Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 3, 1860
GEOLOGY.
SOME ill-informed persons have alleged that there are discrepancies between the statements of the Bible and the teachings of geology concerning the creation, the flood, &c. The following remarks are believed to be sound, and fairly to meet any prejudices from this quarter.
1. I freely admit that there is such a science as geology; yet no one who is entitled to respect, will claim that it is demonstrative. It is admitted by its friends to be yet incomplete as a science, and to be in a state of rapid advancement.
2. For a long time it has been coming nearer and nearer to the standard of revelation. Even the most scrutinizing of its devotees have yielded point after point, until it has lost by the concessions of its friends, most, if not all its supposed discrepancy with revelation. A little further progress in the science will probably show that its teachings wonderfully harmonize in all respects with the scriptural statements on the same subjects.
3. No class of respectable scientific men have probably been more hasty and rash in making assertions than some geologists. Buffon set the example. He supposed that the earth and moon had been rived off from the sun by the stroke of a comet, and that the momentum and motion thus received caused the moon to revolve around the earth and both the earth and moon to revolve around the sun. He supposed that the fiery vapors brought from the sun condensed into water and produced the ocean. Thus he proceeded from folly to folly, though with quite an air of confidence, and with an eloquence extremely captivating. It is hardly necessary to inform the reader that no respectable writer, now living, embraces the theory of Buffon above alluded to.
4. The assertions of some geologists are hardly more surprising than the facility with which one abandons ground formerly taken and confidently maintained by another, or even by himself. This necessarily results from the low state of the science and the uncertainty of many principles said to belong to it; and has often, though improperly, led some sober men to doubt whether geology has any claims to the rank and dignity of a science. Volumes would be required to show the sudden and total changes which have been made in a short time on this subject.
5. Men make unreasonable drafts on our belief when they demand our credence to the assertion that all processes of organization and induration, which have ever gone on, have proceeded as slowly as those we now witness on or near the surface of the earth. If they but admit that the laws of matter are distinct and different from the properties of matter, and that the laws of nature are nothing but the usual modes of divine operation in nature, how can they show that God, in the early periods of the world, did not give unusual celerity or efficiency to these laws? This view alone would preserve all that is essential in the distinction between creation and providence. If there were no Bible, we could not, without forfeiting a title to a truly scientific state of mind, ask less or yield more on this or some other points.
6. Christianity has fairly stood the test in regard to every true principle of real science which has yet been established, although oftentimes ignorant and timid friends, and ignorant and insolent enemies have been led to suppose there was a discrepancy. It will be so with geology. Of this we have the strongest assurance in the large and valuable contributions to natural theology made by this science. Between natural and revealed religion there is the firmest union and the best agreement. That which is really friendly to one, cannot be inimical to the other. The result always has proved it and always will prove it.
7. Geology has clearly settled the point that animal organization and life have not been eternal, and that there is no evidence that the human family has been in existence much more than five or six thousand years. From the time of Cuvier down, these things have not been seriously questioned. Thus, in the argument with a large number of skeptics we have an advantage of great importance.
8. Nor is there anything in scripture which asserts that animals never died until man sinned, or that they would not have died if man had not sinned; though it is freely admitted that man himself would have been immortal if he had not by transgression lost the favor of God. The Bible does not even assert, although it may be true, that there are circumstances revolting to our feelings often attending the death of animals, beyond what would have attended their dissolution if man had not sinned.
9. Nor is there anything in revelation which forbids us to believe that the substance of the earth was formed long before it received its present organization. The first verse of Genesis may relate to a period millions of ages prior to the events noticed in the rest of the chapter. Commentators who wrote hundreds, and some of them fifteen hundred years ago, seem to have understood the first verse as relating to a period far anterior to the creation of man. This interpretation, therefore, is not modern, nor made merely to obviate a difficulty. But if it were, it is so perfectly coincident with the just rules of interpretation, that there can be no just objection to it:
10. Nor do any considerable number of respectable geologists now resort to the supposition favored by Parkinson, Cuvier and Jameson, that the six days of creation were six periods of indefinite, or at least of vast duration. The word day does not necessarily, or always in scripture, signify a period of twenty-four hours. But there are serious difficulties from other quarters in giving this interpretation to this part of scripture. The objections to this "device of interpretation," as a respectable geologist calls it, are so great that sober critics have entirely rejected it, and a large majority of the best geologists now think such an interpretation uncalled for by any facts known in their favorite science.
11. Geologists generally admit that there is abundant evidence that the earth everywhere bears marks of having been subjected to a deluge. Cuvier after a long statement of facts and reasonings on the subject, says, "I think therefore with Deluc and Dolomieu, that if there be anything settled in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has been subjected to a great and sudden revolution, the date of which cannot be carried much farther back than five or six thousand years."
12. Every passage of scripture has been so explained, or can be so explained, in perfect consistency with the established laws of exegesis, as not in the slightest degree to interfere with the settled or generally received principles of geology.
The foregoing remarks are sufficient to put to rest all fears which have been entertained in any quarter from the science of geology. It would require only time to fortify every one of them with the proof believed to be appropriate to the subject.—The Bible True, pp. 47-51
INDIVIDUAL OBLIGATION.
But besides these Scriptures, which so distinctly bring to view individual obligation in the work of the gospel, notice our Saviour's intercessory prayer: in which he not only supplicates favors for those who then loved him, but also for those who should "believe through their word;" assuming that they, severally, were to make known to others the way of life eternal.
And again; when long after this the Saviour made, through the beloved disciple, a revelation of things to come, what importance is assigned to this feature of his holy religion! "The Spirit and the bride say, Come: and let him that heareth50say, Come!" Let him say, let each one, personally, take up and send along down, through all time, the blessed invitation to "Come," and "take the water of life freely."
And is it not interesting to observe that the fullest and sweetest promises and rewards for Christian faithfulness are given as if intended to encourage this individual activity? It is not said the church that "converteth a sinner from the error of his ways," but "he that converteth" him, shall hide a multitude of sins, and save a soul from death. Nor is it written, the company, but "he that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return bringing his sheaves with him." Nor will it be said, in the last day, "Well done thou good and faithful" congregation, but "well done thou good and faithful servant,—enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Is there anywhere bestowed upon any company of persons, a commendation equal to that awarded to a single individual, and that individual, too, a woman? "She hath done what she could."
Luther used to thank God for those little words, my, thee, thou, thy, me, which are so profusely scattered through the Scriptures,—"The Lord is my rock," "my fortress," "my deliverer;" "When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee;" "I will be thy God;" "Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory;"—and they only show how personal are the blessings and duties of the great salvation.—Primitive Piety Revived, pp. 198, 199.
RESIGNATION.
If of the world right views we cherish,
And of its shortening night,
We shall not mourn our lamps that perish,
Ready for morning light.
We shall not weep o'er dried-up fountains,
Along our course of strife;
A few more steps across the mountains
There flows the river of life.
The ore shrinks not the fiery burning,
Nor mourns its earthly mine,
The dross to its own place returning—
The gold for use divine.
Each stroke that breaks our darkened mansion,
Lets in some holy ray;
When all is broken, "God's expansion"
Floods us with heavenly day.
Then think not strange the fiery trial,
As though our lot were strange;
Some drops must fall from out wrath's vial
O'er all sin's guilty range.
Oh! when each cherished drop doth leave us,
Which, by supporting, harms,
How blessed then to feel beneath us
The everlasting arms.
We very soon shall cease from weeping
Our earthly couch with tears:
What bliss to think of never weeping,
Through the eternal years!
PROXIMITY OF TRUTH TO ERROR.
We have in a former article called attention to this remarkable fact in the Christian life—that sometimes the richest practical truths seem to be parted by only a narrow belt from very pernicious errors. For examples we adduced the truth that God dwells and energizes in us, and that we may be taught and led by his Spirit.
We will take as our next example what for brevity's sake we may call, the anti-legal spirit.
There is sometimes occasion to preach against legality. Christians need to be cautioned against bringing their activities under the influence of fear more than love—of conscience and conviction rather than love, gratitude and sympathy with Christ. No father could enjoy service rendered on this legal, unloving spirit; and still less could a husband endure the attentions of his wife, if no love appeared in them. Neither can our Divine Lord. The very thing he cares for is the love of our heart. In just so far as a legal spirit shuts off this, it is to be abjured.
Of course, legality in the sense of seeking and expecting pardon of sin and final salvation on the ground of obedience to law, is utterly set aside in the gospel scheme. That notion is precisely no gospel at all. There is no glad tidings for sinners in it. We could have tried that scheme fully as well without any Christ.
In both the respects named, therefore, there are things to be said against a certain use of the law. And so far forth, the anti-legal doctrine involves glorious truth. Blessed are they who teach us that love is more and better than fear, that a child-like spirit pleases God; that the confiding love of a wife best represents the spirit Christ's people should bear towards himself.
They also are doing a great gospel work, who insist that the law must not supplant the gospel as the ground work of man's hope for pardon and heaven.
But let there be a care lest too much be said against the law and things that should never be said at all. For close along side of the fields of truth here, lie the rocks and realms of error. It can not be well to break down a sacred regard for God's law. There can be no truth in representing real law as man's enemy. Legitimately used, the law of supreme love to God and love equal and impartial to our neighbor, is a blessed power in our world, and one which no human soul can afford to spare. We need it as a rule of life. We need it as a test of personal character. We can not dispense with it as a standard of holiness. Those who have swept it away have been melancholy memorials of theological folly, or rather, of the great practical mistake of dishonoring God's law in a vain attempt thereby to give more honor to his gospel. No piety can be healthy that does not practically honor and faithfully use the moral law. Yet men have sometimes leaned so hard against the abuses of the law as to disparage law itself. It is a somewhat narrow line—this one between using the law as a part of the gospel system and using it as a whole system of its own. The former, since there is a gospel, is our only wisdom; the latter were egregious folly.
Analogous to this is that ancient discussion which has come down to us in Paul and James, about the relations of faith and of works respectively, to salvation. A strait and narrow Christian path in which you rest on faith in Christ and that only for pardon; use your faith moreover as a quickener and help in all well doing, and also take your well-doing as a test of the vitality of your faith. There are many professed Christians who make faith their excuse from good works, rather than their incentive thereto and strength therein; who strangely suppose that Christ's obedience is an ample substitute for the obedience of all the Christian world and that its merit can be so transferred to them as to avail them just as if it were all their own, and without either the spirit or the fact of obedience in themselves. Of this extreme we will not now speak particularly and indeed only to say that however much it may aim to honor Jesus Christ, it surely deals a terrible blow against his gospel as a power for holiness in our world.
On the other hand there are Christians who almost make their works their Saviour—not to say also that there are some people (not Christians) in whose system there is no Christ at all—nothing but works which they would fain believe to be good.
The narrow middle path we commend—Jesus the only power that redeems from the curse of a law broken by us fatally; and Jesus the only effective help in holy living; so that our faith in him shall work by love, constrain to new obedience, and beget by its constant energy upon us, a new life.
We adduce one more delicate Christian line, off which men swerve oft times into sad mistakes; viz. Sympathy with God's justice.
It is a high Christian attainment to enter deeply into sympathy with God's justice, unswerved on the one hand by sympathy with sinners who may be of our own blood; and yet with no damage to our deep pity and love for their souls. On the one hand we are tempted to recoil from the horrors and woes of that awful doom to which justice must consign the incorrigible; on the other hand we are perhaps equally tempted, when our sensitive souls feel the oppression and smart of their sins, to give dangerous scope to indignation and wrath and to wonder how God can bear with them so patiently and so long.
Now it is a blessed truth that we are held to sympathize with God's justice in precisely what it does, so far and so fast as that is revealed to us. We may not, we must not sit in judgment on that justice. Perhaps we cannot fathom its reasons; but we can trust God. It were all perilous in us to withhold our confidence and to doubt whether God is good in his justice. Scarcely less perilous is it for us to attempt to define the path God's justice may or may not take, and say so far I can honor him as just, and no farther.
Over against this lies the other extreme—getting ahead of the King of kings, and impetuously hastening him on in our heart to swifter or direr judgments on the wicked.
Some persons assume great credit to themselves for their intense indignation against those sins which have terribly goaded their own souls. Let them take care lest they usurp a prerogative not their own. It is well that Jehovah has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." Let us never forget this, and never cease to thank him for excusing us from this responsibility. It may be a narrow path to hold our hearts in sympathy with what God does as fast as he does it, and yet not ever suffering our feelings to run in advance of his long delayed retributions. Let us never forget that God does not ask our wisdom in those great questions of the sinner's final doom. Being altogether competent to decide them all alone, there was no occasion that he should. He does not even encourage us to bring our own feelings into court to bear upon the decision one way or the other. He would have it suffice for us to abide his decisions, confiding in their wisdom and goodness and no less in the set time for their execution.—Oberlin Evangelist.
Grace and Carnal Nature Never Can Be Reconciled
Grace and carnal nature never can be reconciled
TENDENCY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
To conclude, the direct tendency of the christian religion is to purify the heart, and to make men everything which the perfect happiness of society requires. After Paul had gone into a long detail of christian virtues, he concludes in his sweeping style, which suffers not one virtue to escape: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are venerable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are amiable, whatever things are of good fame; if there be any virtue, and if any praise be due, think on and practice these things."
One miracle there is which Mr. Owen must believe at all events, on the whole premises before us. He must believe that a set of vile impostors, deceivers of the basest stamp, the greatest cheats and liars that ever lived, did give birth to the purest system of morality the world ever saw—did recommend the practice of every virtue which human reason in the most cultivated state of society can admire and approve. He must believe that all the true religion and genuine virtue now existing depends upon the forgeries of a pack of charlatans, who went about from place to place declaring that they had heard what they never did hear, and that they had seen what they never saw. This miracle Mr. Owen must believe, which is a miracle of a more incredible character than any one in the volume, especially when we take into view the circumstances attendant on the progress and sufferings of these wicked impostors.
"If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?"
But still I have not made sufficiently emphatic the tendency of christianity upon every one who embraces it. This I will again lay before you. It becomes the more necessary to call this up again, because our opponent execrates christianity more because of its "idle fears and terrors" than on any other account. To me, from childhood, it has seemed strange why mankind should more fear the threats than hope for the promises of Jesus Christ. If not to a consciousness of the just desert of all that is threatened, perhaps anterior to any notice of the threats, I know not to what other cause this is to be attributed. For certain it is that threats and promises are equally credible or incredible. They both rest upon the same testimony. Now christianity, if rationally regarded, can never fill but one class of mankind with fears. If it be regarded as a fraud or imposition, its hopes and fears are equally disannulled. If it be regarded as true, what is its truth save pardon and peace to every one who submits to the government of Jesus Christ? No person can, then, be filled with any fears or terrors from the New Testament, but he that believes and will not obey. The infidel cannot; the christian cannot. To the infidel it is all a romance; to the christian it is all peace, hope, and joy, real as life itself. Who, then, does christianity make unhappy? The very persons, and none but the persons, it ought to make unhappy, viz: those who believe, and will not obey Jesus Christ. And if it did not make such unhappy, it would be unworthy of its Author and its object. And the man who labors to divest the guilty of his fears is a misanthrope, and not a philanthropist.—Campbell in debate with Owen, p. 382.
IN THIS WORLD, TRIBULATION.
THE Bible has nowhere contradicted the declaration of Christ to his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” John xvi, 33. The whole spirit as well as the letter of the Scriptures, shows that God’s people are not to expect any “continuing city” in this world. Their eye of hope has ever been directed to things beyond the present life. There is no promise, not one, of a time of general rest to God’s people before the second coming of Christ at the last day.
The “redemption” for which they are encouraged to “lift up their heads,” is something more than a mere temporary cessation or alleviation of their sufferings in this world. They are taught to look for their redemption from sufferings, and their final blessedness, in connection with their reception of “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time; wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season (if need be) we are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of our faith, being more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Pet. i, 4–7 and 13. See also Eph. i, 10–14.
During the whole period of existence in this sinful world the saints are represented as groaning within themselves, “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption” of their “bodies.” Rom. viii, 23. While dwelling in the “earthly house of this tabernacle,” they “groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven.” 2 Cor. v, 1, 2. They are taught to expect entire redemption from all the sufferings of the present state by being admitted into the everlasting kingdom of the Lord. But they were not to expect this until the return of the Lord Jesus. He goes to prepare a place for them, and he will come unto them again and receive them unto himself. John xiv, 3. But previous to his coming, he has declared that there should be the signs in the heavens, and in the earth and sea, which are recorded in Matt. xxiv, 29. All these events should transpire in rapid succession; and they should usher in his final coming to fulfill his promises to the elect, by gathering them together from the four winds of heaven. It is then that the servants that have improved their talents shall “enter into the joy of their Lord.” Chapter xxv, 14–23. “Then shall the king say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Chapter xxv, 34.
This will be the time of redemption to the saints. The very things that alarm the ungodly and certify them of their doom, shall comfort the saints and certify them of the coming of their Lord to save them. And when these things begin to come to pass, they are to look up and lift up their heads for their redemption draweth nigh; these events which immediately precede the second advent will not be long in their fulfillment; and as soon as the Son of man cometh, the kingdom shall be given to the saints to possess it forever.—Our Lord’s Great Prophecy, p. 383.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
I one day preached on the general corruption of mankind (says Rev. Mr. Lepault, of India), and the impossibility of being saved by our own works. A person present expressed his surprise at my assertions, and thought it strange that I should enforce the necessity of our keeping the whole law, if we desired not to be saved by our own merits. It was unjust, he urged, to consider a man cursed who continueth not in all the words of the law to do them, and cried out, “How can this be true, that whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all? How can this be? If I keep six of the commandments, and break four, have I not kept the majority? And is not God in justice found to give me heaven because I have kept two more than I have broken?”
In explaining these truths, we can easily make ourselves understood to cultivated minds; but I could never make the common people understand me without a parable. Instead of entering into an argument, I have often replied by describing a scene on the Ganges. “The day was dismal; the wind roared, the thunder pealed, the lightning was vivid, the waves of the Ganges raged, the stream was swollen, and the current rapid. The infuriated elements threatened destruction to every vessel on its waters: no boat could outlive the storm for any length of time. But see, what is that! It is a boat in distress, filled with people, rapidly hurried along by the waves. Between
the peals of thunder, the shrieks of the people are heard; they fear the rocks on the shore, to which the current is driving them. What can be done for them? Could they but be drawn into this creek they would be safe. Those on the shore look anxiously around, and discover a chain near them. A man instantly fastens a stone to a rope, binds the other end to the chain, and flings the stone into the boat. The rope is caught; the people eagerly lay hold upon the chain, while those on shore begin to draw them, amid the raging elements, towards the creek. They already are within a few yards of the land, one link of the chain breaks. I do not say ten links—but one link in the middle of the chain. What shall those distressed people do now! Shall they still cling to the unbroken links?”
“No, no!” exclaimed one of the hearers, “overboard with the chain, or it will sink them the sooner.”
“What then shall they do?”
“Cast themselves upon the mercy of God,” exclaimed another.
“True,” I replied. “If one commandment be broken, it is as though all of them were broken. We cannot be saved by them; we must trust in the mercy of God, and lay hold on the almighty hand of Christ, which is stretched out to save us.” I have frequently used this parable, and always found it to answer.
THE AUTHORITY OF GREAT NAMES.
SPEAKING of the modern fanciful methods of interpreting scripture—methods by which the force of some of its plainest declarations is destroyed or evaded, and some of its most glorious doctrines spiritualized into absurdities, Buck in his "Exposition of Our Lord's Great Prophecy," p. 64 says:—
" 'But they have the sanction of great names.' This is indeed true, and a source of deep regret. And so had the ancient theories of the universe: as great names sustained them as can be found on the historic page. Pythagoras and Thales and Ptolemy were neither idiots nor children; They were master spirits of a splendid age. But since the days of Copernicus and Newton, who thinks of receiving the once orthodox and popular theories and conclusions of former ages, simply because they had the sanction of great names? 'Great men are not always wise.' They may be great in some things, and far from great in other things. Great men are at variance in respect to a thousand things; and by the greatness of names we can never ascertain a doubtful truth. Truth is greater than great men; and sometimes God reveals to 'babes' what he hides from the 'wise and prudent.' Matt. xi, 25. 'Let God be true and every man a liar.'"
WHERE ART THOU?
“And the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?”—Gen. iii, 9.
THIS is the first question that God ever put to man. Adam had yielded to temptation. He had broken God’s law. He was ashamed to look God in the face. When he heard his Maker approaching he fled. He vainly endeavored to hide himself from God’s omniscient eye. He foolishly thought to escape from God’s terrible justice. He fled! But where? He tried to hide himself! But what would conceal him? Nothing. He is summoned. He must appear. He is questioned. He must reply. But what can he say? He has sinned—sinned foolishly, sinned wickedly. He cannot with any show of reason or justice excuse himself. This is just the case of every one of Adam’s descendants. We have all sinned—sinned without any reason for doing so. We have broken a law which is holy, just and good. In addition to this we have rejected a gospel which is gracious, merciful and full of compassion. We have refused to accept a pardon,—a pardon procured at the expense of the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son,—a pardon freely offered and urged upon us by everything kind and winning. We have refused to be reconciled to God, though he has sent his servants as his ambassadors to us, beseeching us to be so. We turned to him the back and not the face, we have wandered far from him; and now he comes near to us and asks, “Where art thou?” Where, Lord!—among thine enemies, afar from thee by wicked works, and fearing to see thy face. Where?—in sin under condemnation, and doomed to go down in woe.
“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body.” 2 Cor. v. 10
Loving God, Not Only Our Fellow Men
I hear men say, "The way to love God is to love and do good to our fellow-men, and that is all that is necessary;" but I am sure that I should not want my children to love me in that way. Suppose I should hear my children saying, "Now, the way for us to love our father is just to be kind to each other." Well, that would be a part of it, no doubt; but don't you suppose there is something in my heart which would cry out: "Love me, too, oh! my children?" And it is the glory of God's heart that he wants to be loved himself.
CAN ANY ONE HIDE HIMSELF?
“CAN any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.” Jer. xxiii, 4.
Guilt always dreads the eye of justice. The criminal always seeks concealment. From man we may hide, but who can hide himself from God? The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Adam tried to hide, but he could not. Achan tried to conceal his sin, but he could not. Hosts of great men, and rich men, and mighty men, and men of all classes, will beg of the rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of the Lamb, but all in vain. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. Reader? there is no place in God’s universe that can hide thee from the face of God. You must meet him. You must stand naked before him. You must account for every sin of thought, word, and deed, unto him. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Oh think of that day, when God shall single thee out from among millions, to stand alone before him, to be judged by him; when the history of thy life shall be unrolled, and thou shalt be required to answer for every day, every hour, every minute of thy life! What would you give for an hiding place then? How will you will feel? What will be your reflections? God’s eye will pierce you through and through; and conscience, which perhaps slumbers now, will be wide awake then, and will take God’s part against thee on every charge. Then he will set your iniquities before his face, your secret sins in the light of his countenance. Then you will have no advocate, no friend, no way of escape, but be speechless before his glorious throne. “Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” Ps. cxxxix, 7, 8.
CALEDONIA CONFERENCE.
By James White
We had the pleasure of attending this excellent conference. The Michigan tent was pitched in front of Bro. L. Gerould's house, and brethren came in from Wright, Bowne, Monterey and other towns around, numbering about one hundred and fifty. Brn. Lawrence and Whitney pitched the tent on Thursday, and Bro. Lawrence had spoken once or twice before we reached the place of meeting, just before the Sabbath. Bro. Bates gave an impressive discourse on the signs of the times that evening.
Sabbath morning the social meeting was very spirited and good, the brethren said, but we were unable to attend in consequence of a sudden attack of illness. Bro. Frisbie gave a practical discourse in the forenoon. We spoke in the afternoon on the Third Message, and in the evening on Bible conversion. First-day forenoon we spoke to a large assembly on the Sabbath question, leaving a division of the subject for the afternoon. And as we were about to dismiss the assembly, O. R. L Crozier rose up and asked the privilege to speak ten minutes. We objected, stating that the tent had been pitched at considerable expense, and the brethren had come in, many of them from a distance, to enjoy the privileges of a conference without being disturbed. We stated that if C. wished to speak against us, he should make an appointment and speak to his own congregation. Still he urged, and we refused.
After the assembly was dismissed, he sprung upon a seat and cried out, "Friends hear me." He then stated that elder White, at his last visit to that place, stated that he never run for any one, and was ready to meet him any time that he should get in his way, and that he had now come to accept elder White's challenge. We then stated that we had never challenged any one for a discussion, never engaged in a regular discussion, and never had been before challenged to a public discussion. C. then stated that he would speak in the street in front of the tent after the afternoon service. He improved well the hour of intermission stirring up strife in the assembly, making our place of worship a scene of confusion.
In the afternoon we called the attention of the assembly to the conduct of elder Crozier, and wished it distinctly understood that we regarded it unworthy of a Christian or gentleman. But to avoid so disgraceful an exhibition as an opposition meeting in the street, two rods from the tent, in that community which had treated us with respect, we would give elder Crozier the stand at the close of our discourse. We also made a statement of what we did say when last in Caledonia in relation to meeting our opponents. That we as a people were not in favor of public discussions, as the excitement and party feelings generally unfitted the people to investigate and decide properly, and had a bad influence on the cause of true religion. But that our brethren who gave themselves to the work of lecturing, when challenged by ministers who placed themselves between them and the people, did not run, but met them in defense of the truth.
After we finished our discourse, C. took the stand, and among his first performances, was a bold and wicked attempt to vote us down in our own congregation. He called upon all present who received the impression that elder White stated that he was ready to meet him in discussion to rise up. One woman and one man only got up. We then arose and said, Now we will put the vote properly. All present who heard us say anything like challenging elder Crozier to a discussion will please rise up. Not one arose. "Well, well," responded elder C.; but he evidently did not feel as well as he would have felt had a large number arisen that the report might go out that we had backed out, or had made false statements, shown up by a vote of the congregation.
Having failed in this wily attempt at abusing us, C. was not so well prepared to speak. His congregation was tired, and he had a hard job before him. He worried himself dealing out light blows against the truth, like one hold of the large end of the maul. Several wagon-loads left while he was speaking, and some others scattered, and some engaged in conversation in the tent. And some of his friends stated to our brethren that they were disappointed in the man. And so the fierce boaster slew himself.
In the evening we reviewed the discourse. The congregation listened with marked attention till past ten, when Bro. Bates arose and made most appropriate and spirited remarks, which called forth from the brethren the hearty response of amen! which might remind one of an old fashioned Methodist camp-meeting. And thus triumphantly the meeting closed. J. W.