Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1881
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
The Sons of Eli.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
As the sons of Eli advanced to manhood, and entered upon the duties of the priesthood, the evil effects of their early training became more apparent. Though engaged in so important and sacred a work, they were “sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.” From childhood they had been familiar with the solemn, impressive services of the sanctuary. They had been faithfully instructed in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. Intellectually, they had a knowledge of God; but their hearts had never yielded to the influence of divine grace. They loved not God’s character or his requirements.
Had these youth improved the privileges granted them, they might have become men of both intellectual and moral power. A faithful obedience to God’s requirements will have a surprising influence to elevate, develop, and strengthen all man’s faculties. Those who have in youth devoted themselves to the service of God, are found to be the men of sound judgment and keen discrimination. And why should it not be so? Communion with the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, strengthens the understanding, illuminates the mind, and purifies the heart—elevates, refines, and ennobles the whole man. “The entrance of Thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
Among the youth who profess godliness, there is a large class who may seem to contradict this statement. They make no advancement in knowledge or in spirituality. Their powers are dwarfing, rather than developing. But the psalmist’s words are true of the genuine Christian. It is not, indeed, the bare letter of God’s word that gives light and understanding; it is the word opened and applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. When a man is truly converted, he becomes a son of God, a partaker of the divine nature. Not only is the heart renewed, but the intellect is strengthened and invigorated. There have been many instances of persons who before conversion were thought to possess ordinary and even inferior ability, but who after conversion seemed entirely transformed. They then manifested remarkable power to comprehend the truths of God’s word, and to present these truths to others. Men of high intellectual standing have considered it a privilege to hold intercourse with these men. The Sun of Righteousness, shedding its bright beams into their minds, quickened every power into more vigorous action.
God will do a great work for the youth, if they will by the aid of the Holy Spirit, receive his word into the heart, and obey it in the life. He is constantly seeking to attract them to himself, the Source of all wisdom, the Fountain of goodness, purity, and truth. The mind which is occupied with exalted themes, becomes itself ennobled. Those who profess to serve God, and yet make no advancement in knowledge and piety, are Christians only in name. The soul-temple is filled with desecrated shrines. Frivolous reading, trifling conversation, and worldly pleasure, occupy the mind so completely that there is no room left for the entrance of God’s word. Worldliness, frivolity, and pride take the place which Christ should occupy in the soul.
To fix the heart’s best affections upon any finite object, any earthly good, degrades the soul and weakens the intellect. God alone is worthy of man’s supreme devotion. The individual whose heart is placed on worldly gain becomes covetous, selfish, and even cruel, in his efforts to amass wealth. Living for himself, he becomes narrow-minded. All his thoughts and feelings are absorbed in promoting his own interests. Mind and heart are dwarfed to meet his low standard of excellence.
Those who seek as their chief good the indulgence of appetite and passion, are never good or truly great men. However high they may stand in the opinion of the world, they are low, vile, and corrupt in God’s estimation. Heaven has ordered that the mark of their depravity shall be written upon their very countenance. Their thoughts are of the earth, earthly. Their words reveal the low level of the mind. They have filled the heart with vileness, and well-nigh effaced therefrom the image of God. The voice of reason is drowned, and judgment is perverted. Oh, how is man’s entire nature debased by sensual indulgence! When the will is surrendered to Satan, to what depths of vice and folly will not men descend! In vain does truth appeal to the intellect; for the heart is opposed to its pure principles.
Eli’s sons chose the false, the sensual, the debased, instead of the true, the pure, and the holy. Thus they became sons of Belial,—children of Satan. Standing, as they did, in sacred office, the chosen exponents of the divine will, mediators between a holy God and repentant sinners, the course of these wicked men brought temptation upon all Israel. Again the faith and devotion of the people were tested. Those who had cherished iniquity in their hearts, were inclined to unite with these vile men; and many excused their own sins, because those in high position led the way in transgression.
The typical service was the connecting link between God and Israel. The sacrificial offerings were designed to prefigure the sacrifice of Christ, and thus to preserve in the hearts of the people an unwavering faith in the Redeemer to come. Hence, in order that the Lord might accept their sacrifices, and continue his presence with them, and, on the other hand, that the people might have a correct knowledge of the plan of salvation, and a right understanding of their duty, it was of the utmost importance that holiness of heart and purity of life, reverence for God, and strict obedience to his requirements, should be maintained by all connected with the sanctuary.
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The Lord had, through Moses, given the most explicit directions concerning the sacrificial offerings. But selfish, avaricious priests, to serve their own interests, had departed from these instructions. The sacrifice of the peace-offerings especially, which were made as an expression of thanksgiving to God, and were presented in great numbers when the people assembled at the annual feasts, afforded a favorable opportunity for unscrupulous priests to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. The Lord had directed that the fat of the peace-offering should be burned upon the altar as a type of the great Sacrifice; a specified portion, the breast and the right shoulder, with some minor parts, were given to the priest as his perquisite; the remainder was to be eaten by those who brought the offering.
Infinite wisdom had foreseen that the clamors of appetite, and a covetous desire for gain, might lead the priest to appropriate to himself the sacrifices solemnly devoted to the Lord. That there might be no room for confusion or misunderstanding, the most exact and minute directions had been given.
Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, disregarded the laws of the sanctuary more boldly than had any of their predecessors. While they arrayed themselves in the sacerdotal garments and ministered before the Lord, they cared only for the gratification of their own debased appetites and passions. The priests not being content with their rightful share of the peace-offerings, it had become customary for one of their servants to come while the offerers were cooking their portion in some apartment adjacent to the sanctuary, and to carry away whatever could be taken up with the flesh-hook. The great numbers of sacrifices offered, made this a considerable addition to the priest’s perquisite.
But even this departure from the Lord’s commands failed to satisfy Hophni and Phinehas. They desired the fat, which the Lord had expressly stated should never be eaten, but burned on the altar as an offering to himself. As they had learned to despise the authority of their father, they now despised the authority of God, and sent their servants to demand the flesh of the peace-offerings before the fat had been separated from it. When the offerer remonstrated, “Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth,” the answer was, “Nay, but thou shalt give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” The people stood in awe of the priests, and submitted to their unlawful claims, robbing themselves of their rightful share of the offering. Thus, appetite, selfishness, and avarice triumphed, exerting their evil influence upon the people at the very time when every heart should have been directed in penitence and faith to the great Sacrifice which was to take away the sins of the world. These things had a telling influence upon the people, and they were fast losing all sense of the sacredness of the sacrificial offerings, and of the importance of attending upon the services of the sanctuary.
The recreant priests added licentiousness to the dark catalogue of their crimes; yet they still polluted by their presence the tabernacle of the Lord, and, laden with sin, dared to come into the presence of a holy God. As the men of Israel witnessed the corrupt course of the priests, they thought it safer for their families not to come up to the appointed place of worship. Many went from Shiloh with their peace disturbed, their indignation aroused, until they at last determined to offer their sacrifices themselves, concluding that this would be fully as acceptable to God, as to sanction in any manner the abominations practiced in the sanctuary.
The worship which Jehovah himself had ordained was despised and neglected because associated with the sins of wicked men. This was a critical time for the people of God. Ungodliness, profligacy, and even idolatry prevailed to a fearful extent among them. And where now was the priest and judge of Israel? Eli was not ignorant of the course pursued by his sons. Faithful men, who mourned over the corruption of the priesthood, presented the matter in its true character before him. The indignation of the people had been aroused, and complaints were coming to him from every side. He had passed over these transgressions till he dared remain silent no longer. But the aged father still manifested the same partiality which he had ever shown his wayward sons. He took no decisive measures to bring them to justice, but mildly remonstrated with them, as with persons of tender conscience, who had for once fallen under temptation:
“And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear; ye make the Lord’s people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?”
Eli had long known that his sons were not what God would have them. He knew that they did not give to Israel an example worthy of imitation. But he was growing old, and the burden of official care rested heavily upon him. Some one must assist him in bearing this responsibility. Should he deal justly with his sons, they would be speedily rejected from the priestly office, and punished with death. He dreaded thus to bring public disgrace and condemnation upon them. By passing over their crimes again and again without punishment, his own abhorrence of sin was lessened, and in his efforts to shield them, he became accessory to their guilt.
God held Eli, as priest and judge of Israel, accountable for the moral and religious standing of his people, and in a special sense for the character of his sons. The most severe punishment should have been meted out to them, as due the insulted honor of God, and as needful to counteract the influence of their daring sacrilege and gross immorality. Well had it been for Eli and for all Israel, had the high priest manifested such zeal for the honor of God, and such a desire to avert his wrath, as had been shown by the tribe of Levi in slaying the worshipers of the golden calf. On that occasion the priests at God’s command executed justice upon the leaders in transgression, without regard to rank or kindred. Those who faithfully performed this painful duty, were approved and honored of the Lord.
Had not Eli’s love for his wicked sons surpassed his zeal for the honor of God, he would have pursued a similar course. He should have exercised his authority to repress crime and uphold righteousness, thus saying to all Israel, “Sin is sin, even if found in the sons of the high priest; and although a most painful duty devolves upon me as a father, God shall not be dishonored by my sons before the people. Holiness and iniquity shall not be confounded in the minds of Israel, because men in high position dare to sin.” But the aged priest loved ease and peace, and rather than endure the pain and strife of meeting and resisting wrong, he remained silent, and suffered the work of iniquity to go on, and the clouds of divine wrath to gather above a guilty nation.
BEGIN WITH GOD.
By Horatius Bonar
Begin the day with God!
He is thy sun and day;
He is the radiance of thy dawn,
To him address thy lay.
Sing thy first song to God!
Not to thy fellow-man;
Not to the creatures of his hand,
But to the Glorious One.
Look up beyond these clouds!
Thither thy pathway lies;
Mount up, away, and linger not;
The goal is yonder skies.
Cast every weight aside!
Do battle with each sin.
Fight with the faithless world without,
The faithless heart within.
Take thy first meal with God!
He is thy heavenly food!
Feed with and on him; he with thee
Will feast in brotherhood.
Take thy first walk with God!
Let him go forth with thee;
By stream, or sea, or mountain path,
Seek still his company.
Thy first transaction be
With God himself above;
So shall thy business prosper well,
And all thy days be love.
—Horatius Bonar.
THE BIBLE AGAINST IT.
It is positively forbidden under the head of *necromancy, familiar spirits, etc.
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer; For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Deut. 18:9-12.
Webster gives the definition of necromancy as "pretended communication with the dead." And Spiritualists everywhere claim that their spiritual communications are from the spirits of the dead.
"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:31.
Spiritualists do not deny that their mesmerizing, magnetizing, calling on the dead, etc., are what is called in the Bible, "charming," "enchantment," "sorcery," "witchcraft," "necromancy," "divination," "consulting with familiar spirits," etc. And every Bible student knows that these are declared in numerous places to be "abominations," and are strictly forbidden in both the Old and the New Testament. See 2 Kings 21:2, 6, 9, 11; Rev. 21:8; Gal. 5:19-21; Acts 16:16-18. Those who embrace Spiritualism, therefore, have to give up the Bible. Both cannot be true.
Brown says, "Necromancers were those who pretended to raise and consult with such persons as were dead."
Dr. Jahn says, "Necromancers pretended that they were able by their incantations to summon back departed spirits from their abodes. They uttered the communications which they pretended to receive from the dead."
Gesenius says, "Sorcerers are those who profess to call up the dead."
Webster says, "A familiar spirit is a demon, or evil spirit, supposed to attend at a call."
THEY ARE NOT SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.
1. In ancient times, when people supposed they were sacrificing to "the dead," it is positively declared that they sacrificed "unto devils." Ps. 106:28, 37; 1 Cor. 10:20.
Nearly all the crowned heads of the world are Spiritualists. Napoleon of France was a convert to Spiritualism. The following extracts show how it is welcomed by emperors and kings:—
"The New York Times London correspondent says: 'The late emperor of all the Russians received Mr. D. D. Home (Spiritualist) at his court with great marks of friendship, made him presents, and actually became god-father to his child. Spiritualism is fashionable at more than one of the European courts.' (Letter, Feb. 3, 1877.)"
"William Howitt writes: 'It would startle some people to discover in how many royal palaces in Europe Spiritualism is firmly seated.' (Journal, March 15.)"
But we have also their own confession. When challenged in the name of the Lord to tell the truth, they have acknowledged it as they did when our Saviour was on the earth. To him they said, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
The following confession of the spirits, was made to Mr. Laning, of New Jersey, through a writing medium:—
"In the name of the Lord, is the Bible true?" "Yes."
"The Bible forbids necromancy and the consulting of familiar spirits; which shall I believe, you or the Bible?" "The Bible."
"Why, then, did you tell me that it was right and useful to consult the spirits?" "Because I wished to deceive you."
"What is the business of the spirits with men?" "It is to deceive."
"Are you happy?" "No, I am miserable."
"Are you in hell?" "Not yet."
"Do you expect to go there?" "Yes."
"When?" "At the day of Judgment."
"Is there to be a day of Judgment?" "Yes."
"Have you any prospect of happiness?" "I have no hope."
"In the name of the Lord, is there a good spirit among all these rapping and writing spirits?" "No, not one."
"Are all communications of Spiritualism from personating demons?" "Yes."
HOW THEY OPERATE.
They are invisible personating demons, controlling their mediums as a magnetizer does the subject under531his influence. The Bible informs us that Satan has power to transform himself into an angel of light; if so, how easy for him to personate our friends who are dead. We have their own admission of this fact.
Mr. A. E. Newton says:—
"The operator forms an image, as of a person, a serpent, a fire, or any other object, in his own mind; when the subject, if well under control, instantly sees the same thing as an objective reality. So, positive minds in a circle, or positive spirits who are around, may present the image of any person with whom they are familiar, and it may appear as a reality to the impressible medium."
Andrew Jackson Davis, in the Herald of Progress, Oct. 27, 1860, of which he was editor, says:—
"It is known that a wise and strong-minded person, in the spirit world, has power to make visible to the eyes of mortals the exact appearance, or semblance, of the body it wore before death. This representation is elaborated sometimes to the minutest particular, even to the reproduction of the appearance of the habiliments, etc., by which the person was characterized and identified while a resident of the earth."
Again he says, in the Herald of Progress for Feb. 1, 1862: "All intelligent spirits are great artists. They can psychologize a medium to see them, and to describe them, in the style to produce the deepest impression on the receiver. . . . They can easily represent themselves as being old or young, as in worldly dress or flowing robes, as is deemed best suited to accomplish the ends of the visitation."
The Spiritual Telegraph, of July 11, 1857, says:—
"In giving the results of our own experience and observation upon this subject, we would premise that spirits unquestionably can, and often do, personate other spirits, and that, too, often with such perfection as, for the time being, to defy every effort to detect the deception. Not only can they represent the leading personal characteristics of the spirits whom they purport to be, but they can relate such facts in the history of said spirits as may be known to the inquirer, or to some one else with whom the communicating spirit is or has been en rapport."
FRIVOLITY AND INSANITY.
The Creator doubtless gave man a brain with the intention that it should be used. No one, therefore, need fear injuring it by using it to its utmost capacity, for it gains in power by use. The blacksmith's arm does not palsy, and examples are numerous to show that the most intense brain work, when accompanied with temperate habits, is conducive to health and longevity, rather than otherwise. The following from the Scientific American we commend to the thoughtful perusal of all, especially the young:—
"Another fact which tells against the theory that 'high pressure' living tends to unhinge the mind may be found in the source of the larger portion of the inmates of insane asylums. The records of asylums show that most of the insane come, not from the busy professional, mercantile, and manufacturing classes, but from those whose lives are a monotonous round of petty drudgery, or, what is equally killing, petty inaction, unfruitful idleness, and dissipation. Frivolity probably leads more men and women to the insane asylum than the hardest and intensest pursuit of mental or material wealth."
SPIRITUALISM, in its modern phases and manifestations, began in the Fox family, in Hydesville, N. Y., in 1848. It next broke out in Rochester, and took the name of “Rochester Knockings.” The manifestations have increased and spread, until now in every part of the world there are “rapping,” “writing,” “speaking,” and “healing” mediums. In the United States alone, Spiritualists number upward of ten millions. Only thirty-three years have passed since the development of Spiritualism; yet it can now boast of far greater numbers than any religious sect. Who, then, will deny that it is a matter of importance, and that it demands attention?
Every candid man who has had a fair chance to witness its phenomena, is compelled to acknowledge that it must be the work of invisible spirits, that have both power and intelligence more than human.
Judge Edmunds, in “Year-Book of Spiritualism,” for 1871, makes the following statement in regard to their numbers at that time :
“Preparatory to the Ecumenical Council, the Pope desired to learn the religious convictions of Christendom; and the Catholic hierarchy of this country took pains to obtain it through its numerous priesthood; and the result of inquiry was what I obtained and gave to the world; so that it was not our statement of our strength, but that of our adversaries, and they have never contradicted or in any way questioned it.
“Within the last two or three months there has been at Baltimore a convocation of the Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops of this country. One of the most interesting subjects for their consideration was the statistical religious condition of our people. Each diocese brought its information; and the result was, that while Romanism and Protestantism combined numbered from eight to nine millions, with some forty-five thousand preachers, Spiritualism numbered between ten and eleven millions with fifty thousand mediums.
“Recollect, now, that this estimate comes, not from us, but from our opponents; is not the product of our imaginations, but the result of the severe scrutiny of those who have no sympathy with us. I confess, however, that I believe it to be accurate; all my information goes to confirm it; and my error was in estimating the number too low, lest I might be accused of exaggeration.”
On the importance of spiritual phenomena, as demanding attention, we clip the following from one of the leading dailies of the Pacific Coast, which has a circulation of about one hundred thousand.
“Until quite recently, science has coldly ignored the alleged phenomena of Spiritualism, and treated Andrew Jackson Davis, Home, and the Davenport brothers, as if they belonged to the common fraternity of showmen and mountebanks. But now there has come a most noteworthy change. We learn from such high authority as the Fortnightly Review that Alfred R. Wallace, F. R. S.; William Crookes, F. R. S., and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science; W. H. Harrison, F. R. S., and president of the British Ethnological Society, with others occupying a high position in the scientific and literary world, have been seriously investigating the phenomena of spiritism. The report which those learned gentlemen make is simply astounding. There is no fairy tale, no story of myth or miracle, that is more incredible than their narrative. They tell us, in grave and sober speech, that the spirit of a girl who died a hundred years ago appeared to them in visible form. She talked with them, gave them locks of her hair, pieces of her dress, and her autograph. They saw her in bodily presence, felt her person, heard her voice; she entered the room in which they were, and disappeared without the opening of a door. The savants declare that they have had numerous interviews with her under conditions forbidding the idea of trickery or imposture.
“Now that men eminent in the scientific world have taken up the investigation, spiritism has entered upon a new phase. It can no longer be treated with silent contempt. Mr. Wallace's articles in the Fortnightly have attracted general attention, and many of the leading English reviews and newspapers are discussing the matter. The New York World devotes three columns of its space to a summary of the last article in the Fortnightly, and declares, editorially, that the ‘phenomena’ thus attested ‘deserve the rigid scientific examination which Mr. Wallace invites for them.’”—S. F. Chronicle.
THE CHURCH THERMOMETER.
By Rev. T. L. Cuyler
WELL, what is that? Ask any veteran pastor, who has weathered the storms and rejoiced in the sunshines of a long ministerial life, and he will tell you it is the social prayer-meeting. The true thermometer of a church, to indicate its spiritual temperature is the weekly gathering around the mercy-seat.
A cold prayer-meeting marks a cold church. It is at once the cause and the effect of spiritual declension. If the place of prayer is well-nigh deserted; if the few who are present bodily seem absent in spirit; if the prayers offered are languid, formal, meaningless, without point and without unction, then the pastor has abundant cause for heaviness and tears.
Sermons preached to such a people are like discourses delivered in one of the ruined temples of Luxor, with the shriveled dead embalmed around him, and grim heads of stone looking down from every capital. His hands hang down, and his spirit faints.
And as a church has no surer symptoms of decay than a decaying prayer-meeting, so nothing feels the approach of a revival so palpably as the place of prayer. A revival commonly begins there. The deserted seats are filled. Those who "could not leave their business" now find but little difficulty in closing the doors of their shops and counting-rooms.
The absent Thomases are once more with the deserted flock of disciples, and wonder to find the risen Saviour there, too, with his benedictions. Those who seldom prayed are now ready to pour out their souls in supplication. The "gift of tongues" has descended. The slow of speech have become eloquent. The sluggish are mounting up with wings as eagles. A latent power is developed in the church, which astounds both pastor and people. The prayer-meeting, too, becomes a place for communion with each other, as well as for communion with God.
Old differences are forgotten. Old wounds are healed. Church members will grasp each other's hands, and inquire about a neighbor's spiritual health with more solicitude than they manifest in asking about a sick friend. They will linger together about the hallowed spot, talking of the mercies of God to their souls, and they will be loath to go away. They are one in heart; the church is a living unity.
The experienced mariner consults the glass. Brethren! if we are wise, we too will keep a lookout upon the thermometer of the church! A prayer-meeting below freezing-point is a fatal indication.—Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
WHAT BROUGHT HIM?
the communicating spirit is or has been en rapport.
WHAT BROUGHT HIM?
I was sitting one Sabbath morning, with a newspaper in one hand, feeling really miserable. My wife and eldest boy had gone to church. I heard the other children talking, and the question fell upon my ear, “Horace, when you are a man, which will you do—go to church like mamma does, or stay at home always and read the newspaper?”
“I,” said Horace, eight years old, with great emphasis on the I, “shall do neither. I shall not go to church and I shall not sit about home. I shall have a big horse; and Jamie Lincoln and I will go a riding, and go right away and have lots of fun.”
That child’s words set me thinking. I saw my own boy in company with others of the loosest and most unprincipled of men, and perhaps women, spending his time in a way which would break his mother’s heart. I thought of my white-haired old father and my placid, amiable mother, both gone; saw them quietly walking side by side to church in the old country town, and we children following. I could not sit another five minutes. Up I rose, and putting on hat and coat, went to the church, and slipped into a pew in the rear, and, heard the sermon, or tried to hear it, for that boy’s speech had taken possession of my soul, and had filled it. My wife was astonished to see me waiting for her at the church door. “I thought I would come and meet you,” was all I said.—Messiah’s Herald.
Dress Warmly in Cold Weather
Almost all physicians agree concerning the necessity for dressing warmly in winter, and regard the popular theory of getting hardened by the cold as fruitful of danger. Woolen undergarments, or very thick silk, say they, should be worn by everybody. Thick clothing is not more needed in January, in clear, cold weather, than in the damp chilliness of November. During early spring and late fall the moist air is a good conductor of heat, and the body loses warmth readily and becomes chilled. If the day be warm the change should be made only in the outside garments. Europeans dress more warmly than we, and have less catarrh. One of their ablest physicians once said: "Flannels should not be put off until midsummer's day, and should be put on—the day after."—Sel.
SPIRITUALISTIC TRICKS.
WHILE the self-styled “Professor” Denton was gathering gold from the lovers of novelty in San Francisco, the following appeared in the Chronicle:—
Last evening at the Central Presbyterian Tabernacle, Rev. W. J. Smith lectured on “Spiritualism, is it God or the devil?” The lecturer said that at the inquiry meetings lately, many had interrogated him as to the existence of spirits, and the propriety of believing in Spiritualism. A reference to the Scriptures, he said, was sufficient to convince him that there were both good and evil spirits, but he discarded the belief that the spirits of the departed could through any medium be recalled to this earth, either to rap on tables, hurl them through a room, utter sepulchral language and the like. “Ninty-nine one-hundredths of Spiritualism is sheer trickery and deception, and the other one-hundredth part is performed either directly or indirectly by the devil. Spiritualism, so great an enemy of religion, is rapidly gaining ground. The number of advertisements in the Sunday papers, of materializing seances, marvelous materialization, Christian Spiritualistic unions, and the like, are as numerous as church notices. This is a deplorable fact, and argues an irreligious tendency on the part of the community, many of whom are encouraging this work of the devil by their presence at seances and spiritualistic meetings, and by their belief in the trickery there resort to. Spiritualism, when tried either by the word of God, by the rules of common sense and reason, or by its moral effect on those who believe in it, utterly fails to stand the test, and is found greatly wanting. It was conceived in Satanic regions, and is emphatically denounced by the Scriptures in sundry passages. The children of God are warned to shun witches, enchanters, and the like. No wonder, then, that Professor Denton, and others of like proclivities, tramp upon the Bible, and use all their influence to crush it out of existence, for it ignores them and cautions all to beware of them. Spiritualism has been one of the greatest causes of insanity in the United States of late years. Our lunatic asylums are thronged with victims of this diabolical vice. People that make a practice of visiting these spiritualistic meetings become gradually unnerved. Their nervous system becomes a perfect wreck. They pass sleepless nights. Phantoms, visions, rappings, and the like are everlastingly haunting them. At last the brain will necessarily become affected, and insanity will culminate a wicked belief in spiritual manifestations.” Mr. Smith related an incident of which he was a witness, showing the trickery and deception of spiritual mediums. Once upon a time he was moved by curiosity and attended a seance. The medium informed him of a message that was sent to him by his deceased father. After the message was delivered, Mr. Smith paralyzed the medium by informing her that his father was not dead, and that he was a hearty, healthy old man, four score years of age. The medium expostulated with Mr. Smith, assured him it was a mistake, that the message was for another party, but he left the place convinced that spiritualism was just as the church has ever denominated it, a series of diabolical tricks and deceptions.
ROMISH BLASPHEMY.
THE arrogance of Roman Catholic assumption is well put in the following quotation from a recent sermon of Archbishop Manning, the principal representative of the Pope in England. Defending the modern dogma of the Papal Infallibility, he puts the following language into the mouth of the Pope:—
“You tell me I ought to submit to the civil power, that I am the subject of the king of Italy, and from him I am to receive instructions as to the way I should exercise the civil power. I say I am liberated from all civil subjection, that my Lord made me the subject of no one on earth, king or otherwise; that in his right I am sovereign. I acknowledge no civil superior. I am the subject of no prince, and I claim to be more than this. I claim to be the Supreme Judge and director of the consciences of men; of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that sits on the throne; of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, and the Legislature that makes laws for kingdoms. I am the sole, last Supreme Judge of what is right and wrong.”
That any man should dare to utter such impious and revolting words is a melancholy proof of the depths of deception into which an intelligent man may sink, who has chosen the bondage of a corrupt ecclesiasticism in preference to the liberty of Christ. But more than this, we read these sentences in the light of an organized and deeply concerted spiritual Jesuitism that is actively working in order to bring our country under the power of the church of Rome.—London Commonwealth.
USELESS TREASURE.
A RICH nobleman was once showing a friend a great collection of precious stones whose value was almost beyond counting. There were diamonds, and pearls, and rubies, and gems from almost every country, which had been gathered by their possessor with the greatest labor and expense. "And yet," he remarked, "they yield me no income." His friend replied that he had two stones which cost him about ten florins each, yet they yielded him an income of two hundred florins a year.
In much surprise the nobleman desired to see the wonderful stones, when the man led him to his mill, and pointed to the two toiling, gray millstones. They were laboriously crushing the grain into snowy flour for the use of hundreds who depended on this work for their daily bread. Those two dull, homely stones did more good in the world, and yielded a larger income, than all the nobleman's jewels.
So it is with idle treasure everywhere. It is doing nobody any good. It is right to be prudent and saving of our money when it is for a good, fixed purpose, but to hoard it up for its own sake is more than a folly—it is a sin.
God’s Keeping Is Protection
The Lord is "thy keeper," but not thy jailor. His keeping is not confinement—it is protection. When you commit your ways to him, he does not abridge your liberty; he only defends you against the evil.