THE HUNDRED AND FORTY AND FOUR THOUSAND AND THE PROPHETIC CHAINS.
By John G. Matteson
BY ELD. JOHN G. MATTESON. Text. Rev. 7:1: “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” Revelation 7 shows how the servants of God are sealed before Christ comes to gather his elect out of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues. It is not difficult to understand when this sealing takes place, if we consider this chapter in its proper connection. Waters are a prophetic symbol of nations. Rev. 17:15. The four winds, which put the sea in motion, denote, consequently, wars and commotions among the nations. Dan. 7:2. The four angels, holding the four winds of the earth, may represent heavenly beings, whom God has appointed to restrain the warring elements on earth, that they may not hinder the work of salvation. To prepare the children of God for the glorious revelation and eternal kingdom of our Lord is a work of the greatest importance. In the last days we find a remnant on the earth of the Israel of God, and the last message of mercy is sounding to prepare them for the great day. But at the same time the nations of the earth are swayed to and fro by restless party-spirits, like the great deep of the ocean, the waves of which never cease entirely. The political and social elements are burning under the ashes, and move the masses. They may be compared to the subterranean fire which shakes the surface of the earth here and there, and then again rolls back to its hidden fountains, governed by unseen powers, until at last it will break loose and roll forth with general destruction in the great day of the Lord. The monarchs of earth fortify themselves with vast armies and navies and with terrible weapons, exceeding everything hitherto known in the world. At the same time the leaven of socialism is at work from one end of the earth to the other, among the many millions who are groaning under the tyranny of aristocracy. The angels of God restrain these unruly elements until the mystery of the gospel is finished, and the wrath of the nations breaks loose without restraint. Rev. 11:18. Then shall the wrath of God also be poured out, and the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. Jer. 25:33. Another strong proof that this sealing takes place in the time of the end is found in the connection in which it stands. The prophet presents many times and in various ways the great struggle between light and darkness, truth and error, good and evil, the people of God and earthly powers. He presents clearly the terrible vengeance that falls upon the wicked. He paints the outer darkness in strong colors. But he never closes the prophetic chains with these. He shows also how the people of God gain a glorious victory in the struggle, and how they rejoice as they gather around the throne of God in Heaven. The division of chapters by the translators in Revelation is not a consistent one. They have in many instances cut off the last glorious, closing link of the prophetic chains, and the errors in the interpretation of the book of Revelation are chiefly based on this mistake. No one would be satisfied to read a book that leads us step by step through mysteries and finally leaves them unsolved, presenting no closing chapter to the story. No more can we be satisfied unless the last link of every prophetic chain is united with the former links. And all those theories which sever from the prophetic chains the last crowning link, are theories of error. Every chain is perfect in itself. It is a prophetic history of successive events. Every link is a chapter, and chapter after chapter is opened up before us for the purpose of bringing us to the grand consummation. Think ye that those many beasts representing kingdoms are delineated so particularly for the purpose of merely making us acquainted with their character? No, indeed! They serve as waymarks to lead us to the city of God; and for this reason they are interesting to us. Therefore, we insist upon uniting the last golden link of every prophetic chain in Revelation to its predecessors. And we declare that no one has a right to sever them. If this point can be made clear, it is a strong point for Seventh-day Adventists, and is worthy of our special attention. We will now notice some of these prophetic lines:— The Lord will remove the candlestick of those who do not repent, but he that overcometh shall “eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Rev. 2:5–7. The Lamb was slain and his blood spilt on the earth, but countless throngs of “every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” shall praise God and the Lamb, and “shall reign on the earth.” And every creature in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth shall finally say, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13. The seven trumpets (chapters 8, 9, 10, 11) bring terror and destruction upon the earth; but at last it is announced, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” Chap. 11:15. Pagan and Papal Rome wear out the saints of the Most High with terrible persecutions and cast down the truth of God to the ground. The two-horned beast, or the last mighty government in the earth—the United States of America—establishes an image to the first beast, and will at last compel its subjects to worship the image and receive the mark of the first government (papacy). Chapters 12, 13. But does the story end here? No, indeed! It would leave us in gross darkness if it did. The one hundred and forty-four thousand are God’s servants, who refuse to worship the image and receive the mark. Their Father’s name is written in their foreheads, and they are not defiled with women. They have hearkened to the voice of God which called them out from Babylon and her harlot daughters. Chap. 17:5; 18:1–4. They are caught up into Heaven, where they praise God upon celestial harps, and with a voice “as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.” Chap. 14:1–5. How wild and meaningless the theories of those who sever this golden link from the prophetic chain to which it justly belongs! It looks to them like some huge rock, cut loose from its original mountain chain by volcanic action and hurled down upon the level prairie, many miles from kindred rocks. No wonder that some, looking upon it from such a stand-point, apply it to the babes in the time of Herod, and others to the Jews. How beautiful and harmonious, on the other hand, is the truth, which through preceding chapters leads us to this glorious termination. Well may it encourage our souls and lead us on to battle and to victory in the name of Jesus. The warning messages of the three angels are now sounding before men. Most of the people reject them, and are cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, from which blood flows like rivers. Rev. 14:7–20. But those who obey the messages, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and thus gain the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Chap. 15. The seven last plagues are poured out upon the earth, and “great Babylon” comes in “remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” She is burned with fire. Death, mourning, and famine come upon her. Merchants and sailors, who were made rich by her, wail and cry at the smoke of her burning. The voice of musicians and singers is hushed. The sound of the mill is heard no more. The light of the candle is gone out in thick darkness. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride has ceased. Her sins and iniquities have reached unto Heaven, and God rewards her double according to her works. Her mirth and glee are silent. The stillness of hades reigns. Outer darkness has veiled the earth like a pall. Life with its busy scenes has passed away. Rev. 16; 17; 18. Does the prophet leave us in this terrible darkness? No! The next chapter presents a living picture of the eternal joys which the people of God obtain in Heaven. And the “great voice of much people in Heaven” comes from those who have been persecuted and tormented by the great whore, and who therefore rejoice over her judgments. They are the servants of God, who fear him, both small and great. And as they sing Alleluia, their voice is like the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings. They have come to the marriage of the Lamb, and rejoice at his marriage supper. Rev. 19:1–9. Jesus comes with his heavenly host to smite the nations with the sharp sword that goes out of his mouth. Kings and captains, free and bond, small and great, perish, and the fowls of heaven eat their flesh. Rev. 19:11–21. “For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” Matt. 24:28. But the people of God shall sit upon thrones, and reign with Christ a thousand years. Rev. 20:4. They are blessed and holy; for they have a part in the first resurrection. Verse 6. And finally “the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.” Dan. 7:27. The wicked dead, small and great, whose names are not written in the book of life, come forth from hades. They are cast into the lake of fire. They die the second death. Rev. 20:12–14. But God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his children, and give them an incorruptible inheritance in the earth made new. Then “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” Rev. 21:1–4. The New Jerusalem shall glorify the earth, and the glory of God shall remain with men forever. These considerations show clearly that when in Revelation the victory and glory of the people of God are delineated, those individuals who come out of that tribulation, and are saved from those plagues which have been previously presented, are always represented as enjoying the triumph. And every line of prophecy, delineating the great conflict between truth and error, and the terrible fate of those who reject the warning of God, shows also the great salvation of those who believe and obey the word of God. Every one must acknowledge that the tribulation spoken of in Rev. 6:14–17, is the tribulation of the last great day. And that which is next presented is the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and their final salvation. Rev. 7. Therefore, if it is the wicked and unbelieving who live in the last generation that cry unto mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” then it is also the righteous who live in the last generation that are sealed, and saved from the wrath of the Lamb. Does the prophetic line, commenced in Rev. 6, present a picture of corruption in the nominal church, growing darker and darker until the saints of God are slain like victims on a bloody altar, and, finally, of the removal of rocks and mountains, and of the wrath of the Lamb hurled against the wicked with terrible destruction, and then drop the curtain, leaving us in thick darkness? Who can believe it? Our hearts cry out, What is there on the other shore? What becomes of those who do give heed to the signs of the times? Where is the relief we expected as we patiently followed down link after link in the mysterious chain? Is the Bible written specially for believers? And are these prophetic lines waymarks for weary pilgrims on the thorny path to the kingdom? Then tell us the end of the story! Show us the great object for which you introduced these painful revelations! Show us the special work among the people of God in the last days, that we may share in it, be sealed with the seal of God, receive the Father’s name in our foreheads, and escape the wrath of the Lamb! Yes, we will show you all this. Here it is. It follows right along in beautiful connection. Rev. 7 makes it all clear; and Rev. 8:1–5 opens the seventh seal and reveals additional circumstances in connection with this great work. Oh, what a grand relief! A flood of light and glory breaks forth from this one beautiful picture, as we look from the company of the wicked and their destruction, and see the redeemed of the last generation joined with the great multitude which no man can number of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, crying, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” The Lord has spoken. His word is being fulfilled. The servants of God are sealed, as they keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They refuse the mark of an earthly government, and accept of the sign which God has established between him and his people, Eze. 20, and with longing hearts they look for the day when they shall “see the King in his beauty.” OUR RESPONSE.
By R. F. Cottrell
“Is this the kind return?
Are these the thanks we owe?
Thus to abuse eternal Love,
Whence all our blessings flow?” The choicest gift of love,
God’s well-beloved Son,
Descended from the throne above,
For those by sin undone. Himself for us he gave,
Endured our grief and pain;
He died to raise us from the grave,
With him to live and reign. And shall we spurn his grace,
Still choose our evil ways?
From love embodied turn our face,
From him withhold just praise? Shall love like this awake
In us no heart-felt praise?
Shall he thus suffer for our sake,
And we despise his grace? Melt, melt this heart of stone,
Love’s flame, begin to burn;
Let heart and life be his alone—
Yet what a poor return! THE DAY OF PREPARATION.
By G. V. Kilgore
“Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” Isa. 62: 10. Here is a prophetic command. It was given by inspiration, and will be fulfilled. It is a work to be performed by the watchmen on the walls of Zion in connection with the proclamation of the second coming of Christ; for the next verse says, “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh.” Christ will bring salvation when he appears the second time. Heb. 9: 28. The work of warning the world is an important one; for the Lord declares that his watchmen “shall never hold their peace day nor night.” The same work is referred to in chapter 57: 13, 14, where we read that companies shall be taken by vanity; but they that trust in the Lord shall inherit his holy mountain, “and shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” Thus it is evident that in the end of the world an alarm is to be sounded, telling the inhabitants that the day of the Lord is near, and urging them to prepare for it. What is this preparation work of which Isaiah speaks, this stumbling-block to be taken out of the way, and this standard to be lifted up? “The way” is the way of God’s people. Ps. 119: 1–3, shows that the law of the Lord is the way in which those who do no iniquity walk. But when the proclamation of the coming salvation of the daughter of Zion is made, it is found that a stumbling-block has been thrown in this “way;” and that it is necessary to lift up a standard for the people. The term standard signifies “an established rule or model; a criterion; a test.”—Worcester. The wise man says, “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing.” Then the commandments of God are to be the standard or test in the Judgment. This is plain. But what is the stumbling-block that has caused the people to turn to “vanity,” and “stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up”? Jer. 18: 15. It evidently is something in regard to the law of God. Daniel predicted that the papacy would think to change times and the laws of the Most High. Catholic priests really do think their church had a right to do what they claim it has done; namely, to change the law of God, which says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” They teach in their Sunday-schools that they have substituted Sunday for Saturday. They claim that the “very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday” shows their authority to command feasts and holy days. Unwittingly, they claim to have done what the prophet said they would “think” to do. The priests of the Romish Church have hidden their eyes from God’s holy Sabbath, and have torn it out of his law, making a gap in that hedge which should protect the people of God, keeping them in the truth. Is not this the stumbling-block which has caused many to stumble out of the “ancient paths”? In Eze. 13 it is intimated that a preparation must be made for the day of the Lord, by making up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle of that day. But the prophets (teachers) of Israel at this time refuse to do this work. Verse 5. That this text refers to the violence done to the law of God in regard to the Sabbath, the twenty-second chapter shows. After speaking of the priests, saying that they put no difference between the holy and the profane, and that they hide their eyes from His Sabbaths, the Lord says, “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.” In the thirteenth chapter he declares, “They have seen vanity”—the very thing that Isaiah says will take companies at the time they that trust in the Lord are saying, “Prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.” The Lord continues: “They have seen vanity and a lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it?” This is similar language to that which is heard everywhere at the present day: “The Lord said the Sabbath should be changed.” And, “The first day of the week is the Lord’s day. He has blessed it, and sanctified it, and I love it.” Ministers preach so, they pray so, and the people love to have it so. “They have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.” But where does the Lord say so? In all the word of God not a scrap of evidence can be found to prove such assertions. Therefore the Lord adds to what he has already said, “Albeit I have not spoken.” Then he declares he is against them, because they have seduced his people, saying, “Peace; and there was no peace.” And Paul says, “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” The hedge in which Rome has made a gap must be made up. If priests and great men will not do it, plowmen and boys can, if the Lord calls them. The work will be accomplished. The breach must be repaired. It will be done, by those who refrain from “speaking vanity.” It will be done, too, by honoring the Lord’s Sabbath. Hear the word of the Lord: “Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.” Isa. 58: 12, 13. “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” When? The verse immediately preceding this one says it is when the salvation of God is near to come, and his righteousness to be revealed. Isa. 56: 1, 2. But the universal question to-day is, Why have not these things been found out before? God sends warnings when they are needed. He reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets, and although they are written hundreds of years before they are sounded to the world, they are sure to be brought out. The Lord revealed to his servant Isaiah that a voice would be heard crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Time rolled on, but no one was heard raising that cry, until a lone man in the wilderness of Judea, seven hundred years afterward, proclaimed: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” Why was it necessary to prepare the way just then? Was it not always important to be ready to meet the Lord? Why was not that message given before? Oh, all say, the time for it to be given had not come before. But how did John the Baptist know that the time had come, and he was the one to raise the cry? Inspiration told him; and so by the word of inspiration we know that near the time of the second coming of Christ a work is to be done to prepare a people to receive him. VAIN WORSHIP.
By D. J. Frisbie
“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matt. 15:9. Never was this passage of Scripture more forcibly impressed upon my mind than recently while listening to a discourse delivered by a Baptist minister. His subject was a good one, it being the perfection of God’s law. In order to show that the commandments could not be improved by man he read the first one, and commented upon its justness and perfection. He also read the second and third commandments, making appropriate remarks. No fault could be found with the views which he presented on these commandments. But when he came to the fourth, he merely quoted the first clause, then went on to state how many there were all over the land that were on that beautiful Sabbath (Sunday) morning sending up their songs of praise to God. He spoke with considerable eloquence, and said if God had left us to choose a day of worship, what confusion there would be, as some would be keeping one day and some another. In order to illustrate what confusion this would produce, he related a circumstance which came under his observation while attending a meeting one Sunday, somewhere in the East. While they were engaged in service they were very much annoyed by hearing the noise of a mowing machine near by, and upon inquiry he learned that there was a company near by who kept Saturday. The thought occurred to my mind that this must be the reason he did not read the whole of the fourth commandment, as he had of the three preceding ones; for if he had, his congregation could have seen at once that the seventh day was the Sabbath of the Lord, and therefore this little company to which he had alluded were keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; and not those that were keeping Sunday. In saying God had not left us to choose a day to suit our own convenience, he said truly. “God has commanded us to keep the seventh day holy; and if some through tradition make void the law of God, and still persist in trampling under foot the day that God has set apart to be kept holy, the sad result of confusion arising therefrom must be chargeable to them, and not to those that are keeping the seventh-day Sabbath.” Chelsea, Mich., March 21, 1876. THE PAPACY AND UNIVERSAL WAR
By Eugene Lawrence
A poet and a humanitarian, J. G. Whittier, has recently pointed to the priest as the stimulating cause of warfare in Europe, and to a form of Christianity that seems constantly summoning the nations to arms; nor can any one fail any longer to see that but for the imperious interference of the papacy, one-half the world might lay aside its armaments, and give itself to the happy toils of peace, and that one word from the Vatican would still the fears that agitate all civilized races, and soften the burdens of millions of the suffering poor. Had Pius IX. bidden his bishops and his people submit to the laws of their country, and suffer with patience whatever might befall them, he would have proved his descent from the benevolent Peter by a humility and a tenderness more effective to convert than a hundred anathemas, or the most logical chain of argument from a doubtful text, and by meekness and mercy might have won the sympathy of mankind. He need but speak to the bishops of Posen and of Ermeland, and Germany might sink at once into repose. A generous surrender of the fabled patrimony of Peter would relieve Italy from all fear of a foreign invasion. A gentle suggestion to the ultramontane faction in France would leave its people republican and free. One word of peace and resignation would soften the lot of half mankind. But that word Pius IX. will never speak. He forbids his people to obey any law that he has not sanctioned, covers with maledictions those rulers who have repelled his arbitrary interference, fills Germany with religious discord, excites the rising and vengeful hopes of France, and is as merciless and as relentless in extreme old age, as when he shot down Roman patriots at Mentana, or filled the prisons at Bologna with the noblest of the Italians. Priestcraft, indeed, was never used for more unworthy ends or with such malevolent energy, and it seems that even many German Catholics are shocked and grieved at the persistent malice of their spiritual head. Deputy Jung, in the Prussian House, said recently that thousands of his Catholic fellow-subjects of the Rhenish provinces were heartily opposed to the extravagant claims of the papacy, and would be rejoiced to see them repelled by still more stringent measures, and he added that in Prussia the Roman Catholics had always been treated with an excessive liberality, which they had repaid by a cruel ingratitude; that they had been used, and had behaved, like spoiled children; had been enriched by the liberality of Berlin, and had replied by conspiring against Prussia at Rome. Nor can any one doubt that the practice of the Papal Church has always been to return the favors of the civil governments by new aggressions and fresh menaces. Nothing apparently but war will now satisfy this new form of mediaeval superstition, and already Cardinal Manning tells us that Europe is on the brink of a fierce religious convulsion, more terrible than any it has known in three hundred years, and both Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli seem to share in his opinion, while Prince Bismarck is never weary of asserting that the only disturbers of the public peace are the pope and the Jesuits, and that they are resolved to envelop the new empire in the flames of civil discord and in a chain of foreign foes. It is, therefore, with no peaceful purpose that the pope has annulled all the recent Prussian legislation against his own pretensions, and it is not without reason that Germans hear with a deep and extraordinary attention, if not alarm, the anathemas of the Vatican against their fatherland. If New York were surrounded by a chain of enraged and hostile States, if half the world around it were in arms, if the pope were on the side of its enemies, should declare its laws invalid, and excite its ultramontane population to rebellion, if an envenomed France hung on one side and an ambitious Austria on the other, we might form some conception of the painful eagerness with which our people would listen for each note of warfare, and sigh for that repose which could possibly only be won by a total change in the form and constitution of the Papal Church. Such is the real condition of Germany. The war between the North and the South, between the Spanish and Italian elements and the German, is far from its end; a sudden reverse might destroy for a century the free schools, the churches, the liberality and the progress of three hundred years, and lay Northern Germany low before the intense unity of a Roman Catholic coalition. In this moment of suspense, the most startling trait in the condition of the continent is the enormous armaments that may at any instant be summoned to action. Major Brackenbury, in a recent lecture delivered at London, before many of the chief officers of the English army, estimated that 10,000,000 men could be put under arms at once in Europe. “Everywhere,” he says, “arsenals and dock-yards resound with the clang of hammers.” The horrible machinery of war was never so complete as now; never, since the time of the first Napoleon, has civilization wasted so much of its energy on that destructive toil which Homer painted and denounced in the dawn of history; never was there a moment when men of peace should so seek to calm and soothe the passions of nations and labor to avert the fatal encounter. Yet what are the pope and his ultramontane followers doing? The priest, one might think, at such a time, would everywhere teach his purest lessons of humanity, and win the praise that divine lips have awarded to the peace-maker. But from the unhappy pope to the most obscure Jesuit, the whole power of the papacy is employed in exciting the evil passions of men and urging on a European war. The pope does not attempt to hide his rage. His enemies, or rather his opponents, are “vipers or hell-born miscreants, devils;” he covers them with his maledictions, and invokes upon them the judgments of Heaven; an inundation or an earthquake he thinks a proper chastisement for them, and in the midst of a profuse profession of piety and devotion, clamors for his revenge in Europe and America. His bishops and his people repeat his language and swell with his raging passions. In Belgium they menace Germany, in France they threaten Italy, in Spain they close universities and schools, in America they assail public instruction, and awaken a furious discord in the heart of the republic that has given them a shelter. The whole Jesuitical faction among us, unconscious of the rare privileges of a freedom it does not merit, employs its various abilities in complaints and denunciations of the government under which it has sought refuge, and, having been expelled from nearly all other free countries, now plots the ruin of the land where it has found a home. The papal priest is everywhere the harbinger of public disturbances or private crimes, and the whole busy hierarchy of cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and metropolitans, clad in crimson garments and covered with the painful memories of spiritual tyranny, seem as destructive to the welfare of mankind as a general pestilence or famine. In Brazil they defy the laws and invoke insurrection, in Mexico they massacre and rebel, in Ohio they threaten and overawe the obedient Democracy, and in New York, corrupt the public morals; in Europe this unhappy sect enforces a general armament, and summons mankind to war. It must evidently become a question for Europeans to determine how they can best repress the rancorous spirit of their priests, and how convert the papacy into an agency of peace.—From an article by EUGENE LAWRENCE, in Harper’s Weekly. PREJUDICE
By D. A. Robinson
The following definitions are given by Webster: “Prejudice, prejudgment; unreasonable prepossession; bias.” “Prejudge, to judge before hearing.” It is no uncommon thing to find individuals who, by their words and actions, forcibly illustrate the truthfulness of the above definitions. They assume that their position is infallible, or they are afraid to examine anything that conflicts with their opinion; and yet such persons are regarded by some as having strong minds. The truth is the opposite of this. The strong-minded person is the one who is not afraid to examine ideas that may differ from those he already entertains, and will not let his prejudice so overcome him as to judge before hearing. To see an individual cling tenaciously to some preconceived opinion that may be wrong, is no evidence of a strong mind. If this were so, then we must conclude that those in the past, who led out in the great Reformation, were men of weak minds. It requires the strong mind to reject error and uphold truth, wherever it may be found. It must be a strong mind that can say, This is truth, and I shall stand upon it though I stand alone, yea, though the heavens fall. When the light began to dawn upon the mind of Luther, he might have reasoned as many do at the present day: “This can’t be true, because it is entirely different from what my father believed, and I shall not pretend to know more than my ancestors.” Had he taken this course, we will not say that the Reformation would not have been developed, because God would have raised up somebody else, but Luther would never have acted the prominent part that he did. It was his love for truth, though that truth tore into shreds every fragment of his opinion, that gave him the position he held, and immortalized his name. Prejudice would have closed his eyes to the glorious light that beamed upon his pathway, but he laid it aside while investigating the truths which afterward became so precious to him. Would we find truth, we must take the same course. A love for truth will inspire us to follow wherever it leads. The position of many is illustrated by the words of an individual, who, upon being asked why he did not attend meetings where the Sabbath question was being presented, said, “I am a Methodist, and I don’t feel as though it would be right to go. If we have a belief we should stick to it.” Now what does such a plea amount to? Why, simply this, Whatever a person believes he must always cling to. The poor Hindoo mother believes it is right to cast her babe into the Ganges; therefore, let her do so. The heathen believes it is right to bow down and worship the sun; hence, we must say nothing against it. The Catholic believes the pope is infallible, and so we must not deny it. A great many believe that Sunday is the Sabbath; hence it is so, and they must always cling to it. Luther might have said the same: “I am a papist; this is my belief, and of course I must cleave to it.” But no, his position was, I will test my belief by the unerring word of God; and what was the result? His former belief was torn to pieces, and in place of it he had a belief more in harmony with the word of God. Let a person take the Bible, laying aside what he has been taught in regard to the Sabbath question, and let him carefully examine it with the one idea before him of finding what it teaches upon the subject, and it will be impossible for him to come to any other conclusion than that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and is binding at the present time. But the trouble with many was expressed by the good old deacon who said that he “would not keep the seventh day if he knew it was right;” but he evidently let his feelings get the better of his judgment, as he afterward modified his statement. The man who loves truth, and searches for it, will be very sure to find it; because “light is sown for the righteous.” Ps. 97:11. Again, the psalmist says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path;” Ps. 119:105; but it would not have been such had he not studied it and followed its teachings. In verse 11 he tells us why he was kept from sin, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Dear reader, is your love for truth greater than it is for earthly honor, ease, or pleasure? If so, it will lead you to search for it as for “hid treasures.” Do this, and your searching will not be in vain. Find the truth; love it; obey it; be sanctified through it, and you will finally be saved by it. Says the Saviour, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth;” John 17:17; and the apostle Peter adds, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth,” &c. 1 Pet. 1:22. Obedience is the vital point; for “if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” Isa. 1:19. Let us obey and live. D. A. Robinson. SOME NEW AND STRANGE IDEAS.
By S. Osborn
Mr. E. K. Hasford, of Indiana, a noted trance medium, was, until two years ago, an active worker in the Methodist church, of which he was a member for twenty-three years. He was highly respected, being the only lay member of that church ever sent as a delegate to the General Conference of that body. In a conversation with him, in reply to the question, How do the body and soul separate? he said that while in a clairvoyant state, he had a number of times seen persons die; that he could see the soul come out of the stomach in the form of a little white, cloudy mist; and that as it arose toward the ceiling it was arranged, part at a time, in the form of a body. As soon as it took the perfect form of the body consciousness was restored to it. Then it looked around, scared and surprised at the strange appearances around it, and asked what all this meant. The other souls about it said it had died, as they call it. This the soul would not believe until shown its dead body. Query: How did the soul get into the stomach? We read that the spirit of God is in the nostrils, Job 27:3, but we have no account of its being in the stomach. He stated further that they have schools and colleges in the spirit world the same as here, and that they play ball and other games. But those who die of bad habits, such as drunkenness, licentiousness, etc., have to take very low places there, and it takes them a long time to progress beyond them. He said he was opposed to capital punishment, as it so distorts the countenance, and those who thus die are shunned by all the other spirits. He also said that he uses his best endeavors to get people to do right here, that they may “get a better start over the river,” as he expressed it. When asked by what rule he determines right, since he had discarded the teachings of the Bible as the infallible rule, he replied that he determined right by his judgment. This view, of course, undermines all family and State government, as well as the government of God, and opens the way for the fulfillment on a grand scale of Paul’s testimony in 2 Tim. 3:1–8. He said he was his own judge, his own Saviour, his own redeemer, and that he makes his own atonement. Truly this is a false christ. He admitted that if the Bible was true, and there was a personal devil, 2 Thess. 2:9–12, was a hit at them. About two years ago spiritualism made its appearance in his town. He and two others of note met from time to time at private houses, to investigate it. They would read a chapter in the Bible, and pray for God to guide them in their investigation; and he said if God did not guide them right, it was his fault and not theirs. He talked very seriously and calmly, and is fully prepared to deceive the unsuspecting. We are truly living in the time of the fulfillment of Matt. 24:24. The Bible view of the state of the dead is the only thing that will shield us from this delusion of the last days. The word of God is the rule by which to try these spirits. 1 John 1:3.