Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 8, 1858
FLAVEL'S TOUCHSTONE.
CHAPTER IX.
Exhibiting the end for which God appoints such trials of the holiness of his people in this world.
Section I. Some of the ways in which God brings the holiness of his people to the touchstone in this world, have been mentioned and illustrated; the design of these trials is now to be considered. Without doubt we may conclude, in general, that God designs to promote his own glory and the good of his people, both of which will certainly be accomplished; but, for our improvement, a more particular exhibition of the ends answered by these events is necessary.
Section II. If we take a near view of this subject, we shall perceive many important benefits arising from these trials of the sincerity and holiness of God's people.
1. Hypocrisy is unmasked, the vizard is plucked from the false professor, and his real character is displayed to the world. Should any object that this produces evil instead of good, that many are stumbled and hardened by it, and that the world observe its mischievous effects—I answer, that some are, indeed, thus prejudiced and rendered obdurate so as never afterward to think well of the government and people of God; but who does not see that his word and his purposes are thus accomplished? and if these stumble, and fall and perish, yet others will be warned, awakened and put to searching their hearts; and hence good will arise, "they who think they stand, will take heed lest they fall." Again, by such disclosures of the corruption and danger of hypocrites and false professors, they themselves have better opportunities and greater advantages than they ever had before, to escape from the snare of the devil. Their refuges of lies are swept away, their illusions and pretences are dissipated, and they are rendered more accessible to truth, and more open to the conviction of conscience.
2. By these trials the uprightness of the saints is manifested, their doubts are resolved, and their fears allayed. What would not many Christians give, what would they not suffer, what would they not gladly perform, if they might attain satisfaction in these respects! How many tears have they shed in secret, how many hours have they spent in the examination of their hearts, without being able to accomplish their object? But they find, at last, that trials are the high road to assurance; they have been cast into the furnace, and have come forth as gold purified in the fire; their holiness has been put to the test, and its reality demonstrated, not only to themselves, but to the world, who may now look upon the heavenly face of sincerity and truth, and see that true religion has the lustre and loveliness of immortal glory.
3. These trials are eminently calculated to subdue and destroy the remaining pride and self-confidence of the saints; who thus become more intimately acquainted with their hearts, and learn to detest what is evil, and to cherish what is good.
4. By trials, stupidity and slothfulness are prevented, and grace is in exercise. The best men are apt, unless often visited by some trial, to slacken in their diligence and lose much of their fervor in religion.
5. When the graces of the saints are tried, Satan is put to shame and his malicious insinuations confuted. It is not uncommon for the devil and wicked men to charge the people of God with hypocrisy, and to persuade the world that they are not what they pretend to be; these suggestions and calumnies are overthrown by such trials as have been considered.
6. These trials exhibit living testimony against the infidelity of the world; they demonstrate that religion is no fancy, as the thoughtless and sensual would esteem it; that the engagedness of its professors is not blind bigotry and mistaken zeal; and that its doctrines and duties are not without efficacy, nor its effects destitute of high and lasting importance.
THE great leading features of Daniel's visions were the four great governments of antiquity, beginning with the Babylonian, and ending with the Roman, in its papal form. Not so, however, with John; he lived when three of those governments had passed away, and the fourth and last was in being, and in the height of its glory, as an universal monarchy. Under that government John was in banishment on the isle of Patmos, "for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Accordingly, instead of predicting the rise and triumph of either of those four great governments, it was his part to give the prophetic history of the fall of the last of the four, and give us the various means by which that great persecuting system should come to ruin.
The first decisive step in the downfall of Rome, was the removal of the seat of empire from the west to the east. Until then its unity had been very faithfully preserved. After that, division and subdivision became the order of the day, until the final ruin of the empire.
The sounding of the seven trumpets I understand to shadow forth the instrumentalities by which the Roman empire was to be overthrown and subverted, and finally ruined.
The empire, after Constantine, was divided into three parts; and hence the frequent remark, "a third part of men," &c., in allusion to the third part of the empire which was under the scourge. Under the first four trumpets the two western divisions fell, and under the fifth and sixth the eastern empire was crushed; but under the seventh trumpet great Babylon entire will sink to rise no more at all.
In giving an outline of this subject, I shall, for the most part, follow Keith, in his "Signs of the Times," on the first four trumpets. I should be glad to give his remarks and historical quotations entire, would my limits, which are prescribed for this work, admit it.
The subject properly begins with the second verse of the eighth chapter; and the first verse should have been annexed to the seventh chapter, it being the conclusion of the opening of the seals.
From verses 2-5 of chapter viii, we have the prefatory remarks, preparatory to the sounding of the trumpets. Then follows the sounding of the first angel.
THE FIRST TRUMPET.
Verses 6, 7. "And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."
Mr. Keith has very justly remarked, on the subject of this prophecy, "None could elucidate the texts more clearly, or expound them more fully, than the task has been performed by Gibbon. The chapters of the skeptical philosopher, that treat directly of the matter, need but a text to be prefixed, and a few unholy words to be blotted out, to form a series of expository lectures on the eighth and ninth chapters of Revelation." "Little or nothing is left for the professed interpreter to do but to point to the pages of Gibbon."
The first sore and heavy judgment which fell on western Rome in its downward course, was the war58with the Goths under Alaric, styled by himself, "the scourge of God." After the death of Theodosius, the Roman emperor, in January, 395, before the end of the winter, the Goths, under Alaric, were in arms against the empire.
"Hail and fire mingled with blood, cast upon the earth." The terrible effects of this Gothic invasion, are thus described by Gibbon, Vol. V, p. 176:
"The barbarian auxiliaries erected their independent standard; and boldly avowed hostile designs, which they had long cherished in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been condemned, by the conditions of the last treaty, to a life of tranquility and labor, deserted their farms at the first sound of the trumpet, and eagerly assumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their forest; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark, that 'they rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back of the indignant river.' The unhappy nations of the provinces to the south of the Danube, submitted to the calamities, which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their imagination; and the various troops of barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic name, were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dalmatia, to the walls of Constantinople. The Goths were directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. In the midst of a divided court, and a discontented people, the emperor, Arcadius, was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms. Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war."
"Alaric traversed, without resistance, the plains of Macedonia and Thessaly. The troops which had been posted to defend the straits of Thermopylæ, retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage of Alaric; and the fertile fields of Phocis and Bœotia were instantly covered with a deluge of barbarians, who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. The travelers who visited Greece several years afterwards could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths. The whole territory of Attica was blasted by his baneful presence; and if we may use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim. Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the Goths: and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved, by death, from beholding the slavery of their families, and the conflagration of their cities."
It was thus that "hail," from the fact of the northern origin of the invaders; "fire," from the destruction by flame of both city and country; "blood," from the terrible slaughter of the citizens of the empire by the bold and intrepid warriors, "were cast upon the earth." This vivid description will be still more forcibly illustrated by Gibbon's account of the invasion of the western empire by the Goths:
"The birth of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his future designs, insensibly united the body of the nation under his victorious standard; and, with the unanimous consent of the barbarian chieftains, the master-general of Illyricus was elevated, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly proclaimed king of the Visigoths. Armed with this double power, seated on the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful promises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius, (of Constantinople and Rome,) till he declared and executed his resolution of invading the dominions of the west (of Rome.) The provinces of Europe which belonged to the eastern emperor were already exhausted; those of Asia were inaccessible; and the strength of Constantinople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, and the wealth of Italy, which he had twice visited; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his army with the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs."
"When Stilicho seemed to abandon his sovereign in the unguarded palace of Milan, he had probably calculated the term of his absence, the distance of the enemy, and the obstacles that might retard their march. He principally depended on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the Mincio, the Oglio, and the Adda; which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous torrents. But the season happened to be remarkably dry; and the Goths could traverse, without impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream. The bridge and passage of the Adda were secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic army; and as Alaric approached the walls, or rather the suburbs of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of seeing the emperor of the Romans fly before him. Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of statesmen and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the Alps, with the design of securing his person in the city of Arles, which had often been the royal residence of his predecessors. But Honorius had scarcely passed the Po, before he was overtaken by the speed of the Gothic cavalry; since the urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a temporary shelter within the fortification of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piedmont, situate on the banks of the Tanarus. The siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize, and seemed incapable of a long resistance, was instantly formed, and indefatigably pressed by the king of the Goths." —Gibbon's Hist., Vol. V, pp. 194-196.
But although Alaric thus put to flight the emperor of the west, deliverance soon came, and Rome was saved from his hands. Alaric was first conquered in 403. But another cloud was gathering, and is thus described by Gibbon:
"About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another barbarian, the haughty Radagaisus, marched from the northern extremity of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to achieve the destruction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed the strength of this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found a hospitable reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that, by some historians, he has been styled the king of the Goths. Twelve thousand warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; and the whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased by the accession of women, of children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand persons."
"The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and precarious, that the revolutions of the north might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna, till the dark cloud, which was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube, &c. Many cities of Italy were pillaged or destroyed; and the siege of Florence, by Radagaisus, is one of the earliest events in the history of that celebrated republic, whose firmness checked or delayed the unskillful fury of the barbarians."
"While the peace of Germany was secured by the attachment of the Franks, and the neutrality of the Alemani, the subjects of Rome, unconscious of the approaching calamities, enjoyed a state of quiet and prosperity, which had seldom blessed the frontiers of Gaul. Their flocks and herds were permitted to graze in the pastures of the barbarians; their hunters penetrated, without fear or danger, into the darkest recesses of the Hercynian wood. The banks of the Rhine were crowded, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses and well cultivated farms; and if the poet descended the river, he might express his doubt on which side was situated the territory of the Romans. This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolation of man. The flourishing city of Mentz was surprised and destroyed; and many thousand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished, after a long and obstinate siege; Strasburgh, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars." —Ibid., Vol. V, p. 224.
After this invasion of the empire by Radagaisus, Alaric again returned, invaded Italy in 408, and in 410 he besieged, took, and sacked Rome, and died the same year. In 412 the Goths voluntarily retired from Italy.
I know not how the history of the sounding of the first trumpet can be more impressively concluded than by presenting the graphic rehearsal of this history, by Mr. Keith, in his Signs of the Times, Vol. I, pp. 231-233.
"Large extracts show how amply and well Gibbon has expounded his text, in the history of the first trumpet, the first storm that pervaded the Roman earth, and the first fall of Rome. To use his words in more direct comment, we read thus the sum of the matter. The Gothic nation was in arms at the first sound of the trumpet, and in the uncommon severity of the winter, they rolled their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back of the river. The fertile fields of Phocis and Bœotia were crowded with a deluge of barbarians: the males were massacred; the females and cattle of the flaming villages were driven away. The deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths could easily be discovered after several years. The whole territory of Attica was blasted by the baneful presence of Alaric. The most fortunate of the inhabitants of Corinth, Argos, Sparta, were saved by death from beholding the conflagration of their cities. In a season of such extreme heat that the beds of the rivers were dry, Alaric invaded the dominion of the West. A secluded 'old man of Verona' patiently lamented the fate of his contemporary trees, which must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country. And the emperor of the Romans fled before the king of the Goths."
"A furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany; from the northern extremity of which the barbarians marched almost to the gates of Rome. They achieved the destruction of the west. The dark cloud which was collected along the coasts of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The pastures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed; and the banks of the Rhine, which were covered with elegant houses and well cultivated farms, formed a scene of peace and plenty, which was suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished from the solitude of nature only by smoking ruins. Many cities were cruelly oppressed or destroyed. Many thousands were inhumanly massacred. And the consuming flames of war spread over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul."
"Alaric again stretched his ravages over Italy. During four years, the Goths ravaged and reigned over it without control. And, in the pillage and fire of Rome, the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies; the flames consumed many public and private buildings; and the ruins of a palace remained, (after a century and a half,) a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration."
"The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."
"The concluding sentence of the thirty-third chapter of Gibbon's History, is, of itself, a clear and comprehensive commentary; for, in winding up his own description of the brief, but most eventful period, he concentrates, as in a parallel reading, the sum of the history, and the substance of the prediction. But the words which precede it are not without their meaning. 'The public devotion of the age59was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the north, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.'"
"The last word, Africa, is the signal for the sounding of the second trumpet. The scene changes from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the Mediterranean, or from the frozen regions of the north to the borders of burning Africa. And instead of a storm of hail being cast upon the earth, a burning mountain was cast into the sea."
WHAT IS LIFE?
And what is life? a dream within a dream;
A pilgrimage from peril rarely free;
A bark that sails upon a changing sea,
Now sunshine and now storm; a mountain stream,
Heard, but scarce seen ere to the dark deep gone.
A wild star blazing with unsteady beam,
Yet for a season fair to look upon.
Life is an infant on Affection's knee,
A youth now full of hope and transient glee;
In manhood's peerless noon now bright; anon
A time-worn ruin silvered o'er with years.
Life is a race where slippery steeps arise,
Where discontent and sorrow are the prize;
And when the goal is won, the grave appears.
The Cup of Patience
By Jerrold
THE CUP OF PATIENCE.—What a goblet! It is set round with diamonds from the mines of Eden; it is carved by angelic hands, and filled at the eternal fount of goodness.
SECOND TRUMPET.
Verses 8, 9. "And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed."
The history illustrative of the sounding of this trumpet has been given so fully in the first chapter of this volume, that it will be unnecessary to repeat it here. The reader will find it at large in the exposition of Dan. xi, 30. It relates to the invasion and conquest of Africa, and afterward of Italy, by the terrible Genseric. His conquests were for the most part naval, and his triumphs were "as it were a great mountain burning with fire, cast into the sea." The repetition of one or two extracts from Gibbon must suffice:
"The woods of the Appenines were felled; the arsenals and manufactories of Ravenna and Misenum were restored; Italy and Gaul vied with each other in liberal contributions to the public service; and the imperial navy of three hundred long galleys, with an adequate proportion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious harbor of Carthagena in Spain. But Genseric was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery of some powerful subjects, envious or apprehensive of their master's success. Guided by their secret intelligence, he surprised the unguarded fleet in the bay of Carthagena; many of the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt, and the preparations of three years were destroyed in a single day."
"Italy continued to be long afflicted by the incessant depredations of the Vandal pirates. In the spring of each year they equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot what course he should steer, 'Leave the determination to the winds,' replied the barbarian, with pious arrogance, 'they will transport us to the guilty coast whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice.' The Vandals repeatedly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Leucania, Brutium, Apulia, Calabria, Venetia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily; they were tempted to subdue the island of Sardinia, so advantageously placed in the centre of the Mediterranean, and their arms spread desolation or terror from the column of Hercules to the mouth of the Nile. In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice, and sometimes his cruelty; he massacred five hundred noble citizens of Zante, or Zaynthus, whose mangled bodies he cast into the Ionian sea."—Gibbon, pp. 180, 182, 187, 188.
A last and desperate attempt to dispossess Genseric of the sovereignty of the sea, was made in the year 468, by the emperor of the east.
"The whole expense of the African campaign amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold—about five millions, two hundred thousand pounds sterling. The fleet that sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand men. The army of Heraclius, and the fleet of Marcellinus, either joined or seconded the imperial lieutenant. The wind became favorable to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largest ship of war with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals, and they towed after them many large barks filled with combustible materials. In the obscurity of the night these destructive vessels were propelled against the unguarded and unsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by a sense of their instant danger. Their close and crowded order assisted the progress of the fire, which was communicated with rapid and irresistible violence; and the noise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of the soldiers and mariners, who could neither command nor obey, increased the horror of the nocturnal tumult. Whilst they labored to extricate themselves from the fire-ships, and to save at least a part of the navy, the galleys of Genseric assaulted them with temperate and disciplined valor; and many of the Romans who escaped the fury of the flames were destroyed or taken by the victorious Vandals. After the failure of this great expedition, Genseric again became the 'tyrant of the sea;' the coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia were again exposed to his revenge and avarice. Tripolis and Sardinia returned to his obedience; he added Sicily to the number of his provinces; and before he died, in the fullness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the empire of the west."—Ibid., pp. 203, 205.
More than Conquerors.
If I rightly remember, the sequel of the famous battle between Christian and Apollyon, it was by opposing his impenetrable shield, the shield of faith, that Christian defended himself from the darts of the enemy, and was able, at the same time, so effectually to disconfit him, that he sped away and was seen no more. What if Christian, instead of putting his enemy to flight, had so effectually conquered him as to compel him, however unwillingly, to aid and accelerate his tedious progress towards the celestial city, would the allegory have been unscriptural?
When Pilate boasted to our Master of the absolute power he held over him, Jesus replied, "Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." If our faith were like his, might we not thus answer our enemy, even when his boast is loudest? And if it is indeed so, if Satan's power is given him from above, shall it not assuredly in the end, not only not harm us, but be among the "all things" that shall "work for our good?" But let us never think for a moment that we can conquer the foe by opposing to him an open front, however firm and resolute. It is only by the "shield of faith" that we can "quench the fiery darts of the wicked." If we are "more than conquerors," it is through him that hath loved us.
A writer on holiness says that temptations are the means of making us better acquainted with the various relations Christ sustains to us, and proving to us more and more his all-sufficiency. The young Christian is emphatically a babe in Christ; loving, confiding, guileless as a babe, but with all a babe's ignorance and inexperience. He loves Christ so far as he knows him, with all his heart. But vast as is the debt of gratitude of which he is now conscious, he has scarcely begun to realize what Christ is and will be to him. The more he learns of the artful deceits of his foes, of the weakness of his own heart, and of the powerful love of his divine Friend, the more loudly he will be disposed to sing, "O, to grace how great a debtor!"
There was one upon whose heart, after a long, dark night of bitter anguish, the Day-star of peace, the Sun of righteousness, arose. In the fullness of his joy he thought he could never hesitate, at any sacrifice, for him who had done all for him. And perhaps it would have been so but for the tempter, with whom he was yet unacquainted. Want came upon him as an armed man. Satan, who is ever busiest in the darkest hour, first whispers low doubts of the love which permitted his present trials, and sad forbodings for the future. Not repelled at once, he grew more fierce and clamorous, and he who had lately been so full of holy joy, was now as full of bitter agony, and seemed almost ready to curse God and die. Not quite. The enemy was strong, but the stronger than he was near, forgetting never nor suffering himself to be quite forgotten.
Light came in the darkest hour, deliverance when it was most needed; his dark forebodings were not realized, and the poor sufferer was led to see clearly that his affliction had not sprung from the ground; that his trial was sent in love, and had its precise limits. Humility and penitence struck their roots deeper than ever into the soil of his heart, patience and submission budded and blossomed there, and bore their sweet fruits, and the pilgrim went on his way joyfully singing "more than conqueror!"
A young girl went forth into the world, her heart warm with love to her Saviour. Earth had lost its charms for her, and she wished to live henceforth only to please and love him who had loved her and given himself for her. Gradually and artfully the tempter drew her into this and that slight compliance with the wishes of those about her, till she found herself thickly enclosed in his snares, and could no longer see him whom her soul loved. But she cried to him the more loudly because he seemed so far away, and his kind hand soon parted the cloud of unbelief, and showed himself ever near and ever faithful. Then, with more entire self-distrust than ever, she committed herself to his keeping. He taught her to be less weakly yielding, more firm for the right, and made her "more than conqueror."
A weary woman struggled with a host of trials; frail health, drooping energies, jaded nerves, household cares innumerable, and, worst of all, a seemingly determined propensity to evil in one of those dear children, for whose good she had exhausted herself. When this last bitterness was infused into her cup, she had cried, "O God, I cannot, cannot drink it up!" for the tempter had tauntingly hissed in her ear, "Where is now thy God?" and she could not answer him. Wild and fierce in its agony was her cry for aid. She had not thought to call it prayer; but it had in it all unknown to herself, a feeble element of faith, and impure and imperfect as it was, it was heard in heaven for his dear sake in whose name it was uttered. She was enabled to commit her erring child unreservedly to a wise and righteous God; and very soon—and O! so much beyond her faith!—she saw him "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind." All her other trials, which had been for a time so hard to bear, had seemed light indeed compared with this, the last and heaviest, and now, with the removal of this were given an increase of love and faith which transferred them entirely to him who had been long inviting her to cast them upon him. With free, light step, and song of joy, she hastened on, and the burden of that song was, "More than conqueror!"
O! when the last of the multitude of the redeemed shall have come up out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, when the whole ransomed church shall stand triumphant on the sea of glass, how full, how glorious shall be the grand chorus which shall roll up to the throne of God from those millions of rejoicing hearts, "More than conquerors through him who hath loved us."—W. & Reflector.
Faith
FAITH takes God at his word, and depends upon him for the whole of his salvation. God is good, and therefore he will not; he is true and faithful, therefore he cannot deceive me. I believe he speaks as he means, and will do what he says.
Preaching Like "Old Hundred"
PREACHING LIKE "OLD HUNDRED."—The late Dr. Taylor, of New Haven, Ct., having preached at Worcester a few years since, one Sabbath, a member of the congregation, whom he had observed as a very attentive listener, stopped after the service, and offering him his hand, thanked him with great earnestness, saying, "Your preaching sounded like the tune of Old Hundred." It was the best compliment I ever received, said the venerable man. A man whose preaching has the depth, the sacredness, and power to move the multitude, as that honored tune has, ought to be grateful to his Master.
Glorifying God in Our Work
In doing the Lord's work, we may expect the Lord's smile.
Often ask, Will this glorify God?
Lord's Smile
Lord's smile.
Often ask, Will this glorify God?
IS IT A BIBLE QUESTION?
By Editor
We have received the following communication, with the permission of the writer to insert it with remarks if we saw fit.
Bro. Smith: Can you tell me what we may understand by the image of God, or marring his image? It is contended that by cutting the hair from the chin we mar the image of God.
Is not the position thus taken an assumed one? Should we be warranted in taking the position that Adam was created with hair on his chin? It may be; who knows? Would the Lord have required a man to shave under certain circumstances in order to be clean, if it had been a thing he had entirely disapproved? Lev. xiv, 9; Acts xxi, 24.
Among the Jews, to neglect to trim or dress the beard was an expression of deep mourning. Jer. xli, 5; xlviii, 37. If trimming the beard or hair is proper and not sinful, [2 Sam. xix, 24,] who will say how close it shall be trimmed?
The Jews had doubtless, in common with other Asiatic nations, several fashions in wearing their beard. If they could thus vary in their countenance and not meet a reproof, why should we be condemned in following the habits of another nation in this matter.
Respectfully yours,
H. S. G.
Jackson, Mich.
Remarks. We see no necessity of adding much to the above remarks. Believers in man's natural immortality will tell us that the image of God in which man is created is the immortal part. But as we find no such immortal part predicated of man in the Scriptures, we cannot receive this exposition. Others will tell us that the image is a moral one, and that it was in righteousness and holiness that man was made to resemble his Maker. But when it is said that man was made in a certain image, it is evidently implied that he might have been formed in some other image. But how could man have been otherwise than holy at his creation? His unrighteousness must of course be dependent on his subsequent actions. There is therefore no possibility of his being otherwise than without sin when he was created and commenced his career as a free moral agent. But man was placed on probation; he was liable to fall at any moment. God is not thus subject to any such contingency. There is no image here.
We understand therefore that when God said "Let us make man in our image after our likeness," he referred to his personal and visible form. Man was made not prone like the beasts, but walking upright; and in this respect and in his personal outline, we understand, he bears a resemblance to his Maker. "So God created man in his own image," says Gen. i, 27, "in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." We now inquire, Was not the female in the sense of Gen. i, 26, 27, created as much in the image of God as the male was? Who will take it upon them to say she was not? And if so, it will not take much to perceive that a beard is not a necessary feature of that image. The distinction of 1 Cor. xi, 7, seems to be in reference to authority and dominion, rather than form.
The expression, "mar the image of God," we do not find in the Scriptures. But even if we did, where is the testimony which shows that shaving or trimming the beard would mar that image, any more than cutting the hair, or paring the nails. And before we can take the position that some do on this question, we not only want the Scripture testimony as above, but we must also see some propriety in superstitiously preserving one of these appendages more than the others.
We consider the quotations of our correspondent to the point as showing that the custom of shaving or trimming the beard was not obnoxious to the divine displeasure. We might add Num. viii, 7; Gen. xli, 14. On Lev. xix, 27, the Religious Encyclopedia thus speaks: Moses forbade them (the Hebrews) 'to cut off entirely the angle or extremity of their beards;' that is, 'to avoid the manner of the Egyptians, who left only a little tuft of beard at the extremity of their chins.' Some, we are aware, will throw this aside as human testimony; but, we ask, can a more probable reason be given for that command? From the testimony of the Encyclopedia Americana we might infer that pride sometimes lay at the foundation of a luxuriant beard. It says, 'The beards of different nations afford an interesting study. Some have hardly any, others a great profusion. The latter generally consider it a great ornament, the former pluck it out; as, for instance, the American Indians.' The Religious Encyclopedia continues: 'Nothing has been more fluctuating in the different ages of the world, and countries, than the fashion of wearing the beard. Some have cultivated one part and some another; some have endeavored to extirpate it entirely, whilst others have almost idolized it. The revolutions of countries have scarcely been more famous than the revolutions of beards.' 'The Hebrews wore their beards but doubtless had in common with other Asiatic nations, several fashions in this, as in all other parts of dress.'
We wish our position distinctly understood on this question. On the question itself, as some of our readers will recollect, we have taken the ground of neutrality: that is, we care not whether a man wears a beard or not. The Bible says nothing against it, and it says nothing for it. If a person thinks that health or convenience, one or both, demand the undisturbed development of his beard, we shall regard him no differently on that account from one who does not do this. Perhaps we ought to say however, in palliation of these remarks, that on the subject of making it a Bible matter, and regulating it by religious scruples, we are not neutral. Against such a course, since the Bible is silent thereon, we still feel as we have ever felt, earnestly and strenuously to protest.