HOW TO PROMOTE LOVE AND HARMONY AMONG BRETHREN.
[Bro. Smith: I send the following selected piece which you may publish in the Review if you think proper. L. D. Stillman.] To remember our own imperfections and unfaithfulness toward God and his cause with humble contrition, will help us very much in bearing the infirmities of others instead of magnifying their faults. To pray for one another fervently, daily, in secret and whenever we meet for social worship, not forgetting the assembling of ourselves together, would tend very much to unite our hearts in Christian love and unity. To avoid the habit of telling secrets, our own as well as others. Better by far say nothing than that which is worse than nothing. The Bible says, A talebearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. What a pity that so many in the world appear to have time to attend to anybody's business but their own; and among the number some that profess religion become busy bodies in other men's matters, and thus cause trouble for themselves and all others connected with them. How much bickering, strife and heart-burning would be prevented, and in their place would be peace, good will and contentment if this evil were unknown. When will the time come? Will it not be when perfect love fills the heart? If so, let us pray, O Lord hasten the happy time for thy name's sake. Again, if we would promote this blessed end, we should turn a deaf ear to evil or slanderous reports against our neighbor unless well substantiated. But how different the course often pursued! If a report is once started however ill-founded, there are too many who are willing, yea, eager to receive and circulate it without the least discount and thus make bad worse and often wound the heart of the innocent and cause them to stumble and fall; and it is to be feared that through this very means many will perish forever, for whom Christ died. Would that every one would remember this who deals in this forbidden commodity. A thorough understanding in all business transactions, and a promptness in discharging our engagements would often save much trouble, and in its place would promote peace and happiness. If a brother be in fault we should go to him, not to another; but it should be in a spirit of kindness. Ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, with a willingness on our part that others should mention anything they see in us contrary to the gospel, accompanied with a sincere desire to profit thereby. The Psalmist said, "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil." If this blessed characteristic was possessed and exemplified generally by the people of God, would it not render them fair as the moon and terrible as an army with banners? If so, how much to be desired, and how worthy to be sought by selfdenial and effort by every lover of peace and unity; for behold, "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." WRITTEN BY A MISSIONARY IN BURMAH. [BRo. SMITH: The following I have copied with some omissions and a few alterations and send for insertion in the Review. C. A. O.] You hope dear brother that you have repented of sin, and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You now desire above all things to grow in grace and attain the perfect love and enjoyment of God. But you find yourself perplexed about the way amidst the various directions of various classes of professed Christians; and you ask for a short manual of advice, plain to the understanding, and convincing to the heart. I present you therefore, with the "three-fold cord." Lay hold of it with the hand of faith and it will draw thy soul to God and to heaven. The first is the cord of secret prayer. Without this the others have no strength. Secret prayer is commonly considered a duty which must be attended to every morning and evening in order to keep a conscience void of offence. Consider secret prayer not only as a duty, but as one of the works of thy life. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain it. Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must not be allowed to rob thee of thy God. Thou wilt not only find these seasons refreshing at the time, but extending a salutary influence to all other seasons of prayer. Dost thou ask how to pray? There is one who is able and willing to teach thee. Whenever thou intendest to pray, draw near to Calvary; kneel at the foot of the mount; lift up thine eyes tremblingly and in tears to thy Saviour; confess thy unworthiness, implore forgiveness and the Holy Spirit will quickly come and teach thee how to pray. The second is the cord of self denial,—rough indeed, to the hand of sense, and so abused in the Roman catholic church that Protestants have become afraid of it, and thrown it away. But lay hold my brother with the hand of faith. It is one of the three, and without it the others will lack firmness and consistency. It is an acknowledged principle that every faculty of the mind and body is strengthened by use, and weakened by disuse. It is needless to produce proofs or illustrations; they are to be met with in every day's experience. Self-love, or the desire of self-gratification in the enjoyment of the riches, the honors and the pleasures of this world is the ruling principle of fallen man. The more it is indulged the stronger it becomes. But The love of God flows just as much,
As that of ebbing self subsides;
Our hearts, their scantiness is such,
Cannot sustain two rival tides.
Both cannot govern in one soul;
Then let self-love be dispossessed,
The love of God deserves the whole,
Nor will she dwell with such a guest. And the way to dispossess self-love is to cease indulging it; to treat self as an enemy, a vicious animal for instance, whose propensities are to be thwarted, whose indulgences are to be curtailed as far as can be done, consistent with his utmost serviceableness, or, in the language of scripture, to deny self and take up the cross daily; to keep under the body and bring it into subjection; to mortify the members which are upon the earth; to cease from loving the world or the things that are in the world. Alas for those whose days are spent in pampering their bodies, under the idea of preserving their life and health; who toil to lay up treasures upon earth, under the idea of providing for their children; who conform to the fashions of the world with the idea of avoiding pernicious singularity; who use every means to maintain their character and extend their reputation under the idea of gaining more influence, and thereby capacity for serving the cause! How can such enter the kingdom of heaven? "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it." Wouldst thou, my brother, belong to the happy few? Wouldst thou subdue that inordinate self-love which has hitherto shut out the love of God from thy heart and impeded thy progress in the heavenly way? Adopt a course of daily, habitual, self denial. Cease gratifying thy inordinate appetites, be content with a very plain diet, reject42delicacies, fast often; keep thy body under. Cease adorning thy person, dress in plain apparel, discard all finery, cut off the supplies of vanity and pride; prefer inconveniences to slothful ease and carnal indulgence. Turn away thine eyes from vain sights and thine ears from vain sounds. Engage in no conversation, read no book that hinders thy communion with God. As to reputation, that last idol and most deadly tyrant over poor fallen man, follow the advice of Archbishop Leighton: "Choose always to the best of thy skill what is most to God's honor, and most like Christ and his example and most profitable to thy neighbor, and least serviceable to thine own exaltation." Finally renounce all agreement with this world which lieth in the arms of the wicked one; renounce all worldly projects and pursuits except what are necessary for thy sustenance and that of those dependent on thee, and what are necessary to use or appropriate the avails of to the promotion of God's cause; avoid as much as possible the contaminating touch of worldly things; and by shutting the avenues of the soul against the solicitations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, endeavor to weaken that deadly and tremendous influence which the world has gained over thee, and of which thou art hardly suspicious. Art thou ready on reading these pages to say, Alas for me! bound by a thousand chains and loaded with a thousand burdens how can I ever live a life of holy self denial? Remember there is one who is willing and able to help thee. It is commonly the case with young converts that the Holy Spirit draws them towards the path of self denial. We can all perhaps, remember the time when we had such a sense of our own unworthiness that we were desirous of denying ourselves of every unholy influence; when we had such a sense of the danger of temptation and the dreadful power of sin, that we were willing to renounce all things in order to live a holy life. Return, O mistaken soul to thy first love, God is still waiting to be gracious. Dost thou not feel a latent impulse as thou readest these lines? a secret conviction that this is the truth? an incipient desire to comply? Yield thyself to the heavenly influence. Make an immediate beginning. Wait not till thou seest the whole path clearly illumined; expect not meridian brightness while thy sun is yet struggling with the dark malignant vapors which rest on thy earthly horizon, the conflicts of a still darker world. The path of self denial is to carnal eyes a veiled path, a mystery of the divine kingdom. While thou hesitatest at the first sacrifice required, expect no further admonition, no further light. But if thou wilt do what thy hands find to do this hour, if thou wilt in childlike simplicity and humble obedience take the first step, thou shalt see the second which now thou seest not; and as thou advancest thou shalt find the path of self denial open most wonderfully before thee; thou shalt find it sweet to follow thy dear Lord and Saviour, bearing the cross, and shalt soon be enabled to say "Sweet is the cross above all sweets, to souls enamored with thy smiles." The third is the cord of doing good. This imparts beauty and utility to the rest. It is written of the Lord Jesus that he went about doing good. Art thou his disciple, imitate his example. Do good. Let this be thy motto. Do all the good in thy power—of every sort, to every person. Regard every human being as thy brother; look with eyes of love on every one thou meetest. Rejoice in every opportunity of doing him any good, either of a temporal or spiritual kind. Comfort him in trouble, relieve his wants, instruct his ignorance, enlighten his darkness, warn him of his danger, show him the way of salvation, persuade him if possible, to become thy fellow traveler in that blessed way. Follow him with all offices of kindness and love, even as thou wouldst be pleased to have another do to thee. Bear with his infirmities. Be not weary in well doing. Remember that thy Saviour bore long with thee, beyond all conception, and covered thy pollution with the robe stained in his own blood, that the wrath of God might not smite thee. And when he thus forgives thine immense debt, canst thou not bear with thy fellow debtor? Do good to the Lord the Lord thy Saviour. Is he far above thy reach? True he has ascended up on high; but still he lives in all his members. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." As thou hast opportunity therefore, do good to all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith. As a true follower of Christ seek not thine own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. Since Christ hath suffered, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life, extend thy good wishes to earth's remotest bounds. But let the members of the household of faith, whatever be their language or country, share in thy warmest love. Regard each one as a part of thine own dear Saviour and be as happy to wash their feet as if they were the feet of thy Lord himself. Remember that notwithstanding present imperfections, ye are all hastening to be united to one another, and to God in a manner most ineffable, even as God is in Christ and Christ in God; and that the bosom of his love is opening to receive you all. Beyond the smiling and the weeping,
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet home !
Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the blooming and the fading,
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the shining and the shading,
Beyond the hoping and the dreading,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet home !
Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the rising and the setting,
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the calming and the fretting,
Beyond remembering and forgetting,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet home !
Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the parting and the meeting,
I shall be soon,
Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond the pulse's fever beating,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet home !
Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the frost-chain and the fever,
I shall be soon ;
Beyond the rock-waste and the river,
Beyond the ever and the never,
I shall be soon.
Love, rest, and home !
Sweet home !
Lord, tarry not, but come [Bonar. How is it that St. Matthew says in a certain place, It was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah, and no such prophesy is found in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah? To this we reply that the divisions which now obtain in both the Old Testament and the New, are of modern origin. Cardinal Cairo, in the twelfth century, divided the scriptures of the New Testament into chapters; and Robert Stephens, in the sixteenth century, divided them into verses. These distributions were made to facilitate references to these writings, but in thousands of instances they have obscured the sense of them. The Jews divided all the writings of the law, the Prophets and the Psalms into fifty-four sections, for the purpose of reading them once in a year in their synagogues. Four of these sections were shorter than the others; and whether designed for two of their greatest solemnities, to be read together two on each occasion, we cannot say; but so it was that the whole volume was read once every year in their public meetings. But in quoting these writings, they sometimes quoted them under the general running title of these sections, or more loosely, under three heads—the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. At other times they were quoted with the most minute reference, as, for instance, "It is so written in the second Psalm." Sometimes the whole writings are called the Law. The Saviour once quotes the Psalms thus: "It is written in the Law, They hated me without a cause; yet this is found in the book of Psalms. The running title to the sections of the prophetic writings is said by some to have been Jeremiah; others have said that the Jews called Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and used his name as an appellative to denote all those predictions which had respect to the suffering of the Messiah. But one thing is obvious, that there was among all persons in that age a loose or general reference, as well as a strict and accurate reference to sayings in the prophets. If then, Matthew did actually use the name of Jeremiah instead of the name of Zechariah, it may have proceeded from some of those causes assigned. But whether or not, it effects no more the credibility of the testimony of Matthew concerning Jesus Christ, than the fact of Paul's forgetting how many he had baptized in Corinth, proves that he was not inspired with an infallible knowledge of the gospel. Such objections as these exhibit a very strange state of mind, and show that the objector is entirely ignorant of the real grounds on which we assent to the divine authority of these records.—Campbell's debate with Owen, p. 357. EXTRACT FROM "PROVISION FOR PASSIng over JORDAN."
By Dr. Scudder
CHRISTIANS often meet with little trials in their families and from other sources, and many of them it is to be feared, commit as much sin by their peevishness and fretfulness and murmuring as did the Israelites while under their trials in the wilderness. Thou knowest well my soul how prone thou art to err in these respects. Be on thy guard therefore, lest these sins should get the victory over thee. It will be well for thee to read often the 11th, 14th, and 16th of Numbers as well as similar portions of scripture that thou mayest know in what light a holy God views thy peevish, fretful murmuring spirit. I pray for sanctification, and when I thus pray I make no reserve as to the means by which this is to be brought about. In order to effect this sanctification my heavenly Father commences a course of discipline, the only course by which my prayer can consistently be answered. He exposes me to various trials from my own heart, or from others, or he sends bodily affliction upon me. No sooner however does he do this than I rebel against his treatment and murmur at my hard lot—murmur because he has been answering my prayer. O my soul what a mark is this of thy utter vileness and pollution. O my Father, I beseech thee for Christ's sake to forgive all my past murmurings, and grant that these sins may never again find a place in my bosom. Help me to keep in mind that every trial, every affliction, every pain that I experience is a love token sent by thee—sent expressly for my good—sent for my sanctification. For ought thou knowest my soul, if one of these trials, one of these afflictions, one of these pains were to be withheld thou mightest be lost. It is much easier for an earthly father to caress his children when they do well, than to chastise them when they need his discipline. But his chastisements are greater marks of his love than are his caresses, and the reason is, because it is so painful to inflict the one and so pleasant to impart the other. So it is with thy heavenly Father, my soul. It is much easier for him to caress thee than to chastise thee; but it is a greater mark of his love when he does chastise thee than when he caresses thee. He afflicts not willingly. O that this thought might constrain me to cry out, Welcome trials, welcome afflictions, welcome pains, as the choicest blessing which can be mingled in my earthly cup. Welcome anything, welcome everything which may lead me to my Saviour. It is to be feared that many Christians give place to a species of resentment, of the evil of which they are scarcely sensible. This shows itself by their giving utterance in a hasty manner to such expressions as, "You are a naughty child;" "You are a wicked man;" "You are a stupid creature"—expressions which are mere ebullitions of their displeasure. As the spirit which gives rise to these ebullitions and utterances is as really sinful as the spirit which prompts them to raise their hands in anger and use personal violence, it becomes thee, my soul to dwell upon thy watch tower and guard every avenue against the entrance of this most subtle enemy. If ever thou hast occasion to reprove others be careful to reprove them with words of gentleness and with such tenderness as to show them that it is not to gratify thy resentment, but to do them good that thou didst reprove them. Reprove them if possible, in such a manner that they will not only not become angry, but will love thee for thy reproof. I need more of that longsuffering and gentleness and meekness which are equally the fruits of the Spirit with love, joy and peace. That thou, my soul, mayest hereafter be constrained through grace to act a more consistent part, remember that the least violation of these graces—especially that the least species of resentment towards those who have injured thee, though it may be unmingled43with ill-will, and though it may amount only to the withdrawing of thy good feelings from them, will prove a great hindrance to thee in making thy provision for passing over Jordan. With such a spirit thou canst not ask thy Father to forgive thee thy trespasses as thou forgivest those who trespass against thee; for this prayer in appropriate words would be, Lord, be pleased to treat me in the same manner that I treat those who have injured me. If ever my soul, thou feelest the least spark of resentment, or if thou art in danger of acting contrary to the longsuffering, the gentleness, and the meekness of the gospel, flee to Calvary. Hear thy Saviour under the severest provocation from his enemies crying out "Father forgive them for they know not what they do," and learn from this prayer to hush every angry passion to peace. When disposed to be angry let me be very careful never to speak loudly. A suppressed tone of voice is one of the greatest antagonists to anger. It is of the greatest importance that I repress the very first risings of anger. Otherwise it may betray me though a word be not spoken, it may betray me through my countenance. By giving place to anger or other unbecoming tempers before an ungodly person, for aught I know, I may be the cause of his losing his soul. In thy interviews with those around thee be careful to never manifest such a spirit as will unfit thee to converse with them on religious subjects. If in these interviews thou shouldst exhibit an angry or otherwise improper temper into what a sad dilemma wouldst thou be thrown, wert thou to attempt to address them on their soul's concerns. How would thy very lips be almost closed to the utterance of a single word. Among my spiritual foes there is none so powerful as pride, and there is none of a more insidious character. That thou, my soul, mayest be properly impressed with its evil nature, thou shouldst remember that it is the sin most dishonoring to God. It is the sin which lies at the root of all other sins. It is the father and the mother, the brother, the sister of them all. It is the sin which is the first to live in thy bosom. It is the last to die there. It is this deeply stained crime in man which was the cause even of the humiliation of the immaculate Son of God. It brought him down from his glory to tread the valley of Gethsemane, and to die on the cross. O my soul when thou thinkest to what a state of degradation and abasement thy Saviour was brought by thy pride, wilt thou ever again have any towering thoughts of thyself? Wilt thou not be satisfied unless every one is ready to bow in thought, in word, and in deed to thee? Wilt thou ever look down upon those of thy fellow men who may be of what the world calls inferior birth, and congratulate thyself with the thought that thou art above them? Shall thy worldly possessions and thy standing in society puff thee up with the notion that thou wert cast in a mold superior to that in which they were formed? O if I could have any interest at the throne of heaven, if my royal Sovereign there would hold out his golden scepter that I might approach it and present a petition before him, that petition would be that the very last filament of pride might be torn from my bosom and buried in Gethsemane at the feet of my Saviour. O my soul if pride should ever again threaten to gain the mastery over thee, pause and take such a view of it as a dying bed, as the last struggle, as the coffin, as the grave are so eminently calculated to give. Should I ever come in contact with a proud contentious and angry spirit, let me be very careful not to meet him with a harsh answer. "A soft answer turneth away wrath." Art thou sensible that thou art nothing, and that if there is any good in thee, this good is Christ formed within thee. And as thy Saviour was abased in the sight of others, art thou willing to be abased for his sake in the sight of others? Art thou willing to yield points which come in contact with thy pride, with a quiet spirit and without any anxiety, for the sake of exalting thyself, to give thy reasons for such submission? and art thou willing to hear remarks which also wound thy pride without any desire to retaliate? "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." “I was once travelling on a western railroad,” said a young man in our prayer meeting, “and I happened to be seated beside a gentleman with whom I fell into conversation on general matters, and I soon found that there was a strong tie between us. I learned that he was a missionary in one of the interior countries, and we began to converse on the interests of religion. We spoke of plans and motives; and in reply to a remark he made, I said that if I knew my own heart, I was trying to live with a single motive—to glorify God. ‘My young friend,’ said the good man, ‘I have been trying for forty years to satisfy myself of the same thing, but I am not yet so clear on that point.’ It was a lesson,” continued the young man, “that I shall never forget. It led me to look more closely to my own heart, to scan my real motives, to look at my daily life and conversation; and I found that after all it was not so easy a thing as I imagined to live with a single purpose of holiness and consecration to God.” The reply of the old soldier was a wise one.—He had run the race for forty years, as an earnest servant of Christ. He had been through the varied experience, and had seen the lights and shadows of the Christian warfare. He had learned the power of the world over the heart. He had borne the struggle with the natural affections and desires, and had learned the depth of the declaration, that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” He could well remind his young companion of these things by a simple declaration of his anxiety to be assured that his own motives were pure, and that he was, indeed, living to glorify God. But the answer of the young man was as noble as it was Christian. Though he may have been more or less mistaken in regard to the entireness of his purpose, and though in the ardor of youth, some worldly purpose may have alloyed his desire to live for the honor of God, yet the answer was a good one. It showed that his affections were directed to the highest end. Young men are too unfrequent, who make this their foundation-motive, and who are willing to let it be known among strangers. The homes and dreams of the world crowd too closely upon their places; and schemes of fame, ambition and wealth, are too apt to bind them to a conformity with the world. May the experience of that young man prove that he is living for the glory of God. The incident suggests to us the importance of a thorough self-examination on the part of every Christian in order that he may know to what purpose he is living. The surface work of the Christian is not enough. The external profession, the church membership, the attendance on public service, are not the sum total of a Christian life. The vine derives its luxuriance and its fruit from the supplies that nourish it inwardly. The sun may shine upon it outwardly, and the rain and the dew may fall upon it, but it draws its life-blood and its vigor by the circulation of the sap and the moisture absorbed by the roots and distributed by its channels and fibres to every branch, every leaf and every cluster. So must the Christian become fruitful by the inner life and spiritual growth which will enable him to become a fruitful limb, and to bring forth a hundred fold to the honor of God. We often repeat to ourselves the words of the hymn: “''Tis a point I long to know—
Oft it causes anxious thought—
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I his, or am I not?” If we love him we will keep his commandments. If we keep his commandments, we shall glorify him. If we glorify him, he will also, in his own time, glorify us in his heavenly kingdom. All the motives and purposes of time sink into nothingness compared with this. Happy is that man who can, through the grace of God given to him, feel assured that he is thus consecrated to his service and his praise. He has already begun his companionship with the angels, and has realized that the “path of the just shineth more and more to the perfect day.”—Christian Intelligencer. PROVIDENTIAL INTERPOSITIONS.
Much ridicule has been heaped in our age on the superstition of those who believe that the Providence of God is special as well as general, and may interpose in behalf of his children in the minuter duties and details of life. It has been said, even by Christian philosophers, that God cannot be expected to suspend or set aside the great laws of his government for human convenience, and that such a belief is worthy only of ignorant and vulgar minds. We are glad to find so eminent a writer as Dr. Mansel, in his Limits of Religious Thought, confuting these philosophers by reasoning as subtle as their own: The course of divine Providence, he says, in the government of the world, is represented in Scripture under the twofold aspect of General Law and Special Interposition. Not only is God the author of the universe, and of those regular laws by which the periodical recurrence of its natural phenomena are determined; but He is also exhibited as standing in a special relation to mankind; as the direct cause of events by which their temporal or spiritual welfare is affected; as accessible to the prayers of His servants; as to be praised for his special mercies towards each of us in particular. But this scriptural representation has been discovered by Philosophy to be irrational. God is unchangeable; and therefore he cannot be moved by man's entreaty. He is infinitely wise and good; and therefore he ought not to deviate from the perfection of his eternal counsels. "The religious man," says a writer of the present day, "who believes that all events, mental as well as physical, are pre-ordered and arranged according to the decrees of infinite wisdom, and the philosopher, who knows that, by the wise and eternal laws of the universe, cause and effect are indissolubly chained together, and that one follows the other in inevitable succession,—equally feel that this ordination—this chain—cannot be changeable at the cry of man. If the purposes of God were not wise, they would not be formed;—if wise, they cannot be changed; for then they would become unwise. The devout philosopher, trained to the investigation of universal system—the serene astronomer, fresh from the study of the changeless laws which govern innumerable worlds,—shrinks from the monstrous irrationality of asking the Great Architect and governor of all to work a miracle in his behalf,—to interfere, for the sake of his convenience or his plans, with the sublime order conceived by the Ancient of Days in the far eternity of the past; for what is a special providence but an interference with established laws? and what is such interference but a miracle." Now, here, as in the objections previously noticed, the rationalist mistakes a general difficulty of all human thought for a special difficulty of Christian belief. The really insoluble problem is, how to conceive God as acting at all; not how to conceive him as acting in this way, rather than in that. The creation of the world at any period of time; the establishment, at any moment, of immutable laws for the future government of that world; this is the real mystery which reason is unable to fathom; this is the representation which seems to contradict our conceptions of the Divine Perfection. To that pretentious perversion of the44finite which philosophy dignifies with the name of the Infinite, it is a contradiction to suppose that any changes can take place at any moment;—that anything can begin to exist, which was not from all eternity. To conceive the infinite Creator, at any moment of time, calling into existence a finite world, is, in the human point of view, to suppose an imperfection, either before the act or after it. It is to suppose the development of a power hitherto unexercised, or the limiting to a determinate act that which was before general and indeterminate. May we not then repeat our author's objection in another form? how can a being of infinite wisdom and goodness, without an act of self-deterioration, change the laws which have governed his own solitary existence in the far eternity when the world was not? Or rather, may we not ask what these very phrases of "changeless laws" and "far eternity" really mean? Do they not represent God's existence as manifested under the conditions which necessarily involve the conception of the imperfect and the finite? They have not emancipated the Deity from the law of time; they have merely substituted, for the revealed representation of the God who, from time to time vouchsafes His aid to the need of his creatures, the rationalizing representation of the God who, throughout all time, steadfastly refuses to do so. THE CAUSE IN VERMONT.
By Daniel T. Bourdrau
DEAR BRO. SMITH: The cause of present truth is still advancing in northern Vt. For a few weeks past I have labored with my brother and Bro. Sperry, and have had the privilege of seeing about twenty honest souls decide to keep all of God's commandments. Truly my heart is made to rejoice and my faith is strengthened when I see the love and power of the Lord displayed in the glorious work of preparing a people for translation. The interest is evidently increasing in the East. Calls are more numerous, and most of the brethren see the necessity of being where the Lord can employ them in his service. But while the cause is steadily advancing, we are not left without meeting opposition. Ministers of the different denominations are writing and lecturing against the Sabbath, and in some places professed Christians are disposed to make use of the law to compel us to keep Sunday. A few weeks ago Bro. Sperry and myself held meetings in North Troy, Vt., and met much opposition. A minister was employed to preach against us; but the Lord gave Bro. Sperry freedom in defending the truth, and three embraced the Sabbath. When the people saw that the truth was getting hold in Troy they resorted to the lock-door argument, and we went where there was an ear to hear. During our absence, efforts were made by certain individuals to discourage those who had decided to keep the Sabbath that they might give up the truth. The 21st ult. the deputy sheriff of Troy served three writs on Bro. McClafin because he had broken three Sundays, and summoned him to appear before the chief justice to answer to the charges brought against him. Bro. M. appeared before the justice, and adjourned the trial. The regular sheriff of Troy came to Bro. M. and told him that if he would acknowledge he had been under mesmeric influence, and give up the Sabbath, the difficulty would be settled. But Bro. M. retained his integrity. By this time there was quite an excitement in Troy. Some said, "We will not have any more of this seventh-day business in Troy; and when you shall have paid a few fines, you will begin to think it's time to keep Sunday." Others said, "This man is abused. He still has friends in Troy who will help him. His persecutors have often been seen breaking the Sabbath," etc. The court set the 8th inst. The witnesses gave in their testimonies against Bro. M. (Bro. M. could not speak for himself—it was a criminal case); the lawyers gave in their speeches, and the jury decided that Bro. M. should not be fined. Bro. M.'s lawyer made excellent remarks. He proved, 1. That Bro. M.'s accusers were actuated by a spirit of persecution. 2. That there were few in Troy who adhered to the letter of the Sunday law of Vt. 3. That the church had no more right to persecute the poor despised Sabbath-keepers, than the Jews had to persecute the poor despised Nazarene. 4. That Bro. M. founded his belief on the Bible, and that he had not violated the constitution of the State of Vt., or the constitution of the United States. 5. That the great object of our forefathers in coming to this country was to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. 6. That when church members resort to the law of the land to compel Christians to keep Sunday as a holy day, they follow the same principle that the Catholic church followed when she persecuted those who would not subscribe to her doctrines. I was present when Bro. M. was tried, and was led to conclude that some of his accusers had the same spirit that the Jews had when they cried, "Crucify him! crucify him!" There are some in Troy who would like to crucify the truth, and abuse those who would keep it; but there are others who have better principles, and more humanity, and who are ashamed of the course pursued by professed Christians. The Sunday law of Vt. is evidently against us. It clashes with the constitution of Vt., and with the constitution of the United States; yet it is pronounced constitutional because it has not been repealed. But our common courts cannot repeal the Sunday law, and Bro. M. acknowledged that he had not kept Sunday according to the law of Vt. Hence it is manifest that the decision of the jury was against the law of Vermont. We are glad that the Lord does put into the minds of some to maintain the right, and that there are many who sigh in view of the abominations that are done in the land. But we cannot look for a better state of things in this country. The nations will soon be angry, and the two-horned beast will act his part in the conflict that is just before us; and God's people will be tried. The Lord is now holding in check the four winds, that the wind may not hurt the earth till God's remnant are sealed. Rev. vii, 2, 3. May God help us to put on strength, gird on the whole armor and work while mercy lingers, that the honest may embrace the principles of the fifth kingdom, and that our souls may be saved when the Almighty Deliverer shall come.