Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1881
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON THE MIDIANITES.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
MOSES' work for Israel was almost done; yet one more act remained for the aged leader to perform, ere he should go to his long rest. "Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites," was the divine command; "afterward thou shalt be gathered unto thy people." This mandate was communicated to Israel, not as the word of Moses, but of Christ, their invisible leader; and it was immediately obeyed. One thousand men were selected from each of the tribes of Israel, and sent out against the Midianites. In the battles which followed, that people were defeated, with great slaughter.
The men who promptly and speedily executed the divine judgments upon those heathen nations have been pronounced harsh and unmerciful in destroying so many human lives. But all who reason thus, fail to understand the character and dealings of God. In his infinite mercy, the Lord had long spared those idolatrous nations, giving them evidence upon evidence that he, the mighty Jehovah, was the God whom they should serve. He had commanded Moses not to make war upon Moab or Midian, for their cup of iniquity was not yet full. Additional evidence was to be given; clear and distinct light from the throne of God itself was to shine upon them.
When the king of Moab had called Balaam to pronounce a curse upon Israel, and thus accomplish their destruction, the goodness and mercy of God was strikingly displayed. That corrupt and hypocritical gain-seeker, whose heart longed to curse God's people for reward, was constrained to pronounce upon them the richest and most sublime blessings. The Moabites themselves could see that it was the power of God which controlled the avaricious prophet, and compelled him in the most exalted strains of inspiration to proclaim Israel God's chosen, and his almighty power her protection. Here the last ray of light shone upon a stiff-necked people who had set their wills in defiance to the will of God. When, at the suggestion of Balaam, the snare was laid for Israel, which resulted in the destruction of many thousands, then it was that the Midianites filled up the measure of their iniquities. Then their day of probation ended, the door of mercy was to them closed, and the mandate went forth from Him who can create and can destroy, "Vex the Midianites, and smite them; for they vex you with their wiles."
Those who would complain of God, or question the wisdom and justice of his dealings with his creatures should realize their own incompetence, with their finite wisdom, to determine what conduct is befitting to the judge of all the earth. They should make it their chief anxiety to so conduct themselves as not to become subjects of his wrath, and should leave the Lord to deal with the work of his hands according to his own wise purposes.
Moses had been filled with grief and indignation at the deceitful wiles by which Israel had been enticed to sin and thus bring upon themselves the wrath of God. In the command to make war upon the Midianites, Moses saw not only the justice of God in visiting his judgments upon the guilty, but his mercy in giving Israel the victory over a people who were seeking by every hellish art to accomplish their destruction. The Israelites were to engage in this warfare, not to gratify malice or revenge, but as God's instruments, to do his bidding, being influenced solely by zeal for the divine glory.
Men do not understand what they are doing, when they permit themselves even for a moment, to doubt the wisdom and benevolence of God,—to regard as a species of cruelty the judgments visited upon the stubborn and rebellious. Few realize the malignity of sin. It is a deadly leprosy, contaminating all who are brought in contact with it. If men persist in showing contempt for divine authority, God, who created them, and whose property they are, has a perfect right to take from them the blessings which they have abused. God's name and authority as ruler in the universe must be maintained. When idolatry is rearing its proud head, when blasphemy and rebellion are strengthening, then God reproves the sins of the nations, and the manifestations of divine anger which they had provoked come upon the transgressors of his law. The Most High delivers his word of doom, and chooses the instruments to perform his will. These messengers of God are required to faithfully perform the work appointed them, however repugnant it may be to their natural feelings. Sacred history records no instance in which these men were reproved for too great thoroughness and severity; but God has many times reproved his servants for lack of faithfulness in executing his judgments. In all this, God would teach us the lesson that in the future Judgment retribution will surely be visited upon "every soul of man that doeth evil," "according to the deeds done in the body."
God's method of dealing with sin is not in harmony with the views cherished by a large class who occupy a prominent position among the professed followers of Christ. Many of these men cherish sin, and laud the benevolence and long-suffering of God, and dwell upon the loving character of Jesus,—all mercy, all tenderness,—while they pass over the threatenings of God's wrath against sin and sinners, and our Saviour's scathing denunciations of hypocrisy and self-deception. It is those who have not a keen sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin that are ready to question the justice of God in punishing with such severity the sins of the Amalekites, Canaanites, and Midianites. Those who love sin are unable to comprehend God's dealings with his subjects.
In our day, as in ancient times, there is disagreeable work to be done in reproving sin. In this work, God uses men as his instruments,—men of determined purpose, whom no threat or peril can intimidate, no hardship turn aside from the path of duty,—men who will never forget their sacred commission as servants of the Most High. The Lord calls for men to act promptly, with the courage of heroes, and the firmness and faith of martyrs, to tear down the idolatrous images that have usurped his place in the minds of men, and meet the armed force of wrong on battle fields. But in all this there is no excuse for any to indulge in harshness or severity to gratify their own wrong feelings.
God wants men whom he can use to his own glory, either to bear reproof and execute justice, or, with a heart full of piety and benevolence, to carry light into darkened homes, to speak peace to the troubled soul, and point the sinner to the pardoning love of Christ. The great want of this age is men fitted to God's will,—men who will listen with praying hearts for God's words, and will hasten to obey his voice.
There are men full of zeal, who claim to be doing God's will, while in reality they are governed by human impulse. They feel at liberty to question, criticise, and challenge every one who does not act in harmony with their ideas. They make themselves offensive to God and to the people. They wound continually, and by their wrong course create in others a spirit of distrust and hatred for God, because he employs such men to do his work. But the Lord does not give these men the great work which they consider theirs. If he did, he would give them grace to perform it after Heaven's order, not their own. Those, who are permitted to become co-workers with God, should ever cultivate the feeling that in every plan and work, they are doing the will of the Most High; and that in any and every emergency, God's Spirit, not man's, is to bear sway.
Balaam, having yielded himself to the control of covetousness, and hardened his heart by persistent rebellion, had joined his fortunes with the Midianites, and he perished in the general slaughter. He had felt a presentiment that his own end was near when he exclaimed, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." The fate of Balaam is similar to that of Judas, and their characters bear a marked resemblance to each other. Both had received great light and enjoyed special privileges; but a single cherished sin, like gangrene, poisoned the entire character, and drove them to perdition.
While the victorious Israelites completely destroyed the armies of Midian, they spared all the women and children, and brought them into the camp as captives. When Moses ascertained this, he became alarmed and indignant, and thus reproved the officers of the host: "Behold they caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord." There had been a lack of thoroughness in executing the commands of God. The war against Midian had been a just retribution upon a guilty people, of whom the women had been the principal criminals. Had these idolatrous, licentious women been preserved as captives, their presence would have constantly endangered the morals of Israel. The sympathy which would spare these transgressors was contrary to the will of God.
There is a sympathy for sin and sinners that is dangerous to the prosperity of the church at the present day. You must have charity is the cry. But that sentiment that would excuse wrong and shield the guilty, is not the charity of the Bible. The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity; for none can prevail against the servants of the living God, except by tempting them to disobedience.2The offensive character of sin can be estimated only in the light of the cross. When men urge that God is too merciful to punish the transgressors of his law, let them look to Calvary; let them realize that it was because Christ took upon himself the guilt of the disobedient, and suffered in the sinner's stead, that the sword of justice was awakened against the Son of God. It was to save us from shame and everlasting contempt that he endured the scorn and mockery which the world heaped upon him. It was our sins that caused the Saviour of the world such intense agony, pouring darkness into his soul, and extorting from his pale lips the anguished cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
He was numbered among the transgressors, he made his soul an offering for sin, that in his righteousness the believing, repenting sinner might stand justified before God.
After all this, if man refuses to respond to the great sacrifice which has been made to ennoble and to save him, if he obstinately chooses the path of sin, will the great Judge of all the earth excuse the willful transgression of his holy law? Surely, everything that is noble and generous in our natures must respond to such love as Jesus manifested in suffering for our sake. It was an unexampled humiliation for him to take upon himself the nature of fallen man, and sacrifice his life for a race of rebels; and the manner of his death makes that humiliation more apparent. He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Jesus was not insensible to ignominy. He felt the disgrace of sin as much more keenly than it is possible for man to feel it, as his divine and sinless nature was exalted above the nature of man. We should never entertain the thought that the Majesty of Heaven, so holy and undefiled, was not acutely sensitive to scorn and mockery, abuse and pain. He asks the murderous mob in Gethsemane, "Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and staves?" This shameful treatment Jesus keenly felt, yet for our sakes he endured the most ignominious and most painful death which it was possible for mortals to experience; a death which was appropriate for the basest of criminals was that which the Lord of glory suffered to ransom guilty man. Let none flatter themselves that they can continue in sin, and yet share in the great salvation which Christ has so dearly purchased. God is merciful and compassionate, but he is also just. Let the cross of Calvary forever settle this matter. As surely as Christ, the guiltless, suffered for the guilty, so surely will the wrath of God fall upon the heads of those who persist in their transgression of his law.
THE YEAR'S RECORD.
By Raymond F. Cottrell
Another year has sped,
'Tis numbered with the past;
Its transient hours have fled
Unceasing to the last.
Its record now is all complete,
Sealed up to the great judgment-seat.
The fleeting hours are passed,
Their deeds are in the book,
Which shall be oped at last,
And God shall on it look.
Will it be faultless in his sight,
Because its deeds have all been right?
Mercy is yet my plea;
I have an Advocate!
To him I now will flee,
Before it be too late!
Though the true record stand the same,
Write, Pardon, Thou, against my name!
Jesus, I look to thee;
Thy blood can still atone;
Still I may hope to be
Faultless before the throne!
Blessed be God! Blessed his Son,
My advocate before the throne!
For time to come, my all
I consecrate to thee!
For help, on thee I call,
That I may faithful be.
My record be of victory won!
Prepared to hear the glad, Well done!
R. F. COTTRELL.
FAITH IN CHRIST AND OBEDIENCE.
By John Norton Loughborough
A LETTER BY J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
THE following letter is in response to a reader of the Signs of the Times in Glasgow, Scotland. As it touches the subject as held by so many in this country, I send it for publication, hoping it may be of use to thousands of readers in this kingdom:—
DEAR CHRISTIAN FRIEND: I must now say a few words in response to your letters of Aug. 19 and Sept. 20. After making reference to our journal, Signs of the Times, and saying, "You say the law is to be kept by believers in Christ," you ask the following question: "I want to be shown how a man who is resting alone in Christ for his salvation and deliverance from all that is worldly, and to live with him in glory, why such a man needs the law?"
St. Paul makes a plain statement of the case, when in Rom. 8:3, 4, he tells us what is accomplished for the believer in Christ, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (margin, by a sacrifice for sin), condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit."
When a man believes in Christ, and obtains pardon for his transgressions of God's commandments, he is not released from obligation to obey those commandments. He now shows his love to God by implicit obedience. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." 1 John 5:3.
Again, St. Paul states in Rom. 6:13, 14, 15: "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."
Being "under the law," seems, in the above text to be used in the sense of being under its condemnation. The repenting believer in Christ is pardoned, and instead of being condemned by the law he is saved by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is "under grace," or the favor of God, but this does not give him the least license to sin. Paul meets even such an intimation with the strong negative, "God forbid."
St. James states the case on this wise, Jas. 1:23, 24, 25. "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
Here we see the apostle has compared the law of God to a mirror. A good mirror will simply give us a reflection of ourself. The best mirror cannot remove a spot from our countenance, or a stain from our garments, but it will discover to us those spots. So the moral law of God while it has no power to remove the stains of sin from us, yet being "holy, just, and good," (Rom. 7:12) and "perfect," (Ps. 19:7) may give us a knowledge of our position before God, for "by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. 3:20. Spots, wrinkles, and defects in our character must be removed by thorough repentance, and faith in the atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Isaiah expresses it, "wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, etc." Isaiah 1:16, 17, 18.
You say, "Christ is the end of the law to every believer in him." That is part of the statement St. Paul made in Rom. 10:4. The text reads, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." If you claim from this that when persons believe in Christ, the law comes to an end, your position would present a law obligatory upon unbelievers, but from which believers are released. The word end here is used in the sense of object, the same as St. James uses the word in James 5:11, "Ye have seen the end of the Lord." This does not mean that in the case of God's dealings with Job the Lord came to an end, but we see God's object in thus dealing. So in Rom. 10, God demanded of the people to turn from sin. The Jew would go about with his circumcision, and offerings of beast's blood, here called his own righteousness, not submitting to God's plan of salvation through the blood of Christ. "Christ is the end (object) of the law for righteousness." It is only through him that we can come aright to God, so as to obtain pardon for transgressions of the moral law in the past, or render acceptable obedience for the future.
You next refer to texts in Galatians, Colossians, etc., to prove as you say, that "we are free from the law." The law in Galatians, and Colossians 2, I believe, with you, we are free from, for it was that law of ceremonies in which was found circumcision which was merely a sign of righteousness. That law was only a "schoolmaster" until Christ. It was a "shadow of good things to come," the body of which is Christ. The circumcision of that law was only a sign of that righteousness which we get by thorough repentance and faith in Christ. In him we get that circumcision of the heart, in putting away the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Col. 2:11.
A plain distinction is kept up in the Scriptures between the ceremonial and the moral laws of right and wrong. While it is so plainly stated of this law of ceremonies that it has been "blotted out," "done away," and "abolished" by Christ, he himself says of that moral law which he found when he came, "I have come not to destroy the law." "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17, 19. That we may not be left in doubt as to what law and commandments he refers to, he quotes two of them, one against murder, and one against adultery.3
You say of those who believe in Christ, "Men and women of this sort do not need the law of God; they serve God not through the law like a servant, but delight in the law and serve him like a son." Again you say, "A Christian would not be a Christian and break the law." This last statement is my position precisely. It seems to me you are answering your own question.
St. James says, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." Jas. 2:12. This is equivalent to saying, God will judge you by his law, therefore take a view of yourself, from time to time, and see if you are in harmony with its precepts, and so speak and so do as that ye shall be judged by it.
In your letter you say, "Every man and woman that is born of God has a new nature in him, like unto God, and this is the only person that can keep the law, and if he would break the law that would show that he was no Christian." Just so, and the question is, because he has no new nature he is to be guided simply by his own feelings, and impressions, or is he to follow the teachings of Christ, Paul, and James, and test his love and loyalty to God by examining himself as to his willingness to keep God's law? St. John tells us (1 John 5:3), "This is the love of God that we keep his commandments."
You say further that "in the book of Galatians, Paul was writing to people of your belief." Not at all. He was writing to those who, instead of looking to Christ as a source of pardon for their sins, were going back to circumcision and to works of the dead ceremonial law. I do not wish to be classed with such at all, for I see no means of forgiveness of sins, but by true repentance—turning away from our transgressions of God's law, to be washed from sin in the atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What I cannot see is how a man after he has died to sin, and has been pardoned through the blood of Christ, suddenly comes where he is at liberty to break the law of God, and if one of God's laws is quoted to him that is contrary to his course of action, he replies, "Oh! I don't believe in the law, I am saved by grace." St. Paul says to such "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" and again he answers with one of his strong denials, "God forbid." Rom. 6:1, 2.
I have not yet learned that the liberty of the gospel is liberty to transgress the moral law. How clearly Paul sets it forth in Rom. 8:4. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit."
You cannot wish me to understand you to mean that when a man believes in Christ he is at liberty to have other gods, worship idols, take God's name in vain, dishonor his parents, kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, and covet? I seriously doubt whether we should hear so much talk about "no use for the moral law," if it were not for the fact that the mass of people are doing contrary to the plain teachings of the fourth commandment. Instead of turning to obey that, as they do the rest of the commandments, the claim is set up that faith in Christ frees us from the law.
I am strikingly reminded of a resolution passed by the Methodist Conference, under John Wesley, in the year 1770, as follows; "The reason of the fearful universal immorality now prevailing, is the wide-spread opinions that Christ has annulled the moral law, and that evangelical freedom dispensed with the ten commandments."
I fear the same teaching now is rapidly bringing upon the world a worse state of lawlessness than that to which Wesley then referred. Let men get the impression from ministers and professed Christians that such laws as the ten commandments are not binding, and you may expect to see corruption, confusion, and anarchy as the result.
You speak of my position relative to the law of God and faith in Christ as though it were "new and strange." Not so very new for I seek to express it, and can easily do so, in Bible language. And as for its being new in modern times I read the following from Watson's Life of John Wesley, London edition, page 249. "The immediate fruits of the spirit ruling in the heart, are love, joy, peace, bowels of mercy, humbleness of mind, meekness, gentleness, long-suffering. And the outward fruits are the doing good to all men, and a uniform obedience to all the commands of God."
May you and I, and all within the reach of God's mercy, be ever prompted by the one earnest desire to know and do the will of God, is my prayer. What I have written is with the hope of elucidating truth. May our earnest, prayerful searching result in bringing us to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, is the desire of your sincere Christian friend.
Southampton, Eng.
"INVISIBLE PATCHING."
By F. A. Noble
BY REV. F. A. NOBLE, D. D.
ALMOST every day I have occasion to go past the shop of a cobbler in whose window there hangs a neatly printed card bearing the inscription: "Invisible Patching."
It is a taking device. To most of us, walk as daintily as we will, there come times when we must stop and discuss the very homely question of clouting the shoe or throwing it aside. It seems too good for the ash-heap; not quite good enough to give away; and by no means decent to wear as it is. But we are used to it, and it is comfortable—proverbially comfortable. If only there could be some trick by which the break or the hole might be repaired, and at the same time not show any of the mender's stitches, how nice it would be! Pride and economy and conservatism strike hands and rejoice in the prospect.
What my own particular experience with these patchers who patch after the invisible fashion has been it is not necessary to relate. It is enough to say that as often as I see the above-mentioned sign I think of the effect a little exposure to the rain, or a vigorous tramp in the forests and by the brooks will be sure to have on our Crispin's fine job; and I say immediately: "No more of this for me! If we must have patches, let them be patches, laid on in the good old honest style of the art."
Unfortunately, this invisible patching business is not confined to the cobblers. A great many people are trying to do the same thing, or something analogous to it, in higher spheres. The fancy is abroad that mishaps and lapses of one sort and another and immoral excesses can be easily concealed by a little shrewd maneuvering; and that character, cracked or worn through by irregularities of life, can be mended and made to appear as good as new by a little deftness of external manipulation.
Families once rich, but now depleted in fortune, or having some ghastly skeleton in the closet, instead of bravely facing the facts, and making the best of them, not unfrequently resort to this and that and the other cunning expedient to maintain a good outward showing. The airs of those with whom everything is all right are loftily assumed. Through speech, in dress, in going and coming, in hospitalities, in plans announced, a systematic effort is made to keep up appearances. That, indeed, is the one end to which all skill and energy are directed: the keeping up of appearances. There is nothing behind but defeat and sorrow. There is nothing within but hollowness. Life is a series of subterfuges. From first to last, if it is possible to avoid it, there is no admission of the gaunt figures of Fear and Want and Shame standing back in the shadows and tormenting the soul. If only the patch can be put on so that it will not look like a patch, that is all! Thanks to the laws of God, which are in array against all shams, it cannot be.
Here is one in whose habits of sobriety there begin to be indications of ugly rents. He is coming under the power of strong drink. He is conscious of it too; but he loves liquor, and he lacks the moral force to dash the cup from his lips, and turn his back resolutely on intoxicating beverages. Still he has sufficient pride of character, and sufficient regard for his own welfare and standing in the community, to wish it may not be generally known that he drinks. So he tries the trick of powerful spices and burnt coffee, and nobody, save the apothecaries and the liquor-venders, knows the truth, to disguise his breath, and make it appear that he is not drinking at all. How vain the attempt at concealment and deception! There is no jugglery a man can practice on himself or the world whereby he can drink and not have it known that he drinks.
Close at hand is another whose integrity is worn through. The markets and exchanges of all men, have brought their temptations, and he has yielded, and his honesty is gone. He knows it. He knows also the value of a reputation for uprightness. If he is to make headway, he must be thought at least to be straightforward. But instead of confessing his wrong-doing, and putting it all away from him, and starting out anew, he begins to form what seems to him adroit schemes, and to act parts, and to tell lies, in order to cover up his defects, and get on. Of course he fails. So long as the sunshine lasts, and there is no hard strain, the plan may work. So soon, however, as there comes any real test of moral strength, all these patchwork duplicity, and all these smart contrivances at concealment, will be sure to leap into exposure. The simple fact is, moral qualities cannot be successfully hidden or assumed. In the long run a man will pass for just what he is; for just what he is and nothing other. Disguises do not disguise. They do not satisfy. The words of Hamlet to the Queen sooner or later find their way to the lips of us all: "Nay, madam, I know not seems."
When we turn about and look at ourselves on the God-ward side, and in our God-ward relations, it will be seen that this is a truth which reaches down and out a great way. Not a few appear to think that the mischiefs wrought by sin can be mended, and mended so that nobody will be able to detect the line where the new is joined on to the old, by a few simple artifices learned in the schools. Back in the old days there were prophets who thought they could make the spiritual natures of men just as good as new without putting them to the trouble of repenting of their iniquities and believing in God, and trying their best to do his will. In our modern days I think I know of some meeting-houses across whose portals the words of our cobbler's card might be fitly written. The promises made are so captivating, and the whole thing is to be done on such easy terms! A tolerable amount of knowledge; the graces of intellectual and social culture; good nature, and a plenty of charity for everybody—except, forsooth, the man who believes something and has some downright convictions—these skillfully applied will mend the man up, and make him look, at any rate, just as good as new.
It is needless to say all this finds no shelter in the New Testament. The method of the new birth and re-creation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." To be as good as new one must be new. To be saved, souls must accept Christ, and come under the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring the reason and the will and the conscience forward into conformity to God. In the matter of character let us have no "patching" of any kind.—Christian Union.
ANECDOTE OF LORENZO DOW.
Lorenzo Dow, whose name is still fresh in the minds of many of the older inhabitants, it is said, was on his way to preach in South Carolina, when underneath an old spruce tree he overtook a colored lad who was blowing a large tin horn, and could send forth a blast with rise and swell and cadence which waked the echoes of the distant hills.
Calling aside the blower, Dow said to him: "What's your name?"
"My name? Gabriel, sir," said the brother in ebony.
"Well Gabriel, have you been to Church Hill?"
"Yes, massa, I'se been dar muny a time."
"Do you remember a big spruce pine tree on the hill?"
"Yes, massa, I know dat pine tree."
"Did you know that Lorenzo Dow had been appointed to preach under that tree to-morrow?"
"O yes, massa; everybody knows dat."
"Well, Gabriel, I am Lorenzo Dow, and if you'll take your horn and go to-morrow morning and climb up in that pine tree and hide yourself among the branches before the people begin to gather, and wait there till I call your name, and then blow such a blast with your horn as I heard you blow a minute ago, I'll give you a dollar. Will you do it, Gabriel?"
"Yes, massa, I takes dat dollar."
Gabriel, like Zacheus, was hid away in the tree-top in due time. An immense concourse of persons, of all sizes and colors, assembled at the appointed hour, and Dow preached on the Judgment at the last day. By his power of description he wrought the multitude up to the highest pitch of excitement in describing the scenes of the resurrection at the call of the trumpet peals which were to awaken the sleeping nations.
"Then," said he, "suppose, my dying friends, suppose you should hear at this moment the sound of Gabriel's trumpet"—
Sure enough, at that moment the trumpet sounded. The women shrieked, and many fainted; the men sprang up and stood aghast. Some ran, and all felt for a time that the judgment was set and the books were opened. Dow stood and watched the drifting storm till fright abated, and some one discovered the colored angel who had caused the alarm quietly perched on a limb of the old spruce, and wanted to get him down to whip him. Then he resumed his theme, saying, "I forbid all persons present from touching that boy up there. If a colored boy with a tin horn can frighten you almost out of your wits, what will you do when you shall hear the trumpet thunder from the archangel? How will you be able to stand the great wrath of God?"
THE POISON BUSH.
By Eliot
At a Sabbath-school anniversary in Brooklyn some years ago, Rev. Dr. Hodge related the following interesting fact. During a visit he made to the Bahama Islands, a shower of rain unexpectedly fell. Such an occurrance is very rare at the Islands except during the rainy season, and is regarded with great dread by the natives, who as rapidly as possible seek the nearest shelter.
On this occasion, a little colored boy was caught in the shower at a distance from home, and having no place to go for protection, crept under a bush that was near. Its foliage, however, was not dense enough to keep him from the rain, and he was wet by the water trickling through the leaves. Unfortunately for him the bush was a poison bush, and the water falling on the leaves caused the poison to strike into his little limbs, so that in a short time he was dead.
After the shower, he was found and carried to his home. Dr. Hodge was requested to attend his funeral. The circumstance of his singular death excited his curiosity, and he wished to learn something more about the fatal poison bush. An aged negro told him that it grew abundantly upon the island, but that by its side there always grew another bush which was its antidote; and that if the little boy had known it, and had rubbed himself with the leaves of the healing bush, the poison could have done him no harm.
What an illustration is this of the sad fate of those who have been poisoned by sin, and know not how to escape from its dreadful consequences. But for this fatal poison there is a sure remedy, provided by the same God who placed the antidote beside the poison bush. The cross of Christ is the tree of life. Let the suffering and the dying come to that and they shall be saved, for "its leaves are for the healing of the nations."
Poverty Is in the Soul
POVERTY is in the soul, and not in the circumstances. We see this exemplified every day in the lives both of the poor and of the rich. There is Patrick, the gardener. He works six days in the week for his weekly wages, lives in a two-roomed house, fares very plainly, has two suits of clothes, one for daily wear and one for holidays, has a house full of children, but Patrick is contented and happy. His employer is far less so. Every new supply makes room for another want. He is always spreading out a little larger, and adding as much to his cares as to his enjoyments by his fresh acquisitions. Where shall we find the golden mean of content? Where ought we to find it? How rich in money ought we to be to have enough and not feel poor? How ample should be our learning to free us from the consciousness of being ignorant? How far should benevolence act as a controlling motive to keep us from feeling that we are selfish? Patrick is troubled by none of these questions. But may not one have a consciousness of real wealth in health, in competence, in knowledge, and in the power of acquisition of wealth, and knowledge, and virtue, that shall give content? How many of our wants are purely artificial, purely imaginary! He who has the most of these is the poorest of creatures, for it is impossible that he should ever be satisfied.—Ehrichs' Quarterly.