Review and Herald, Vol. 36, No. 9. (8/16/1870)

Review and Herald

Aug 16, 1870

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 16, 1870

Brief Reflections and Arguments.

By R. F. Cotterill

MEN refuse to keep the Sabbath of the Lord because the commandment is not repeated in the New Testament; and yet they observe the first day of the week, for which there is no commandment in either the Old or the New. This shows that they are governed by custom, and not by revelation or reason.

Those who would have the moral law of God abolished, close their eyes to two important things: 1. That the presumptive evidence is all in favor of the continuance of the moral code of the all-wise and unchangeable God; and 2. That the Lord Jesus, instead of destroying it, affirmed the perpetuity of every jot and tittle of it, “till heaven and earth pass.” Matt. 5: 17, 19.

Those who quote Heb. 4: 8,—“For we which have believed do enter into rest,” emphasizing do enter, to make it appear that “the rest referred to is enjoyed by the believer here in this present life,” need to be told that in order to express that idea it should read, “We that have believed have entered into rest.” As it stands, it is in perfect harmony with the exhortation of the apostle in the same chapter:—“Let us [believers] labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall,” or “come short of it.”

Paul was converted to the Christian religion some years after all the Jewish sabbaths were nailed to the cross, and consequently were no more. If the weekly Sabbath was included with those, there was no Sabbath during his Christian experience and labors. But the inspired recorder of his travels and labors frequently tells us what Paul did on the Sabbath, without any qualifying term such as old or Jewish. If there was no Sabbath then, this language is well-calculated to mislead the reader; but if there was a Sabbath then, there is one now, unless it has been abolished since the apostle’s labors were put upon record.

While Paul was at Corinth, where he continued “a year and six months, teaching the word of God,” it is recorded of him that “he reasoned in the synagogue EVERY SABBATH.” If the first day of the week was the Sabbath at that time, the Jews opened their synagogue every first day of the week, either because they had changed their day of worship to that day, or to accommodate the Christians, who, if tradition be true, had kept the first day during the twenty years that passed between the resurrection of Christ and Paul’s labors at Corinth. But if Paul accommodated himself to the Jews, and these meetings were held on the day they ever had been, and still are in the habit of observing, it follows that the first day of the week was not the Sabbath at that time; for if it were, it would certainly be included in the term “every Sabbath.” Now if the first day of the week was not the Sabbath twenty years after the resurrection of Christ, when did it become the Sabbath? R. F. COTTERILL.

Self-Deception.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

TEXT: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6:7.

This world is full of deception. Wherever a man goes, in whatever he engages, he is very liable to be deceived. Every man knows this, and is on the watch for it. He keeps his eyes open. He tests everybody and everything before he trusts them. Even then, after the closest care, men are often deceived and made to suffer much by it. In all worldly affairs, men are anxious to avoid being deceived. They try to learn the exact truth; for they know that this is their only safety.

But, strange to say, in religious matters, where eternal interests are at stake, many persons are perfectly willing to be deceived! We often hear them say, “It is no matter what we believe; if we are only honest and sincere in our belief, the Lord will accept us.” But these men know better than to reason in this way about worldly affairs. If they are deceived in these, they must suffer for it; and if they were carelessly deceived, no one pities them. We think that in the great day they will find the same principle to hold good in religious matters.

Let us take a few cases of persons who were deceived and led to believe a falsehood. Let us see how the Lord regarded them. Eve is a good illustration. Gen. 2:16, 17. God told her not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If she did, she must die. Soon after this, the enemy came and conversed with her about it. He told her that the fruit would not hurt her, but do her good. After considering the matter, Eve concluded that the fruit would not hurt her. She believed that it would do her good. That she sincerely believed this, she proved by partaking of the tree. What was the result? Suppose the case: The Lord calls her up and says, “Eve, have you eaten of the forbidden fruit?” “Yes.” “By this deed you have brought my wrath upon you, and you must die, as I threatened you.” But Eve replies, “Lord, the serpent deceived me, and I sincerely and honestly believed that it would be best for me to eat of it. Surely you will not punish me for doing what I sincerely believed was right.” But the Lord replies: “I told you not to touch it. My enemy, the serpent, told you to eat it. You believed his words, and disbelieved mine—believed that I had lied to you. For this lack of faith in me you shall die.”

Reader, this illustrates the real truth in the case. It shows that Eve, instead of having sincere belief, was moved by the blackest unbelief in God, for which she deserved to die. So it is generally with those who plead their honesty and sincerity while directly disbelieving and disobeying the plain word of God. The Judgment will probably reveal the fact that much of this so-called honest and sincere belief was nothing but pure unbelief.

Paul's case while persecuting the saints is another illustration of this fact. Will any one question his zeal and sincerity in doing what he did? He says, “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” Acts. 26:9. If any one could plead “sincere belief” he could. Yet hear him after he was converted to God and saw things as they were. Of himself he says: “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” Here Paul justly confesses that it was unbelief which led him to do what he did against the truth. He does not try to excuse himself under the plea of “sincere belief,” but comes out plainly and gives the thing its proper name; “ignorant unbelief.” Now the fearful and unbelieving are to have their part in the lake of fire. Rev. 21:8.

When God requires men to believe any truth, he always gives them sufficient evidence to convince them if they are willing to be convinced. If they shut their eyes to this evidence and do not believe the Lord, he holds them accountable for their unbelief, however much they may deceive themselves by calling it sincere belief. A most pernicious error is that which says that it makes no odds what we believe if we are only sincere. If this be true, the sincere pagan would be as acceptable to God as the sincere Christian. One religion would be as good as another if men only believed it strongly enough.

But let us look at this idea. God is the author of all truth. Whatever is true in all the world comes from God. John 17:17; 1 John 2:21. On the other hand, the devil is the author of every error, false doctrine, and untruth which has ever been taught in the world. Says Christ, “Satan is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44. No one could believe that any untruth or error could come from God; hence it must come from the opposite source—the devil. To illustrate: In a certain town there are two different doctrines being advocated. One is true, the other false. The true one of course must have originated with God; it came from him. The false one must have originated with Satan; he first started it. The people are divided between the two doctrines. Some firmly believe one, and some firmly believe the other.

Now can we believe that God is indifferent as to which doctrine they adhere to, on which side they arrange themselves? No; for every word they speak, every act they do, all the influence they exert on the side of the false doctrine and against the true one, is so much done to build up the authority and kingdom of Satan, and to oppose the truth and kingdom of God. This unquestionably being true, it is of great importance that our belief be found on the right side.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Adel, Iowa.

THE BEAUTIFUL LAND

By L. D. Santee

There's a beautiful land where no shadows are, Where beauteous flowers bloom; Where the young and the happy, the gay and fair, No more sink away in the tomb; Where no moanings come from a bed of pain, And sickness is feared no more; Oh! my feet are weary, and I fain Would rest on that happy shore,

Where no tempests darken the skies' deep blue, And sorrows come no more; Where the smiling fields wear a verdant hue, And the troubles of life are o'er; Where each coming day to joy gives birth, And crystal fountains flow, And beauty live in the blessed earth, And chilling winds ne'er blow.

The harps of the blessed, the river's voice, And the tones of the divine, All, all will the weary heart rejoice, In that bright and happy clime. Oh! our eyes grow bright, and our hearts are glad For our toils are almost o'er; In that beautiful land where none are sad, We'll dwell forevermore.

L. D. SANTEE Dixon, Mo.

Freedom from Sin.

By B. F. Merritt

The Saviour declared that “whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin;” and knowing the nature of this bondage, he said: “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Jno. 8. Free indeed. Happy thought. The conscience purged of guilt, and the energies quickened by the Holy Spirit, and the soul enabled to resist every attempt of sin to bring it into captivity.

The Jubilee was a glad festival to those slaves of Israel whose bitter bondage was then ended. We may imagine with what glad hearts, and high transports, they celebrated it.

The first of January, 1863, was a day that brought joy and gladness to the hearts of millions, when our chief Executive said: “Let the oppressed go free.” Did not the mother’s heart leap for joy when she knew that she was free, and that she need no longer fear that her dear children would be torn from her arms, and sold to be the slaves of tyrants?

And the hearts of fathers, too, swelled with emotion too big for utterance, when they felt that they were free, and knew that cruel masters could no more invade their dwellings and molest those their hearts held dear.

But from a worse thralldom than the slaves of Israel saw, or than Afric’s children in the South were doomed to, is that from which the Son proposes to release us.

Servants of sin! Our energies too weak to break the galling bands. Doomed to a dreadful life of misery here, and hereafter the second death. This is the portion of the servants of sin. “The wages of sin is death.”

From this deplorable state, the Son only can make us free.

“He breaks the cruel power of sin, He sets the captives free; His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood avails for me.”

Some persons are struggling against the power of sin; and seem to think that God requires them to break the cruel bands. They have struggled long, but are not free. Their depravity is so great, that with all their strength, this formidable tyrant, under which they are sold, brings them into captivity. They exclaim, in bitterness, “What I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I.”

They are encouraged by reading the last of the seventh chapter of the Roman letter; for they conclude that their experience is like that of the apostle, and therefore they are Christians. But let me say to such that Paul is not there giving the experience of a Christian, but that of an unconverted man. If, therefore, your experience accords with that given there, do not take it as evidence that the Son has made you free.

The idea that a person in the regenerate state is in the condition there described, most pitifully and shamefully, not only lowers the standard of Christianity, but destroys its influence and disgraces its character. Let us notice that experience, and it will be seen that he is either personating a Jew convinced that by works he cannot be just with God, or giving his own experience before he heard those words of Ananias: “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts. 9:17.

Rom. 7:14. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” The law is not a system of external rites and ceremonies, nor merely a rule of moral action, but it reaches to the most hidden purposes, thoughts, dispositions, and desires of the heart. It is spiritual. Now I say that the character here represented was not a Christian; for,

1. He was not keeping the law. He assented to the law that it was good, but he was carnal and could not keep it. While a person is possessed of a carnal mind, and is under the power of sin, he cannot keep a spiritual law. He declares in the next chapter, verse 7, “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Therefore while carnal he was not keeping the law.

2. He was a subject of death. While carnal, the “mind,” the “inner man,” the “I,” may see the right and approve it too, yet being in captivity cannot perform it, and therefore is a subject of death. In the next chapter, verse 6, his own language is: “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

He was not the latter; for he had no peace, but he was the former; for he says, “I am carnal;” and seeing his doom he exclaims, in bitterness of soul, “Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

3. Christ had not made him free. “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Can any one whom Christ has made free, and said that they should be free indeed, feel that they are slaves, sold under sin, unable to do what they know to be right, unable to perform that which they will to do, but find themselves doing that which they hate and know to be sinful? The idea is preposterous.

When we apply all that is here said, of the carnal man “sold under sin,” to a man in an unconverted state, all is plain. That it was all true of Saul of Tarsus, none can doubt. But that the great apostle in whom dwelt the Holy Spirit, and toward whom the work of grace had been so abundant, was in this condition, who can doubt?

It is strange that any should imbibe the notion that such was the condition of the apostle, or that when the Son “makes free,” he leaves souls in that condition. The notion is absurd and monstrous, if not blasphemous.

Paul was not left in that state of bondage. He found deliverance. When seeing his doom, and feeling his utter helplessness, he inquires for help. “Who shall deliver me?” It was the grace of God through our Lord Jesus that helped him, that broke the chains that held him in slavery. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” made him free.

He then had the Spirit of Christ which quickened his mortal energies to such an extent that he could vanquish sin. He was no longer sold under sin, and therefore could write, “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.” He had gotten his freedom, and now he could write of the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”

Dear reader, has the Son made you free? Then you shall be free indeed. You may have been but partly converted to Christ. From an infidel to a believer, or from a Sabbath-breaker to a Sabbath-keeper, or from an idle man to a student of the Scriptures. In these steps toward conversion to Christ you may have been blessed. You may have gone further, and yet are not free. Peter followed the Master about three years, and learned many of the great lessons of sacred truth from his own lips, yet the Master said, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

It may take time to convert every member and faculty of our being from its imperfect state in the service of sin to the service of the living God. We are not able to do it. We cannot loose our bands without help. We must apply to the Lord Jesus, who can quicken our mortal energies by the Spirit he imparts, and make us free. All our help must come from him. We can do all things through the strength of Christ. He can make us free and keep us so. To him be the praise. B. F. MERRITT.

This World, and the Next.

By J. Q. Fox

THERE is no want of evidence of the fact that this is a fast and fearful age. Crime is rampant. Fashion, as ever, takes sides with iniquity and corruption. The cesspools of vice, now more than ever numerous, are teeming with votaries from all grades of society. Men, notorious for crime, and professed Christians, even ministers of the gospel, enjoy alike the sparkling cup and the giddy dance. All unite in their rebellion against the Most High; and the true religion of Jesus Christ is put far into the shade, or held only in name. “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity and speak lies.” Isa. 59: 4.

And yet, with this sad picture before their eyes, some, even of those who have been blessed with the light of present truth, will talk of enjoying the world, and consider it a great sacrifice to give it all up for the truth. How strange! And yet can we wonder, that the great enemy of mankind who presumed to offer this same temptation to our divine Lord, should make it effectual in the cases of many of his professed followers? Alas for poor human nature—so short-sighted, so depraved! Even S. D. Adventists are in danger of so far losing the influence of the truths that we profess, as to partake of the spirit of these times. Especially are we that are young and inexperienced in danger here. Some of us are disposed to think the cross too heavy, and to excuse ourselves from bearing it, seemingly unconscious that it is the pride of the natural heart that would draw us after the flattery and honors of the world, and which, if left unsubdued, will prove our ruin. Some are satisfied with being half-hearted in the cause of God, with merely having a name with his people. But let us not deceive ourselves. This will avail us nothing. By assuming to be Christ’s followers we take upon ourselves great responsibility, and rather than prove false to our profession, we had better never have named his name. Such had better enjoy this world; only, alas for them! it will prove to be all a deception, and they, when it is too late to retrace their steps, will learn the awful truth that they have grasped at a shadow and lost eternal substance.

Oh! how it becomes us to deal truly with our own souls, and see to it that all our sins go beforehand to judgment, that we may have a clear record when our cases shall come in review before the Judge of all the earth. It is a fearful fact that many will not do this, will not be aroused to a sense of their danger, until the final disposition of their case is made, and they are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Let us pause now, and ask the question, Shall this unhappy condition be ours?

When tempted to sell our birthright so cheap, let us for a moment think of the immortal inheritance, the glories of the kingdom of God. Let the imagination feast upon the blissful scenes of the glorified new earth, and thank our Heavenly Father that all this may be ours to enjoy eternally.

“Let me go, for bliss eternal Lures my soul away, away; And the victor’s song triumphant Thrills my heart, I cannot stay.”

It is only when our minds are blinded by the god of this world, our sensibilities blunted to a sense of eternal things, that we are in danger of giving place to a thought so reckless; for there is not an intelligent creature in the world, who, with a lively sense of the infinite worth of the blessings God has so graciously offered us, would chose instead the fading, transient pleasures of earth. That all will realize something of their value we cannot doubt, but with many it will be when it is too late. Our great enemy will then be willing that we should know what we have lost. Then a just and holy God, who has so kindly and faithfully warned and intreated us will in justice fulfill his word: “Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then they shall call upon me, but I will not

answer: they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.” Prov. 1: 24-28.

Truly, we are living in a fearful time. Satan’s hosts are astir. But a gracious God will not forsake his faithful, trusting children. And here comes to mind a blessed promise relating to the time of trouble but just before us. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.

A strong current is setting downward to perdition. It is a case of life and death with us, and shall we sleep on our oars? The contest has been long and fearfully raging, but there is no doubt as to the final issue. God’s cause will triumph. Truth will inevitably bear away the victory. Guard the citadel, O, Christian! Keep the heart with all diligence. Cultivate the principles of Heaven, and be in earnest in the matter, lest you be swept from the platform of truth by the fast swelling flood of evil. J. Q. Fox. Madison Co., N. Y.

The Second Blow Begins the Quarrel

An old Arabian proverb says: “It is the second blow which begins the quarrel.”

It is only for innocence that solitude can have charms.

The Fullness of Time.

By George Ide Butler

I was struck with an idea expressed by D'Aubigne while reading the history of the Reformation the other day, which I will give to the readers of the REVIEW. He says, "A reformation is not arbitrarily made as charters and revolutions are in some countries. A real reformation prepared during many ages is the work of the Spirit of God. Before the appointed hour the greatest geniuses and even the most faithful of God's servants cannot produce it. But when the reforming time is come, when it is God's pleasure to intervene in the affairs of the world, the divine life must clear a passage, and it is able to create of itself the humble instruments by which this life is communicated to the human race. Then if men are silent, the very stones will cry out."

It seems to me the author has here expressed a very great truth. Any one conversant with the history of the Reformation will give an assent to it. It seemed wonderful that so many ages could pass away and the masses of the people be so long held under papal corruptions and such gross error. The priesthood were known, many of them, to lead the most abandoned lives, and the popes themselves, who were looked up to with such reverence, were many of them guilty of the grossest immorality and most brutal cruelty. All the forms of religion seemed corrupted. And yet this condition of things continued right on, even when there was a general feeling among very many of the people that these things were not as they should be. And the priests were held many times in contempt and even ridicule by the common people. There were many eminent men in the two or three centuries preceding the Reformation who did much toward enlightening the people in the arts and sciences. The light seemed to be dawning in all directions except in religion. And more than this, individuals arose and made an attempt at reform in religion; men apparently as pious and devoted as Luther; men of ability and learning. Wickliffe arose in England more than one hundred and fifty years before Luther. He was a man of great ability, preached against the Catholics, caused the Bible to be translated, and labored faithfully and ardently in the cause of true religion. But all his efforts accomplished very little in comparison with those of Luther. The time had not come.

Huss arose in Bohemia a century before Luther. He was a man of God. He preached the truth faithfully. He held up the corrupt lives of the priests and spoke boldly against them. Multitudes followed him even while wandering in the fields, suffering persecution. Yet it seems he could not seriously affect the permanence of the Roman power. He died a martyr, and his work was nearly all crushed. The time had not come.

God has the control of the events of the world. When his time comes all agencies will be ready. So it was in the Reformation. We are apt to give too much credit to the simple agents that God uses, and forget that after all, the glory belongs entirely to him. Had Martin Luther, and Zwingle, and the other Reformers, arisen a century before, we have no reason to expect they could have fared better than Huss.

Had it not been that God wrought, and as it were steered the bark of the Reformation through the perils that environed it, the result would have been far different. He seemed to raise up special agencies at the right time to upset the skillfully-laid plans of the devil for the destruction of his work. Yes, in all past ages the same principle has been seen. The seed of Israel were not permitted to inherit the land of promise at first, and what a curious plan it would seem to us that God laid, and how contrary to what we should naturally adopt. They must be sent down to the land of Egypt, and there become slaves, be grievously oppressed, come into a condition where it would seem almost impossible that God's promises ever could be verified to them, and there they had to wait till the fullness of time came, till the "iniquity of the Amorites" was full; then God by his mighty power brought them out. Moses, it would seem, thought it could be done before, but when he made the attempt it turned out a failure.

Jesus Christ came in the "fullness of time." Many may have wondered why he was not manifested before. Why the Lord waited four thousand years before sending his Son into the world. But those who have given this much reflection tell us the condition of things was such at that time as would render the proclamation of the gospel much easier than at any other time before. The Roman empire was at its hight, and generally in a state of peace. The human mind was active. The old religions of polytheism were losing their hold upon the people. The gods of the different nations of antiquity were nearly all brought face to face in the pantheon at Rome, that there in each other's presence they might show their mutual insignificance. The Grecian gods could not save Greece. The Carthaginian gods could not save Carthage, and so on ad infinitum. What a glorious time for the religion of Jesus to come in and show its superiority. It came, and in a few years spread all over the empire. The fullness of time had come.

It has often seemed strange to me that a truth so plain as the Sabbath should have lain dormant so many years, to be revived down here at the close of time. Why did not the Reformers preach it generally? We believe they were honest men, engaged in the work of God. And yet one of the plainest truths in the canon of inspiration was overlooked or ignored by them. To be sure this was preached by our Seventh-day Baptist friends. But it never has seemed to make that stir in the religious world that its great importance demands. Somehow there has seemed to be a hindering cause. It seems lamentable that such men as John Bunyan should have written against the claims of the Sabbath, when the arguments are so clear. It would seem that God had purposely determined to reserve a truth of great clearness by which to especially test the last generation of men. The fullness of time had not come. The true Reformers of that age had all upon their hands they could do to bring out those truths God had intrusted to them. They did that work well and nobly, and fell at their posts.

Now the time for the great Sabbath Reform has come. The third angel's message must be preached. The commandments of God are to be restored and take their rightful place in the plan of God, and in the affections of his people. And we see the needed agencies springing into existence, the work moving forward according to God's order, bearing marks of permanency, of sound sense, of true religion. We easily discern the hand of God in it. God's Spirit bears witness to it. The seal is plainly set to the work. All these things should give us faith in God, that if we do our part he will do his. And although the "mills of God grind slow," yet his plans are certain of their accomplishment in his own good time.

GEO. I. BUTLER.

Value of Pure Love.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

How many times I have read, and how much I have thought upon the following words. There is a simplicity and yet a sublimity in them that marks them from Heaven.

“Whatsoever is done out of pure love, be it ever so little or contemptible in the sight of men, is wholly fruitful; for God measures more with how much love one worketh, than the amount he doeth!” Testimony No. 16, p. 28.

Here is encouragement for that humble soul of one talent who can do but little but can love much. That is the very thing that God loves above all else. The following verses by J. G. Saxe give such a beautiful illustration of this principle that I insert them. They are from The Methodist.

THE TWO CHURCH-BUILDERS.

“1 A famous king would build a church, A temple vast and grand; And that the praise might be his own, He gave a strict command That none should add the smallest gift To aid the work he planned.

“2 And when the mighty dome was done, Within the noble frame, Upon a tablet, broad and fair, In letters all aflame With burnished gold, the people read The royal builder’s name.

“3 Now when the king, elate with pride, That night had sought his bed, He dreamed he saw an angel come (A halo round his head); Erase the royal name, and write Another in its stead.

“4 What could it be? Three times that night That wondrous vision came; Three times he saw that angel-hand Erase the royal name, And write a woman’s in its stead, In letters all aflame.

“5 Whose could it be? He gave command To all about his throne To seek the owner of the name That on the tablet shone; And so it was, the courtier found, A widow poor and lone.

“6 The king, enraged at what he heard, Cried, “Bring the culprit here!” And to the woman trembling sore He said, “’Tis very clear That thou hast broken my command; Now let the truth appear!”

“7 ‘Your Majesty,’ the widow said, ‘I can’t deny the truth; I love the Lord—my Lord and yours— And so, in simple sooth, I broke your Majesty’s command (I crave your royal ruth).’

“8 And since I had no money, Sire, Why, I could only pray That God would bless your Majesty; And when along the way The horses drew the stones, I gave To one a wisp of hay!”

“9 ‘Ah! now I see,’ the king exclaimed, ‘Self-glory was my aim; The woman gave for love of God, And not for worldly fame. ’Tis my command the tablet bear The pious widow’s name!’”

I believe that the day of God will show that this sentiment is true.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Look Up.

By J. MATTESON

WHAT a mistaken idea, to suffer our minds continually to dwell upon the world, or upon our own mistakes and failures, or those of others; or to suffer our conversation to run upon wrongs and sins, when there is no necessity for so doing. This only tends to impurity and discouragement in ourselves and others.

When these things begin to come to pass [the signs of the end] then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh. Luke 21. This is the proper position of the waiting saints of God: to be looking upward, homeward, forward to light and glory. What has earth to bind me here? Its blasted hopes are strewn thickly around me. I cannot afford to place my affections any more upon earthly things. All my energies and powers must be bent heavenward. To look down brings darkness and sorrow. To be so intent on scraping together little piles of chips, like Bunyan’s man with the rake, and thus lose sight of the heavenly crown, brings eternal loss. To neglect daily devotion, on account of business, is running a terrible risk. Many a man is by such a course prospered in temporal attainments. The world says he is wise. God says, “Thou fool!” Satan cries, Look down! Christ says, “Look up.” Dear reader, whose voice will you hear and obey? J. MATTESON.

Continue reading: Thoughts on the Book of Daniel