Review and Herald, Vol. 27, No. 8. (1/23/1866)

Review and Herald

Jan 23, 1866

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1866

Review of Elds. Law and Delap.

By ISAAC SANBORN

"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. * But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as theirs also was." 2 Tim. iii, 8, 9.

In the sermons preached recently in Tafton, Wis., one by Eld. Law, Baptist, the other by Eld. Delap, Methodist, we have the following curious contradictory assertions against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

1. Elder Law takes the fourth commandment for his text, then very truthfully affirms that the New Testament has nothing to show that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. He then asserts that there is apostolic example for keeping it, but does not tell where this example is to be found. Again he says the fourth commandment does not enjoin the seventh day as the Sabbath, and yet admits that those who keep the seventh day and those who keep the first, both keep the commandment. O consistency!

2. He says very truly that when God says, Remember the Sabbath day, there stands a command of the highest authority. Truth and that command say, that the seventh day is the Sabbath; remember it and keep it holy; and notwithstanding the Elder admits that there is nothing in the New Testament to show that the first day is the Sabbath, yet he refuses to keep the fourth-commandment Sabbath. Eld. Delap says that the Jewish Sabbath, that is the fourth-commandment Sabbath, was instituted at the giving of the manna in the wilderness, and quotes Ex. xvi, 25 to prove it. Because Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath, and therefore it is not THE Sabbath, yet Moses calls it THE Sabbath and THE seventh day, six times in the same connection. It is often said that drowning men will catch at straws. The Elder then admits that the Sabbath of Ex. xvi is the one which God commands in the fourth commandment in Ex. xx, 8, then asserts that it does not correspond with the creation Sabbath. How readest thou? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is THE Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." This is God's reason, which shows conclusively the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was instituted at creation, and not in the wilderness, as Elder D. asserts. How applicable the language of the prophet, "They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. xxii, 26.

Elder D. says, Some men say that Constantine changed it, and some say the Pope did it; but he would challenge any man to prove that any of these potentates ever said one word about changing it. Let us see. In Dan. vii, 25, God tells us that the Papal power would think to change it. We will examine the testimony of the Roman Catholic church on this point, and if we find it in harmony with the prophecy which Protestants are agreed applies to that church, we shall receive it as truth. The Catholic Catechism of the Christian Religion, has the following questions and answers on the Sabbath commandment:

"QUESTION. What does God ordain by this commandment?

ANSWER. He ordains that we sanctify in a special manner, this day on which he rested from the labor of creation.

QUES. What is this day of rest?

ANS. The seventh day of the week or Saturday; for he employed six days in creation and rested on the seventh. Gen. ii, 2; Heb. iv, 1.

QUES. Is it then Saturday that we should sanctify in order to obey the ordinance of God?

ANS. During the old Law, Saturday was the day; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday. So we now sanctify the first and not the seventh day.

QUES. Had the church power to make such change?

ANS. Certainly, since the Spirit of God is her guide, the change is inspired by the Holy Spirit."

Milner's End of Controversy, a Catholic work, has the following: "The first precept in the Bible is that of sanctifying the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Gen. ii, 3. This precept was confirmed by God in the ten commandments: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Ex. xx. On the other hand, Christ declares that he has not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Matt. v, 17. He himself observed the Sabbath, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day. Luke iv, 16. His disciples likewise observed it. They rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Luke xxiii, 56. Yet with all this weight of scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath, or seventh day holy, Protestants of all denominations, make this a profane day and transfer the obligation of it to the first day of the week or the Sunday. Now what authority have they for this? None whatever, except the unwritten word or tradition of the Catholic Church, which declares that the apostles made the change in honor of Christ's resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon that day of the week."

The following is from the Catholic Christian, instructed by Dr. Challoner.

"QUES. What are the days which the church commands to be kept holy?

ANS. First, the Sundays or Lord's days, which we observe by apostolic tradition instead of the Sabbath, which was Saturday.

QUES. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday preferable to the ancient Sabbath which was the Saturday?

ANS. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church and apostolic tradition."

Read carefully the following from the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, a Catholic Catechism of the first authority, from which I have already quoted.

"QUES. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?

ANS. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.

QUES. How prove you that?

ANS. Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin, and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again deny in fact the same power."

The following is from the doctrinal Catechism, another Catholic work.

"QUES. Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?

ANS. Had she not had such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her; she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority."

Now will Elder D. still continue to assert that those potentates have never said one word about changing the Sabbath? If he does, who will believe him after reading the testimony here given.

The Elder made another curious assertion which we wish to notice; that is, that after the resurrection the people of God never met on the Jewish Sabbath or seventh day for worship. Here we find him contradicting the plain word of God in Acts xiii, 42: "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Verse 44. "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither." Acts xvi, 13. "And Paul as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out

of the Scriptures." Acts xvii, 2. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts xviii, 4.

"But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be made manifest." How we see this scripture fulfilled almost daily by those who are fighting against God's holy Sabbath. May the Lord have mercy upon them and help them to cease hiding their eyes from the Sabbath, that when the seven last plagues are poured out upon those who worship the beast and his image, they may escape. Rev. xvi, 1-3.

Be in Earnest.

By R. J. Foster

Be in earnest, Christian pilgrim, When you in the strife engage, Jesus will direct your efforts, Be you youth or be you sage.

If in earnest you continue, And are faithful to your trust, He will kindly, gently lead you, To o'ercome the vilest lust.

Be in earnest in the warfare, And the victory you shall win; Gathered with the saints unnumbered, Safe with God, and free from sin.

Be in earnest, see the glories Of the golden city bright, Without need of sun or moonbeam, For the Lamb shall be its light.

Be in earnest, Christian, earnest, All those glories thine shall be; Soon thou shalt with all the ransomed Stand upon the jasper sea.

R. J. FOSTER.

Coopersville, Mich.

The Transfiguration. Luke IX, 28–36.

It has been questioned whether we are to receive the account of the Saviour's Transfiguration as a historic fact, or not. We hold it to be nothing less than literal truth, just as it is written. How could three different men have exactly the same dream at the same time, and all be so perfectly deceived concerning it, as to tell it in their most serious writings as a matter of historical fact? And what authority is there for receiving that as a dream which the record says did not appear to the witnesses until after they were entirely awake? "When they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him." Men do not usually dream with their eyes open, and in wakeful consciousness. Neither is this the state in which trance-visions occur. Three Evangelists have recorded the thing without a single word to show that it was any other than a narrative of real events which they were giving. Peter, in his second Epistle, also refers to it with the express asseveration, that nothing of the nature of fable had the least connection with it; but that it was a matter of fact to which he was an eye-witness. 2 Pet. i, 16–18. It is also part of the account that the three witnesses were standing upon their feet while they gazed upon the extraordinary scene; and that they were so terrified at a certain stage of the occurrences they were witnessing, that they were overcome, and fell upon their faces for very dread; which does not very well accord with the dreaming of dreams, and the seeing of mere scenic visions. Then again, if it was a mere dream of the three apostles, why did the Saviour speak to them so seriously about it, and charge them so particularly not to tell it until after his resurrection from the dead? Nay, more; if it was a mere matter of play upon the imaginations of the Apostles for their own particular confirmation, there are the still further difficulties; first, of harmonizing it with right principles of morality; and, second, of accounting for the very prominent and reiterated references to it in the New Testament. If they were deceived into a reception of a mere vision for historical fact, how are we to exculpate Christ from using delusion and fraud to confirm faith, or relieve the sacred histories from the suspicion of being, after all, a mere collection of fables and dreams? for there is not a fact or miracle in the Saviour's history that stands upon surer historic basis than this marvelous transfiguration.

One of the most illogical things in the world is this tinkering at acknowledged revelation. There is nothing more irrational than rationalism. If we are not to receive the Bible until we have first mended it, nor to admit its statements until we have rasped them into shape to meet our ideas of credibility, logical consistency would require that we refuse to admit it to be any revelation at all. We see no consistent landing-place between receiving it in its plain grammatical meaning, or putting it upon the same level with other books. And as we are satisfied that it is given by inspiration of God, we must also insist on what it relates as being that which its writers represent it to be. We therefore receive this account as true, and proceed to notice a few points concerning it.

I. THE PLACE.—There is much said in Scripture about mountains. Some of the most sublime of sacred scenes occurred on mountains. The Law was given from a mountain. The great sermon with which the Saviour ushered in the Christian system was delivered on a mountain. A great part of Christ's prayers were offered on mountains. He was transfigured on a mountain, crucified on something of a mountain, ascended to Heaven from a mountain, and, when he returns to earth, he will appear upon a mountain; for "his feet shall stand upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east."

There seems to be something in mountain scenery fitted to the sacred and divine. Mountains are nature's symbols of the majesty of God. They easily connect with his everlasting strength, purity, and glory. His dispensations for the good of man have, therefore, been largely connected with mountains. There is hardly a peak in all the region of the Holy Land, which has not become associated with something sacred. Moriah, Horeb, Sinai, Zion, Hermon, Tabor, Calvary, Olivet,—all are classic hills. Their summits are invested with a religious interest and sublimity as striking and durable as their own rocky elevations. From these high places, connecting so closely with Heaven, our imaginations thrill and bound in sublimer enthusiasm than did ever the fancy of the Greek from Parnassus, Ida, Pelion, or Olympus.

It is inferred from several particulars, that it was evening when the mountain was ascended. The quiet hour of nightfall is that which the Saviour ordinarily selected for retirement to the woods and mountains for devotion, and this is a season peculiarly fitted for solemn thought. Isaac took this time for his holy meditations. But notice,—

II. THE WITNESSES PRESENT.—Not all the disciples, but only "Peter, James, and John his brother." Christ omitted to take the others, not because they were not to know anything of the transfiguration, but because these three were the fittest to be the witnesses of it, as they also occupied a position of particular nearness to the Saviour. There were different grades and ranks among his followers in these respects. He was the center of different circles which widened upon each other, and to which different degrees of direct manifestation were apportioned. More was given to the twelve, than to his followers generally; and still more to the three, than to the twelve; and to Peter, perhaps, more than to the three. These differences were regulated, perhaps, by differences of natural character and adaptation, or by differences of moral worth and attainment, or by both. At any rate, Peter, James, and John were the Saviour's most immediate and confidential friends. To them he afforded privileges beyond all others, not out of mere capricious partiality, but as the best arrangement which he could make for the letting forth to the world of some of the great facts upon which Christianity is founded. They alone were present when the daughter of Jairus was raised. They alone beheld the agony of the garden. They alone were the witnesses of the transfiguration.

III. NOTICE WHAT OCCURRED.—The record says that "he was transfigured before them." His whole appearance was changed. There was the Master, in the midst of the darkness, but resplendent and glorious; quite altered from what he had before been seen. He was transfigured—changed in form—as Matthew says, metamorphosed. "The fashion of his countenance was altered; his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became white, shining, exceeding white, white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them, glistening, white as the light."

When Moses was in mount Sinai with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, his face also became luminous in his near communion with God; but not so luminous and glorious as in this case. Not only the Saviour's face, but his whole person, and even his garments, streamed with light and glory. So transcendent and intense was the divine splendor that permeated and enveloped him, that the Evangelists seem to be at a loss for words and images to describe it. They seem to labor in the effort more than in anything else which they have put on record, and pile together the intensest terms and figures known to man, to express the glory which was there manifested in the person of their Master. They use the three literal terms, "white," "shining," "glistening."

But to the literal terms they add figurative illustrations. The Saviour's garments were not only "white," but "white as no fuller on earth could white them"—"exceeding white as snow." Nay, still more, from the earth the illustration rises to the sky. "His face did shine as the sun, and his garments were white as the light—divinely, miraculously white. A proof and picture this of the Saviour's high and peculiar relations to the eternal God, who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all. Never was there a being on earth that ever exhibited such glory as that which there shone through him.

IV. NOTICE WHEN THIS OCCURRED.—It was "as he prayed" that he was transfigured. Prayer was the habit of Christ. He ascended this mount on this occasion "to pray." And it is said that he did pray there. Upon that dark and solitary mount the Saviour knelt with the three favored ones. From that high altar, made sacred by his presence, his voice went up to his Father and our Father—to his God and our God. From among the rocks his fervent supplications ascended. And in answer to those prayers, and by means of them, this wonderful transfiguration came. Prayer is a transfiguring power.

V. NOTICE THE PERSONS WHO APPEARED WITH CHRIST.—However alone we may seem to be in our devotions, we are never alone. Beings of another world there join us. It was so here. "There appeared unto them Moses and Elias;" and the disciples "saw the two men that stood with him." They were not angels, but "men." They were not mere phantoms or scenic shadows, but real, living beings, for they "talked." And what is more, they were men who once lived in the flesh, with like passions with us, but who about a decade of centuries before had wholly disappeared from the earth. They were great men—men who distinguished themselves in serving God on earth, and who were accordingly lifted to peculiar honors in Heaven. One was Moses, that persevering man of God, who chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season"—the faithful leader, lawgiver, and deliverer of Israel, who had been dead for more than a thousand years. The other was the once persecuted Elijah, that fearless reprover of kings, and dauntless adversary of Baal, who, as a reward for his fidelity, about eight hundred years before had been caught up to Heaven in the chariot of God without ever tasting of death.

The appearance of these personages on this occasion is full of mystery. We can tell very little about it. But it is fraught with most important and consolatory suggestion. It shows that death is not the end of us—that there is another life—and that that life is one of consciousness and activity.

VI. NOTICE THE DESIGN OF THIS WONDERFUL OCCURRENCE.—All the objects contemplated by it we cannot now understand.

It evidently had important connections with Christ's own personal development into that perfectness of qualification for the mediatorship which was necessary. He "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men," and there was also growth in his Christhood.

It was also meant to confirm his disciples, and to fortify them against the dangers they were in of having their confidence in his Messiahship destroyed by the sufferings upon which he was about to enter.

But it was more especially designed to be an earnest and model of Christ's future "coming and kingdom," when he shall come in his glory, and "shall sit upon the throne of his glory." This is to be gathered from the narrative itself. A week before it occurred, he told his disciples that "the Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father, with his angels or messengers with him;" and that there were some standing there when he made the declaration who "should not taste of death till they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom." This coming in his kingdom, which some of the disciples were to live to see, is not the final advent; for the disciples are all dead, and the final advent is still future. Neither is it the destruction of Jerusalem; for but one of the apostles lived to see that catastrophe, and the Son of man did not then come in his kingdom. And yet some of the disciples were to have ocular demonstration of the Son of man's coming in his kingdom before tasting of death. Search through apostolic history as we will, we shall find nothing but the transfiguration to which the Saviour's words will apply.

That, then, was, in some sense, the coming of the Son of man in his kingdom. It was not, indeed, the coming itself, but it was an earnest and picture of it.

It was the coming of the Son of man in his kingdom, as the bread and wine in the Eucharist are Christ's body and blood. Peter says "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" are not "cunningly-devised fables." He declares that he was certified of their reality by the testimony of his own senses. "We were 'eye-witnesses,' says he, 'when we were with him in the holy mount.'" We thus have clear inspired testimony that the scene of the transfiguration was a demonstrative exhibition of the coming of Jesus in his kingdom. Hence, whatever we find in the descriptions of that scene, we may confidently expect to be realized in that "world to come whereof we speak." As Christ appeared in that glorious scene, so he will appear when he returns to this world. As he was then personally present as the Son of man, so he will be personally present in the millennial kingdom. And as he was there attended by different classes of persons, so will his glorious kingdom consist of similar classes. The first will be the saints who had fallen asleep, then raised up, and joined to their ever-living Head, represented by Moses. The second class will be the saints who "are alive and remain" to that time, who then "shall be caught up together with "the resurrected saints," to "be ever with the Lord" without dying at all, as represented by Elijah.

How full of light, comfort, and hope are these Scriptures! What joys and wonders they set before us as the fruit of the Saviour's interposition for our redemption! Let us cherish these things, and firmly believe them. For this hope maketh not ashamed.

And what a blessed thing is prayer! What glory and bliss it brought to Jesus and his three disciples on this occasion! How near and close it brought the majesty of the Divine presence! How it made Jesus overflow with the brightness of indwelling Godhead! How it opened the heavens, disclosed to mortal view some of its inhabitants, and rendered audible the conversations of the saints in glory, and the words of the great God himself! How it made the disciples thrill with delight for which Peter was willing to abandon everything, and stay there in the cold, bleak mountain forever! Nor is there one in all this world, who is earnest and persevering in his prayers, but shall thereby in time be transfigured into the same celestial radiance with Jesus, and see him in his glory, and hear the redeemed conversing together along the eternal hills, and rejoice forever in the light of God and the Lamb.—Prophetic Times.

Largeness of the Promise

Selected for the Review.

Largeness of the Promise.

Nor ought we here to overlook the largeness of the promise which our blessed Saviour makes to his true disciples, “Ask, and receive, that your joy may be full.” And again, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” And to such a promise as this he solemnly affixed the asseveration, “Verily, verily, or, amen, amen.” What can we desire more? Nothing in the world so great, nothing so small, that we might not every moment be receiving from the Father, if we only asked it in the name of Jesus. Say, what would ye desire to have granted you? Is it to be freed from domestic troubles, as for instance, that your sick child should recover? Would you gladly see your whole household drawn to God? Ask for any such thing in Jesus’ name, and be assured that he will grant it you. But does not experience seem to contradict this? We answer, it does not really do so. The deceit lies within ourselves, through not really asking in Jesus’ name. For let us call to mind what the asking in Jesus’ name implies. You might wish very ardently, it is true, for some peculiar interposition of God, and you might express this wish in prayer, and as you think, in Jesus’ name. But in this it is possible that you may be mistaken. A petition is offered in his name when it is offered in that faith which is of the operation of God, and when what we ask is according to his will. Luther prayed for the lives of Melanethon and Myconius, who were sick unto death, and already given over; and he received the petitions which he desired of God. And whatever we pray for, be it only gold or silver, even this may be granted us when asked according to his will. Thus the pious Professor Franke prayed for means to erect his orphan-houses; and immediately the silver and the gold flowed in upon him, and he who on commencing was scarcely able to command a few pence, had soon enough to found that abode of orphan charity and education whose praise has been in all the churches. Here the Lord granted what his servant desired. It is to this effect that St. John addresses us in his 1st epistle, chap. iii, 21-23: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave commandment.” — Copied from Elijah the Tishbite, by J. Sawyer.

The Solemn Warning.

"Church of the living God! hast thou heard the voice that spoke from Heaven, 'Surely I come quickly!' And hast thou responded to it gladly, 'Even so come, Lord Jesus?' Does the promise of his return cheer thee? And is the thought of his speedy coming a most welcome hope in these days, when men's hearts are failing them for fear? Then how is this prospect operating? Is it full of quickening, animating, stimulating power? Is it kindling up your love into greater warmth? Is it increasing the intensity of your earnestness? Is it making the separation between you and the world a more decided thing? Is it imparting a deeper solemnity to your deportment, and attaching an unutterable importance to every word and action? Is it rebuking idleness, and sloth, and vanity, and frivolity, and levity and selfishness? Has it uprooted and destroyed in you covetousness and worldliness, those two master-sins of the evil age? And has it made you liberal and generous, enlarging your heart to give—to give with no sparing hand so long as the time remaineth? Ah! brethren in Christ, we are surely far behind! Our religion is a poor, second-rate, ineffective thing! We are dreaming when we should be working; we are pleasing and indulging the flesh when we should be serving the Lord. We are indolent and yielding, when we should be energetic and indomitable. We are shrinking and fastidious when we should be resolute and hardy. We sit idly in our tents, with weapons sheathed and banners folded, when we should be in the thickest of the fight; for the world's last conflict is begun, and the armies are mustering for the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

"And you, ye men of the earth, whose portion is not among the things unseen, have you heard the voice that speaks to you from Heaven—'Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come?' Has the warning pierced your ears and broke your mad security? How long do you count it safe to remain unreconciled? And what sort of reconciliation with God will avail you in the day when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth? And when is he to arise? Have you ascertained the time, that you sit so easy and unalarmed? The long pent-up winds are beginning to break loose; and the sudden bursts of tempest that have swept over Europe these few years past are precursors of the world's last desolating storm. At present there is a lull, but it will be brief; and behind that lull there is the more terrible tempest; and behind that tempest there is the Judge of the quick and the dead; and behind the Judge are the everlasting burnings. Has this prospect no terrors for you, and have these terrors no urgency to compel you to consider the overwhelming necessity of betaking yourselves to the provided shelter, ere another day with all its gloomy uncertainties shall have dawned upon you?

"The warfare has now begun in our land, which will not be ended save by the arrival of the King himself. How far the assault may prevail, or how long the tide of war may flow and reflow, we do not pretend to say. Let us prepare for the worst.

"And what, if behind and above all these, there be heard a shout and a trumpet more awful and unearthly than these—the announcement of the coming Judge in flaming fire? Are you ready? Are you hidden in the clefts of that rock to which no weapon, no storm, no fire can reach? He alone is safe who has reached the hiding-place; and that hiding-place stands with its unfolded gates ready to receive you now. Will you enter? Or will you remain without? Remain without, and perish in the fiery storm! 'For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.' It is now, in these last days, as in the days of Noah. God's purpose of vengeance has been declared, the warning has come, and the judgment is making haste to follow. But the ark is still open, and the preacher of righteousness beckons you in. For one hundred and twenty years Noah preached, but the unheeding world heard him not. Then he entered the Ark and for seven days he remained there before the deluge came, and standing at the open door of the Ark he delivered God's last message of grace, entreating men to come in. It seems as if we were now in the period corresponding to these seven last days—proclaiming God's last loving message to long-resisting man! For what, then, are you waiting? Are you lingering in the hope that the millennial day will softly steal in upon the world, and that then you will be converted with all the rest? Alas for you! Do you not know that between you and that glory there lies a region as dark as midnight, and strewed with terrors such as earth has not yet witnessed? Why, then, do you wait without? There is room enough within, and will you not go in and occupy it? There is love enough, and will you not go in and taste it? There is blessedness enough, and will you not go in and enjoy it? It will cost you nothing; and you are welcome! The Father bids you welcome; and the Son bids you welcome; and the Spirit bids you welcome; and angels bid you welcome; and every saved one bids you welcome; and with so many welcomes will you still hesitate or delay—preferring death to life, shame to honor, wrath to love, the horrors of the outer darkness to the glory of that city where they need no light of the sun!'

Sabbath-breaking a Leading Sin.

By President Hopkins

THERE is a peculiarity in the law of the Sabbath, as a test of simple obedience, and of a temper generally right toward the Divine government. For obedience to the other commandments, reason may be found in the obvious interests of society and of the individual; but this is so far from being the case with the Sabbath, that of all the Ten Commandments, this is the only one concerning which the question has been raised, whether it was moral or positive. This is not because the connection between the violation of this law and its results is less certain, but that it is less immediate and obvious. Its sanctions do not come directly, as when one puts his hand into the fire; but they come according to another general method in God's natural government, remotely, as in the effects upon the social fabric, of intemperance, of licentiousness, or revenge. Of these, individual instances may seem slight, and alarm on account of them may be mocked at; yet through them there will gradually steal in a moral malaria that will poison and blast everything noble. Thus it is more especially with the Sabbath. God has infallibly linked cause and effect here; he has plainly revealed that connection; yet the chain itself which binds them together is often concealed, or revealed only to the eye of faith. Hence it is that Sabbath-breaking is what has been called a leading sin; it is the point at which men naturally break away from God; and when that is fully done, nothing can restrain them from any crime but the absence of temptation or the fear of detection.

Under these circumstances, let an individual devote the Sabbath to religious duties, public and private, honoring God and delighting himself in him, and he will show that regard to the principle of duty, as such, which will make him a good citizen—a pillar of strength to free institutions. He who thus walks humbly with his God, will do justly and love mercy. —President Hopkins.

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