Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 20, 1857
THE COMING STRUGGLE.
By Editor
WE commend to our readers the following extracts from an article from the pen of an able divine and close observer of men and things in one of our Western cities. The article appeared some time ago in the Preacher and Presbyterian; but the lapse of a few months has by no means destroyed their importance to the christian community. The evils referred to, stand out distinctly to view, and the call for the co-operation of Christians to counteract them is as loud and imperative as ever.—Chr. Union.
"Wherever the Church militant exists, she encounters opposition. Rome silences the Bible reader in a dungeon. Austria confines the exposor of monkish abominations in a mad-house. France closes the churches, and fines and imprisons those congregations of Protestants who may happen to offend the Popish Bishop. Spain prohibits the preaching of the gospel and the printing of the Bible, or anything derogatory to the Catholic church. Denmark prohibits prayer-meetings. Prussia allows no dissent from her Puseyite or Rationalistic establishments. Russia forbids Bible circulation, or proselytism in all her wide realms. The light toleration in two South American Republics illustrates the darkness of all the remainder of that vast continent. As a matter of course the priests of Paganism and the followers of Mahomet employ all the power they possess to crush the effects of that gospel which endangers the craft whereby they have their wealth.
"There is but one country besides our own which pretends to grant liberty of conscience; but even there what a powerful opposition has been organized against the gospel of Christ. In no European country can the witnesses be found in any considerable number save England. England has ever been reckoned one of the ten kingdoms of the mystic Babylon; and if the inquiry be made, which of the kingdoms of modern Europe may be the great thoroughfare of the nations, the centre of travel, the mart of commerce? but one response can be given—England. Look at the preparation for this event which is transacting before our eyes. A college is supported by British taxation for educating fanatic emissaries of Popery to teach sedition at home and carry priestly government abroad. The government appoints these Maynooth priests to be chaplains to the army, chaplains to the poor-houses and prisons, dismisses officers who will not attend their masses, and would fain pass a bill to endow all the Popish clergy. It is well known that the prince consort was raised a Papist, and through policy assumed Protestantism; and it is very credible that his children, the heirs of the throne, may follow their father's example. It is incredible that without some high protecting influence, Jesuits should have been allowed so long to occupy the chairs of Oxford—that so many Bishops of the establishment should foster Puseyism—that altars, candles, crucifixes and confession, should have been introduced into so many churches—that it should be found impossible to eject an advocate of transubstantiation from a church as yet called Protestant—that such numbers of English aristocracy should have succumbed to the charms of Puseyism, or with more honest servility bowed to the supremacy of Rome. The Pope sends a Cardinal over to England. The Secretary of State sends a priest in the confidence of the government to Rome. England allies herself with Catholic France and Italy, and sends a Catholic ambassador to Spain. Priests wax confident, and begin to talk of their ancient rights—to point to the hundreds of thousands of ignorant, fanatic, famished Irish, who crowd the back-streets of all the cities of the land, ready at the word of command to pour out their hereditary hatred on the Sassenach. Popish Bishops write letters to English peers, warning them to cease distributing Bibles and opposing the church, and requesting them to remember that London is not more impregnable than Sebastopol, and the bayonets which gleamed on the Malakoff were Catholic. The eloquent historian of England shows that religious revolutions are no new thing there. In 1660 England was a Puritan commonwealth. In 1665 a persecuting Stuart filled the throne. It were not difficult to divine the measures which a Popish prince, a Popish ministry, a Puseyite clergy and aristocracy, and an Irish army, an Austrian and French alliance, would find needful for the suppression of evangelism. Indeed, Cardinal Wiseman, and his journalists save us all dubiety on the subject. They expressly tell us that as soon as possible they will use the same means for the protection of religion in England which have been found so beneficial in Spain and Austria. Significant intimations are held out to us, too, that Mexico and Canada, are Catholic—that Ireland, now almost on our eastern shore is Catholic—that soon fifty millions of Catholics will fill the valley of the Mississippi; and that—
"The number and variety of the forces arrayed against the church in our own land is amazing. The theatre, the tavern, and the ball-room, the hereditary fortifications, we are not at all surprised to find in their possession; but it seems like turning our own forces against us, when the college and the pulpit become the engines of infidelity. It is reserved for the nineteenth century to behold men, calling themselves Christians, teaching Pantheism, or casing themselves in armour of Biblical criticism, and defying the armies of the living God, to prove that he is able or willing to punish his foes. On the very verge of the desert we behold, on our own soil, the scum and dregs of all nations deliberately choosing an American Mohammed as their Prophet, coolly throwing aside the bonds of civilization, and demanding the aid of the Federal Constitution for the consolidation of their abominations. More shameless and more dangerous, because in the very heart of our own communities, the novel and the newspaper wage war against marriage, the Sabbath, and the Bible, and multitudes of the young fall victims to lying spirits, (whether of the dead or living,) who teach that there is no resurrection, no judgment, no hell; that religion is a fable, worship a farce, and the spirit of man the highest intelligence in the universe. It would be hard to name a family in which some inmate has not been more or less influenced by this spirit of the age.122"On our eastern shores the tide of emigration lands a thousand Popish militia every day, trained up to cherish the most determined hatred to the word of God, and to the Church of Christ, and instructed by the Romish agents ere they have landed from their ships to beware of the Bible and the heretics. Into our very families do these agents of a foreign prince, carry their opposition to the gospel, prohibiting their slaves from listening to the reading of the Scriptures, or from uniting with their employers in the worship of God. The chosen victims of poverty and filth, vice and crime, in the cellars and garrets of our cities, they will have them remain so rather than to allow them to attend school, where their minds may be enlightened, or emigrate to the fertile fields, where the rewards of industry would elevate above the condition of slaves. "Let us remember, too, that all these adversaries of the church are regularly organized, and enrolled, and paraded in rank and file. There is no longer a loose, floating, neutral party. Every person belongs somewhere, as the saying is. He claims to belong to some church or order, or club, of one kind or other. The Romish missionary boards the emigrant ship, takes his passage on the river steamboat, or travels in the second-class cars with the newly arrived emigrants, and leaves them not till he has handed them over to the care of some brother Jesuit, and placed them within the pale of the holy church. Even those who have no belief in any God find some advantage in the society of their fellow-men, and associate to keep each other in countenance.
“Let us not deceive ourselves with the delusion, that material so heterogeneous can never unite in any common enterprise. They can co-operate. The very explosion of discordant substances may overturn the battlement which has resisted the sap and battery. Let the experience of England warn us in time. Last year (1855) beheld a strange combination there, powerful enough to intimidate the government, control the Parliament, and almost revolutionize the religion of the land. High Church, and Broad Church, and no Church, Romish cardinal and Chartist lecturer, Whig Tory, Radical and Repeater, the peer of Parliament, and the publican of Pamlico, engaged in a common league to dethrone the Sabbath and worship, and substitute Sunday and revelry. Were it wise, think you, to wait till sad experience teaches us how effectually the Western Mormon, and the Eastern Universalist, the priest, the German Infidel and the American Spiritualist, can unite with the vast and yearly increasing mass of heathenism in all our cities, to trample under foot that gospel which they all cordially hate, and a divided church whose weakness they have learned to despise? With a population increasing by thousands, and a church increasing by hundreds, it becomes a mere matter of arithmetic to calculate in how few years, at our present rate of progress, the churches of Christ shall have dwindled into relative insignificance, and the overwhelming mass of ungodliness shall undertake to decide their destiny at the ballot-box. American Christian! the forces of Western licentiousness, Eastern Infidelity, and Northern Popery, the heathenism of your prairies, and the rowdyism of your streets, are steadily and rapidly concentrating their movements upon you. Already they have made lodgements in your churches and inroads in your families, and but wait their opportunity for the last onset.
“Under such circumstances it does almost seem unnecessary to enquire what course of conduct the church should pursue. Few and weak in the aggregate, ought they still further to weaken their forces by distraction and division of councils, in the presence of such numerous and powerful combinations of their foes? With the consciousness that every day augments the number of their opponents, and every week opens some new engine of warfare against the truth, and every year unfolds some new and bolder assault, should the people of God be content with the old, quiet plan of defensive operations, and folding their arms await the combined onset? Were the Bible silent on the subject, common sense would reply, that harmony of feeling, concert of plan, and energy of action, were indispensable in this crisis.
"EARTH TO EARTH, AND DUST TO DUST."
By Croley
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust!"
Here the evil and the just,
Here the youthful and the old,
Here the fearful and the bold,
Here the matron and the maid
In one silent bed are laid;
Here the vassal and the king
Side by side lie withering;
Here the sword and sceptre rust—
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust."
But a day is coming fast,
Earth, thy mightiest and thy last!
It shall come in fear and wonder,
Heralded with trump and thunder;
It shall come in strife and toil;
It shall come in blood and spoil;
It shall come in empire's groans,
Burning temples, trampled thrones:
Then, ambition, rue thy lust!—
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust!"
Then shall come the judgment sign,
In the East the King shall shine!
Flashing from heaven's golden gate,
Thousand thousands round his state,
Spirits with the crown and plume;
Tremble then, thou sullen tomb!
Heaven shall open on our sight,
Earth be turned to living light—
Kingdom of the ransomed just—
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust!"
Then thy mount, Jerusalem,
Shall be gorgeous as a gem;
Then shall in the desert rise
Fruits of more than paradise,
Earth by angel feet be trod,
One great garden of her God!
Till are dried the martyr's tears,
Through a thousand glorious years!
Now in hope of Him we trust—
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust."
[Croley.]
Are You Ready?
WHO ASKS THIS QUESTION?
Your Maker. He does it in his word. One of the grand objects of that blessed volume is to enable you to give it an affirmative answer. By judgments and by mercies does his holy providence press this matter upon you. When reason and conscience are permitted to speak, they urge attention to this great concern. Cast away from you for half an hour the charms of the world: press your way out of that torrent of cares, or pleasures, which sweeps every serious thought away; rebuke every other appeal, and let that only be heard which the unblinded reason and the unscared conscience make, and you will perceive that this inquiry is solemnly addressed to you. By your frailty and mortality is this question pressed. Nothing can be more precarious than your hold on life. Your body is the tie that binds you to the earth. How frail a flower! "The wind passeth over it, and it is gone." It is in health and vigor to-day; to-morrow it is lifeless and cold, and a mass of corruption. The worm is thy sister and thy mother. Job xvii, 14. Your frailty, therefore, cries, Are you ready? and the voice waxes louder and louder with every wasting hour of your probation. Eternity seems uttering the same appeal; as if, with a living voice, it presses every human mind with the momentous truth, that, beyond the grave, man's destiny is fixed for ever; the righteous are "righteous still," and the filthy are "filthy still." And it utters the earnest admonition, "Beware of unpreparedness." But there is yet another voice; and, reader, if there be any voice that should drown all the appeals of the cares and pleasures of this world, which should excite the soul's most intense and devout attention, which should penetrate its lowest depths, and arouse its strongest emotions—it should be the voice of the Redeemer. "Be ye also ready," is his admonition. No voice breaks upon human ears in so much tenderness and love; for no friendship has man experienced like that shown him by the Son of God, and no voice is so suited to inspire solemnity and awe as that of the final Judge!
WHY ASK THIS QUESTION?
Because none can be conceived of so much importance. Because, disturbing men's sinful minds as it does, they are not disposed to press it honestly and earnestly upon themselves. Because an honest, serious, enlightened decision of this question may be of everlasting benefit to your soul. Because, amid the hurry of business or the whirl of pleasure, you may at this hour need something to lead you to consider your character and eternal prospects. Because, if the subject which this question urges upon you is not attended to, you will be lost!
WHO ARE NOT READY?
Common opinion, in a gospel land, allows that many are not ready for death; as the murderer, the thief, the drunkard, the idolater, the profane swearer, the adulterer, the scoffer, the liar, and the hypocrite. But the word of God includes more still: such as the covetous, the lewd, the lovers of pleasure more than of God, the fraudulent, the unmerciful, the formalist, the prayerless, the worldly—indeed every one who has not been washed in the blood of Christ, and renewed by the holy Spirit. Not one of all these can give an affirmative answer to the question now urged.
WHY ASK ME THIS QUESTION?
Because it respects interests of yours of infinite value—interests in fearful peril if you cannot answer this question in the affirmative. Because this question is suited to arouse attention to what you may have totally neglected. Because you may be the very person of all others who most needs such an appeal; being, perhaps, the victim of a false hope, or a fatal error, and borne every day farther and farther from God by the growing power of sin. Because it is of infinite importance that you make a correct decision as to this question. And, especially, because the next bosom pierced by the dart of death may be your own!
“HOW MAY I BE READY?”
"God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Acts xvii, 30. You must repent of your sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, "the just for the unjust;" and whom God "hath exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins." Acts v, 31. You must place your trust in him—in him alone, as your all-sufficient Saviour, "able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. vii, 25. Trusting in him, you will be ready for life, and death, and eternity. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. iii, 11.
IF I AM NOT READY, WHAT THEN?
Then—1. You have already run a most desperate hazard of losing your soul. You could not have said in any hour of life, the next should not be your last; and, as you are now unprepared to die, you have run as many risks of everlasting ruin as you have lived hours. You have stood on the dizzy height of a most frightful precipice! Your feet had well nigh slipped! Look back: it would seem your heart would grow faint and sick at the dreadful peril to which you have been exposed.
2. Your not being now ready implies very great guilt. It implies insensibility to the most powerful and affecting motives; stubborn refusal of a thousand kind and affectionate invitations; contempt of most solemn warnings; reckless indifference to the soul's value. I ask not for vices and crimes in proof of sin; there is evidence enough without this to prove you stained with crimson guilt.
3. If you are not ready, then there is no work so important, no obligation so pressing, as your immediately seeking the favor of God. Bid the world retire. Its highest and most pressing claims should not impede you for a moment in the great work of getting ready for heaven.
IF I AM READY, WHAT THEN?
If, after a serious examination of yourself by the word of God, that infallible test, you can humbly hope you are accepted in Christ, then show with the warmest zeal, and in every possible manner, your love to the great Author and Finisher of your faith. Let all men see that your hope purifies you, and that your faith works by love. Let them see that your whole character has been cast anew in the mould of the gospel. By every energy you can employ, endeavor to make your fellow-men possessors of a like glorious hope.
THE "SNARE."
By consulting Luke xxi, 34-36, inclusive, we find the "day" of the Lord alluded to, also a predication from which the following inquiry is elicited:
What is implied in its coming as a snare?—There is a simile in the use of the expression "as a snare," illustrating and enforcing a portion of divine truth, which, however much it may apply to the past, is very applicable to the present age.
Snares, or nets were much used among the ancients for fishing, hunting, and fowling, living as they did previous to the invention of gun-powder. Hence the translation from the Syriac reads, "For like a hunter's snare shall it spring upon all those who dwell upon the face of the whole land." In the taking of birds the "clap net" was usually employed. It consisted of two sides or frames, over which the net-work was spread; at one end was a short net which they fastened to a bush or a cluster of reeds, and at the other was one of considerable length, which as soon as the birds were seen feeding in the area within, was pulled by the fowlers, causing the instantaneous collapse of the two sides," and thus the birds were instantly captured in an unguarded moment. The process is similar to that which has been observed in capturing the common pigeon in this country. "In hunting, a space of considerable size was enclosed with nets. These spots were usually in the vicinity of the water brooks to which animals were in the habit of repairing in the morning and evening; and having awaited the time when they went to drink, the hunters disposed their nets to occupy proper positions for observing them unseen, and gradually closed in upon them." Now from these, and other historical extracts which might be presented, as also from our own observation, two points will be considered to illustrate the inquiry.
1. The artifice is connected with the source from which the animals supply their wants. Thus the nets are set near the waters; the traps near food. In the application of this point, I remark, that man has physical, mental, and spiritual necessities to be supplied, as may be learned from the Bible and observation.
First, Physical.—The text speaks of eating, drinking, and the cares of this life. In seeking a supply of these necessities, the danger exists in being "overcharged" (vs. 34), and considering the times in which we live, how important the Saviour's injunction. We are living in a lucrative age—an age of speculation, hence there is every inducement to cause saint and sinner to be immersed in worldly transactions if so disposed. Business of all branches for the last few years (with little exception) has been extraordinarily flourishing. Corporations have been formed by scheming men to literally heap up treasures, and operatives have been induced to try their fortune in securing a portion of the benefit; California and Australia have opened up to us from their latent storehouses, vast riches; and the "far west" is beckoning multitudes to fix their abode on its rich and highly productive soil. My brethren, while it is our duty to be "diligent in business," no excuse will serve as a reason why we should be over123charged, and thus become stupid and inactive in devotional exercises—fail to be "fervent in spirit," and the "day of the Lord" spring upon us as a "snare."
Second, Mental.—Hence God has provided the Bible and nature (2 Pet. i, 5; iii, 18; Rom. i, 20; Psa. xix, 1, 2;) as also in His providence the devotional productions of pious individuals, and other useful works, for the occupancy of the mind. The danger exists in applying our minds for, and receiving unsubstantial, morally contaminating, and death-tending literature. In these last days, who is not aware of the large quantities of light, unsubstantial, and morally debasing reading, meeting us in all our thoroughfares, and flooding the country, claiming the precious, golden moments of those who ought to spend them to better advantage, while a distaste is created for holy things. The issue and circulation of such works have been greatly facilitated and augmented in the present age, by the modern inventions of the art of printing, steam presses, an application of steam power to the means of conveyance from one city, State or country to another, while popular lecturers are dealing out more or less poison with the food they administer to the mental entertainment of their patrons. The Bible, to an alarming extent is set aside, or to say the least, is secondary, and we may here appropriately introduce the poetic effusion of Cowper, the sentiment of which is so pertinent to the times in which we live:
"Habits of close attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as dissipation spreads,
Till authors hear at length one general cry,
Tickle and entertain us or we die."
May we receive the admonition to "watch," "take heed," &c.
Third, Spiritual.—Psa. lv, 1, 2. The danger exists in seeking a supply from the pleasures of the world—courses of sin. (2 Tim. iii, 1-4.) Theatres have been multiplied and crowded with nightly visitants; pleasure (Sunday) excursions have been concocted and received extensive patronage; houses of ill fame, gambling houses, billiard saloons, card tables, pleasure parties of various descriptions, including a kind of entertainment religiously dyed in the form of church levees (as they have been conducted by many) are extensively patronized by their respective devotees. My brethren, by consulting Luke xvii, 26-30 and Jude 7, you will perceive that the danger of the Antediluvians and Sodomites existed at the point already described, viz., the source from which we receive a relief of our necessities. These instances are left on the Sacred record as examples of the divine displeasure. May we heed the admonition and escape the snare. Let us consider.
2. The suddenness with which animals or birds are apprised of their danger when unable to escape, as an illustration of the inquiry. It is when the fowls are devouring the seed without thought of danger, that there is an instant collapse of the two sides of the net; or in the trapping of animals that there is a sudden spring, taking them unawares and rendering them fast. If fowls or animals are sagacious to a sufficient degree, they may not be drawn into the snare. Our Lord introduces another figure, the teaching of which, is in harmony with that of the simile under consideration. "Behold I come as a thief."-Rev. xvi, 15. The tenant of the house is wrapped up in his slumber, and is unconscious of danger until the thief arrives. If he is informed of, believes in, and has an eye open for danger, he may escape. Now, what is implied in the "day" thus coming? How much is comprehended? Adventists preach as one point in their faith that the church may know when the day of the Lord is approaching, by signs of the times, prophecy, and the history of the world, (Heb. x, 25) and in this they are met with an objection, viz., we are to know nothing about it, as His coming is "as a thief"—"snare"—"no man knoweth the day and the hour." Now we hope to avoid the extreme running upon the ground of absolute know-nothingism, and remark, that the reasons for the above objection are far from making the objection valid. The language of the Bible is, "But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief."—1 Thess. v, 1. The text teaches that some may escape.
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may escape all these things." We have no idea that God's people will be ensnared, or overtaken as with a thief. A certain class will be thus taken, however, lamentable as is the fact, such as do not "watch and pray," as say "peace and safety," as are overcharged with the proper things of life, and do not govern their lives in seeking a supply of their necessities according to the requirements of the gospel. It is said of the Antediluvians that they "knew it not." How surprising! they gave no heed to Noah's warning voice. So will it be with the majority of mankind when Messiah appears a second time. The world is ripening for the harvest; the snare is set; suddenly it will spring upon the inhabitants of the world and they shall not escape. Let us "take heed, watch and pray," that we may "stand before the Son of man."—Ad. Herald.
A Beautiful Sentiment.
SHORTLY before the departure of the lamented Heber for India, he preached a sermon which contained this beautiful illustration:
Life bears us on, like the stream of a mighty river. Our boat at first glides down the narrow channel through the playful murmuring of the little brook and the windings of its grassy borders. The trees shed their blossoms over our young heads; the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to our young hands; we are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around us—but the stream hurries on, and still our hands are empty. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wilder and deeper flood, amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated at the moving pictures and enjoyment and industry passing us; we are excited at some short lived disappointment. The stream bears us on, and our joys and griefs are alike left behind us. We may be shipwrecked, we cannot be delayed; whether rough or smooth, the river hastens to its home, till the roar of the ocean is in our ears, and the tossing of the waves is beneath our feet, and the land lessens from our eyes and the floods are lifted up around us, and we take our leave of earth and its inhabitants until of our further voyage there is no witness save the infinite and Eternal!
Joy and Sadness.
IN meeting the tide of humanity that jostles against us as we pass up and down our crowded streets, what a multitude of countenances are presented, and how various are the different expressions! But has it never occurred to any one that the prevailing expression is that of sadness? Now and then we see a joy-beaming countenance, but it is rather the exception than the rule.
But what histories are here written in the varied lineaments of the face! If we would follow individuals to their homes, whether to the palace or the hovel, what a page in human life would often be unfolded! No wonder that the Saviour of mankind commended himself to the sorrowful and the disheartened in those inviting words of tenderness: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Surely it is not to a few that he addressed these touching words of comfort.
“AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST!” Did words ever carry such medicine in their tone? Did mariner, tossed for months upon the angry billows, ever long for a peaceful haven, more than mortal man, weighed down with the sins, the wants, and the cares of life, hankers for the “rest” that is here proffered to all? No wonder that “multitudes,” leaving the various callings of life, thronged after Jesus, saying one to another, “never spoke man like this man.” No wonder that Mary, forgetting all things else, sat down at his feet to listen to such tender words of comfort and peace. And how justly was Martha mildly reproved, when in answer to the complaint that she had been left by her sister Mary to serve alone, Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, thou art troubled and careful about many things; but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part that shall never be taken away from her.”
It needs no learned books to prove the truths of Christ’s divine mission. That his doctrine of righteousness, and peace, and rest, comes home to the wants and yearnings of all, is a sufficient evidence of its divine authenticity. And what a transformation has this simple rest-giving religion made throughout the world! As successive mornings and evenings dawn and darken over the world, how many fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, and even little children, bow down to say “Our Father who art in Heaven!”
And who will say that the rising towards heaven of this morning and evening incense brings not down blessings upon our land? Who will venture to say that the prevalence of a deep religious sentiment does not infuse into the national mind a high toned morality, a lofty patriotism, and proud resolves for clinging to the right? It is these qualities, these christian heroic virtues that go to give character and reputation to a nation of freemen. And for them we are principally indebted to HIM who came into the world to be the Saviour of mankind.
Moments Lost.
EVERY other property when lost may be replaced, when it is injured, can be repaired.—But did ever man or angel recover one moment of lost time? He alone is the traveler who never halts, never turns back; no tears can soften him, nor prayers make him relent; little recks he of the truest penitence, or the most heart-broken sobs of sorrow. As vainly would we set about to recall one yesterday, or beg yonder stream, whose waters keep rushing on, to roll back a single wave. When the reckless hand of passion has torn out half the leaves of the life-blood to light its own fires, and we count with trembling fingers the few that remain, then indeed how solemn the thought that no power on earth, none in heaven, can replace a single lost moment. God may heap up years as he appears to have done in the earliest periods of the race, may prolong indefinitely the sojourn of any single soul in any one of his many mansions, but only by obliterating memory could he destroy the consciousness of any polluted day.
The Truth of Beauty
THE TRUTH OF BEAUTY —There is nothing beautiful that is not true. There is nothing true that is not beautiful. It was in searching for beauty that truth was discovered. Its temple stands in the centre of an artificial labyrinth, composed of the most complicated windings, in which many lose themselves; whilst millions are deluded by the specious falsehoods met with on the way, and overwritten—“This is the truth, and he who doubts is doomed.” But he who would reach the temple around which this ’wildering maze of thorns and briars is planted, must over-leap these artificial fences, or hew his way right onward, instinct led, having an unwavering confidence in God and his own soul. God is truth, and every natural instinct of the soul guides us to God.
Blessings Along Life’s Path
For every one, life has some blessing—some cup that is not mixed with bitterness. At every heart there is some fountain of pure waters, and all men at some time or other taste their sweetness. Who is he that has not found in his path of life, some fragrant rosebush, scenting all the air with its sweet perfume, and cheering the heart of the weary traveler with its beauty.
The Good Man’s Good Way
The good man is led in a good way, by a good God, to be employed in good things, walking in good company, working by a good rule, from a good motive, to a good end, and at last arrives at a good home.
Life’s Fleeting Brevity
The flying clouds, the evanescent vapor; the arrow just propelled from the string, the wintry grass, the flower whose beauty scarce blooms ere it is faded, and whose fragrance is scarcely perceptible ere it is gone, are apt similitudes of a man’s life.
Bible Religion and Good Manners
Bible religion improves good manners; it teaches what it commands: “Be courteous.”