Review and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 13. (3/15/1870)

Review and Herald

Mar 15, 1870

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1870

OUR FAITH AND HOPE;

By James White

Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We Do.

BY ELDER JAMES WHITE.

NUMBER SIXTEEN—THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY.

At the close of the typical services, He of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, came and laid down his life for us. The death of the Lord Jesus is the dividing point between the two dispensations, as it put an end to the typical services, and was the great foundation of his work as a priest in the heavenly tabernacle. On Jesus was laid the iniquity of us all, and he bare our sins in his own body on the tree. Isa. 53: 6; 1 Pet. 2: 24; Heb. 9: 28. He was raised from the dead for our justification, and ascended into Heaven to become a great High Priest in the presence of God for us. Rom. 4: 25; Heb. 9: 11, 12, 24.

The ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is performed by the Melchisedec order of priesthood, in the person of our Lord. Ps. 110; Heb. 5-8. We have already proved that the temple of God in Heaven consists of two holy places, as did the earthly tabernacle; and that the ministration in the two holy places of the worldly sanctuary was the example and shadow of Christ's ministry in the true tabernacle. But it is contended by some that Christ ministers only in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. Let us examine this point:

1. The anointing of the most holy place at the commencement of his ministration, may be urged as proof that he ministers only in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. Dan. 9: 24. But this objection vanishes at once, if we consider that before the Levitical priesthood began to minister in the earthly sanctuary, that entire building, the holiest as well as the holy place and all the sacred vessels, was anointed. Ex. 40: 9-11; 30: 23-29; Lev. 8: 10; Num. 7: 1. And when this anointing was accomplished, that ministration began in the first apartment. Lev. 8-10; Heb. 9: 6, 7. And this order, let it be remembered, was “the example and shadow of heavenly things.”

2. It has been urged by some that the text, “This Man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God,” Heb. 10: 12, forbids the idea of his ministering in the two holy places. But we answer, so far as the idea of sitting down is concerned, it would be equally proper to represent him as standing on the Father's right hand. Acts 7: 56. And if the Saviour is at “the right hand of the power of God” when descending from Heaven, as he testifies respecting himself, Matt. 26: 64; Mark 14: 62; Luke 22: 69, then he certainly can be at the Father's right hand in both the holy places. But we have direct testimony here. Paul says that Christ is a “minister of the sanctuary.” Heb. 8: 2. That the word, hagion, here rendered sanctuary, is plural, no one can deny. It is literally rendered by the Douay Bible, “the holies.” As translated by Macknight, Heb. 8: 1, 2, reads thus: “Now of the things spoken the chief is, we have such an High Priest as became us, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a minister of the holy places, namely, of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.” We draw two conclusions from the foregoing: (1) Our Lord can be a minister of the two holy places, and yet be at the Father's right hand. (2) He must minister in both the holy places, or Paul's language that he is a minister of the holies or holy places (plural), is not true. A high priest that should minister simply in the holiest of all, is not a minister of the holy places.

3. But another argument to prove that Christ ministers only in the most holy place, has been urged by some, from the following texts: “The Holy Ghost, this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.” Heb. 9: 8. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Chap. 10: 19. But as has been before remarked, the word rendered “holiest of all,” is the same that is rendered “sanctuary” in chap. 8: 2, and is not hagia hagion, holy of holies, as in chap. 9: 3, but is simply hagion, holies, plural. The rendering of Macknight, which correctly translates the word in the plural, removes all difficulty. He translates these two texts, as follows: “The Holy Ghost signifying this, that the way of the holy places was not yet laid open, while the first tabernacle still standeth.” “Well then, brethren, having boldness in the entrance of the holy places, by the blood of Jesus.” These texts, therefore, do not favor the doctrine that Christ is a minister of only one of the holy places. With a literal rendering of the word, giving it in the plural in our language, just as it was written by Paul, the objection to Christ's ministration in the two holy places of the heavenly sanctuary is entirely removed. The way into the holy places of the heavenly sanctuary was not laid open, while the ministration in the earthly tabernacle continued; but when that ministration was abolished, the way of the heavenly holy places was laid open, and we have boldness to enter by faith, where our High Priest is ministering for us.

It may be proper to add, that the phrase rendered “into the holy place,” in Heb. 9: 12, 25, and “into the sanctuary,” in chap. 13: 11, is the same that in chap. 9: 24, is literally rendered in the plural, “into the holy places.” Macknight renders them all in the plural. Then the heavenly tabernacle, where our Lord Jesus Christ ministers, is composed of holy places, as really as was its pattern or image, the earthly tabernacle; and our great High Priest is a minister of these holy places while at the Father's right hand.

Let us now examine those scriptures which present our Lord's position and ministry in the tabernacle in Heaven. In vision at Patmos, the beloved disciple had a view of the temple of God, the heavenly sanctuary. A door was opened in Heaven. This must be the door of the heavenly tabernacle, for it disclosed to John's view the throne of God, which was in that temple. Rev. 4: 1, 2; 16: 17; Jer. 17: 12. It must be the door of the first apartment, for that of the second apartment (which discloses the ark containing the ten commandments) is not opened until the sounding of the seventh angel. Rev. 11: 19. And the view that John was looking into the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, when he saw the Lord Jesus take the book from the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, is strikingly confirmed by what he saw before the throne. He testifies “that there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.” Rev. 4: 5; Zech. 4: 2. He also saw the golden altar of incense before the throne, and witnessed the ministration at that altar with the golden censer. Rev. 8: 3. In the earthly tabernacle, which was the pattern of things in the Heavens, the golden candlestick with its seven lamps, and the golden altar of incense, were both represented, and by God's express direction, placed in the first apartment. Num. 8: 2-4; Heb. 9: 2; Lev. 24: 2-4; Ex. 40: 24-27. The scene of this vision is the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. Here it was that John saw the Lord Jesus. Rev. 5: 6-8.

Let us read Isaiah's description of this place: “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw, also, the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.” Isa. 6: 1-6.

That this was a view of the heavenly tabernacle, and not of the temple at Jerusalem, may be proved by comparing John 12: 39-41, with Isa. 6: 8-10. Words written by Isaiah, while looking into the temple of God, are quoted by John, with the declaration that Isaiah spake them while beholding Christ's glory. That John and Isaiah both beheld the same place, is evident; both beheld the throne of God, and him that sits upon it; Isa. 6: 1; Rev. 4: 2; both beheld the living beings with six wings; Isa. 6: 2; Rev. 4: 6-8; each heard from these beings a like song; Isa. 6: 3; Rev. 4: 8; and both beheld the golden altar before the throne. Isa. 6: 6; Rev. 8: 3; 9: 13. That John and Isaiah both saw our Lord Jesus Christ, we have already proved. And the scene of their visions was in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, the place of the golden candlestick with its seven lamps, and the golden altar of incense. And in this apartment our High Priest commenced his ministration, like the priests in the example and shadow of heavenly things. In the shadow, each part of the work was many times repeated; but in the substance, each part is fulfilled once for all. Once for all our sacrifice is slain; Rom.

6: 9, 10; Heb. 9: 25-28, and once for all our High Priest appears in each of the holy places. Heb. 9: 11, 12, 24, 25. Hence our Lord must continue his ministration in the first apartment until the period arrives for his ministration within the second vail, before the ark of God's testament.

The sins of the world were laid upon the Lord Jesus, and he died for those sins according to the Scriptures. The blood of the Lamb of God, which was shed for our transgressions of God's law, is that by which our High Priest enters the heavenly sanctuary, Heb. 9: 12, and which, as our advocate, he offers for us in that sanctuary. Heb. 12: 24; 1 Pet. 1: 2; 1 John 2: 1, 2. His great work, which began with the act of bearing the sins of the world at his death, he here carries forward by pleading the cause of penitent sinners, and presenting for them his blood which had been shed as the great sacrifice for the sins of the world. The work in the earthly sanctuary was essentially the same thing. The sins were there laid upon the victim, which was then slain. The blood of that sacrifice, bearing that guilt, was sprinkled in the sanctuary, to make reconciliation for the sinner. And thus in the shadow of heavenly things, we see the guilt of the people transferred to the sanctuary itself. This can be easily understood. And it is a plain fact that its great design was to give an example of heavenly things. As the sin of him who came to God through the offering of blood by the high priest, was, through that blood, transferred to the sanctuary itself, so it is in the substance. He who bore our sins at his death, offers for us his blood in the heavenly sanctuary. But when he comes again he is “without sin;” Heb. 9: 28; his great work for the removal of sin is fully completed before he comes again.

Does Fulfill Mean to Abolish?

By R. S. Webber

Not long since I heard a first-day Adventist preach. He took the position that the law of God was abrogated, or done away; and for proof he used language as follows: “The law and the prophets were until John,” and “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” He claimed that fulfill means to do away, to abolish, and that of a necessity, those that keep the law must reject Christ, and seek salvation some way by the law, and not by the gospel, or through Christ.

This seemed to me to be a perversion of the Scriptures, and a false view of our position. We do not reject Christ, nor expect salvation through any but Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But by the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul said, “Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Hence, the law teaches the necessity of salvation, because by it we learn that we are sinners, and need salvation; for the “wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life [or salvation from death] through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Salvation strictly means deliverance. What, then, are we delivered from by the salvation of the gospel? Ans. From sin and death. Well, then, let us query a little: What is death? Ans. The wages of sin. What is sin? The transgression of the law. Then, where there is no law, there is no transgression. Where there is no transgression, there is no sin. Where there is no sin, there is no death. And where there is no sin nor death, there is certainly no need of salvation from sin and death. Therefore I conclude that those who reject the moral law, cannot claim the salvation of the gospel, nor preach it in a Bible sense; while those who embrace the law see that they have transgressed it, and thereby become sinners, and need salvation, as they must receive the wages of sin, which is death.

But did Jesus do away, or abolish, the law? Jesus said, Matt. 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

It seems that some in those days thought he had come to do away the law; but he commanded them not to think so. He said, Think not that I am come to destroy, to abrogate, to abolish, the law. This is a plain command, and says Jesus, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

But, does fulfill here mean to abolish, to do away, to destroy? If it does, then Jesus plainly contradicts himself in this verse; for he says, I am not come to destroy. Then what does it mean? Let us examine a few passages of Scripture:

Jesus came to John to be baptized of him. John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee. Jesus said, “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matt. 3:15. If fulfill means to abolish, then all righteousness is abolished. Again, “If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.” James 2:8. Again, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Gal. 6:2.

Now, if fulfill means to abolish, to do away, we now have the law of God, the royal law, spoken of by James, the law of Christ, and all righteousness, abolished, or done away. What a sad condition of things this must be.

Again, the psalmist says, “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them.” Ps. 145:19. Is Christ going to do away, or abolish, the desire of them that fear him, and then hear their cry, and save them? I think not.

Again, we read in Acts 13:22: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” Did David do away, or abolish, all the will of God before Jesus was born? If so, how could Jesus do the will of his Father who sent him?

Again, in Rev. 17:16, 17, we learn that God has put it in the hearts of the ten horns (or kingdoms) that were upon the beast, to fulfill his will. Therefore we have the will of God abolished, or done away, by the ten horns of the beast. Can this be so?

Again, and God will put it in their hearts to “agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” Then we have the will, and words of God done away by the ten horns of the beast, or ten kings that should live here on this earth. Then the time has or will come, when we cannot do the will of our Father who art in Heaven. Thus it will be useless for us to pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven; for David and the ten horns of the beast have abolished, or done away, all his will and words.

We might continue this method of reasoning still further; but we think this will be enough to convince all that this is not the meaning of fulfill, in these passages.

Now let us give what we think is the meaning of the word. Dr. Barnes, in his comments on this word, in Matt. 5:17, says: “It means to accomplish what was in the law, and the prophets.”

Worcester gives the meaning of the word fulfill, to accomplish, to perform. See Worcester’s Elementary Dictionary. Let us review some of the passages referred to, with this meaning.

First, the one found in Matt. 3:15: “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness;” to perform all righteousness. This sounds better.

Again, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill [perform] the law of Christ.”

“If ye fulfill [perform] the royal law,” &c.

“He will fulfill [accomplish] the desire of them that fear him,” &c. Ps. 145:19.

“A man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill [perform] all my will.” Acts 13:22.

“I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill [to accomplish].” Matt. 5:17.

By giving the word its proper meaning we find that the Scriptures harmonize, and that Jesus did not abolish, or do away, the law.

“For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Such are the words of Jesus. Matt. 5:18. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” “For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.” “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Rom. 7:14, 22, 25. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:19, 20. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Rom. 2:13. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31. See also Rom. 7:7; Ps. 19:7; 119:34, 126, 136; Prov. 28:4, 7, 9; James 4:11; 2:9, 10, 11; Zeph. 3:4; Mal. 2:3.

“Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law, yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Ps. 119:34. R. S. WEBBER.

Sagadahoc Co., Maine.

The Expectations of the Church.

By D. T. Taylor

“Looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” 2 Peter 3:12.

Our doctrine is no novelty. The church of Christ from the earliest times, has written and sung of the floods that shall overflow, the storms that shall sweep the sky, the pestilence and distress that shall walk the earth, and the earthquakes that shall rack the globe, both as heralds and accompaniments of the day of the Lord. The solemn strain has rolled down from Thomas, of Celano, the poet of the middle ages, A. D. 1221–1255, who sung of that

Day of wrath, that day of burning, All shall melt, to ashes turning.

To Luther's solemn hymn,— Great God, what do I see and hear? The end of things created! The Judge of man I see appear, On clouds of glory seated. The trumpet sounds, the graves restore The dead which they contained before: Prepare my soul to meet him.

And Charles Wesley, who says,— Thy tokens we with joy confess: The war proclaims Thee Prince of peace, The earthquake speaks thy power, The famine all thy fullness brings, The plague presents thy healing wings, And nature's final hour. The plague, the dearth, the din of war, Our Saviour's swift approach declare, And bid our hearts arise; Earth's basis shook confirms our hope, Its cities fall but lift us up, To meet thee in the skies.

And John Wesley, who exclaims,— Earthquakes, deaths, and desolations, Signify thy kingdom near!

And Byles, who cries out,— Let the earth totter on her base, And clouds the heavens deform; Blow, all ye winds, from every place, And rush the final storm. Come quickly, blessed Lord, appear, Bid thy swift chariot fly; Let angels tell thy coming near, And snatch me to the sky.

And Doddridge, who solemnly inquires,— How will my heart endure the terrors of that day? When earth and heaven before the Judge Astonished shrink away?

And Newton, who sings of that hour, when Earth shall melt away, Like wax before the flame.

And Dr. Watts, who asks,— Who dares engage his fiery rage, That shakes a solid world?

And Davies, who exclaims,— How great, how terrible is God, Who shakes creation with his nod!

And Bishop Doane, who says, The earth shall quake, the sea shall roar, The sun in heaven grow pale.

And Wesley, who writes again,— Stand th' omnipotent decree, Jehovah's will be done; Nature's end we wait to see, And hear her final groan.

And Bishop Heber, who sings,— The Lord will come, the earth shall quake, The hills their fixed seats forsake.

And again:— In the sun and moon and stars, Signs and wonders there shall be; Earth shall quake with inward wars, Nations with perplexity. Soon shall ocean's hoary deep, Tossed with stronger tempests rise; Darker storms the mountains sweep, Fiercer lightnings rend the skies. Evil thoughts shall shake the proud, Racking doubt and restless fear; And amid the thunder cloud, Shall the Judge of man appear. But though from that awful face, Heaven shall fade, and earth shall fly; Fear ye not, you chosen race, Your redemption draweth nigh.

Thus men of all ages, sects, and lands, proclaim the coming of terrestrial convulsions as the portents of the great and awful day of God at hand.

And when, in 1727, a severe earthquake shook America, from the wilds of Maine, to the State of Virginia, all hearts reverentially bowed before it, the pastors of New England everywhere preached upon the event, and men said, “This is the finger of God.” Drake, in the history of Boston, quotes an eye-witness as saying, “The houses rocked as if they would fall down, and the people being amazed ran out into the streets, calling on the Lord for mercy.”—History, vol. 1, p. 575. The inhabitants rushed into the churches for prayer. At Haverhill, a general fast was held for two days. At Exeter, forty persons were baptized; and at Haverhill, one hundred and fifty were propounded for admission to the church within three weeks after the solemn event. At Amesbury, the whole time was given up by the people in worship and prayer. At Cambridge, the churches of Dr. Mather, Mr. Lowell, and Mr. Foxcroft, were crowded with serious worshipers. The sermon preached afterward before the General Court, was on the mighty earthquake that had occurred October 30; and William Burnet, Governor elect of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, appointed a fast to be kept on the twenty-first day of December following, as he said, “Throughout the province, on account of the late surprising and amazing earthquake, and the shaking of the earth.” In the general reformation that ensued, evil men were alarmed, and drunkards and blasphemers ceased to riot and scoff. Some laughed; but all were sober. The ministry rose to the solemnity of the occasion, proclaimed God in the earthquake, and reaped a harvest of souls.

Alas, where now is that solemn awe that trembles before the terrible hand which has of late shaken every part of the world? Where are the public and humble thanksgivings for our preservation from the destruction which has fallen upon others? Where are the ten thousand admonitions from an enlightened ministry, which should have followed the convulsions of our fire-doomed planet during the past two years? And where are the warnings of that greater earthquake, and the day of God that is behind it, of which these increasing commotions are but types and signs? “The priests' lips should keep knowledge.” Mal. 2: 7. The ministry and the whole church should awake to the importance of this solemn crisis—this awful interval of suspense—and give the alarm, lest the blood of lost multitudes, who hang upon her lips, be found in her skirts, and be required at her hands. Gracious God, do thou arouse thy people from their slumbers on the verge of the great day!

“A Swiss traveler,” says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, “describes a village, situated on the slope of a great mountain, of which the strata shelve in the direction of the place. Huge crags, directly overhanging the village, and massy enough to sweep the whole of it into the torrent below, have become separated from the main body of the mountain in the course of ages by great fissures, and now scarcely adhere to it. When they give way, the village must perish; it is only a question of time, and the catastrophe may happen any day. For years past engineers have been sent to measure the width of the fissures, and report them constantly increasing. The villagers, for more than one generation, have been aware of their danger; subscriptions have been once or twice opened to enable them to remove; yet they live on in their doomed dwellings, from year to year, fortified against the ultimate certainty and daily probability of destruction by the common sentiment, ‘Things may last their time and longer.’”

Like the dwellers in this doomed village, the world's inhabitants have grown careless and secure in sin. The scoffers of the last days are around us, saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” But in saying this, they are too confident. Nothing is permanent that has sin about it, nothing secure that has wrath above it, and flames of fire beneath. Sin has once deluged the world with water, it shall deluge it again with waves of fire. Sodom and Gomorrah are the types that foreshow the doom of those that live ungodly in these latter times, and he who can walk this reeling world unmoved by all the tokens of its fiery doom, must either have a rock of refuge where his soul may rest secure, or else must have fallen into a strange carelessness and a sad forgetfulness of God.

But we need not wonder that the world has little thought of the coming day of wrath. Thus it was foretold. Men will say, “Peace and safety,” till the final storm bursts in fury on their heads. For as it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, when men were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, till the day of trouble came, even thus shall it be when the Son of Man appears.

But when the long-forgotten prophecies shall be fulfilled, in which God says that “there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel, so that the fishes of the sea, and fowls of the heavens, and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground,” (Eze. 38: 19, 20,) men shall sorrow in vain over their carelessness and sin, lamenting that the harvest is past, the summer ended, and they ungathered, unpardoned, unsaved, unblest, at last.

And will a careless, guilty world to whom these pages shall come, continue to forget the coming Judge, and slight his offered Son? Will none heed his breath in the cyclone, nor see his hand in the tossing main, nor perceive his awful march, his stately stepping in the earthquake's desolating tread, nor hear his voice in the thunders that shake the air, nor discern the glance of his angry eye in the lightnings that flash and burn? And will sinners still refuse to listen to the entreaties of Jehovah's living word? Shall all things continue to be attributed to secondary causes, and the omnipotent Being who performs these wonders, and before whose tribunal of judgment, sooner or later, every soul must certainly appear, be put far away? Reader, dare you continue in sin and forget God?

Pressed down, and awed with an overwhelming sense of the impending doom of our world, and the possibility of that doom overtaking the worldly-minded and thoughtless multitudes of mankind at any moment, and shuddering at the terrible sins that are lighting the torch with which the last fires are to be kindled—we send out far and wide our solemn and earnest warning, beseeching men by the love of Christ, not only to prepare to meet their God, but to seek meekness, and live holily before him, and to watch and pray always, that they may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man!—The Coming Earthquake, by D. T. Taylor.

Faith

FAITH is a sure confidence which a man hath in God, that, through the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favor of God.

The Undesirability of Fame

MUCH of most men's fame is undesirable, being founded on their unhappiness.

What Shall I Render?

By Sarah E. L. Pierce

“WHAT shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” Ps. 116:12. Thus questions the grateful psalmist after recounting some of the mercies of the Lord. What more appropriate question could he ask? And as I meditate upon the goodness of God to me and mine, I feel from the depths of my heart to make the same inquiry. “He hath heard my voice and my supplications.” “Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”

Who of us, dear brethren and sisters, cannot unite in the same strain? It is good to give thanks unto the Lord. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth him. “Praise is comely,” etc. But with the “sacrifice of thanksgiving” shall we pay our vows unto the Lord? In times of affliction or distress we have sought unto him with importunity and found him precious to our souls. We have felt to praise him that “his hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.” We have tried to bow in humble submission to his will, saying like one of old, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

“Thy way, not mine, O Lord, However dark it be.”

But did we not feel that if the Lord in his mercy should grant unto us the desire of our heart, surely we would live to his glory? We would be more faithful. We would ever keep in mind so great a blessing, and love and serve him in return.

Perchance it was that life and health might be spared unto us, or the life and health of some dear one. Or, perhaps, that God would so overrule as to save us from some threatening difficulty.

Time passes on, and perhaps we are spared the sorrow that we feared.

The Lord has granted unto us even more than we dared to ask. What shall we render? What wilt thou render, O my soul? Shall it be forgetfulness of God, his love and mercy, and his requirements? Shall it be a life devoted to self, the world and worldly pursuits? My God, forbid. Let me not be guilty of such base ingratitude; rather let me glorify him in my body and spirit which are his.

But how great the danger that the enemy will take the advantage of my deceitful heart, and cause me to neglect duty, and so stray away from the Lord instead of following him more closely. It is only by constant watchfulness and prayer that I may hope to be an overcomer. I desire to render willing obedience to all his requirements, overcome all my sins, that I may be permitted to join with the redeemed in their final song of victory, upon Mount Zion.

Your sister in hope, SARAH E. L. PIERCE, New Haven, Oswego Co., N. Y.

Results of Personal Labor for Christ.

WHILE on his dying bed, that eminent Christian, Harlan Page, conversing with his wife who was soon to be his widow, said, as he looked back on his earthly work, “I know it is all of God's grace, and nothing that I have done; but I think I have had evidence that more than one hundred souls have been converted to God through my own direct and personal instrumentality.”

Rev. Dr. Walker, author of the “Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,” gives the following fact respecting the efforts of an aged man who, from being an atheist, was converted to Christ, and repenting of his life of sin, determined to do all in his power to bring sinners to the Saviour. “When converted, one of his first acts, although he had heard nothing of any such act in others, was to make out a list of all his old associates then living within reach of his influence. For the conversion of these he determined to labor as he had opportunity, and pray daily. On his list were one hundred and sixteen names, among whom were skeptics, drunkards, and other individuals, as little likely to be reached by Christian influence as any other men in the region. Within two years from the period of the old man's conversion, one hundred of these individuals had made a profession of religion. We can hardly suppose that the old man was instrumental in the conversion of all these persons, yet the fact is one of the most remarkable that has been developed in the progress of Christianity.”—Am. Messenger.

Is it Right?

By John H. Waggoner

It sometimes happens that ministers are occupied with their own personal matters a large part of the time, but break away from temporal affairs to attend Monthly or Quarterly Meetings, and then throw in a bill for the time so employed. Now I have a few thoughts to offer on this subject:

1. In some cases these ministers are young and inexperienced, and are less qualified to take hold and help the work at a Monthly Meeting than the majority of lay members. Their counsel is comparatively worthless, and their preaching is really a hindrance, as it is very often the case that preaching is a detriment at Monthly Meetings.

There are places for all to work; places to help one another; where the tried or tempted should get help and encouragement from the faithful and experienced. Many a Monthly Meeting is a failure because the brethren and sisters, who ought to work and pray with and for one another, are simply preached to, and they go away barren of mind and spirit.

2. Whatever may be the calling or experience of a minister, if he is cumbered with temporal matters much of his time, he is not well prepared to labor in a Monthly Meeting. Indeed, the very fact that he has a call to the ministry, and is not fulfilling his calling, is evidence that he is not in a position to help those who are more nearly fulfilling their calling than he is his. If there is doubt of his call to the ministry, a Monthly Meeting is a doubtful place to prove the matter, for there the preaching should be most practical and searching.

3. It must be apparent to all, that if any one specially needs the influence of a good, spirited, devotional, social meeting, such as our monthly meetings should be, it is the minister in the condition above described. Why, then, should he receive pay for laying aside his worldly concerns to attend a meeting which he so much needs? And why should they who have experience in the things of God, who are fitted to do the labor that is required to be done in such meetings,

be called upon to pay for the attendance of another, who will, perhaps, stand in the way of the work?

4. The individual who has a call from God, though he lack age or experience in the work, if he has a due degree of heavenly wisdom, will not venture to sermonize before a company of believers who need labor of a different kind. Yet judicious, practical preaching may be just what is sometimes needed in a Monthly Meeting. Sanctified judgment to know precisely what is needed on such occasions is a very useful gift.

5. A person who is spending all his time in the ministry, and attends a Monthly Meeting, may with good reason receive compensation for his time, even though he is not best fitted to labor efficiently in such a meeting. It is right that he should get experience in all parts of the work, and but just that he be sustained, if his life is devoted to the work.

6. And if any are tried by these things to doubt whether they have a calling, I would say, a person may have a call from God, even though they are unfaithful for a time. But if any suffer their feelings to be touched, and fears arise, lest they should not be well paid for their labor, it is evidence, rendering it at least probable, that their call is a selfish one. One thing is certain, they will never be efficient in the work until their burden for money has entirely passed away, and a sense of the value of souls, the sacredness of the cause, and a spirit of groaning for acceptance with God, have taken its place.

J. H. WAGGONER.

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