil-doers. So important was the idea of a well-regulated State in the eyes of the Lord that he organized one for his chosen people, the laws of which have furnished a model for the ages which have followed. We unhesitatingly affirm, however, that neither that, nor any other government, can be administered upon the principle of a Sabbath movable at will; for the very idea of a government that is a condition of society regulated by law; but law enforced implies a judiciary, in some form or other, clothed with power to try cases and inflict penalties. That this, however, would be practically out of the question, with the condition of things alluded to, will be apparent from a moment's thought. We will suppose that the legislature, acting in good faith, and in supposed harmony with the will of Heaven, has enacted that every citizen shall be guaranteed the right of deciding for himself when he will solemnize the Sabbath; and the people, equally ingenuous in lauding the wisdom of this plan, proceed to act upon it. The result is that, from one motive or another, every one of the seven days of the week has been appropriated by a portion of the community to rest. Who does not see that, with this state of things, it would be the idlest nonsense to talk of administering justice through the courts? for the judge, having passed the period of his rest, might, perhaps, be ready to proceed to business at the very moment that the officers of the court are about to lay it aside, so that they may enter upon theirs. This difficulty surmounted, after much delay, the calendar is taken up on this, and every subsequent, day of the week; but it is found, upon examination, that they cannot come to trial in a single case in the long list, since there is not one of them in which adjudication is not impossible because of the absence of either one or the other party, or of one of the counselors, or one or more of the witnesses, or some one of the twelve jurors, whose presence is indispensable, and yet who cannot be compelled to appear, because this would be an invasion of his legally-recognized right to consecrate to the worship of God whatever hours might seem to him good. The result of such a state of things is apparent. Criminals, perceiving that the hilt of the sword of justice is in their own hands, become defiant, crime becomes rampant—the land is deluged with vice, the flood-gates of iniquity are thrown wide open—and no man can close them until the State is ruined, except by a repudiation of the fatal dogma, the legalization of which has caused all the trouble. We have now been brought by five distinct processes of reasoning to the same result, viz., that the seventh, or last, day of the week, and no other, has been, and is now, the Sabbath of the Lord our God. Have you, hitherto, by an unfortunate combination of circumstances, been found desecrating it through ignorance of its true character? Then an humble confession of your guilt will secure you the fullest pardon. But in this case, as in all others, the genuineness of the repentance is determined by the fruits which it brings forth. Should you, for the future, continue in the way of the transgressor, even the sins of the past cannot be blotted out. Is this the first time your attention has been called to the subject? Then your position is, indeed, a critical one. Thousands of staunch vessels have gone to pieces on the identical rock of decision that your bark is now approaching. Perhaps you have never in all your life been placed in a situation where your love for God and his word has been so thoroughly tested as it will be here. On one side of this question stands almost every consideration of a worldly nature. There, perhaps, are your friends. There is the multitude of wise men whose opinions you have been taught to revere. There are the churches with which you have acted so long and so pleasantly. There, it may be, are your property interests. There is your reputation and standing in society, while, on the other side are the tablets of the law, bearing the inscription, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Do you falter? Then listen to the voice of Him who, while he seeks to deter us from evil by fierce denunciations of wrath, also strives to win us to holiness by promises of future good, as precious as they are incomprehensible: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58: 13, 14. Can language convey an idea of felicity more perfect than that which is portrayed in the above? If so, it will be found in the following benediction pronounced by our Saviour upon those who are seeking to obtain it: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22: 14. Not the city of an earthly king; not the Jerusalem of the land of Judea; but that of the "King of kings," "the Jerusalem which is above, whose builder and maker is God," the same which John saw coming down from God out of Heaven, shining with a light clear and beautiful as that of a living stone, with twelve gates of pearl, every several gate of one pearl, and each one guarded, not with a grim and frowning soldier, but by a mighty and shining angel of God; with walls of jasper, and twelve foundations, each of precious stone; with a street of gold, like unto transparent glass, through the center of which flowed "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal," and on either side of it was the tree of life, "which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month;" while at the head of the great avenue stood the throne of God and the Lamb, from which proceeded an effulgence so bright that the "city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb was the light thereof." Such will be the future and eternal home, not of those who hear, but of those who do, God's commandments. There will be fulfilled to the courageous, God-fearing men of this generation— standing as they do in the last, or Laodicean, state of the church—those most mysterious words of the Lord: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 3: 21. Would you be of this immortal number? Then remember that the promise is not to him that is overcome, but to him that overcometh; and that, if you fulfill the conditions named, the combined powers of earth and hell cannot separate you from your reward. WHERE DID MOSES GET THAT LAW?
An infidel, wishing to examine into the truth of the Christian religion, inquired of an elder of the Presbyterian church as follows: "What books, sir, would you advise me to read?" "The Bible," said the elder. "I believe you do not understand me," resumed the unbeliever, surprised in his turn; "I wish to investigate the truth of the Bible." "I advise you, sir," repeated the elder, "to read the Bible. And," he continued, "I will give you my reasons: Most infidels are very ignorant of the Scriptures. Now, to reason on any subject with correctness, we must understand what it is about which we reason. In the next place I consider the internal evidence of the truth of the Scriptures stronger than the external." "And where shall I begin?" inquired the unbeliever. "At the New Testament?" "No," said the elder, "at the beginning—at Genesis." One evening the elder called and found the unbeliever at his house or office, walking the room with a dejected look, his mind apparently absorbed in thought. He continued, not noticing that any one had come in, busily to trace and re-trace his steps. The elder at length spoke: "You seem, sir," said he, "to be in a brown study. Of what are you thinking?" "I have been reading," replied the infidel, "the moral law." "Well, what do you think of it?" asked the elder. "I will tell you what I used to think," answered the infidel. "I supposed that Moses was the leader of a horde of banditti; that, having a strong mind, he acquired great influence over a superstitious people; and that on Mount Sinai, he played off some sort of fireworks, to the amazement of his ignorant followers, who imagined in their mingled fear and superstition that the exhibition was supernatural." "But what do you think now?" interposed the elder. "I have been looking," said the infidel, "into the nature of that law. I have been trying to see whether I can add anything to it or take anything from it, so as to make it better. Sir, I cannot, it is perfect." "The first commandment," continued he, "directs us to make the Creator the object of our supreme love and reverence. That is right. If he be our Creator, Preserver, and supreme Benefactor, we ought to treat him and none other, as such. The second forbids idolatry. That certainly is right. The third forbids profaneness. The fourth fixes a time for religious worship. If there is a God, he ought surely to be worshiped. It is suitable that there should be an outward homage, significant of our inward regard. If God be worshiped it is proper that some time be set apart for that purpose, when all may worship him harmoniously and without interruption. One day in seven is certainly not too much, and I do65not know that it is too little. The fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from the family relations. Injuries to our neighbor are then classified by the moral law. They are divided into offenses against life, chastity, property, and character. And," said he, applying a legal idea with legal acuteness, "I notice that the greatest offense in each class is expressly forbidden. Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder; to chastity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, perjury. Now the greater offense must include the less of the same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; adultery, every injury to purity; and so of the rest. And the moral code is closed and perfected by a command forbidding every improper desire in regard to our neighbor. "I have been thinking," he proceeded, "where did Moses get that law? I have read history: the Egyptians and the adjacent nations were idolaters; so were the Greeks and Romans; and the wisest and best Greeks or Romans never gave a code of morals like this. Where did Moses get this law which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived at a period comparatively barbarous; but he has given a law in which the learning and sagacity of all subsequent time can detect no flaw. Where did he get it? He could not have soared so far above his age as to have devised it himself. I am satisfied where he obtained it. It came down from Heaven. I am convinced of the truth of the religion of the Bible." Thy law is perfect, Lord of light;
Thy testimonies sure;
The statutes of thy realm are right;
And thy commandments pure.
Beyond the wealth of golden mines,
Thy precepts are my joy;
The way where thy commandment shines,
Shall all my cares employ.
Let these, O God, my soul convert,
And make thy servant wise;
Let these be gladness to my heart—
The dayspring to my eyes. CHURCH ENTERTAINMENTS.
By Editor
IN these days when there is such a marked increase in the number and popularity of church festivals, fairs, etc., but few have the moral courage to speak their true convictions in regard to them. The Church Union, however, ventures the following frank, and, as all candid readers can but admit, truthful statement of the facts in the case:— The word of late years which seems expressive of the aim of the church and of church activity—the word which will not die, though it bids fair to kill its author, is "entertainment." The great end of the church, particularly in our cities, seems to be merry-making. All winter long we are treated to entertainments. The ticket seller meets us everywhere. His hand-bills are scattered in the streets, fastened to horse-cars, and thrust in our pews on Sunday. His transparencies disfigure the lamp-posts, and his posters our fences. Recently we heard a solemn sermon that left a deep solemnity on the audience. As soon as the benediction was pronounced, the voice of the senior deacon shouted, "Entertainment committee please remain!" At once little groups gathered, chatting over and planning for their "sacred" church fun and jollity. In the evening I attended another church, and hoped there to have the hour to God. Alas, another disappointment! After a sermon of unusual and tearful interest, closing with an affecting appeal to prepare for the Judgment, notice of an "entertainment" was thrust into the preacher's hand, and as soon as the benediction was spoken, ticket-sellers were pressing their merchandise on the people. The spiritual influence of that hour seemed at once quenched, and the toilful work of the preacher thwarted. "Entertainments!" Is this the great work of the church? Shall strength, and thought, and money, be swallowed up in the work of providing sports, and feasts, and hilarity, while the prayer-meetings are dying out, and the lawful obligations incurred in church work remain uncancelled? Is not Christ again crucified among thieves? Pleasure-seeking on the one hand, and a money-grasping spirit on the other, stifle the life of such churches. We are not unfriendly to healthful out-door recreations and other legitimate diversions, but claim that Christ's church is not an amusement bureau, and the all-absorbing aim of the professed Christian is not merry-making and frivolity. Has the world grown so grave and heedful of eternal realities that the church must tickle it with fun and frolic? Is it the chief end of man to be "entertained," and is life a butterfly dream? Oh, for a new outpouring of Pentecostal fire, with illuminating and consuming power to convert the unconverted in the church, and bring back to her appropriate work those who are "the lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." THE GALILEANS AND THE BORDER LANDS.
A SURPASSING interest centers in Galilee, as the special scene of the ministry of Jesus, and the district in which he spent nearly all his life. It was through its cities and villages that he is recorded to have passed, once and again, teaching and preaching, and it was in Galilee that he had most popular support. To know something of a land whose air he thus breathed so long, amongst whose people he was wont to mingle, and by whose characteristics he must have been affected, almost unconsciously, can but be essential to a vivid realization of his life. The province, according to "Geikie's Life of Christ" from which the following extracts are taken, lay wholly inland, with Phenicia as its western, and partly its northern neighbor, the small state of Ulatha reaching from where Phenicia ended, to the Sea of Merom, on the northeastern border. The Jordan marked its eastern limit, and Decapolis, with the territory of Samaria, defined its southern border. Its whole extent was inconsiderable, for it measured little more than seven-and-twenty miles from east to west, and five-and-twenty from north to south. Its boundaries varied, indeed, at different times, but, at the largest, it was rather like a moderate county than a province. Galilee got its name as the circle or region of the heathen nations, and hence, to the southern Jews of Isaiah's days, it was "the heathen country." It included the districts assigned to Asher, Naphtali, Zebulon, and Issachar. But these tribes never obtained entire possession of their territories, and contented themselves with settling among the Canaanite population, whom they, in some cases, made tributary. The separation from the House of David, and from Jerusalem, under the king of Israel, and the Assyrian captivity at a later date, further affected the northern population. To the prophet Isaiah they were the people "that walked in darkness and dwelt in the land of the shadow of death," alike from their separation from Jerusalem, their living among the heathen, and their national calamities, though he anticipates a bright future for them in the light of the Messiah. After the exile two great changes took place. Jewish colonists gradually spread over the land once more, and the name Galilee was extended to the whole north on this side of the Jordan, so that the territory of the tribe of Issachar, with the plain of Esdraelon; Zebulon, with the southern part of the Sea of Gennesaret; and Naphtali, and Asher, were included in it. The new Jewish settlers had no longer any political jealousy of Jerusalem, and once more frequented the temple, while the fact that they were surrounded by heathen races made them, perhaps, more loyal to Judaism than they otherwise would have been; just as the Protestants of Ireland are intensely Protestant because surrounded by Romanism. Still, though faithful, their land was "defiled" by heathen citizens and neighbors, and the narrow bigotry of Judea looked askance at it from this cause. Besides Jews, it had not a few Phenicians, Syrians, Arabs, and Greeks settled over it. Carmel had become almost a Syrian colony, and Kedesh retained the mixed population it had had for ages, while the eastern end of the Esdraelon valley was barred to the Jew by the heathen town of Scythopolis,—the ancient Beth-shean. Moreover, the great caravan road, from Damascus to Ptolemais, which ran over the hills from Capernaum, through the heart of Galilee, brought many heathen into the country. "Cowardice," says Josephus, "was never the fault of the Galileans. They are inured to war from their infancy, nor has the country been ever wanting in great numbers of brave men." The mountain air they breathed made them patriots, but their patriotism was guided by zeal for their faith. While warmly loyal to Herod, in gratitude for his subduing the lawless bands who had wasted their country, after the civil wars,—and quiet and well-disposed to Antipas, during the forty-three years of his reign, they were none the less fixed in their abhorrence of Rome, the heathen tyrant of their race. In revolt after revolt they were the first to breast the Roman armies, and they were the last to defend the ruins of Jerusalem, stone by stone, like worthy sons of those ancestors who "jeopardized their lives unto the death in the high places of the field." There were families like that of the Zealot, Hezekiah, and Judas, the Galilean, in whom the hatred of Rome was handed down from generation to generation, and which, in each generation, furnished martyrs to the national cause. A hundred and fifty thousand of the youth of Galilee fell in the last struggle with Rome, and few narratives are more stirring than the defence of the Galilean fortresses, one after another, in the face of all odds. Even Titus appealed to the magnificent heroism of these defenders of their freedom and their country, to rouse the ardor of his own army. Nor was their devotion to their leaders less admirable. Josephus boasts of the heartiness and trust the Galileans reposed in him. Though their towns were destroyed in the war, and their wives and children carried off, they were more concerned for the safety of their general than for their own troubles. The Jew of the south, wrapped in self-importance, as living in or near the holy city, amidst the schools of the Rabbis, and under the shadow of the temple, and full of religious pride in his assumed superior knowledge of the law, and greater purity as a member of a community nearly wholly Jewish, looked down on his Galilean brethren. The very ground he trod was more holy than the soil of Galilee, and the repugnance of the North to adopt the prescriptions of the Rabbis, was itself, a ground of estrangement and self-exaltation. He could not believe that the Messiah could come from a part so inferior, for "the law was to go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Jesus found willing hearers and many disciples in the cities and towns of Galilee, but he made little impression on Judea. Yet Galilee, from the earliest times, had vindicated its claims to honor for the intellectual vigor of its people. Not only physically and morally, but even in mental freshness and force, it was before the narrow and morbid South, which had given itself up to the childish trifling of Rabbinism. The earliest poetry of Israel rose among the Galilean hills, when Barak of Naphtali had triumphed over the Canaanites. The Song of Songs was composed in Galilee by a poet of nature, whose heart and eyes drank in the inspiration of the bright sky and the opening flowers, and who could tell how the fig-tree put forth its leaves, and the vine sprouted, and the pomegranates opened its blossoms. Hosea, the prophet, belonged to Issachar; Jonah to Zebulon, Nahum came from Elkosh in Galilee, and in the gospels a noble band of Galileans group themselves round the central figure, Peter, the brave and tender-hearted—James and John—Andrew and Philip—and Nathanael, of Cana, not to speak of others, or of the woman of Galilee, who honored themselves by ministering to Christ of their substance. It was from Galilee, moreover, that the great apostle of the heathen emigrated to Tarsus, in Cilicia, for they belonged to Gischala, a Galilean town, though their stock originally was of the tribe of Benjamin. The Talmud sketches, in a few words, the contrast between the two provinces: "The Galilean loves honor, and the Jews money." The Rabbis admit that the Galileans, in their comparative poverty, were temperate, pure, and religious. Their fidelity to their faith was shown by their fond and constant visits to the temple, in spite of the hostile Samaritan territory between, and it was through their zeal that the passover was celebrated for eight days instead of seven. When Christ appeared, they threw the same ardor and fidelity into his service. In their midst the Saviour, persecuted elsewhere, took constant refuge. They threw open their land to him, as a safe shelter from the rage of the Jews, almost to the last. He went forth from among them, and gathered the first-fruits of his kingdom from them, and it was to a band of Galileans that he delivered the commission to spread the gospel, after his death, through the world. THE existing state of things will not always last. The end will come. The apostle assures us "that there shall come in the last days scoffers," who will boastfully inquire, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." But the chariot wheels of the Coming One will not be delayed by the skepticisms of the religious skeptic, or the scoffing of the religious scoffer. The end will come. Prophetic fulfillments in the past, and the present signs of the times, justify the most literal application of these fearful words of the prophet to our time. "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2:1. Another prophet, looking forward to the close of the present state of things, exclaims: "An evil, an evil, behold is come. An end is come, the end is come. It watcheth for thee. Behold it is come." "The time is come. The day draweth near. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof." Eze. 7:5, 6, 12. The end to an unbelieving world will be terrific beyond description. But to the just it will be a day of glory, of release, and reward. With longing eyes and quickly beating hearts they will be looking forward to it. And when it shall come, and their adorable Redeemer shall be seen coming down the blazing vault of heaven, their glad voices will unite in the triumphant shout, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isa. 25:9. We give the following paragraphs from the Christian, under the caption of "The End":— "The fleeting nature of this world, and the solemn fact of its approaching end, has occupied the thoughts of God's people for ages past. Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of a coming Lord and a coming Judgment on all that are ungodly among men. Abraham was content to wander a houseless dweller in tents, in an uncertain world, looking for his permanent inheritance to the heavenly country, and the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Job foresaw the day when the heavens should be no more, and his Redeemer should appear and stand upon the earth in the latter day. David was a stranger and sojourner here, and foretold the time when the God of glory should appear in flaming fire. Isaiah exclaimed, 'Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.' Daniel foresaw the dissolution of all the pomp and glory of a sinful world, and heard the solemn word, 'At the time appointed, the end shall be.' "Malachi predicted the coming of the day 'that shall burn as an oven,' when all the proud, and they that do wickedly, shall be given to the flames. Jesus foretold the time when the wicked, like the tares among the wheat, shall be gathered in bundles and burned, in the end of the age. Paul declares, 'Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.' John on Patmos, exclaims, 'Even so come, Lord Jesus!' James exhorts the saints to be patient, because the day of their deliverance draweth nigh. And Peter says, 'the end of all things is at hand.' "Living, then, in a fleeting and uncertain world, we are to 'pass the time of our sojourning in fear. All things which we covet, love, and long for, shall soon pass forever from our grasp, and every earthly joy on which our hearts and hopes repose, shall glide away like a forgotten dream. We must learn hence to hold this world with loosened grasp, and to let no idolatrous love of earthly things becloud our spiritual vision and keep back our hearts from purer and more enduring joys. "The Christian's hope is anchored within the vail. Not here, but hereafter, will his desire be realized, his aspirations satisfied. He has something in view better than earth's ideals, something that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, only as God hath revealed it by the Holy Spirit and in his living word. He has no lack of hope, joy, and consolation, but it reaches beyond the toss of earthly storms and the surge of earthly billows. 'The end of all things is at hand,' but he shall not be a loser by the change. His treasures are in Heaven. His heart is there also; and in due time he shall rest from his labors and reap his great reward. 'Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' what are the trifles of earth, the pomps, the pleasures, and the pride of a departing world, compared with the eternal gladness that is waiting for him, the eternal glory that he so soon shall share? "But let not the vain and godless take courage at Judgment's long delay. Let not the scoffer exult in sinfulness and pride. 'The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;' the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved; the elements will melt, and the works of man shall perish in the dissolving flames; and only for the saints of God shall home or hope remain, in that 'new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.' "Let us make their blessed portion our own. Let us resolutely spurn the enticements of a sinful world. Let us take heed, lest like Esau, for 'one morsel of meat' we sell our priceless birthright. Let us watch, and wait, and hope, and work; and with the passing months and fleeting years, the changes, chances, convulsions, and tumults that rack the world, let us hear forever these words of solemn omen and of joyful cheer: 'The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.'" HOW WE SHALL BE WITH CHRIST.
By John Nevins Andrews
"AND so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17. The manner is indicated with most vivid distinctness. The Lord comes after his saints himself. He takes them to be with him with such a display of his divine majesty as no heart can conceive. This is the revealed method of taking the saints to the Father's house. See John 14:1-8. But there is another and much more popular manner of going to Heaven now taught almost everywhere. The religious world now virtually say to the Saviour that he need not trouble himself ever to come back to this earth with his triumphal chariot. The typhoid fever, the small-pox, or the consumption will answer equally well as the means of their entrance to the city of God. But what a contrast between that method of entering Heaven which God has revealed, and that one which men have devised to take its place! Sickness, death, the burial train, the grave, are these the agents of our salvation? How unlike is the funeral procession to that descent of Jesus in his Father's infinite glory, with the sound of the last trumpet, and with the presence of all the heavenly host! Who knows of the dead whether they are accepted of God or not? They are sown in dishonor, in weakness, and in corruption. This is not the way that the saints shall leave the earth. When they go, it shall be with exceeding glory; our Lord himself shall come after them. When Paul and Silas had been imprisoned at Philippi, the magistrates in the morning sent the sergeants to release them. But Paul said, "Let them come themselves and fetch us out." Acts 16:37. Paul wanted no deliverance of a doubtful character. The coming of the magistrate, and their public deliverance would attest their innocence. The sergeants were fit to conduct them to prison, but quite incompetent to give them the proper deliverance therefrom. Others may accept of death as their deliverer. He is only a sergeant to shut men up in prison. We look for him to come who has the keys of death and hades. His coming shall attest our innocency. His mighty power shall bring us deliverance. His own hand shall unlock our prison. His own voice shall address us in words of heavenly tenderness. His own body-guard shall bear us in their arms to his presence. He shall bid us sit in the chariots which he has taken for the purpose of conveying us to the holy city. At length, the city of God shall heave in view. Its gates shall be open to this vast company, the whole family of Heaven and earth. Heaven that had been emptied of all its angels, now receives again the angelic host, and with them the entire company of the redeemed. They behold the face of the Father. They enter his presence where there are pleasures forevermore. Every one finds a mansion prepared expressly for himself by the dear Saviour, before he set out on his descent to earth to gather his people to himself. Death can only consign us to hades. Our Lord has been in hades, indeed, but he is not there now. It is the land of the enemy. Our Lord has most precious jewels there. He is coming after them. He shall awaken them with his own voice. They shall be satisfied when they awake in his likeness. They shall be caught up to meet him in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord. J. N. A. "THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL."
By W. N. Glenn
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the best scholars of all ages since the translation of the Bible into the English language testify that the word hell in the New Testament comes from different Greek words of varied significations, a majority of professed Christians insist upon giving it but one definition—endless torment. Let us take just one instance, and see how completely such theology overturns itself. "Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18. The statement that the gates cannot prevail implies an attack and unsuccessful resistance. The gates of hell resist only one way, and that is against the escape of those already within. They open readily to receive those from without. The church (the true church, built upon a rock) certainly would not try very hard to break inward through those gates, and would meet no resistance if it did so attempt. All theories of hell will agree with this proposition. The effort to force the gates, therefore, must come from within, else these words of the Saviour have no meaning. Consequently, either Christ must have planted his church in hell, or by some means and for some reason it subsequently passed into that place. No one will maintain that he planted it there. Then, having entered in some way, at some time, and the gates being powerless to prevent an exit, what becomes of the idea of endless torment in hell.67Granting the exposition of unbiased scholars, that in this as in many other instances the word hell is translated from the Greek word hades, signifying grave, the whole subject becomes clear. When the gates here referred to shall have failed to prevail against the church at the resurrection, then will have come to pass the saying, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave (hades) where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15:55. A TREMENDOUS JUMP.
By Uriah Smith
WE do not refer to the tragic event that gave the name to that notable spot called "The Lover’s Leap," nor to the vaulting of one Mr. Samuel Patch over Niagara or Genesee Falls. We refer to a more wonderful jump than either of these; and that is, the jump some people make to reach a conclusion. Not long since, we had an illustration of this at a camp-meeting. There was a Universalist upon the ground; and one of the methods of argument by which he sought to sustain his belief was this: Said he, "Does it not read that God is kind to the unthankful as well as the thankful, and that he sends his rain upon the unjust as well as the just? and is he not the same yesterday, to-day, and forever? I think," said he, "that if God is kind to all men here in this life, he will be kind to them hereafter." What a conclusion to draw from such premises! This is a period of mercy, long-suffering, and probation. God waits for men to repent, telling them meanwhile what they must meet if they do not. Sentence is out against every evil work, but is not immediately executed; and because it is not, some are ready to conclude that it never will be. And now, because God is kind and merciful to all during this period, shall we conclude that he will deny himself, and turn from the penalty he has threatened against sin, though he bears long with it? In this the reasoner endeavors to vault clear over the dark and fathomless abyss that was made between earth and Heaven when this world fell into revolt from the government of God. To reach Heaven and life and happiness hereafter we must in some way pass this yawning chasm. Christ by his intervention in our behalf has bridged it over; and on him alone can any man safely pass to the other side. All who attempt in wild recklessness to leap it, will find themselves swallowed up therein. There is none other name under Heaven through which salvation is to be found. A living, personal interest in him, manifested by the public and outward acts of faith, is our only passport to the proffered boon of life. Christ is the only ladder from earth to Heaven. Let us shun the fatal step of trying to leap the gulf and gain Heaven without him. U. S.