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Review and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 13.

The Hope of Salvation

Review and Herald

Mar 29, 1877

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 29, 1877

The Hope of Salvation.

By G. V. Kilgore

BY G. V. KILGORE.
This hope has been the encouragement of all the people of God since the world began. It encouraged the ancients, when they were persecuted by wicked rulers, to stand firm for the Lord. When Daniel was threatened to be cast into the lion’s den for praying to the God of this salvation, this hope was more precious to him than the unchangeable laws of the Medes and Persians. It kept him on his guard, and he ceased not to do his duty. When the other Hebrews, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were commanded to violate the second commandment, they also trusted in the God of salvation; and thus they were shielded from sinning. By that, also, they proved that this hope is not a vain hope; for, because they trusted in God, he delivered them from being burned in the fire, into which they were cast because they would not bow to an image. This hope filled the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets of old, so that they were willing to endure all the afflictions and trials that Paul names in the eleventh of Hebrews. They all believed that God would turn their troubles into joy. But they looked not for this to be done in this present world, but at the appearing of Jesus. Paul, in Titus, tells how all men should live who look for this blessed hope. And here he connects this hope with “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
All the people of God, in Bible times at least, looked forward to this glorious appearing of Christ with the hope of receiving eternal salvation at that time. They did not expect to receive it before that day. They knew they would have to lie down and rest together in the dust until that time. Job 17:13–16; 14:12–15. And they knew that during this resting time, they would be unconscious, and could not praise the Lord. Ps. 6:5; 115:17. But with this knowledge they did not lose faith in God. They were satisfied with the plan of salvation just as the Lord devised it. David said, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” Job was willing to lie down and wait in the grave, for said he, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (after I shall awake, &c., margin).
This shows when these men were looking for salvation—at the resurrection, which is to take place at the appearing of Christ. 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. There is where their hope lay. This resurrection was Paul’s hope, and the hope of all the apostles. Acts 26:6–8. But we to-day hope not only for the resurrection, but many of us hope to rejoice in the salvation of our God without seeing death. And this is not a vain hope with many of the true believers of this generation; for there is abundance of proof that we live immediately prior to the coming of that salvation, and the word of the Lord declares that there will be a company that will be alive when it comes, and that this company will rejoice to see their Lord bringing them salvation. 1 Thess. 4:15; Isa. 25:9. Taking the words of Christ as evidence, it is certain that we live in the time when this company should be upon the earth alive, preparing to meet their Lord, preparing to stand in his presence, unspotted by sin. Like Enoch and Elijah of old, they must stand ready for translation.
Have we reached such a time as this? Can we reasonably hope for salvation in this manner? Hear some of the evidence: “For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” These are words of Christ. To what time is he referring? Certainly, not merely to the destruction of Jerusalem, as Universalists believe; for that alone was not the greatest tribulation the world has ever seen, or will see. The flood was greater. And the indignation that God has determined upon all nations (Jer. 25) will be far greater. But the tribulation of which Christ speaks was greater than any other that ever had been or would be. When can we look for such a trouble? The next verse will tell: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” This explains to us what tribulation Christ meant. It was the one upon the elect (God’s chosen people) that was greater than any before, or any that should be after it.
Where was such a tribulation? God has provided us with the means of knowledge on this point. Long ago he described all the leading, persecuting powers of the earth that should come. He did this through the prophets Daniel and John. He said there should be four main divisions of these powers,—Babylon, Persia, Grecia, and Rome. Now, we, to-day, live after the working of all these powers. The strength of the last one is broken. Our inquiry now is, Which one of these persecuted the people of God the most? which caused the greatest tribulation? Whichever did, inflicted that tribulation of which Christ speaks in these verses before us. Well, everybody that knows anything about this knows that Rome did this very thing. It destroyed wonderfully the mighty and holy people. Dan. 8:24. It was ruling when Christ spoke the words before quoted. But then its most bloody career had not commenced.
About sixty years after this, John was banished by this power to Patmos, and there he beheld, in vision, the worst form of this wicked power. Listen to his description of it: “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” John was then under pagan Rome, the power that destroyed Jerusalem, and he seemed not to wonder that such a heathen power should persecute the followers of Jesus; but when he beheld that woman (papal Rome, the same power, only that it now professed Christianity) drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the martyrs of Jesus, he says, “I wondered with great admiration.” This, then, must be the power that inflicted that “great tribulation.” When did it exist? It began to work in Paul’s day; 2 Thess. 2:7; but its most horrid persecutions were not seen until long after John was on Patmos. And he was not there till twenty years after Jerusalem was destroyed. This proves clearly that Christ did not mean the Jews’ tribulation at Jerusalem, but the tribulation of the people of God under papal Rome.
This was shortened just as Christ said it should be. Had it not been, papal Rome would not have let a single man or woman live, who obeyed God rather than the pope. But God brought about things to shorten the tribulation. This was accomplished by the reformation of the sixteenth century. The influence of that reformation spread so far over the dominion of papal Rome that it put a stop to the persecutions about 1776. And Christ, in answer to, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven,” &c.
The papal persecutions continued up to within four or five years of 1780. And in that year the sun was supernaturally darkened, thus clearly giving to the world the first great sign of the end. The moon was darkened at the same time, and the stars fell in 1833, only about forty-three years ago. Christ says we are to know that he is near, even at the door, when we see these things come to pass. He even said that those who should see them begin to come to pass, might look up, for their redemption would then be drawing nigh. Luke 21:28. If redemption was drawing nigh a hundred years ago, is it not very near to-day? It is. The generation that saw the last sign are still alive to-day. They are the first that ever lived who could see that all the signs had come. And to them Christ says, “Verily, I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”
Now, I say we have reached the time for that company to be upon the earth, who are to be “alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,” and who are to be caught up together with the resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thess. 4:15–17. Therefore, we may hope for salvation without seeing death. But judging from past examples of translations, and from what the Bible says to this company, we understand that thorough work must be done by us in cleansing ourselves from sin. Enoch walked with God. He pleased God in his ways. Heb. 11:5. Elijah had so much of the Spirit of God that he could call down fire to prove that his God was the God of creation. 1 Kings 18. These men were holy; and we who are saved when Christ declares that eternal decree (Rev. 22:11) must also be holy, or righteous, or else we shall lose everlasting life. Speaking to the brethren who are not to be overtaken by the day of the Lord as by a thief, Paul says: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. 5:23.
Blameless! Can any one live that way? There must be a way in which this can be done, or Paul prayed for something that is impossible. But he certainly knew better than to pray for impossibilities. He distinctly tells us that the carnal mind cannot obey God; but, “to be carnally-minded is death,” he says. Rom. 8:6, 7.
Death is not what we want. We want life, everlasting life. But those who live to see Christ come and save them, must become blameless. They must, then, have some kind of a mind that can obey God. If we follow Paul’s directions, in the chapter in which he prays for us to be blameless, we will most surely obtain such a mind. He says, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” “Pray without ceasing.” “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” In the last part of the previous chapter, he speaks plainly of that company that shall be alive when Christ comes; and in this he is very earnest, and urges us to prepare fully to meet Christ. He tells us how to do this in the words just quoted, and in all the chapter.
The hope of salvation he would have us put on for an helmet, or for a defense—a defense against sin. And that is just what will indeed help us. Every time we are tempted, let the hope of soon receiving salvation come into our minds, and it will be a great shield against sin. We may have this hope kept in our minds by the grace of God if we follow Paul’s admonitions. For this hope the twelve tribes of all Israel instantly served God. Acts 26:7. If they, so long before they could possibly see salvation, instantly served God, we, who expect soon to see it, certainly ought also to serve God instantly. We must do it, or we never can become blameless. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us make thorough work.

TALMAGE ON THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.

By Chas L. Boyd

In a discourse on Luke 16:19-25, Mr. Talmage says concerning the burial of Lazarus, “They dig a hole, drop him in, and cover him up.” “That is not Lazarus that they buried. It was only his sores. Yonder goes Lazarus, an angel on his right, an angel on the left, carrying him up the steep of heaven,—talking, praising, rejoicing. Good old Abraham stands at the gate, and throws his arms around the new-comer.”
Of the burial of Dives he says, “Dives is not buried there. That which is buried is only the shell in which he lived. Dives is down yonder in a deeper grave. He who had all the wine he could drink, asks for a plainer beverage. He wants water. He does not ask for a cupful, or a teaspoonful, but ‘just one drop,’ and he cannot get it. He looks up, and sees Lazarus, the very man he set the dogs on, and wants him to put his finger in water, and let him lick it off.” “You see this parable takes in the distant future, and speaks as though the resurrection were passed, and the body of Lazarus had already joined his spirit; and so I treat it.”
Then why treat it as referring to the immediate present? Why try to make that which proves a future reward, prove a present conscious existence? Is this the best support for the chief corner-stone of Spiritualism? Again Mr. Talmage says, “Lazarus was carried up to the bosom of Abraham, one of the glorious old patriarchs. I suppose Abraham happened to meet him at the gate. And so after death, we will be greeted into glory. Our departed friends will be at the door. They have been waiting for our coming. Your father is there. Your mother is there. They have been dead these five, ten, or twenty years, and have been waiting within the veil. Some day they see a cohort leaving Heaven, and they say, ‘Whither bound?’ and the answer is, ‘To bring up a soul from earth.’ ‘Whatsoul?’ And a family circle in Heaven find it is one of their own number that is to be brought up, and they come out to watch, as on the beach we now watch for the sail of a ship that is to bring our friends home.” “I see the mother and her child meeting at the foot of the throne after some years’ absence. The child died twenty years ago, but is a child yet. I think the little ones who die, will remain children through all eternity.”
If, as Mr. Talmage tells us, “the parable takes in the distant future, and speaks as though the resurrection were passed,” does it also prove such a doctrine as this? No wonder spiritualism thrives, when the learned D.Ds. sow the seed of which it is the legitimate fruit.
Now he descends to the place where he left Lazarus, and says, “I believe there is an eternal hell, and this is my evidence. ‘I am tormented in this flame.’ Would not a man of common sense not prejudiced in the case, take this to be fire? literal fire? an all-sweeping fire? an eternal fire? All the engines of the nineteenth century have turned their hose toward putting out this fire; but still it burns on, and will burn forever.”
As I see the word of God thus perverted, the language of Eld. J. Blain, Baptist minister, presses itself into my mind: “It is a notorious fact that in our theological works a nondescript dictionary is made, with definitions as follows: ‘To be dead,’ means to be more conscious. ‘To die,’ is to live on in woe. ‘To lose life,’ is to preserve a miserable existence. ‘Life’ means happiness. ‘To burn up,’ is to make a living salamander. ‘To destroy,’ is to preserve whole. ‘To devour,’ ‘perish,’ &c., mean to make indestructible and immortal. ‘Not to be,’ to be without end.”
CHAS L. BOYD.

BEAR THOU MY BURDEN.

By H. Bonar

Bear thou my burden, thou who bear’st my sin; Both are too heavy, Lord, for me to bear. Oh! take them, call them thine; yes, thine, tho’ mine; And give me calm repose in hours of fear and care.
Let me not fret because of evil men; Smooth thou each angry ripple of my soul. Reviled, oh! let me not revile again, And ever let thy hand, my rising wrath control.
Let not my peace be broken when the wrong Conquers the right; but let me still wait on; The day of right is coming, late, but long—Long right beneath the sway of the all-righteous One.
When truth is overborne and error reigns, When clamor lords it over patient love, Give the brave calmness which from wrath refrains, Yet from the steadfast course declines one foot to move.
When love no refuge finds but silent faith, When meekness fain would hide its heavy head, When trustful truth, shunning the words of wrath, Waits for the day of right, so long, so long delayed,
Beneath the load of crosses and of cares, Of thwarted plans, of rude and spiteful words, Oh! bear me up, when this weak flesh despairs, And the one arm which faith can lean on is the Lord’s.
—H. Bonar.

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.

By J. O. Corliss

It has been a question with some as to whether the Holy Spirit, as manifested among men, operated under the old covenant the same as under the new; and if so, why did Christ just prior to his departure from the world say, if he went away he would send the Spirit to his disciples?
Nothing is more evident than that the Spirit of God has been the source through which his work has been carried on in the earth from its infancy. Even in its chaotic state the “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2), and brought order out of confusion. When Balaam uttered his memorable prophecy concerning the future of Israel, and the advent of Christ, he did it by the Spirit of God. Num. 24:2.
Isaiah, when referring to the disobedience of Israel, said: “But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit.” Isa. 63:10. David prayed when in distress on account of sin: “Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” Ps. 51:11. Peter, also in speaking of the sure word of prophecy, says that it came not by the will of man, “but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Pet. 1:21.
Thus we see that in the old dispensation the spirit of God operated in various ways. It not only pointed out to David the heinousness of his sin, and caused him to cry for mercy, but it was grieved by the continual disobedience of Israel. Also when men cultivated holiness of heart, it pointed out the ways of righteousness, and moved upon them to speak and write of it for the benefit of future generations.
So it is now. It moves upon individuals in different ways. By it the sinner is convicted of sin. To the Christian it marks out the path of duty, in which, if he walks faithfully, it will bear witness of his acceptance, and administer comfort in affliction. It can also be grieved by disobedience (Eph. 4:30); and will surely bring upon every unrepenting offender the sore judgments of God. Heb. 10:29. At one time when Jesus was casting out devils, the Pharisees stood by and said the work was done by Beelzebub; but Jesus affirmed that he did it by the Spirit of God; and, knowing their thoughts, he condemned them for wilfully speaking against that Spirit, and thereby uttering blasphemy. Matt. 12. When he sent out the twelve, he gave them power also to cast out devils and heal the sick as he had done. Mark 3:14, 15.
But in the strong attachment formed for their Lord, the disciples had evidently lost sight of the medium through which the work had thus far been carried on, by not looking beyond the personal presence of Christ, and therefore could not endure the thought of ever being separated from him.
When Jesus was about to leave the world, and must break to them the sad intelligence, he, understanding the situation of affairs, consoled them by saying, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.
Again he says, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” Jesus must go away to officiate as high priest above, and make an atonement for sin; but he assures his followers they shall not be left destitute. He will leave the means of support provided for them, which they had been indirectly receiving without fully recognizing it. And in order that they may realize the fulfillment of the promise, he sends it upon them in great measure, soon after his ascension.
To illustrate: A man on his death-bed is surrounded by his sorrowing children, who have been nourished at his hand all their lives. He says, “Do not weep for me, children. I will not leave you comfortless. I have provided means of support for you after I am gone.” They had always received good things from him, yet they had come through the means which had ever been at his command, and they had not considered it. After his death, however, each one gets a large portion of his wealth, and by frugality has enough to carry him through life.
So may we after receiving the gift of the Spirit retain it all the journey through. And when our work is ended, and we come to the final distribution, we may each receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away. J. O. CORLISS.

PERSEVERANCE

By Laura C. Nourse

On no work or effort of our lives do we so much need to keep before our minds the necessity for constant and persistent endeavor as in the formation and perfection of true Christian character. This must be the work, not of a day or a year, but of a lifetime.
No great achievement in the arts or sciences, no signal success in the common walks of life, comes but as the outgrowth of patient perseverance and earnest labor; and have we any right to expect that this great gift of eternal life will be thrust upon us, with no work or effort of our own? that the gates of Heaven will open at our bidding, and we be permitted to walk composedly in without opposition or conflict?
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” is the command of our Lord; and to God’s true children this command has no idle significance. It means literal work, hard, unceasing toil; but it is work which brings with it a recompense, and is followed by its sure reward; and we have the sweet assurance,
“That lovingly performed, Each lowly duty Adds to the inner strength And outer beauty.”
Every temptation to do wrong steadfastly resisted, every sin which we diligently strive to put away, each trial patiently endured, adds to the beauty and symmetry of our Christian life. Even sorrow and affliction may be the instruments in the hands of God to perfect in us the Christian graces. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Jesus himself was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
There is another phase of this work of which we are too apt to lose sight. We must not expect success will always crown even our most earnest endeavors. God suffers us to be tempted, to show us our weakness and the necessity of constant watchfulness, or perchance to help us to be more charitable toward those around us, whom in our Pharisaical self-righteousness we have heartlessly condemned. New associations, different surroundings, develop in our natures capabilities of sin of which we never dreamed, and we find ourselves weak where, in our proud self-reliance, we supposed we were strongest.
In this way, God tests us, and reveals to us our true characters, and seeks to impress upon our minds the important truth, “without me, ye can do nothing.” But all this need not, should not, discourage us. Leaving the past in the hands of a merciful God, let us resolutely press forward. Let the mistakes and failures of each day but serve to draw us nearer to the great source of all strength, and incite us to more earnest endeavors, to greater watchfulness, and more fervent prayer, and awaken in our hearts a more intense longing for the life beyond, for a home in the glorious kingdom of our God, where sin shall no more have dominion over us.
And as we work, and pray for ourselves, let us not forget to work and pray for others. All around us are sorrowing hearts. God’s word is full of comfort. The world is running over with sin and wickedness. Let “No compromise,” be our motto; and faithfully and well let us strive to do the work before us, that when Christ shall appear, we may hear from his lips the “well and faithfully done,” and rejoice in the glad assurance of eternal victory.
LAURA C. NOURSE.

EVANGELISTS AND THEIR WORK.

By J.B. Frisbie

[I CLIP from the Michigan Christian Advocate, of Detroit, the appended remarks, by A. E. Ketchum, on the work of these traveling, sensational, affecting-anecdote evangelists that are now going over the country.
I saw some of those spiritual songs printed on a sheet, with the remark that “the singing converted more than the preaching.” I thought at once what a mistake the Saviour made in giving his commission,—“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” It should have been, if they are right, “Go ye into all the world, and sing songs to every creature, and tell affecting anecdotes.”
J. B. FRISBIE.]
I have read with interest your article on “The Work of an Evangelist.” We are having some experience in these things just now. We have had a Rev. Mr. Potter with us for eight days holding revival meetings day and night. Some have been reclaimed and many have arisen for prayers. This was followed by union meetings conducted by the resident pastors for one week, when lo! another reverend gentleman appears bringing a singer with him, and commences meetings in a public hall. He is now at work, and of necessity our meetings have closed, as we did not deem it advisable to divide the interest. But that is not all. We are informed that a lady preacher desires to make us a visit and in turn duplicate, or triplicate, these efforts. Now we resident ministers are thrown into a train of reflection upon the state of things, which it would be difficult to describe. We are in doubt whereunto this thing will grow. We are inclined to endorse everything that is good, and rejoice to see the church stirred into action and the people seeking Christ, if so be it shall eventuate in permanent blessing to society. But this is the question, and time must elapse in this case before it can be determined.
But here is a consideration: either the stationed ministers have become so stupid, backslidden, and worthless as to make the multiplication and call of these so-called evangelists a necessity, or their employment should be discontinued. For the inevitable tendency of the system is to destroy the confidence of the church in the ability of their own preachers to lead them on to battle and victory, and they are fast coming to think they can do nothing without them. That is not all. These persons make this work a specialty. They prepare a few discourses of the most sensational character, interwoven and almost wholly composed of affecting anecdotes by which the sympathies of the people are wrought up to the fever heat, and under the excitement of the moment, they are moved to the inquiry room in great numbers, to make a profession of religion, and then the evangelist pockets seventy-five or a hundred dollars, and moves off on the wave of his popularity, to create a spasmodic sensation in some other locality.
Then comes the tug of war. The pastors work, and church works, to prevent the converts from losing their interest in religion and to get them “rooted and grounded in the love and knowledge of God;” but the instrument of sensation has gone, the excitement dies out, and notwithstanding the prodigious efforts of pastor and people, one after another drops into obscurity, and relapses into a worse state than ever, until nearly all the fruits of the wondrous movement have vanished like the “early cloud and the morning dew.” The secret of this is, they have been converted to the man and not to Christ, which is always the case more or less, where the preaching is of a purely sensational character. The Spirit and truth of God are the only effective forces ever employed in producing deep conviction and sound conversion. “It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.”

THE LAW OF GOD.

By J. G. Wood

By request of the brethren of the church at Rockville, Mo., I visited them Feb. 24, and remained several days. Our Sabbath meeting was good, all readily bearing their testimony expressing their confidence in this great work. While there I listened to three discourses given by Eld. E. Rogers (Disciple) against the Sabbath and our people. Sometime previous to this he had announced that he “could easily meet these doctrines,” and challenged them to send for their best man, to discuss with him, stating the time and place. However, when I came he would not give me half the time, but preached three discourses against us before I could reply. He denounced the law and Sabbath in the most bitter terms I ever heard. He took the position that Christ abolished the law at the cross; that he was in better business than going round keeping the Sabbath; that he broke the Sabbath, and God authorized it, citing us as proof to John 5:18.
If this charge of Sabbath-breaking be true, then Christ was certainly a sinner; for all acknowledge that the law of ten commandments was in force till the cross, and that a violation of any of those precepts prior to that time was sin. “For sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. Then Christ was a sinner; and Peter was mistaken when he said he “did no sin,” 1 Peter 2:22; and the whole Christian world are deluded in looking to Christ as the Saviour of the world, through whom they expect an atonement of their sins; for he himself was a sinner, and can atone for no one, not even for himself. “Whoshall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Rom. 8:33. Yet this is the charge against the Son of God. This shows to what extremes men will go to get rid of the Sabbath.
I then showed that John 5:19 was a charge of the wicked Jews, verse 16; that they were of their “father the devil, who abode not in the truth, and his works they would do; that he was a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44–45. When Jesus appeals to them in John 7:20 to know why they wish to kill him, they do not say he has broken the Sabbath, and ought to die, but, “thou hast a devil.” If their beasts were suffering for water, they could relieve them on the Sabbath; if a sheep fell into a pit, and were like to perish, they would save its life by lifting it out on the Sabbath day. “How much better, then, is a man than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day.” Matt. 12:11, 12. Thus those traditions that they had thrown around the Sabbath, insomuch that it had become irksome, he tore away, and showed them that it was always right to do acts of mercy and relieve the suffering on that day.
“Now the chief priest’s and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death, but found none. Matt. 26:59. Among all those that clamored for his blood, and said, “Let it be on us and our children,” was not found one that said he violated the Sabbath day, the penalty for which was death; but the high priest said he blasphemed, and the Jews said he was guilty of death. Matt. 26:65, 66. After a most rigid examination before Pilate and Herod, Pilate says, “I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo! nothing worthy of death is done unto him.” Luke 23:14, 15. Pilate took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent from the blood of this just person.” Matt. 27:24.
Eld. R. said that that law (referring to the ten commandments) was a tyrannical law, and ought to be done away. I replied that no one but a tyrant would give a tyrannical law to his children; that God is our Father, “he made us and not we ourselves,” Ps. 100:3; and according to Eld. R., that God in whom we live, move, and have our being, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die, that we might not perish, but have eternal life, is a tyrant after all. I replied in three discourses before a full house of attentive listeners. I think the people could see the folly of his course. The church were strengthened, and many could see the truthfulness of our position.
J. G. WOOD.

“THEM LITTLE MICE.”

By M. H. W. Jaquith

“I was once making a missionary tour through Michigan,” said a preacher, “when I called at a house that I had been told was occupied by a man bed-ridden for several years. I rapped at the door of the log-cabin, introduced myself and my business, ‘hunting up the Lord’s own,’ and was warmly welcomed by the man and his wife.
“After an hour’s patient listening to the old man’s story of his sickness and sufferings, in reply to a remark of mine to the effect that I trusted this experience of the Lord’s chastenings had been blessed to him, and that he had a sure hope that when all was over he would go where they no more say ‘I am sick,’ he brightened up wonderfully, saying, ‘Why, yes, I had a ’sperience nigh onto thirty years ago; ’twas a wonderful ’sperience. I don’t s’pose there ever was such a strange ’sperience happened to a body before or since. I writ it out so as not to forget it; but I haven’t thought a word about it for more’n a year, not since last big meetin’, when Elder Graves called. I read it to him, and he said it was very wonderful. Betsey, hunt up my ’sperience; I want to read it to this preacher.’”
“Then commenced a search through the numerous chinks and boxes in the cabin; old mouse-eaten letters and papers, bundles of herbs, packages of seeds, rolls of all sorts of stuff, were undone and looked over repeatedly, but in vain; and all the time the old man was moaning, ‘Such a wonderful ’sperience, sir. I knew my calling and ’lection was sure and sartin from that time; so I’ve never taken much trouble ’bout it since I’d once writ it out, and now them little mice have eaten up my ’sperience, and it’s the undoin’ of me.’”
“In vain I tried to get him to tell it to me. He could only vary his lamentations by upbraiding his wife, ‘You might have known, Betsey, that them little mice would eat it up if you didn’t take keer of it.’”
“He would have nothing from me at all, and I finally went away leaving the wife still hunting, and he mourning as did Bunyan’s Christian over his lost roll, for he really seemed to think it was his vised passport to Heaven, without which he could not enter the pearly gates.”
This was the preacher’s “little mice” story, and his hearers all had a hearty laugh at the idea of the querulous, sick old man sitting up in bed, peering anxiously in all the cracks and crannies of that weather-beaten cabin, hunting his “’sperience.”
But here comes the sober, practical after-thought, whether I, or you, good friend, like that old man, are not trusting to some long past “’sperience” of good works, prayer, charity, or zeal, that the “little mice” of ambition, love of approbation, good-nature, restlessness, or officiousness have eaten up, as we shall find when we come to seek for it. Would it not be wise for each of us to hunt up his “’sperience” and see?—MRS. M. H. W. JAQUITH, in Christian Weekly.
Continue reading: From Creation to Redemption