The cleansing of the Sanctuary reveals to us a solemn and important work, the closing events of the plan of salvation. How important have been its events as it has progressed to the present time; but how transcendently important its final scenes! How anxiously have angels watched it from its commencement till now; but with what intense anxiety must they behold it as it draws to its final issue! With what interest must they regard the children of men to ascertain their state of preparation for the momentous and final crisis! It is about to be told how many the Saviour's blood has rescued from the jaws of death! It is about to be known how many have laid hold on the inestimable sacrifice made for rebellious and fallen man! The last transaction connected with the "offering for sin" will soon be finished. No wonder then that a special messenger is sent forth, as the final act commences, to warn mankind of their fearful condition. No wonder that as a new flash of light, in the onward development of truth, is thrown upon the world, the Third Angel's Message is heard enforcing upon the mind the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, through obedience to which alone we are to gain an entrance through the gate into the everlasting city.
But not to the world alone is a special warning given. It must be apparent to every one from a contemplation of the Sanctuary work, that a period of deepest moment to the living church on earth would eventually come: a time when their cases would come up before the great tribunal of heaven, and when they must be all prepared, though here in this mortal state, to find acceptance there, and stand without a mediator. It has already been remarked that as Christ shed his blood for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, as well as for those under this, the cases of the dead would naturally first come up for decision, and the living last. As this momentous period approaches, shall the living be warned thereof? We think they are. What is this warning? A counsel to buy of the True Witness gold tried in the fire, white raiment and eye salve. Rev. iii, 14–22. And what if we do not heed this? I will spue thee out of my mouth, is his solemn asseveration.
The nature of this judgment we think is intimated in verse 5 of the above named chapter: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." Peter speaks of a time of blotting out sins. Acts iii, 19. It is evident then that with all mankind the case will finally stand thus: either their sins will be blotted from the book of God's remembrance, or their names will be blotted from the book of life. The closing work of the Sanctuary is a work of cleansing from or blotting out sins; hence it is here also that the blotting from the book of life of all those names which are not found worthy, also takes place. How appropriate then, how timely, yea how merciful, the warning, as we approach the time when the cases of the living are to come up for decision, to be zealous and repent, to seek the gold, white raiment and eye salve, lest we be spued out of the mouth of the Lord, or, in other words, have our names blotted from the book of life.
Again, we read in the marriage of the king's son, Matt. xxii, that when the king came in to see the guests, he found there a man not having on a wedding garment. He was taken by the king's servants, bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness. This parable has been already alluded to as signifying the marriage of the Lamb, which takes place at the close of his ministry as priest, and to which he went in, when he entered the Most Holy Place in the fall of 1844. How do the guests go in to the marriage? By faith.
And what is signified by the king's coming in to see the guests? We answer, the inspection of our individual cases, as they come up for examination before the great tribunal of the heavenly Sanctuary. It appears that some are found therein not having on a wedding garment. Some embrace the truth; but they receive it in theory only. It convinces the judgment, but they do not let it subdue the will. It affects the head, but they do not let it sanctify the affections. They lack holiness of heart; they do not reflect the image of Jesus; they lack a preparation to stand the decision of the judgment; they are without the wedding garment. How timely, then, as the period approaches when the king shall come in to see the guests, that the True Witness sends forth his counsel to buy of him the white raiment that they may be clothed. What is this white raiment? The righteousness of saints; Rev. xix, 8; and what is this but the wedding garment of the guests in the parable of Matt. xxii? Thus is the church notified of the approach of the time when the king shall come in to see the guests; thus is she counseled to procure the wedding garment, in preparation for that event.
As the Third Angel's Message is the last warning to the world, so we believe the counsel to the Laodiceans to be the last to the church. If fully heeded, they will prepare a people to stand upon Mt. Zion with the Lamb; and if these will not rouse men to action in behalf of their eternal welfare, what threats of judgment, or promises of reward would be able to do this?
To those who have followed us through this series of twenty-eight articles, if any have had patience thus to do, we would briefly say, If the important events which we have shown to be already transpiring and about to transpire in heaven and on earth; and if the great chains of truth which we have hastily traced, showing that they all centre upon this very generation;—if these things will not arrest the attention of the careless, awaken the sinner, and stimulate the church, what more could God do? It is not his purpose to use compulsion. He compels no man to be saint or sinner. But he employs motives. He denounces judgments on the one hand and promises blessings on the other; and every man is left to his own free choice. Death as a motive has aroused its thousands. Death to be sure is around us and in our midst; and it is well to be prepared for its nearest approach; but a more powerful motive, to lead men to prepare for eternal scenes, is now presented to the world; the end of all things, attested by the Scriptures of truth, and by the signs in the natural, moral, and political worlds, throws its all-absorbing shadow immediately across our pathway. Were we left to the natural course of our lives, we might look forward to twenty, forty or fifty years; and it is natural to the human heart to put off the unwelcome period of death as far as possible. But the coming end will not allow us so long a prospect. It presses on with a certainty from which there is no appeal. Louder than the claims of death, it calls upon us to prepare to meet our God.
But not only do we see the end approaching, but the position of our High Priest in the heavenly Sanctuary is opened before us. We see him performing the last act of his ministration for the sins of men. We see the plan of salvation drawing to its close. We see all things tending rapidly to the time when that fearful sentence shall go forth, "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." What do we say? We see the judgment already passing upon the human race, decisions which shall be for eternity.
And what more need be said? There is no man who can look at these things in the light of God's word, and yet in his right mind expect, or plan for, long time to come in this present life. How much time have we, brethren, in view of these things, to devote to worldly plans and worldly prospects? How much inducement to lay up treasure here? How much room for covetousness and worldly-mindedness? How much time to add land to land, or house to house? How much time to give ourselves up to the cares of this life, and yet be safe? Shall we not find a worthier object upon which to place our affections, in that inheritance of which Peter speaks, "incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us?"
We have not written these articles thinking to say anything that has not been said before, or to do it in a better manner, but only to endeavor to heed in a measure the injunction of Peter, "not to be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth." We commend the thoughts offered to the careful and serious attention of the reader, with our fervent desire that the Author of all truth may impress upon the heart its inestimable importance and value, and the necessity of speedily giving heed thereto.
A DISCOURSE
By R. F. Cottrell
Written for the Seneca Indians, to be delivered through an Interpreter. No. 2.
BY R. F. COTTRELL.
BRETHREN AND FRIENDS: In our first discourse in this place, we spoke of the signs of Christ's second coming. My brother spoke of the signs in the heavens—in the sun, moon and stars. But these are not all. There are other signs which agree with those to prove the same. The Lord says, "I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath." Acts ii, 19. Again, Jesus says, "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity." Luke xxi, 25.
The signs in the heavens have been seen. After this come troubles and perplexity among the nations of earth. For a few years past, the nations have been perplexed. Their rulers have been in doubt what course to pursue. The nations are angry; and the next event in order is the pouring out of the wrath of God. This wrath will be poured out in the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. Rev. xv, 1. In Rev. xi, 18, it is said, And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged. Thus we see that this angry state of the nations is foretold. This we see fulfilled; and the wrath of God will certainly follow. Have not the nations of Europe been angry for a few years past? And in our own country, have we not been threatened with war at home and abroad? Are we not upon the very eve of the time of trouble foretold by Daniel? He says, Michael shall stand up, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Michael, the great Prince, is Christ. He is the Son of the King of heaven. At the commencement of his reign he will dash the nations in pieces. But he will deliver every one that have their names in the Lamb's book of life. There will be trouble to the wicked, but joy and salvation to the saints of God!
But some will not believe that these things are coming. They tell us that there is peace now among the nations. This is just as Paul said it would be. Says he, When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 1 Thess. v, 3. The present peace, then, is only the prelude to that swift destruction which is coming. No permanent peace is established. The nations are in an unsettled state still; and like a store of gunpowder they only need the smallest spark to set them all in a blaze again.
But there is another sign of Christ's second coming which I wish to notice. His coming is to be preached in the world; and this preaching is a sign of the end. Says Jesus, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. This means something more than the preaching of salvation through Christ. The salvation of the gospel has been preached more than 1800 years. This is not the sign of the end. But this gospel of the kingdom, which29is a sign of the end, must be a special preaching about the coming of Christ, and the setting up of his kingdom, when he will reign with his saints a thousand years. This preaching will not convert all nations; but it will be a witness or sign to them. The great mass will not heed it, and to them the coming of Christ will be as a thief in the night, or as the flood upon the old world. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Some dislike our preaching the second advent; but it must be preached or the Scriptures would not be fulfilled. The antediluvians were warned of the coming judgment of God, by the preaching of Noah. They did not believe and were destroyed. The people are now being warned of the day of wrath just before us, but they will not believe, and that day will overtake them as a thief. Noah and his family believed God, and were saved from the flood. So God's true children now will believe and be saved. Paul says, But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Paul's brethren then will know that the Lord is coming, and will be saved. But the unbelieving will not know, and will be lost. Let us believe God's word, and heed the signs, that we may be brethren of Paul!
Christ pronounces a blessing on those servants whom he finds at his coming preaching the truth. At that time the truth that he is coming will be the food in due season. He says, Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. The food in due season must mean the truth that belongs especially to that time. And the truth at that time will be that the Lord is coming. Just before Christ comes the fact that he is coming will be the truth which belongs to that time. Blessed is that servant that shall be found at the Lord's coming preaching his coming. That this is the true meaning, is evident from what is said of the evil servant. He is represented as saying in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming. The evil servant says the Lord is not soon coming; the faithful servant must teach that he is coming. Let us believe the truth, and not be like the evil servant.
But the preaching of the second coming of Christ is further prophesied of in Rev. xiv. The book of Revelation abounds in symbols. Thus the wicked governments of earth are represented by wild beasts. John sees in the first place a great red dragon. This as a symbol means Pagan Rome. He then sees a beast with seven heads and ten horns. This means Papal Rome. These governments persecuted the saints for many years. Next he sees a beast with two horns like a lamb, but he spake as a dragon. This we believe means the United States. This government is lamb-like in appearance, not dragon-like in action. In profession it is the land of liberty; but in action it is the land of slavery and oppression. Beasts are symbols of governments.
But in chapter xiv, another class of symbols is introduced. They are angels flying through the heavens with messages to the inhabitants of the earth. These we understand to signify messages preached to the world by the servants of God. They symbolize proclamations which are to prepare the people of God for the coming of Christ. Three messages are preached, and then the Son of man is seen coming upon a great white cloud. The gospel of the kingdom is preached in these three messages, and then the end comes. The sickle in the hand of the Son of man is a sign of the harvest. Said Jesus, The harvest is the end of the world. These three messages must be preached to the world before the coming of Jesus; for the Scriptures must be fulfilled. We believe two of them have been preached, and that we are now preaching the third.
The first angel preaches the everlasting gospel to them that dwell upon the earth, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come. This is a proclamation of definite time for the session of Judgment. This we believe was fulfilled in 1844. Wm. Miller and many others preached a definite time for the judgment in the Fall of 1844. But perhaps you say, That preaching was a mistake, for the Lord did not come as they expected. Certainly, the Lord did not come, but who knows that the set time for the judgment did not then come? They had wrong views of the judgment, and perhaps you have. They supposed that Christ must first come, and then judge the world. But when he comes he raises the righteous all at once and rewards them with immortality. All the saints have part in the first resurrection. But the wicked dead do not live again till a thousand years afterwards. From this we see that the cases of all must be decided for the first, or for the second resurrection, before Christ comes. And when he comes he executes judgment for the saints, by rewarding them with eternal life. Not considering these facts, they that preached the judgment hour in 1844 were disappointed. And we might expect they would be, for two other messages must be given after the judgment hour is preached, before the Son of man is seen on the white cloud.
The prophecies must be fulfilled. And those persons by whom God fulfills them are sometimes disappointed in their expectations. This was the case with the first disciples. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, they spread their garments in the way, and cried, Hosanna to the King that cometh in the name of the Lord! They doubtless expected that Christ was then to take the kingdom, and reign upon the throne of his father David. Within a few days their Lord was crucified and their hope was gone. They were doubtless as much disappointed as those were that expected the second advent in 1844. The first disciples were appointed. But did they not fulfill prophecy? They did. Hundreds of years before, the prophet Zechariah had said, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. The disciples did shout, in fulfillment of this prophecy. The Pharisees were disturbed with the noise, and said to Jesus, Master, rebuke thy disciples. Jesus replied, If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And why? Because the prophecy must be fulfilled. But they did not know what they were doing at the time. John says, These things understood not his disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
So we see that the people of God can fulfill his word, and yet be disappointed. But we have a clear explanation of the disappointment of 1844. The set time for the session of the judgment, is found in the book of Daniel. Chap. viii, 14. Unto 2300 days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed. The cleansing of the Sanctuary is the work of blotting out sins. It is a judgment work. This work must be done before Christ comes. It is the judgment of God's people. When this is done he will come and give his people their reward. But we cannot speak of this subject now, but would say that the right view of this subject explains the disappointment.
The judgment hour message has been given. People complain of our preaching definite time; but it was necessary for time to be preached. The Scriptures could not have been fulfilled without it. Let us believe it.
The second angel follows the first, saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen. We believe that this also has been fulfilled. Such a message did follow the first in the fall of 1844. Babylon means confusion; and we believe it is used to denote all the fallen sects of the last days, who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. When this message was fulfilled, those who believed in the Lord's soon coming, came out of the different churches to which they belonged, because their hopes were opposed and ridiculed by their former brethren. But I cannot now spend time on this part of the subject. It has had its fulfillment.
And now the third message is to be given. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast or his image or receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
The two-horned beast will enforce by law the worship of the beast and his image on pain of death; and declare that no man shall buy or sell unless they have the mark; but God warns us beforehand, that if we obey this earthly power in this, we shall drink of his wrath. This is the last message, and we are soon to make our final choice. I have not time to explain this message fully; and show what the worship and mark of the beast are. But I will tell you how you may escape the wrath of God. Be sure that you keep all his commandments, just as he has given them to us in the Bible. The third message closes in these words: Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus. Men are not keeping all the ten commandments as they are written in the word. This message is to bring all true Christians back to the commandments. And we believe it will be done. We believe those Christians who are alive when Christ comes, will keep the seventh day of the week, which is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and not follow the Catholic Church by keeping the first day.
There is no command in the Bible for keeping Sunday. This is a commandment of man. The beast requires us to keep the first day, and so will his image. The beast is Papal Rome. The image will soon be made by Protestant United States. And we must soon choose whether we will obey God, or these wicked powers of earth.
May God help us to keep his commandments, and not the commandments of the beast, that we may be safe in the day of his wrath. That we may stand when the wicked powers of earth, which have made void his law, shall be dashed in pieces. Amen.
The Saint and the Sinner.
By Nevins
If Christ should say to the wicked as to the righteous, on the last day, "I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink," &c., they would not ask, "when saw ye thee hungry?" &c. They would think themselves worthy of the commendation; for they always contended that they had good hearts and loved Christ. Just so it is now. His enemies most confidently and strenuously assert that they do love him, while his friends are very suspicious of themselves, often doubt whether they do love him, and always slow to declare it, and when they do, it is always with regret that they love him so little.
Christians wonder why they should be saved. Sinners wonder why they should not be saved. The sinner asks, "What have I done?" The Christian, "What have I not done?" The sinner says he does the best he can. The Christian knows he does not. Who was it that said, "Behold I am vile!" Was it Saul, Judas, or Jeroboam? No. It was Job, "a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and eschewed50evil."
The habits of an evangelically righteous man are holy; his sins are but occasional acts, contrary to his fixed habits; whereas, with the unregenerate, it is just the reverse. He may do good actions, but his habits are sinful. The Christian acts out of character when he sins, the other acts in character. With the former, sin is a digression; with the latter, it is the main stay. The one walks in the ways of obedience, though he is guilty of occasional aberrations; the other walks in the ways of disobedience habitually. Devotion is with the Christian a habit, though he is sometimes indevout; so is trust in God, though he sometimes distrusts him; so is the strictest sobriety and the severest rectitude, though he may occasionally be betrayed into acts that are opposed to these virtues.
It must be acknowledged, that if the sinners are not out of their senses, the saints are. There is madness somewhere. If Festus was not beside himself, Paul certainly was. The one party or the other is dreaming. Who is it? Paul or Festus?—Nevins.
Little Sins.
By Bishop Armstrong
Allow little sins, suffer them to stay for a moment in our souls, and little they will not remain; open the door of our souls ever so little to any sin, and the sin will soon be master of the house and all that is therein. Our enemy begins warily, that he may succeed thoroughly. He begins with tempting to trifling sins, that we may be the less frightened when he proposes great. He spots our baptismal robe before he dyes it. He first casts a little dust into our eyes, that we may see indistinctly and confusedly, before he puts out our eyes and blinds us quite. The hardening, and blinding, and deafening of a soul is not quickly done. No man at once snaps asunder all reverence for his Redeemer's will. Ask the most profligate and vicious of mankind, whose consciences seem seared with a hot iron, and they will tell you there was a time when even they, so bold in vice, felt a mother's gentlest and tenderest rebuke, were uneasy at a little fault, blushed at the least untruth, keenly felt a little act of disobedience, some slight transgression. Alas, when a great sinner looks back at his former self, at his first beginnings in sin, his feelings when he erred, he can scarcely believe that he ever had such a tender and sensitive conscience.
Who then can speak lightly of little sins, if from such have grown all the monstrous iniquities that have been acted in the world, all the bold rebellions against God, all the reckless crucifyings of Christ afresh, all the daring deeds of hardened men? We know not how far we may be drawn away from the blessed rule of Christ, if we once allow little sins to have their way and note them not, and we may at last put our hands to such evil acts, almost without remorse or shame, as we now shudder even to think of and to hear about.
If we would be saved, through the mercies of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must resist by His grace the least of little sins; we must look with awe and dread at the slightest form of sin; we must set our minds against the least dallying with sin, against crossing the border, if it be but a hair's breadth; we must check the first thoughts, the faintest imaginations of an evil hue; we must stop them at the door and push them back; we must be at pains to turn the current of our thoughts when we find them inclined to run in an evil channel. As with all our watchfulness, all our prayers, all our wrestlings with the powers of darkness, all our endeavors to keep pure hearts, we are often overtaken with a fault, and our souls often discolored by acts of disobedience and infirmities, what shall we be if we watch but little, and let offenses creep in, and take no account of little matters, and are not armed at all points, and only care to keep out and restrain the greater floods of wickedness?
The true way to serve God is to be severe against the least offense in ourselves, to keep a strict watch, to raise before our eyes the high standard of Gospel holiness, to study closely the most holy example of our blessed Lord, to have awful notions of sin in all its degrees and kinds, to avoid all appearance of evil, all that leans and looks that way, to solve all doubts and cases of conscience by taking the stricter side, by not venturing to sail too close to the shore, but keeping as it were, quite out at sea, by not going up to the very boundary of what is allowed, by not stretching the tether to the farthest point, but by keeping within the inner range and circle of permitted things so as to be even over-cautious and quite within the mark.
The heart is deceitful beyond measure; indulge an impure thought but once, and it will come again, and stay longer, and be harder to shake off, and have others standing behind it ready to come in after it; and many indulgencies of an impure thought, when the occasion offers, will envelope themselves into an impure act. Those of us who have gone the farthest into an unholy course, and who now feel the mastery of some favorite sin, must confess the evil all began with weak concession to some few busy troubling thoughts, that pressed themselves into our souls and were not checked at first.
It would indeed be a great matter as regards any advancement in the spiritual life, any deeper and more living knowledge of God our Saviour, if we would henceforth think more of temptations to what are called little sins, if we would count them as Satan's spies, sent out to find a way and make a passage for their master's host. What can be little that has to do with our salvation and perdition? What part of human life, on which hang such great results, and which seems on the whole to be made up of little things, a sort of tessellated pavement of little acts, can be called unimportant or of small concern? The greater actions of life, which sweep us forward with greater strides either on the broad or the narrow way, are after all the children of our lesser acts, the result of the habitual frame of mind, as it has been developing itself in the smaller and more ordinary events of common-place life. It is but occasionally that we are called to do great things. Every-day life, from hour to hour, is composed of minute particles; and in the common routine of our various callings and positions our souls are shaped.
Be then ever on your guard; walk circumspectly; carefully take every step. It is not by great efforts, every now and then, but continued efforts, that we learn to obey. Everything we do has its influence on the general character of our lives; and though we may not see our growth from day to day, we are growing one way or another, advancing in God's favor or in the ways of evil. And while I bid you be watchful in all things, so I bid you always to pray, that by continued and sustained acts of faith from hour to hour, by continually lifting up the soul to the mercy seat, continual supplication to the Father through the merit of his dear Son our Saviour, you may have continual supplies of spiritual strength; and thus, however weak, unstable, or powerless yourselves, you may become strong and steadfast, loving and true-hearted, by the abundant assistance of the Holy Spirit.
An Extract
Selected for Review.
An Extract.
The vicious affections, like noxious weeds, sprout up and increase of themselves but too naturally; while the graces of the christian temper, exotics in the soil of the human heart, like the more tender productions of the vegetable world, though the light and breath of heaven must quicken them, require on our part constant and assiduous care. But so far from their being earnestly sought for, or watchfully reared, with unremitted prayers for that divine grace, without which all our labors must be ineffectual, they are suffered to droop and die almost without an effort to preserve them.
Way being thus made for the unobstructed growth of other tempers, the qualities of which are very different, and often directly opposite, these naturally overspread and quietly possess the mind.
True christians are walking "by faith and not by sight." This state of mind contributes, if the expression may be allowed, to rectify the illusion of vision, to bring forward into nearer view those eternal things which, from their remoteness, are apt to be either wholly overlooked, or to appear but faintly in the utmost bounds of the horizon, and to remove backward, and reduce to their true comparative dimensions, the objects of the present life, which are apt to fill the human eye, assuming a false magnitude from their vicinity.
The true christian knows from experience that the former are apt to fade from the sight, and the latter again to swell on it. He makes it therefore his continual care to preserve those just and enlightened views which, through divine mercy, he has obtained. Not that he will retire from that station in the world which Providence seems to have appointed him to fill; he will be active in the business of life, and enjoy its comforts with moderation and thankfulness, but he will not give up his whole soul to them, they will be habitually subordinate in his estimation to objects of more importance.
The awful truth has sunk deep into his mind, "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal," and in the tumult and bustle of life, he is sobered by the still small voice which whispers to him, "The fashion of this world passes away." This circumstance alone must, it is obvious, constitute a vast difference between the habitual temper of his mind, and that of the generality of nominal christians, who are almost entirely taken up with the concerns of the present world. They know indeed that they are mortal but they do not feel it. The truth rests in their understanding and cannot gain admission into their hearts.
This speculative persuasion is altogether different from that strong practical impression of the infinite importance of eternal things, which, attended with a proportionate sense of the shortness and uncertainty of all below, while it prompts to activity from a conviction that "the night cometh when no man can work," produces a certain firmness of texture, which hardens us against the buffetings of fortune, and prevents our being very deeply penetrated by the cares and interests, the good and evil of this transitory state. Thus this just impression of the relative value of temporal and eternal things maintains in the soul a dignified composure through all the vicissitudes of life. It quickens our diligence, yet moderates our ardor; urges us to just pursuits, yet checks any undue solicitude about the success of them, and thereby enables us in the language of scripture, "to use this world as not abusing it," rendering us at once beneficial to others and comfortable to ourselves.
L E T T E R S .
By W. H. Graham
"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another."
From Bro. Graham.
Bro. SMITH: I would be glad to help the Office in this time of need, but my present circumstances forbid. I have realized of late that the great burden and weight of the cause does not rest entirely upon the preachers and editors. True, there is a great responsibility resting upon them, but what can they accomplish unless they are sustained by the means, and their efforts backed up by the Spirit of God, in answer to "the effectual fervent prayers" of a living church? And what would become of the souls brought into the truth through their instrumentality were there not nursing fathers and mothers in Israel, to take them by the hand and help them along to the kingdom?
O brethren and sisters, a great responsibility rests upon us. When shall we realize it? When shall we arise and show by our lives that we love God with all our hearts, and our dying fellow-men as ourselves? Souls are perishing, and their salvation in a measure depends upon our efforts. The storm of God's wrath is about to fall, and we can help them to secure a shelter. The last message of mercy is being given to the world, and the means of spreading it are in our possession. Shall we engage more faithfully in this glorious work? Shall we show to all around us, by a well ordered life and godly conversation, that we believe the truths we profess? May God enable us to be zealous and repent. The little church in this place is rising; and I believe that ere long God's honest children will go free.
W. H. GRAHAM.
Kensington, Ct., May 12th, 1858,
Isaac Sanborn
By Isaac Sanborn
From Bro. Sanborn.
Bro. Smith: As I have been disappointed in not attending the Conference at Battle Creek, I write a few lines, thinking it may be encouraging to the remnant to hear that the Third Angel's Message is on the rise in this part of the field. I have recently been holding31meetings in Winabago Co., Ills., and six received the truth. Others are inquiring the way to
mount Zion. O that the Lord may give them the desired information.
Last Sabbath I met with the church at Spring Grove, and after a free time in speaking to them we repaired to the water, where seven were buried in the likeness of Christ's death, and raised to walk in a new life. O that they may be overcomers. Dear brethren, I for one do think it is high time to draw nearer to God, and live more devoted to him.