The Signs of the Times, vol. 12

July 15, 1886

“Establishment of the Vandals in Africa” The Signs of the Times 12, 27, p. 420.

AFTER the partition of Gaul among the Franks, the Alemanni, the Visigoths, and the Burgundians, the next notable movement of any of the barbarians was the emigration of the Vandals from Spain into Africa. We have already traced the Vandals and the Suevi into Spain; and we have seen Wallia and his Visigoths (A.D. 415-418) sweep over eastern Spain from the Pyrenees to the Straits of Gibraltar. The effect of Wallia’s power was, that,— SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.1

“He exterminated the Silingi, who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Btica. He slew, in battle, the king of the Alani; and the remains of those Scythian wanderers, who escaped from the field, instead of choosing a new leader, humbly sought a refuge under the standard of the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards confounded. The Vandals themselves, and the Suevi, yielded to the efforts of the invincible Goths. The promiscuous multitude of barbarians, whose retreat had been intercepted, were driven into the mountains of Gallicia; where they still continued, in a narrow compass and on a barren soil, to exercise their domestic and implacable hostilities.—Dec. and Fall, chap. 31, par. 38. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.2

Wallia “restored his Spanish conquests to the obedience of Honorius,” and returned into Southwestern Gaul, where, as we have shown, they “were established [A.D. 419], according to the faith of treaties, in the possession of the second Aquitain.” SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.3

“After the retreat of the Goths, the authority of Honorius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain; except only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and the Vandals had fortified their camps, in mutual discord and hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed; and their adversaries were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or rather provoked, the victorious barbarians to remove [A.D. 428] the scene of the war to the plains of Btica. The rapid progress of the Vandals soon acquired a more effectual opposition; and the master-general Castinus marched against them with a numerous army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior army, Castinus fled with dishonor to Tarragona; and this memorable defeat, which has been represented as the punishment, was most probably the effect, of his rash presumption. Seville and Carthagena became the reward, or rather the prey, of the ferocious conquerors; and the vessels which they found in the harbor of Carthagena might easily transport them to the Isles of Majorca and Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation, and perhaps the prospect of Africa, encouraged the Vandals to accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface; and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the bold enterprise. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.4

“In the room of a prince not conspicuous for any superior powers of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard brother, the terrible Genseric; a name, which, in the destruction of the Roman empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila. The king of the Vandals is described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul; he disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished; but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds and without scruples; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and contention. Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon. Impatient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as Merida; precipitated the king and his army into the River Anas, and calmly returned to the sea-shore to embark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported [A.D. 429, May] the Vandals over the modern Straits of Gibraltar, a channel only twelve miles in breadth, were furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their departure; and by the African general, who had implored their formidable assistance. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.5

“Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the martial swarms of barbarians that seemed to issue from the North, will perhaps be surprised by the account of the army which Genseric mustered on the coast of Mauritania [A.D. 429]. The Vandals, who in twenty years had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were united under the command of their warlike king; and he reigned with equal authority over the Alani, who had passed, within the term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold enterprise had excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and many desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by the same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various multitude amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and though Genseric artfully magnified his apparent strength, by appointing eighty chinarchs, or commanders of thousands, the fallacious increase of old men, of children, and of slaves, would scarcely have swelled his army to the number of four-score thousand persons. But his own dexterity, and the discontents of Africa, soon fortified the Vandal powers, by the accession of numerous and active allies. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.6

“The parts of Mauritania which border on the Great Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage temper had been exasperated, rather than reclaimed, by their dread of the Roman arms. The wandering Moors, as they gradually ventured to approach the seashore, and the camp of the Vandals, must have viewed with terror and astonishment the dress, the armor, the martial pride and discipline of the unknown strangers who had landed on their coast; and the fair complexions of the blue-eyed warriors of Germany formed a very singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue which is derived from the neighborhood of the torrid zone. After the first difficulties had in some measure been removed, which arose from the mutual ignorance of their respective language, the Moors, regardless of any future consequence, embraced the alliance of the enemies of Rome; and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and valleys of Mount Atlas, to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who had injuriously expelled them from the native sovereignty of the land. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.7

“The persecution of the Donatists was an event not less favorable to the designs of Genseric. Seventeen years before he landed in Africa, a public conference was held at Carthage, by the order of the magistrate. The Catholics were satisfied, that, after the invincible reasons which they had alleged, the obstinacy of the schismatics must be inexcusable and voluntary; and the emperor Honorius was persuaded to inflict the most rigorous penalties on a faction which had so long abused his patience and clemency. Three hundred bishops, with many thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived of the rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained, according to the distinction of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of assisting at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five times, without subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was referred to the discretion of the Imperial court. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.8

“By these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of St. Augustin, great numbers of Donatists were reconciled to the Catholic Church; but the fanatics, who still persevered in their opposition, were provoked to madness and despair; the distracted country was filled with tumult and bloodshed; the armed troops of Circumcellions alternately pointed their rage against themselves, or against their adversaries; and the calendar of martyrs received on both sides a considerable augmentation. Under these circumstances, Genseric, a Christian, but an enemy of the orthodox communion, showed himself to the Donatists as a powerful deliverer, from whom they might reasonably expect the repeal of the odious and oppressive edicts of the Roman emperors. The conquest of Africa was facilitated by the active zeal, or the secret favor, of a domestic faction; the wanton outrages against the churches and the clergy of which the Vandals are accused, may be fairly imputed to the fanaticism of their allies; and the intolerant spirit which disgraced the triumph of Christianity, contributed to the loss of the most important province of the West.”—Id. chap. 33, par. 5-7. SITI July 15, 1886, page 420.9

(Concluded next week.)

“Try the Spirits” The Signs of the Times 12, 27, pp. 423, 424.

WE showed last week that the only true rule by which to try the spirits is the word of God; that if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them; and that the Scriptures and the teaching of the spirits are in direct antagonism. We shall now present a further illustration of this. SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.1

The passage of Scripture in which is found the injunction to “try the spirits,” reads in full thus: “Beloved believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.2

The Scriptures show that there are manifestations of the Spirit of God, and manifestations of the spirits of devils; that there are true prophets, and false prophets; that the true prophet is moved by the Spirit of God, and the false prophet is moved by a spirit that is not of God. The manifestations of the “spirits” are by a number of spirits and are discordant, contradicting themselves and one another. Of the Spirit of God, “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;” “differences of administrations, but the same Lord;” “and diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” 1 Corinthians 12. While of “the spirits” there are diversities of spirits as well as diversities of gifts; differences of administrations of different lords; and diversities of operations with no God at all. SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.3

By the Spirit of God is given in one “the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit.” While of the spirits, if there be words,—we shall not say of wisdom for there is no wisdom in them,—or gifts of healing, or miracles, or divers kinds of tongues, or any other manifestations, they are by a multitude of spirits, and with such diversity that there is no telling whether ever any two even of successive manifestations are by the same spirit, much less is it so that different manifestations at the same time are of the same spirit. SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.4

How then shall we know the true from the false? “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4:2, 3. Some may say that Spiritualism will bear this test, because Spiritualists admit that there lived a person called Jesus Christ. Yes, they do admit that there lived a person called by that name. But that is not enough. Jesus Christ is not simply the name of a person, as John Smith, or William Thompson, is a name. It is not only a name but a tittle,—a tittle which bears a depth of meaning. The words Jesus and Christ are both Greek transferred into English. If they were translated instead of transferred we should have no such word as either Jesus or Christ. It is evident therefore that we must know the meaning of the words, before we can tell what is demanded in the confession that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.5

Jesus means Saviour, and its meaning upon him was given by the angel when he announced that he should be born. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS [Saviour, margin]; for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. “Christ” signifies “anointed,” and is explained in John 1:41 with the margin. Speaking of Andrew, he says, “He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.” “Messias” is Hebrew, and interpreted into Greek is “the Christ,” which, interpreted into English, is “the Anointed.” Thus in the term “Christ Jesus” we have the real meaning “the Anointed Saviour,” and as the angel said he shall save his people form their sins, we have the whole expressed by Paul, when he says: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus; the Anointed Saviour, came into the world to save sinners.” Therefore, what there is in this test of the spirits, is this: Every spirit that confesseth that the Anointed Saviour of sinners is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that the Anointed Saviour of sinners is come in the flesh is not of God. SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.6

To confess that the Anointed Saviour of sinners is come in the flesh is a test that Spiritualism will not bear. Spiritualism knows no sin; much less does it confess a Saviour. Andrew Jackson Davis said:— SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.7

“Sin indeed in the common acceptation of that term does not really exist.” “In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures it is affirmed that sin is the transgression of the law. But by an examination of nature, the true and only Bible, it will be seen that this statement is erroneous. It gives a wrong idea of both man and law.... It will be found impossible for man to transgress a law of God.” SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.8

Why is it impossible? Simply because according to Spiritualism every man is his own God. Said J. B. Hall in a spiritualistic lecture:— SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.9

“I believe that man is amenable to no law not written upon his own nature, no matter by whom it is given.... By his own nature must he be tried—by his own acts he must stand or fall. True, man must give an account to God for all his deeds; but how? Solely by giving account to his own nature—to himself.” SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.10

As to its knowing no Saviour, we repeat a quotation from our article of last week:— SITI July 15, 1886, page 423.11

“Spiritualism declares that the belief or non-belief in Jesus weighs nothing as against the soul’s salvation.... If anything, the belief in the supremacy of Jesus ... will retard rather than advance the soul’s progress.” “Spiritualism knows no salvation through Christ or any other person, ... every soul being its own saviour.” SITI July 15, 1886, page 424.1

Thus it is plain that the spirits do not confess that Jesus Christ, the Anointed Saviour, is come in the flesh, and they are therefore false prophets. And then the word of God continues, “This is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” They are lying, seducing, wicked spirits. They lead to denial of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ; they lead away from the word of God; and the end of their course can only be perdition. SITI July 15, 1886, page 424.2

Here then, we have applied two of the tests which the word of God gives us by which to try the spirits—(1) They must speak according to the word of God; (2) They must confess that the Anointed Saviour is come in the flesh—and in both instances Spiritualism fails to be in any sense worthy of confidence. There are yet other tests which we shall apply. SITI July 15, 1886, page 424.3