Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 6, 1857
PLAIN TRUTHS.
(Concluded)
X. Therefore the saints do not obtain their rewards and crowns and glory in heaven at death, but at the coming and kingdom of the Redeemer.
PROOF. Ps. xvii, 16. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness. Isa. xi, 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him . . . behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. Isa. lxii. Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; behold; his reward is with him, and his work before him. Luke xvi, 13, 14. When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Matt. xxv, 31, 34. When the Son of man shall come in his glory. . . . Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. John xiii, 33; xiv, 1-3; iii, 13. 'Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say to you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Acts ii, 3, 4. For David is not yet ascended into the heavens. Col. iii, 34. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing. 1 Pet. i, 6, 7. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. iv, 12, 13. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Pet. v, 4. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Rev. xxii, 12. And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.
PROOF FROM THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH.
Said Justin Martyr, A. D. 150: "Some indeed are called Christians, but in reality are atheists and wicked heretics, because that in all things they teach what is blasphemous, ungodly, and unsound. If therefore you meet with some that are called Christians who confess not this truth, but even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that immediately when they die their souls are received up into heaven, take care that you do not look upon these as Christians; as no one that rightly considers would say that the Sadducees or the like sects of Genists, Merists, and Pharisees are Jews, . . . but that they only seem to be Jews, and the children of Abraham, and to confess God with their lips as God himself hath said, but their heart is far from him."
Said Bishop Jeremy Taylor: "That is a plain departure from antiquity, which was determined by the Council of Florence, 'That the souls of the pious being purified, are immediately at death received into heaven, and behold clearly the triune God just as he is:' for those who please to try, may see it dogmatically resolved to the contrary, by Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, &c.
Said Calvin: "Christ is our head, whose kingdom and glory have not yet appeared. If the members were to go before their head, the order of things would be inverted and preposterous: but we shall follow our Prince then, when he shall come in the glory of his Father, and sit upon the throne of his majesty." The Scripture uniformly commands us to look forward with eager expectation to the coming of Christ, and defers the crown of glory that awaits till that period.
Said Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, to More the Papist: Ye in putting departed souls in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? and then what cause is there of a resurrection.
Said John Wesley in a sermon on Luke xvi, 31. It is indeed very generally supposed that the souls of good men, as soon as they are dislodged from the body, go directly to heaven; but this opinion has not the least foundation in the oracles of God: on the contrary, our Lord says to Mary, after the resurrection, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father in heaven.
XI. The coming of Christ in glory and the resurrection is therefore the hope of the church, and should ever be looked for and desired by the people of God.
PROOF. 1 Cor. xv, 16-18. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Rom. viii, 22-23. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Phil. iii, 20-21. For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Acts xxiv, 14, 15. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Acts xxvi, 6-8. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come: For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? Acts xxiii, 6. Of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question. 2 Cor. v, 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Heb. ix, 27-28. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. 1 Thess. i, 9-10. Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. 1 Thess. ii, 19. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 1 Thess. iv, 13-18. But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep106in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. John iii, 2-3. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Luke xii, 35-40. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Titus ii, 11-15. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.
PROOF FROM THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH.
Said Clement, A. D. 96. Wherefore let us every hour expect the kingdom of God in love and righteousness, because we know not the day of our Lord's appearing.
Said Cyprian, A. D. 220. It were a self-contradictory and incompatible thing for us, who pray that the kingdom of God may quickly come, to be looking for long life here below. . . . Let us ever in anxiety and cautiousness be awaiting the sudden advent of the Lord.
Said Cyril, A. D. 350. Do thou look for the true Christ, the Son of God, the only Begotten, who is henceforth to come not from earth but from heaven, appearing to all more bright than any lightning, or any other brilliance, with angels for his guards, that he may judge the quick and dead. . . . Venture not to declare when these things shall be, nor on the other hand abandon thyself to slumber; for he saith which &c. . . . but it behooveth us to know the signs of the end,—and we are looking for Christ.
Said Augustine concerning the virgins in Matt. xxv, But men continually say to themselves, Lo, the Day of Judgment is coming now, so many evils are happening, so many tribulations thicken; behold all things which the prophets have spoken have well nigh fulfilled—the day of judgment is already at hand. They who speak thus speak in faith, go out, as it were, with such thoughts to meet the bridegroom.
Said Tyndale, Christ and his apostles . . . warned to look for Christ's coming again every hour.
Said John Bradford, Covet not the things that are in this world, but long for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Said John Piscator, The Advent of the Lord is to be looked for with perpetual vigilance,—especially by ministers of the word.
Said Latimer, Let us therefore have a desire that this day may come quickly; let us hasten God forward; let us cry unto him, day and night, Most Merciful Father, thy kingdom come.
Said Ridley, The world, without doubt,—this I do believe, and therefore I say it,—draws towards an end. Let us, with John, the servant of God, cry in our hearts unto our Saviour Christ, Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Said Calvin, We must hunger after Christ, we must seek and contemplate till the dawning of that great day, when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of his kingdom.
Said Luther, I ardently hope, that amidst these internal dissensions on the earth, Jesus Christ will hasten the day of his coming, and that he will crumble the whole universe into dust.
Said Baxter, This is the day that all believers should long, and hope, and wait for, as the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of their souls. Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day.
Said Joseph Alleine, writing from the Ilchester jail to his flock, This is the day I look for, and wait for, and have laid up all my hopes in. If the Lord return not, I profess myself undone—my preaching in vain, and my suffering in vain, and the bottom in which I have entrusted all my hopes is forever miscarried.
Said the seraphic Rutherford, The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till he come; wait and hasten, saith Peter, for the coming of your Lord. All is night that is here, in respect to ignorance and daily ensuing troubles . . . therefore sigh and long for the dawning of that morning, and the breaking of that day of the Son of man, when the shadows shall flee away. It stands yourself that the King is coming. Read his letter sent before him,—Rev. xxii, 20. Behold I come quickly. Wait with the wearied night-watch, for the breaking of the eastern sky.
Said Mathew Henry, As Christians, we profess not only to believe and look for, but love and long for the appearing of Christ, and to act in our whole conversation with regard to it. The second coming of Christ is the centre in which all the lines of our religion meet, and to which the whole of the divine life hath a constant reference and tendency.
Said Increase Mather, You must not only look for, not only believe that such a day will come, but you must hasten to it—that is, by earnest desires and longing wishes.
Said Doddridge, He comes quickly, and I trust you can answer with a glad Amen that the warning is not troublesome or unpleasant to your ears; but rather that his coming—his certain, his speedy coming—is the object of your delightful hope, and of your longing expectation. For with regard to his final appearance to judgment, our Lord says, Surely I come quickly. And will you not here also sing your part of the joyful Anthem? Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus.
Said John Wesley:
"The church in her militant state,
Is weary and cannot forbear;
The saints in an agony wait
To see Him again in the air;
The news of his coming I hear
And join in the catholic cry—
O Jesus in triumph appear.
Appear in the clouds of the sky."
And Watts exclaims:
"How bright the vision! O how long
Shall this glad hour delay,
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time,
And bring the welcome day!"
The above are a few of the plain truths taught in the word of God. Let us, like the Bereans of old, search the Scriptures daily and see if these things are so. Let us give heed to the words of the Lord and seek for eternal life through Jesus Christ at his coming.
"WHOM THE LORD LOVETH HE CHASTENETH."
And can it be, my father, God,
A mark of love to feel thy rod?
To have our rising hopes cut down,
And all thy Providences frown?
It must be so! His word declares,
On those he loves he never spares
To lay his chastening hand; yet know,
'Tis love that gives the needed blow.
Then let it be our constant care,
That we each trial rightly bear;
And though the present grievous be,
The righteous fruits we soon shall see.
Cease, then, to heave one murmuring sigh,
And let each bitter tear be dry;
For since our Saviour leads the way,
Our griefs will end in joyous day.
Ye suffering ones, fresh courage take,
The night is short, day soon will break;
And to your raptured souls disclose
An endless day of sweet repose.
Made perfect through our sufferings here,
We, with those saints, their bliss shall share,
Who passed through tribulation's flood,
And washed their robes in Jesus' blood.
Lord, 'tis enough! thy will be done;
And when our life's short journey's run,
We'll strike our golden harps and tell,
"That Jesus has done all things well."
The preservation of the Bible.
By A. N.
WITH what wonder should we gaze upon a fortress that had withstood the assaults of successive generations for thousands of years! And with what strange interest should we look at a man who, during a life of many centuries, had often been cast into the sea without being drowned, and drugged with prussic acid without being poisoned, and riddled with bullets without being numbered with the slain! Thus has it been with the Word of God during all its history. Men have made it their enemy by their bad lives, and then have become its enemies, and hated it, and sought to destroy it.
Jehoiakim, as we read, cut to pieces the Divine Roll, and threw it into the fire. About 170 years before Christ, Antiochus caused all the copies of the Jewish Scripture to be burnt. Three hundred and three years after, Dioclesian, by an edict, ordered all the Scriptures to be committed to the flames; and Eusebius the historian tells us he saw large heaps of them burning in the market-place. Nor has this spirit ever failed to show itself. The Bible has, all along its course, had to struggle against opposition, visible and latent, artful and violent. It has had to contend with the prevalence of error, the tyranny of passion, and the cruelty of persecution. Numerous foes have risen up against it—pagans who have aimed to destroy it, and Papists who have striven to monopolize it, and ungodly men who have hated it for its purity and penalties.
But from all these assaults it has been preserved. Though cast into the fire, it has risen triumphantly from its ashes; though crushed, yet, like the diamond, every part of which when broken exhibits the beauty and perfection of the whole, it has proved its indestructibility, and though sunk in the waters, it has come up again studded with the costliest pearls. It has survived the shocks of all its enemies, and withstood the ravages of time. Like the fabled pillars of Seth, which are said to have bid defiance to the deluge, it has stood unmoved in the midst of that flood which sweeps away men, with their labors, into oblivion.
Oh what wreck and ruin meet the eye as it glances at the past! Thrones have crumbled, empires have fallen, and philosophers and their systems have vanished away. The very monuments of man's power have been converted into the mockery of his weakness. His eternal cities moulder in their ruins, and the serpent hisses in the cabinet where he planned his empire, and echo itself is startled by the foot which breaks the silence that has reigned for ages in the hall of feast and song. Yet notwithstanding all this desolation, the stream which first bubbled up at the foot of the Eternal Throne has continued to roll on with silent majesty and might, bearing down each opposing barrier, and declaring to perishing multitudes on its brink, that while "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the word of the Lord endureth forever."
No weapon that has ever been formed against the Bible has prospered. It has survived the power of secret treachery and open violence. The time has been when to read it was death. Infidelity has fought against it with relentless malignity, but it has successfully resisted all its potency, passing unhurt through the hands of Julians, and Celsuses, and Porphyrys, and defying all the sophistries of Hume, and the eloquence of Gibbon, and the innuendoes of Rousseau, and the blasphemy of Paine, and the vituperations of Voltaire. The identical press, indeed, which was employed by Voltaire and the French Institute to disseminate their attacks upon the Bible, has since been used to print the very volume they so vainly sought to destroy.
Nor is this all. Not only has the Bible not been destroyed, it has not been diluted by the lapse of ages. It has not been ruined by the sapping of its foundations, nor by the incorporation of any new element with it, which has marred its integrity, or vitiated its purity. With it, like God its author, there has been no variableness or shadow of a change. The world has suffered its boasted classics to be contaminated and blurred, but the church can rejoice over the fair page of her precious books, assured that the far descent of these venerable treasures has neither altered their character nor changed their identity. "Those Oracles, written amidst such strange diversity of time, place, and condition—among the sands and cliffs of Arabia, the fields and hills of Palestine, in the palaces of Babylon, and in the dungeons of Rome, have come down to us in such unimpaired fullness and accuracy that we are placed as advantageously towards them as the generation which gazed upon that book of the law to which Moses had been adding chronicles and statutes for forty years; or those crowds which hung on the lips of Jesus as he recited a parable on the shore of the Galilean lake; or those churches which received from Paul or Peter one of their epistles of warning or exposition." A. N.—[Sabbath Recorder.
Neglected Protestant Worship in Chicago
The Sanctuary Deserted.—Rev. W. W. Patton now of Chicago, says that on a pleasant Sabbath107last October, a simultaneous count was made in all the Protestant congregations in that city, and the number found to be a little short of ten thousand. Making suitable allowance for the very young, the infirm and the aged, there remain at least 50,000 who did not attend any Protestant evangelic worship. Of these, from ten to twenty thousand may sometimes attend service with Catholics, Universalists, and other sects not Evangelic—leaving a fearfully large balance to go nowhere. This is a deplorable state of things. Can it be that half enough is done to evangelize and save our cities?—Oberlin Evan.
How Can You Do It.
EDITORS of truth, whom we love, it is marvelous in our eyes. You believe, you know, that romance, this "light bread of the day," is doing a sweeping work, a death work, undermining your own foundations. Bunyan, good old Bunyan, is cast into the shade; Doddridge, Baxter, Martin, Gurney, Fletcher, Brainerd, also—the Bible dusted over; your own labors cramped and crippled; still you puff folly, fashion, sickly, sentimental, heart-sickening love ditties, and some things positively infidel! How can you do it? We beseech you, on our bended knee, stop this thing. Why speed the car of Satan? why lash his steeds? The very heavens are darkened, centre-tables are loaded with poison! Beloved, we still hope better things of you, though we thus speak. Are you willing that your little ones, those precious gifts of God, should sip at these sickly, poisonous fountains? Where the golden rule?
Booksellers, also termed theological, one word, if you please, in meekness. Why circulate, for ready cash, froth, the scummings of the pit? Why scatter damnation in the path of the just? A single spark of the infidel and impure may kindle a flame that will burn to the lowest hell! even "seven times hotter than is wont." "Don't! don't!" False—you do! We can single out, and single out, on those shelves, books positively baneful, deleterious, which should be committed to the flames. For every book issued, God holds you responsible;—at his flaming bar the fearful harvest will be reaped!
Make a bonfire—consume the trash—burn every shade, every lineament satanic; scatter the ashes to the four winds. Pious booksellers, would you suffer a child of yours to drink in those dregs? And still you denounce the rumseller, the man of blood. Where is consistency?—Golden Rule.
The Great Day.
“EVEN thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Thousands and tens of thousands of living men, eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building—fluttering, like butterflies in a summer’s day, about the perishing flowers of a perishing world,—steeping all their senses in the earthly business of the passing hour—making everything a business, pleasure, daily avocation, necessary labor, natural appetites, even “eating and drinking,” everything made a business of, and the soul absorbed and quenched therein—“whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things!” Phil. iii, 19.
The farmer at his market! the planter with his trees! the builder at his house! the tradesman in his shop! the student at his books! the reveller at his feast! the gambler at his cards! the rake at his brothel! the usurer at his gold! the nobleman at his pomp! the king at his court! the soldier at his blood! the laborer at his toil! the idler at his folly! the drunkard at his drink! the glutton at his meat! Each at his sin! Each in his day dream! Each in his soul’s poison! The Lord bears it no longer. His mouth has sent forth the word of all-desolating vengeance. The vengeance-storm obeys, and gathers and thickens, and rolls on, and hangs over. One moment’s pause—the world is still merry, and laughing, and busy, and knows not. One moment’s pause—the preachers are preaching—peradventure the sinner may repent. One moment’s pause—hark! believers, the pause is for you—hark! “A great sound of a trumpet.”—Angels are sent with it.—The Lord can do nothing till you are in refuge, being merciful unto you. See, O, see!—They are gathering together the Son’s elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matt. xxiv, 31. The gathering is over—all are in safety—not one is forgotten.—O! dreadful! The storm is bursting—thousands who began to be gathered have fallen back—the last trump sounds louder and louder—the “seventh angel pours out his vial faster and faster,” Rev. xvi, 17. O! dreadful! “voices, and thunders, and lightnings,” Rev. xvi, 18, in the heavens—“weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth,” on earth. The storm is burst upon the poor guilty world! Every living soul has drunk it! And—O! the omnipotence of my God, the Son of man—the heavens are passing away with a great noise, and the elements are melting with fervent heat, and the earth, and all the works that are therein, are burning up! “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”—Sel.
Growth in Grace
GROWTH IN GRACE. Grace is usually at first small and weak. The Holy Spirit is the great efficient cause of growth in grace. It is usually effected by the diligent use of means. Christians do not always grow in grace. When grace grows, its effects are always visible;—it is generally imperceptible to the individual;—it is usually most discernable in the early stages of the Christian life;—we may grow in some graces and not in others;—its rapidity is exceedingly various, but is usually proportioned to our diligence. It is a blessing which is promised, and after which every christian is both commanded and inclined to aspire.
Hinderance to Growth in Grace.
The influence of worldly relatives and companions;—embarking too deeply in business;—approximations to fraud for the sake of gain,—devoting too much time to amusements;—immoderate attachments to an earthly object;—acrimonious controversies, whether religious or political; attendance on an unbelieving or unfaithful minister;—languid and formal observance of religious duties;—frequent omission of religious duties;—shunning the society and religious converse of christian friends;—relapse into known sin;—oversight, and of course non-improvement of graces already attained.
A Child's Thought of Burial.
In the South Sea Islands, the child of one of the missionaries died. Its little brothers and sisters saw it buried, and wept bitterly when it was hid from their sight in the dark grave. Not long after, one more of their number sickened and died, and as the friends were about to take it away to the grave, one of the youngest, more used to the language of the islanders than to the English, cried out, "O, don't plant it—don't plant it!" She had seen them planting seeds, and she had seen her little brother covered up in the earth; and it was natural for her to speak of burying as planting, though she did not know how much beauty and force there were in the expression. It is the very language of inspiration. The resurrection of the dead is not even revealed or illustrated by any sweeter or more appropriate figure than the springing from the earth of the seed that was buried. "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." As the sower goeth forth and scatters the precious seed, he is cheered with the hope that it will soon spring up in beauty, and reward him abundantly for his toil. So the parent who commits to the dust the precious form that he has loved, is cheered with the hope that it will spring up again in beauty, and shine in glory.—Sel.
The Habit of Prayer.
By Bickersteth
The believer's character, I give myself unto prayer, shows that he is continually in the spirit of prayer. The lifting up of holy desires unto God, will only quicken us in the performance of the daily labors of our life. Such an habitually devout disposition of mind, the expression of which is sometimes called ejaculatory prayer, will make every action of life holy. We shall learn to do nothing without connecting it by prayer with the presence and glory of God. We shall see nothing, and hear nothing, without its raising our hearts unto him. What a spiritual life may the Christian, improving everything by prayer, lead! This will consecrate every field, and every word, and every dwelling-place, and turn an ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice.—Bickersteth.
Truth and Error.
A quiet exposition of truth has a better effect than a violent attack on error. Truth exirpates error as grass exirpates weeds, by working its way into their place,s and leaving them no room to grow.
Sel.
Spirit Rappers.
KEEP away from them. Keep your children away from them. Do you ask why? Because,—
1. They certainly do no good. They teach nothing worth knowing, they forgive no sin, they sanctify no heart, they save no soul. If they rap on tables, they do not supply them with food; if they shake and lift them, they do not servants' hire in moving them nor washing dishes. A man might have forty thousand such spirits in his house, yet be no better off, either in soul, body, or estate.
2. They have done much mischief. Many have become insane by running after these spirit rappers. The young have been led to trifle with serious and sacred things. The Bible has been brought into contempt. Some who professed to be disciples of Christ have avowed infidel sentiments, by the influence of these rappings. Their tendency is to turn the mind from God, the concerns of the soul and eternity.
3. Let them alone, because it is wicked and dangerous to meddle with them. God has forbidden us to "seek unto familiar spirits that peep and mutter," or to have any thing to do with witches, necromancers and devils. He has, in all ages, allowed devils to do some strange and wonderful things, to try and prove men. He has forewarned us of this. If he has given "lying spirits" leave to tempt this generation, will you run into temptation? No. Let all who value their own peace and safety keep away. Do not invite the Devil to ruin you.—Western Watchman.
Truth Dreads Nothing.
He who worships at the shrine of truth cannot be bigoted. He knows truth can never suffer from investigation. It is error that loves the night, and gloomy caverns. Her dress is dark, and, in short, there is nothing but darkness about her. Darkness is her mother: and she is akin to nothing that is bright and beautiful. But truth courts investigation. Her dwelling place is in the light. Her mild, glowing countenance blushes not at the most scrutinizing gaze. While error lies trembling lest reason should make new discoveries that will weaken her, truth stands and gives man a smile of approbation for his encouragement. If you love truth, be not afraid to investigate.—Sel.
Be True
BE TRUE.—How stirring these words of old Geo. Herbert. “Lie not,” neither to thyself, nor man, nor God. Let mouth and heart be one; beat and speak together; and make both felt in action. It is for cowards to lie. Lies are the offspring of fear, and slaves to it spit them forth amid the stormy workings of the soul in froth. How like a living thing this truth, as in a gem, shines out as George Herbert sang it two centuries ago:—