Review and Herald, Vol. 45, No. 12. (3/18/1875)

Review and Herald

Mar 18, 1875

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 18, 1875

Morality of the Sabbath and Its Importance.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

XII. (Continued.) The Sabbath is the seal to God’s moral law, without which that law would be of no authority.

Creative power is the distinguishing attribute of the living God, and to this the Lord always appeals, as the evidence of his existence, his power, and his authority, and as that which distinguishes him from all false gods. Notice how prominent this fact is always made in the Bible. It is the very first thing mentioned in the word of God. Gen. 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” David says, “For all the gods of the people are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” 1 Chron. 16:26. Nehemiah thus exalts him: “Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all.” Chap. 9:6. The Psalmist thus gives the reason why all should fear God: “Let all the earth [Gentiles as well as Jews] fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the

world stand in awe of him. [Why?] For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:8, 9. “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” Ps. 100:2, 3. When David would designate what God he relies upon, he says, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Ps. 121:2. Again he says, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God; which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.” Ps. 146:5, 6.

Here are set forth, as the mark of the true God, the very facts named in the fourth commandment as the basis of the Sabbath. See Ex. 20:11. Hezekiah in the time of his great distress cried to God thus: “O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. . . . Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone.” 2 Kings 19:15–18. Thus Hezekiah distinguishes the true God from the false gods by the fact that he created heaven and earth. Jeremiah uses the same arguments against the heathen gods. “But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King; at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” Jer. 10:10–12.

The fact that God did make heaven and earth is that to which the Lord always appeals as the proof of his existence and authority. In the Bible great prominence is everywhere given to this fact. No wonder that God has set apart one day in the week to celebrate and commemorate this great event, upon the proof of which his authority as lawgiver rests. Once the Lord commanded Jeremiah to send a message to the heathen kings of Moab, Edom, Zidon, &c. But they did not know the Lord. How should their servants describe the God who sends the message? The Lord tells them to introduce him thus: “Thus shall ye say unto your masters: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power,” &c. Jer. 27:4, 5. When Jonah wished to tell the heathen what God he served, he said, “I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah 1:9.

Turning to the New Testament, we find the Christian writers using the same facts in describing the living God. Thus, at Lystra when the heathen were about to worship Paul and Barnabas, Paul cried out, “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” Acts 14:15. So again when Paul wished to introduce to the Athenians the true God, he says, “As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Acts 17:23, 24. See also Ps. 89:11, 12; 96:5; 100:2, 3; 124:8; 148:5, 6; Isa. 40:18–28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12, 18; 51:13; Jer. 51:15; Rev. 4:11; 10:6; 14:7. Finally, Paul says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20.

Thus we always find all the inspired writers of both the Old and the New Testaments appealing to the facts of the creation in proof of the existence and authority of God; the proof and memory of which facts the Sabbath was given to perpetuate among men. The Lord expressly says that he gave his people his holy Sabbath, that hereby they might know that they were worshiping the true God. Thus he says: “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Ex. 31:13. “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:20. For what did the Lord give them the Sabbath? As a sign by which they might know the Lord. So then there is that in the Sabbath commandment which does point out the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the author of the moral law.

This being true, the moral importance of the careful preservation of the Sabbath among men cannot be overestimated. Simply securing to man a day of rest and worship, is but a small part of the object for which the Sabbath was instituted. No; the great design of the Sabbath is that it should be a memorial of creation, a sign of the true God, and a seal to his immutable law. In this light we can see why the all-wise God, who never makes a mistake, placed the Sabbath in the moral law. It was because it serves the highest of all moral purposes, viz., to point out the true God, the author of the law. None can fail to see that if we remove the Sabbath precept from the ten commandments, there is nothing left in the law to tell who the lawgiver is, what his authority is, or how far it extends. It would leave the law incomplete and without any authority whatever. This shows that the Sabbath precept is a necessary part of, and a seal to, the moral law, and hence is in the highest sense a moral commandment.

XIII. The seventh-day Sabbath differed from all other holy days in many important points.

1. It has for its basis God’s own act of creation. Gen. 2:1–3. God worked six days and rested the seventh. This, as we have shown, is the basis of the seventh-day Sabbath. This is not true of any other holy day ever given to man.

2. The seventh-day Sabbath is the rest-day of God himself. Ex. 20:11. This is not true of any other holy day. Why do we keep the seventh day? Because the Creator himself rested upon it. Is this true of any other day? No; indeed. This fact alone puts an infinite difference between God’s holy rest-day and all other rest-days.

3. The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by God’s own voice speaking from Heaven. Neh. 9:13, 14. Here is another fact which is not true of any other day.

4. It was twice written by the finger of the living God. Ex. 24:12; Deut. 10:1–5. No other day was ever thus given.

5. It was engraven on tables of stone. This probably was to indicate its enduring and unchangeable nature. The law relating to other holy days was written by men upon parchment, indicating that, like the material upon which they were written, they were soon to pass away. But not so of God’s rest-day.

6. The seventh-day Sabbath was placed in the moral law. Ex. 20:1–17. No others were. This is a stubborn fact which our opponents can never account for. If the Sabbath was a mere typical, shadowy, or ceremonial institution, like the festival days of the Jews, why did God himself put it in the moral law, and thus associate it with moral precepts? Why did he not place it with the other Jewish holy days if it was like them? Did God make a mistake and place it where it did not belong? Our opponents, with their view of the Sabbath, certainly never would have put it where God did, in the moral law. Here God has marked an important difference between the Sabbath and all other sacred days.

7. This law was placed in the ark, in the most holy place. Deut. 10:1–5; 1 Kings 8:9. The law regulating the festival days was not thus honored, but was written in a book and placed by the side of the ark. Deut. 31:24–26.

8. All other holy days grew out of man’s actions as a sinner, and they would never have existed but for sin. Here we have a marked contrast, which we wish the reader to distinctly notice. The Sabbath grew out of the action of a holy and infinite God, but all festival days originated in some action of man himself. See a complete list of these days in Lev. 23.

9. All other holy days originated this side of the fall, after types and shadows were introduced. This marks them as shadowy and typical. But the Sabbath, as we have shown, was given in Eden before types were instituted.

10. The Gentiles could keep the Sabbath without being circumcised. Ex. 20:10, 11; Rom. 2:24–27; but in order to keep the other festivals, they must be circumcised. Ex. 12:48.

11. The people had to go up to Jerusalem to keep the other holy days; Ex. 23:14–17; but they kept the Sabbath in all parts of the country wherever they were.

12. The seventh-day Sabbath was weekly, but all other holy days were yearly.

So many and so marked differences between God’s holy Sabbath and all other holy days show that they are of a very different nature—the first, unchangeable, perpetual, and for all people; but the second, only ceremonial, temporal, and for one nation.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

THE WORD COVENANT

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

THE LAW OF GOD.—NO. 5.

BY J. H. WAGGONER.

There is no part of Bible truth which is oftener or more strongly urged against the law of God than the doctrine of the two covenants. And yet there is no point which more certainly confirms the claims of the law than this when it is rightly considered.

THE WORD COVENANT.

In the Old Testament the word covenant is translated from the Hebrew word, berith (pronounced as the English word beneath), which is defined, “A covenant, league, compact,” or, “the terms of a covenant;” that is, the conditions of a league or contract. In the New Testament it is principally translated from the Greek word diatheekee, which, by Greenfield, is defined, “Any disposition, arrangement, institution, or dispensation; hence, a testament, will; a covenant, i. e. mutual promises on mutual conditions, or promises with conditions annexed; meton., a body of laws and precepts, specially to which certain promises are annexed.”

By the above definitions it will be seen that the word covenant is very comprehensive, and may refer to things quite unlike in their nature. The word itself designates no particular thing. The connection must determine its use in any instance. Hence, care must be exercised in its application, lest we be led astray by attaching a rigid and unvarying meaning to the word, and thus perverting the term where it is used.

We first find the word covenant used in Gen. 9:9. It here refers solely to the promise of God that he would not again destroy the world by water. In chap. 17 we have an account of the covenant which God made with Abraham. Next, we find a covenant made between Abraham and Abimelek. This was a compact, or agreement. Passing by some others, we come to the covenant which the Lord made with his people, recorded in Ex. 19:5–8. The words of this covenant are as follows: “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. . . . And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”

The position of those who oppose the law of God is this: They say the covenant made with Judah and Israel was the ten commandments; and as the old covenant has passed away, they conclude that the ten commandments are no longer binding. This opinion is drawn from the fact that the ten commandments are called a covenant. But their conclusion is not logically necessary; while it conflicts with the teachings of the Scripture.

TEN COMMANDMENTS NOT THE OLD COVENANT.

1. We have seen that the word covenant is not determinate; it may refer to the law or to something else.

2. The first or primary meaning of the word is not a law; therefore, we should not refer it to the law without a sufficient reason.

3. The ten commandments do not bear the characteristics of the covenant made with Israel, as we shall further see. That was a contract between the two parties, or, as Greenfield gives the definition of covenant, mutual promises with conditions.

Paul, in Heb. 8, says the new covenant was established on “better promises.” The promises of the old covenant in Ex. 19:5–8 were good enough so far as their object was concerned. The Lord promised therein that they should be to him a peculiar treasure and a holy people. No choicer blessings than these are promised in the Bible, in any dispensation. But these were promised only on condition of obedience, and the Israelites were a weak and sinful people. In that covenant there was no provision for non-fulfillment, and therefore the promises were not available to them. The “better promises” of the new covenant were, that he would “be merciful to their unrighteousness,” and “remember their sins no more.”

In carrying out this line of argument the apostle says it was not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins. But this was the only blood the priests under that covenant had to offer. But under the new covenant we have a mediator who offers his own blood, which cleanses from all unrighteousness; hence, that which was offered on the condition of obedience in the old, is offered on the condition of repentance and faith in the new. But still the promises of the new reach no object higher than did those of the old. An inspired writer of the New Testament said: “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Pet. 1:15, 16. Had they fulfilled the promise which they made to God, so that he could have fulfilled the promise he made to them, this injunction would have been fulfilled in them; they would have been a holy people; a peculiar treasure unto God above all people.

In this we learn a most important truth respecting the sufficiency of the ten commandments as a rule of life. The covenant made with Judah and Israel was respecting obedience to the voice of God, and to his covenant. Three days after this covenant was made with them, the Lord with his own voice spake his covenant in the hearing of all the people. Thus Moses said to them: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments.” Deut. 4:12, 13. If they had kept the ten commandments, which they had agreed to do, they would have been a holy people, the Lord’s own peculiar treasure. Thus the ten-commandment law is the rule of holiness; obedience to it forms a holy character.

Here we discover the mistake of the opponents of the law. They make no distinction between the covenant and the condition of the covenant, between the contract, and the law which they contracted to obey. In a secondary sense, according to Greenfield, the conditions of a covenant may also be called a covenant. An instance of this use of the term is found in 2 Kings 23:3: “And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.” The book wherein the covenant of the Lord was written had just been found, and they made a covenant to perform it. The covenant which they made was a promise or agreement to keep the commandments of God which were written in the book. That which was written in the book was the condition of the agreement or covenant which they made. Now if any one should contend that the covenant which the king and the people made was the law which was written in the book which had been found in the house of the Lord, all would be ready to marvel that he would argue for such an absurdity. Yet that is exactly the position of those who contend that the ten commandments are the covenant which God made with the children of Israel.

Paul, in Heb. 9:18–20, says the first covenant was dedicated with blood, and quotes the words of dedication found in Ex. 24:7, 8: “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.”

The people reiterated their promise to obey, which they had made in the covenant; Ex. 19:8. And Moses said the covenant was made concerning certain words. By reference to Ex. 19:5–8, we find that the words which they agreed to do, were the words which God spake with his voice, and which he called his covenant. See again Deut. 4:12, 13. These words were the ten commandments. This law was the condition or covenant which they covenanted to do or keep.

A very decisive reason that the law is not the first covenant made with Israel is this: That covenant was made void, and the necessity for a new one created, by their violation, or failure to keep it. This is a valid reason respecting a contract, but not respecting a law. A contract or agreement is made void by non-fulfillment, but a law is not made void by transgression. “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; . . . because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.” Heb. 8:8, 9. Had they been faithful to the agreement on their part, the Lord surely would have performed all he promised; he would have “regarded them,” and there would have been no necessity for another covenant. How would he have regarded them? The very terms of the covenant answer this. Ex. 19:5–8. He would have regarded them as a peculiar treasure unto himself, and a holy nation. The very object expressed in the old covenant is now accomplished in the new.

The great distinction between the two covenants, as given by Paul, lies in the “better promises” of the new. Not that they should be more holy in this dispensation than in that, though this is sometimes affirmed by men, for the holiness of God himself is the standard in both dispensations. “As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [anastrophe, mode of life, conduct]; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.” The apostle Peter enforces this injunction by what is written in Lev. 11:44. They who affect to find a higher standard of holiness in the New Testament than that given in the Old Testament, are guilty of great presumption. And, according to the words of Jehovah himself, this holiness would be reached by them in obeying the holy law of the commandments.

NEW COVENANT NOT A NEW LAW.

The “better promises” which the new covenant contains are, as has been noticed, the forgiveness of sin. But some have perverted this testimony of the apostle, and construed it as if it read—a better law. But it does not so read, nor can it be so intended. A better law cannot exist, as we shall show more fully hereafter. Nor does it mean the law of Jesus, the mediator, in distinction from the law of the Father. For the idea is not consistent with reason nor Scripture that a person should mediate in behalf of his own law. Mediator, says Webster, is “one that interposes between parties at variance, for the purpose of reconciling them.” A person could not stand between himself and an offender; that would be impossible. Says the Scripture: “A mediator is not a mediator of one;” and, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5.

Again, the new covenant was made by the same person or being who made the first covenant. Opposers often talk as if the new covenant was made by the Son, while the old was made by the Father. But the Scripture reads thus: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.” Of the first, Aaron and his sons were appointed mediators; of the second, the Son of God alone is mediator; while the Father is the author of both. And when the same being says in the promise of the new covenant: “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts,” we can be at no loss to understand whose law is referred to. If the Son of God has a law in distinction from that of his Father, that is not the law referred to in this scripture. In the first covenant, God’s law was put in the ark; in the second, his law is put in the heart. And thus, whichever way we look, we find the claims of God’s law clearly confirmed.

CHANGED

“We shall be changed.”—1 Cor. 15:52.

“We shall be changed.” Yes! we, the weak and mortal, Shall lay this earth-robe by,— Shall shining stand upon the eternal portal, No tears in any eye; For weeping shall be done—it is earth’s portion, And Heaven will never hear A single sigh of grief; exultant song Shall fill Immanuel’s ear!

“We shall be changed.” No sick and aching frame, No weary, drooping head; The great Physician, who from Gilead came, His precious balm shall shed Upon our wounds and languor; once he knew All depths of mortal pain— From his dear cross that root of healing grew Which ever shall remain!

“We shall be changed.” No saint, with hoary locks Like the white almond tree, Shall look through darkened windows—for Christ’s saved Are young eternally! They shall not know the failing of desire, No fears shall haunt the way; The incorruptible shall never tire Through Heaven’s long day!

How fair and pure will be our changed faces, When we are made like Him Whose glory fills eternity’s vast spaces: No time-blight e’er can dim The dazzling beauty of that likeness new— Rare immortality! What perfect bliss to bid decay adieu, And welcome thee!

“We shall be changed.” Oh! blessed change of all! Washed in thy blood divine, Dear Lord! no sin on our poor hearts shall fall; We shall be thine Eternally, beyond temptation’s power To lure away. All hail, sweet hope! haste on, triumphant hour! Celestial day!

—Guide to Holiness.

Temptation of Christ.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

(Continued.)

HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.

AND why should not men do these things if the law forbidding them is abolished? No message from earth or Heaven can forcibly impress the intemperate and the licentious who are deluded with the theory that the law of ten commandments is abolished. Many professed ministers of Christ exhort the people to holiness of life, while they themselves yield to the power of appetite, and the defilement of tobacco. These teachers, who are leading the people to despise physical and moral law, will have a fearful record to meet by-and-by.

Health, truth, and happiness, can never be advanced without an intelligent knowledge of, and full obedience to, the law of God, and perfect faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord uses no other medium through which to reach the human heart. Many professed Christians acknowledge that in the use of tobacco they are indulging a filthy, expensive, and hurtful practice. But they excuse themselves by saying that the habit is formed, and they cannot overcome it. In this acknowledgment they yield homage to Satan, saying, by their actions, if not in words, that “although God is powerful, Satan has greater power.” By profession they say, “We are the servants of Jesus Christ,” while their works say that they yield subjection to Satan’s sway, because it costs them the least inconvenience. Is this overcoming as Christ overcame? or is it being overcome by temptation? And the above apology is urged by men in the ministry, who profess to be Christ’s ambassadors.

Many are the temptations and besetments on every side to ruin the prospects of young men, both for this world and the next. But the only path of safety is for young and old to live in strict conformity to the principles of physical and moral law. The path of obedience is the only path that leads to Heaven. Alcohol and tobacco inebriates would, at times, give any amount of money if they could by so doing overcome their appetite for these body-and-soul-destroying indulgences. And they who will not subject the appetites and passions to the control of reason, will indulge them at the expense of physical and moral obligations.

The victims of a depraved appetite, goaded on by Satan’s continual temptations, will seek indulgence at the expense of health and even life, and will go to the bar of God as self-murderers. Many have so long allowed habit to master them that they have become slaves to appetite. They have not the moral courage to persevere in self-denial, and to endure suffering for a time through restraint and denial of the taste, in order to master the vice. This class refuse to overcome as did their Redeemer. Did not Christ endure physical suffering and mental anguish on man’s account in the wilderness?

Many have so long allowed appetite and taste to control reason that they have not moral power to persevere in self-denial, and endure suffering for a time, until abused nature can take up her work, and healthy action be established in the system. Very many with perverted tastes, shrink at the thought of restricting their diet, and they continue their unhealthful indulgences. They are not willing to overcome as did their Redeemer.

What a scene of unexampled suffering was that fast of nearly six weeks, while Jesus was assailed with the fiercest temptations! How few can understand the love of God for the fallen race in that he withheld not his divine Son from taking upon him the humiliation of humanity! He gave up his dearly beloved to shame and agony, that he might bring many sons and daughters to glory.

When sinful man can discern the inexpressible love of God in giving his Son to die upon the cross, we shall better understand that it is infinite gain to overcome as Christ overcame. And we shall understand that it is eternal loss if we gain the whole world, with all its pleasure and glory, and yet lose the soul. Heaven is cheap enough at any cost.

On Jordan’s banks the voice from Heaven, attended by the manifestation from the excellent glory, proclaimed Christ to be the Son of the Eternal. Satan was to personally encounter the Head of the kingdom which he came to overthrow. If he failed, he knew that he was lost. Therefore, the power of his temptations was in accordance with the greatness of the object which he would lose or gain. For four thousand years, ever since the declaration was made to Adam that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, he had been planning his manner of attack.

He put forth his strongest efforts to overcome Christ on the point of appetite at a time when he was enduring the keenest pangs of hunger. The victory gained was designed, not only to set an example to those who have fallen under the power of appetite, but to qualify the Redeemer for his special work of reaching to the very depths of human woe. By experiencing in himself the strength of Satan’s temptation, and of human sufferings and infirmities, he would know how to succor those who should put forth efforts to help themselves.

No amount of money can buy a single victory over the temptations of Satan. But that which money is valueless to obtain, which is integrity, determined effort, and moral power, will, through the name of Christ, obtain noble victories upon the point of appetite. What if the conflict should cost man even his life? What if the slaves to these vices do really die in the struggle to free themselves from the controlling power of appetite? they die in a good cause. And if the victory be gained at the cost of human life, it is not too dearly earned if the victor can come up in the first resurrection, and have the overcomer’s reward.

Everything, then, is gained. But life will not be sacrificed in the struggle to overcome depraved appetites. And it is a certainty that unless we do overcome as Christ overcame we cannot have a seat with him upon his throne. Those who in the face of light and truth destroy mental, moral, and physical health, by indulgence of any kind, will lose Heaven. They sacrifice their God-given powers to idols. God deserves and claims our first and highest thoughts and our holiest affections.

At an infinite cost, Christ our Redeemer has purchased every faculty and our very existence, and all our blessings in life have been purchased for us with the price of his blood. Shall we accept the blessings, and forget the claims of the Giver? Can any of us consent to follow our inclination, indulge appetites and passions, and live without God? Shall we eat and drink like the beast, and no more associate the thought of God with every good we enjoy than the dumb animals?

Those who make determined efforts in the name of the Conqueror to overcome every unnatural craving of appetite will not die in the conflict. In their efforts to control appetite, they are placing themselves in right relations to life, so that they may enjoy health and the favor of God, and have a right hold on the immortal life.

Thousands are continually selling physical, mental, and moral vigor for the pleasure of taste. Each of the faculties has its distinctive office, and yet they all have a mutual dependence upon each other. And if the balance is carefully preserved, they will be kept in harmonious action. Not one of these faculties can be valued by dollars and cents. And yet, for a good dinner, for alcohol, or tobacco, they are sold. And while paralyzed by the indulgence of appetite, Satan controls the mind, and leads to every species of crime and wickedness. God has enjoined upon us to preserve every faculty in healthful vigor, that we may have a clear sense of his requirements, and that we may perfect holiness in his fear.

(To be continued.)

ONLY A WORD.

By Seb.

Only a word! but the word was a legion Of giant reproaches in armor of steel, Trampling the delicate blooms of the region That feeling hath planted, with furious heel. Only a word! Only a word! But a legion with cruelty spurred.

Only a word! but the word was a network That tangled the reason and wearied the brain, Caught in its meshes the beautiful fretwork That fancy hath sculptured and broken in twain. Only a word! Only a word! But ensnaring the senses that heard.

Only a word! but the word was a quiver So full of suspicions and bristling with fears, Keen were the barbs, making friendship to shiver— How torn and discolored its plumage appears. Only a word! Only a word! Bearing death to the bright-winged bird.

Only a word! but the word was a casket Of fragrant forgiveness with carvings so rare, Laden with love, and the one who shall ask it A necklace more precious than rubies shall wear. Only a word! Only a word! But how precious to them that have erred. —Seb.

What Makes a House A Home

THAT house is no home which has a grumbling father, a scolding mother, a dissipated son, a lazy daughter, and a bad-tempered child. It may be built of marble, surrounded by garden, park, and fountain; carpets of extravagant costliness may spread its floors; pictures of the rarest merit may adorn the walls; its tables may abound with dainties the most luxurious; its every ordering may be complete; but home it is not.

REMARKS ON THE PROPHECY OF JOEL.

By Uriah Smith

CHAPTER II.

Verse 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; 16; Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

The language of these verses is that of earnest impassioned exhortation. Hope is implied in it, that if this course is taken on the part of the people, the favor of God will be secured. The time and the occasion demand concerted action: gather the people. The congregation is to be sanctified, especially called to the work of seeking the Lord. The children are to be brought in, even the youngest. And the ministers of the Lord are to feel such a burden of soul that it will bring them to their knees with weeping before the Lord.

Between the porch and the altar. Allusion is here made to the temple service. Between the altar of burnt offering and the porch of the temple there was a space of 15 or 20 cubits. And it was here that the priests prostrated themselves in times of distress and emergency, and here that sins were confessed upon the heads of the offerings.

Not in that place nor literally in that way do we now make known to the Lord our distress and our desire for his help. But we are to do it no less earnestly and really.

The reproach of the heathen. Wherefore should they say, Where is thy God? When the Jews were visited by the plague of locusts, as mentioned in the first chapter, their hearts made faint, and their strength consumed by famine, the heathen, ever watchful to take advantage of their misfortune and weakness, were ready to war against and bring them into subjection, so that there was a probability of its being literally true that they would rule over them. Or, if we adopt the marginal reading, they would use a by-word against them, in this case doubtless the taunt, “Where is their God,” that he should abandon his people to such calamity?

There are heathen in a spiritual sense today all around us, watching for every unfavorable circumstance in the experience of the people of God, and ready with their gibes and jeers at every apparent failure. When the church is brought into straight places, as it has been in the past, and as it will be before the end, places from which nothing apparently, but the arm of the Lord can deliver them, and that help is seemingly delayed, then the wicked are ready to mock their hope, and laugh at what appears to be their inevitable calamity. But their triumphing is all too soon; for the people of God understand the lesson, humble themselves before God, zealously repent, and thereby so relate themselves to him that he can consistently bestow his favor; and true to his promise he appears to their deliverance and joy, and to the confusion and dismay of all their enemies. And when the day of distress for the wicked comes, how different the circumstances! They have not merely mortal men in array against them; but God himself laughs at their calamity and mocks when their fear cometh. Prov. 1:26. “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him;” but “woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him.” Isa. 3:10, 11.

U. S.

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