Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, vol. 27
1866
January 2, 1866
RH, Vol. XXVII. Battle Creek, Mich., Third-Day, No. 5
James White
ADVENT REVIEW,
And Sabbath Herald.
VOL. XXVII. BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, JANUARY 2, 1866. No. 5.
“Here is the Patience of the Saints; Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.”
The Advent Review & Sabbath Herald
is published weekly, by
The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.
ELD. JAMES WHITE, PRESIDENT
TERMS. -Two Dollars a year in advance. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.1
Address Elder JAMES WHITE, Battle Creek, Michigan. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.2
Sabbath Hymn
Air.-“Forever with the Lord.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.3
Six days of toil and care,
I bid you all adieu;
And now O peaceful Sabbath hours,
I gladly welcome you.
As some frail bark at sea,
By storms and tempests tried,
Glides in beneath the sheltering lee.
Safe on the tranquil tide.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.4
The first Sabbatic day
Our Lord himself did rest,
And thus his great example gave,
Then sanctified and blessed.
My heart with rapture turns
To Eden’s vale so fair,
Then forward to the heavenly world
And news the Sabbath there.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.5
Sweet day of rest, through thee
Shall memory faithful prove
To Him who made the earth and sea,
And starry worlds above.
Each Sabbath spent aright
Shall bring us nearer Thee
Till in that glorious land of light
We’er made forever free. Vlsta N. Cudworth.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.6
Selfishness
a discourse by e. goodrich
Dear Friends: The subject to which your attention is called this morning, is selfishness-the selfishness of the age. This is rather an unpleasant topic upon which to speak; but it often becomes necessary in our fallen and afflicted state, both to speak of unpleasant things and to urge painful duties. And if at any time my language shall seem rather pointed or severe, each one will please to make his or her own appropriation of that, and that only, which belongs to him or her. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.7
The text chosen for the occasion reads, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, etc.” 2 Timothy 3:1, 2. I shall occupy no time in trying to demonstrate the fact that we are living in the last days, because I deem the effort unnecessary. And even if it was necessary, the length of time before me with the subject named for discussion, would not permit it. You will therefore be at liberty to decide this point as you shall deem proper. It is enough to remark that the apostle prophetically speaks of perilous times to the church (the term perilous signifies full of dangers), and the entire reason that he assigns for this state of things-the existence of those dangers-is the selfishness of these times. Hence we may safely reason that if at any time in the history of the church the cause (selfishness) exists in a corresponding proportion, those dangers referred to by the apostle will exist also. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.8
We may therefore dismiss all other questions, however interesting in themselves, and investigate the subject before us in the following manner: ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.9
1. What is selfishness? 2. Its manifestations; and 3. The influence that it exerts upon the church, or, its moral dangers. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.10
But before attempting to define selfishness, or describe any of its hateful manifestations or influences, I have a remark to make. Every unknown truth and quantity and controverted question is determined by some known and acknowledged rule, and as we never use a doubtful one to settle a disputed claim, our first business will be to obtain some standard measure by which to try this quality. And as every well-defined action is either from one point to another, or around some given point, and as religion, as well as everything else, must have its points and lines and common centre, the first question deserving notice is, What is the first point? The man who wishes to survey a piece of land, commences by clearly defining the place of beginning, thence the course, and thence the distance. This is the way men survey and define their farms and possessions. And [original illegible] very considerable reason why we do not understand theology better, is because we do not survey theology. We investigate too much without either points or lines; and the result is, we neither satisfy ourselves nor others. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.11
The first point in the moral and religious world is God, the great first cause and the universal center of all things, from whom (or from which point) all relations are reckoned, and all rights and duties are properly determined. A religion that has no God, has no center and is no system. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” And how can we revere the name or acknowledge the authority of one whose very existence we doubt or deny? But this point, the existence, the supreme power and authority of God, being admitted, it becomes a rule by which every religious view is regulated and established, and every right or wrong action is made to appear in its own proper color. And admitting that God is, and that it is his right to command and give or withhold, and our duty to submit and obey, it follows that what God has given, is man’s right to possess and enjoy, and whatever God his forbidden, man has no right to claim as his own, or to use in opposition to any law or order established by God. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.12
We may state, therefore, in turning our attention to the first division of our subject, that selfishness is rebellion, or opposition, against God and his government. Any effort of the creature to exalt self at the expense, or even neglect of divine order, is an act of selfishness upon the part of the creature. And this is true, whether the action is directed against God, his name, word or authority, or against any right granted to a creature. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.13
As marked instances illustrative of the truth of the foregoing, we may refer, first, to our parents in Eden, who in attempting to exalt themselves by eating of the forbidden fruit, brought misery and death upon themselves and their race; and secondly, to Cain, who possessed of the wicked one, and cherishing feelings of rebellion against God, sought to promote his own happiness by removing from his sight and from the earth his righteous and God-fearing brother. Both these are solemn warnings against attempting to substitute our ways for God’s ways. Such is the law of God, that it does not admit (in any conceivable instance) of substitution. This truth is expressed by the Saviour: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9. And again, “But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matthew 15:13. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.14
To return and continue our remarks upon selfishness, it is a monster, the father of all iniquities and crimes, the mother of all abominations, and the sum of all villanies; and there is nothing pure or sacred in its sight but the one thing. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.15
Again selfishness is insatiable. Every thing brought within its rapacious grasp is devoured without mercy and without satisfaction. No selfish man ever can be satisfied; for it is not in the nature of things that he should be happy. Here is an argument for Christianity which the infidel may answer if he can. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.16
Again selfishness is intolerable. Neither God, holy angels, righteous men, nor even wicked men can tolerate selfishness, at least in others. And not only is selfishness all these, corrupting and corroding every thing it touches, but it perverts every view which we may wish to gain either of ourselves or others. It misguides our feelings, blinds our minds, and burns out all the moral sensibilities of our natures. This, then is the picture and history of selfishness. And herein lies the deception of the human heart. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.17
This brings us to the second division of the subject, viz., The manifestations of selfishness. And it is proper to notice in the outset, that as a man may be selfish in more ways than one, he may also be selfish for more individuals than one. He may be selfish for his own person, or for his own family or kindred, or he may be selfish for the party or patties with which he has identified himself and interests. And any man who makes a rule for others to walk by, which he will not follow himself, or any one who grants indulgences to himself or party, which he will not tolerate in others, is manifestly a selfish person. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.18
And a man may be selfish in all his thoughts and actions. He may be selfish in his loves, selfish in his fears, selfish in his regard for virtue and honesty, selfish in his acts of benevolence, yea he may be selfish in all his devotions-in matters of religion as well as in buying a new coat or a choice farm. It was to this class that much that our Saviour taught-many wise sayings and many plain and merciful reproofs were addressed. Indeed the entire system of Christianity has for its main object, the rooting out of this hateful malady from the human mind. And so deep and deadly is this poison in man, that nothing less than a change of heart, a new birth, a new creation effected by the cleansing and renovating powers of the Holy Ghost, will ever enable us to see, or enter into, the kingdom of God. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 33.19
And the beauty and sublimity of the life and teachings of Christ, consist not only in the absence of all selfishness, but in the positive existence and manifestation of perfect love. And every precept and example of our Lord, is but a confirmation of this truth. And a person as he reads and contemplates those glowing truths, can but exclaim, O wondrous Saviour! O blessed and divine Lord and Master! how my unworthy and sin-stained soul longs to confess thee and to drink at thine inexhaustible fountain of purity and love. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.1
But I must hasten or I shall weary you. Yet it seems hardly possible that the mind can tire in its admiration of those treasures of wisdom and knowledge found in the word of God. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.2
I wish however, before dismissing this part of the subject, to notice a catalogue of specifications or characteristics of the selfish man as given by the apostle Paul in the same chapter and immediately following the test I have chosen. You are all undoubtedly familiar with his language, but I wish to read it: “Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:2-5. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.3
If we should analyze the above particulars in all their parts and properties, either separately or collectively, we should find from the beginning to the end throughout, nothing but the one thing-self, self, self. And whether the apostle in giving us those particular traits of character in the selfish man, wrote under the direct influence of inspiration, or whether he spoke as a reasoner drawing conclusions from certain existing causes, seems not to matter. It is enough to know that wherever selfishness exists, all those results (according to the occasion that calls them forth) will follow. The apostle did not, he could not, neither was there need that he should, delineate all the workings and forms of selfishness. It is enough that he should show how dark and hateful a thing it is. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.4
There is one feature however in the character of the selfish man that deserves notice. It is the fact that however plain and marked his own case may be, he is always ready to render swift and unmerciful judgment against all his unrighteous neighbors. He cannot even look at his own picture reflected in the person of others. The covetous person condemns the proud, and the proud lady abhors the false accuser. The traitor is ready to lay down his life to defend in suited honor. The selfish parent bewails a want of reverence in children; and selfish children complain of a lack of love in parents; while the cold-hearted professor who has substituted the outward form and ceremonies of religion for the life and power of godliness, seems anxious to call down the judgments of Heaven upon all the workers of iniquity. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.5
But it matters not under what guise it exists, or in what manner it is brought to light, it is the same loathsome thing. And whether the selfish man lives in rags or riches, is despised or honored, whether he dies upon the battle field amid the clangor of arms and the groans of the dying, clothed in honor and in in blood, or dies upon his own soft couch near his own fireside and surrounded by sympathizing friends, it is all the same; for the way to Heaven is always closed against him. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.6
But enough. The influence that selfishness exerts upon the church, deserves notice. The perils spoken of by the apostle consist in the danger that the Christian will become selfish. It is hardly necessary to state that every person has his influence. Even the child that is unable to lisp its mother’s name has a great influence. And as like begets like, each tree producing its kind, and every cause its kindred result, as a matter of course the influence of a selfish man is to make others selfish. And this is true whether the man exercising an influence designs it to be so or otherwise. Sometimes it is for the interest of the selfish man that his neighbor should be as low and vile as himself, while at others he would most gladly have others better than himself. The unprincipled villain whether seducer, covetous person, or tricky tradesman, would always choose to deal with honest people. And sometimes parents with shiftless ungodly and intemperate habits, would be pleased to see their children better than themselves, but this is not their influence. Of this class there are many who go out into the world as reformers, without first correcting their own unrighteous purposes and habits. The consequence is that, notwithstanding the soundness of their theories and the fact that they are successful in making converts, as example is more forcible than precept, those thus reformed imitating and being no better than their teacher, are indeed more the children of perdition than before. This may be regarded as one considerable reason why the world has not been more thoroughly and extensively reformed It may however be but one act of justice to acknowledge that a man may have good motives, and yet on the account of ignorance, misguided zeal, or circumstances over which he has no control, be the cause of a bad influence. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.7
There are two ways in which selfish persons, whether parents, teachers or associates, exert an influence and produce their own likeness in others. The one is by adopting a course of conduct either of neglect or ill-treatment that plainly says, I do not care for you only as my own interests are the better secured. Those thus influenced are very naturally taught to rely upon themselves both for sympathy and support; and as others do not love them, they need not and will not love others. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.8
The other way is that of praising or flattering so as to make those that are thus treated, believe that they are superior to all others. This gives a strong selfish basis of thought and action. Those who receive these impressions, while they are tenacious of their own rights, do not see that others have any which they are bound to respect. Parents, perhaps more than any other class of persons, from the cares and perplexities which they have on the one hand, and the extreme fondness they feel for their children on the other, are in constant danger of falling into one or the other of the above extremes. And to add a word, if children are dealt with harshly and treated with distrust, and undeserved censure, they will both despise our authority over them, and feel that although they should try ever so hard to be truthful and good, they could never succeed. This kind of influence deadens all the finer and moral sensibilities of their natures. And if children are praised and indulged unduly, that which is justly due to themselves and others is lost sight of, in the admiration of self. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.9
The foregoing contains nearly all of the principles upon which selfishness acts in producing its own image in others, yet as there are various classes of persons, and different ways of applying the same rule, it may be proper to notice a few additional examples showing how the good are brought under the power of evil. The work is generally a gradual one occupying much time and accomplished under trying and deceptive circumstances. These is no one that readily and at once yields up all the noble and God like impulses and sentiments of this soul. He is at first tempted by fashion and false, allurements, and deceived concerning the present or final result of the action to be engaged in. In this way he is led on step by step until, according to a law of our natures, habit deadens or sweetens the disgust that we may feel as we first enter the paths of sin. The drunkard, who begins by drinking a social glass with jovial companions and ends with deliriums or in the gutter, although warned of his danger did not, and could not realize how deceitful and enslaving a thing sin is. He only thought to take a few steps which he might retrace at pleasure. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.10
The covetous man begins his course by being saving, by laying up against a time of need, but forgetting the lessons of our Saviour, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” As time rolls on, and he adds dollar to dollar and acre to acre, his soul becomes lost to every thing else but the worship of unrighteous mammon. And as he lies upon his death couch thinking of eternity and holding the almighty dollar in his hand, he breaks out in his last wailings of despair in the words, “Oh ‘twas for thee that I sold my God and Heaven.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.11
Examples of this kind might be taken from every class, the boasting, the proud, the blasphemers, and so on, showing how dangerous the ways of sin are. But it is needless. The principle is the same in all cases, and thus it is with every one whose feet are turned form the paths of righteousness and truth. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.12
The principle upon which one person influences another, is found in the fact that man is a social and sympathetic being, made to enjoy his surroundings. He is therefore affected by the sight of the eye, the hearing of the ear, and by all those sensations of pain or pleasure addressed to his senses. Laughing excites laughter; weeping begets weeping; and the man who deliberately betrays and murders the innocent and defenseless, provokes the just indignation of all men. How could we wish that these things should be otherwise? but blessings perverted always bring curses. The principle by which the mind hardens in sin is a law that is written in all nature. It is the law of growth and is unalterable. It is manifested in the creation of our bodies, in the growth of plants, and trees; and it may be witnessed in the life of the soldier who is at first timorous, but who becomes so accustomed to scenes of horror and blood, that he can even sleep upon the battle field, but little removed from all the noise and confusions of deadly strife. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.13
The true and only remedy for all this, is the earnest and undivided worship of God-is to love God with all our souls, might, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.14
But the subject is endless and I must forbear. Enough I trust has been said to show that we are in constant danger of becoming selfish and losing the love of God from our hearts. And commending you to “the grace of God that bringeth salvation, and which hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” and thanking you for your kind attention, I take my leave of you. Amen. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.15
E. Goodrich.
Edinboro, Pa.
The Dead Sea
The facts ascertained by Capt. Wilson’s Palestine surveying party in regard to the tremendous depression of the Dead Sea, are the topic of a remarkable article in the London Daily Telegraph. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.16
All sorts of statements have been made from time to time about the true rule level of these dreary waters. Some geographers pronounced them to be above the Mediterranean, some on the same altitude, some 710 feet lower, some as many higher; though the best authorities agree in considering the basin of the Asphaltic Lake to be the lowest known depression of the earth, and set it down as about 1,312 feet beneath the surface of the larger sea. Capt. Wilson’s party has performed the leveling between the two seas with different instruments, by independent observers, and with such nicety that the result can be relied on to within three or four inches. Meanwhile, bench marks have been cut upon rocks and buildings along the line followed; and traverse surveys have been made, so that the work done may become the basis of more extended geodesical examinations of the interesting country toward which Christendom is turning with new and serious interest. The issue of these careful observations is to show that the Dead Sea, lay on the 12th of March, 1865, 1,292 feet below the Mediterranean level; which singularly confirms the calculation by barometer of the Duc de Luynes and Lieut. Vignes, who set it at 1,286 feet on the 7th of June, 1864. At the season of the winter freshets, the waters of the strange, secluded lake stands two or three feet higher, and in the fiercest heats of summer they are again lowered, six feet by evaporation. Thus the greatest depression of the Dea Sea is now fixed at 1,298 feet; and as we know that Lieut. Lynch found a depth of 1,308 feet opposite the Wady Zerka Mais, we are now sure that the bottom lies some 2,600 feet below the coast of Jaffa. This is a depression of surface beyond comparison with any thing of the kind; and, undoubtedly, it is due to some tremendous natural convulsion, the memory of which is preserved in the legend of the buried cities, and in the dreadful and accursed aspect of the sea itself. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.17
The “Dead” Sea, indeed, it is! though from the walls of Jerusalem, or the green summit of Olives, travelers will say that it looks fair and living enough. Lying under the red hills of Moab, the summit outline of which Chateaubriand well described as “a straight line traced by a trembling hand,” this vast mass of poisonous and useless water seems to redeem the landscape. Just perceived between the Hill of Evil Counsel and the fig-trees and cottages of Bethany, it shines in a long, white gleaming patch beyond the hills above Jericho; so that man, or beast, or bird, traversing the stony desert between, would think there must be rest and coolness by its shores, and the blessing of sweet waters. Every now and then, on the long sun scorched road that “goeth down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” you get a peep of the same calm and brilliant surface; and you understand how the scape-goat which our great painter depicted, would hurry along the dry torrent-beds, and over the yellow, naked hills to get to the edge of the tempting tide. Bare as the great red hills are beyond, sun-baked as the plain is over which you look when the Mountain of Temptation is reached, and Jericho lies under you, it needs an effort to believe that that vast sheet of rippling water stretching out of sight toward El-Arabah, and fed by the Jordan-which comes into it hidden in thickets of oleanders and canes-it needs a positive effort of knowledge to remember that every drop of the great lake is filth and nausea. It looks so blue, so cool and alluring, in spite-or rather in consequence-of the pitiless desert of salt-marsh, sand, and dry limestone crags framing it; it seems o like the natural reservoir of the sweet Jordan, which fills the skins and water jars of all Palestine, that the mind at first refuses to believe any evil of it; yet we have all learned, that, throughout recorded time, men, and beasts, and birds, may perish, and have perished, of thirst, in sight of that inland lake; and that even the camels, parched with a three-day’s journey in “the Ghor,” know better than to turn their heads toward those accursed waves. One thing prepares you for the shores of the Sea of Death; the Jordan comes into it in a long, light line, which, for nearly two miles, refuses to mix with the poisonous water; and if the traveler is led by the Arab guide past the Ani-est Sultain and the Jordan’s mouth to the lake, he will see in the last ededies of the river, the oaks and locust-trees that it has brought down, whirling round and round, and round again, as if they, too, shuddered at the fate of being soaked in the bitter tide, and cast on its silent shore, whitened and crusted with salt. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 34.18
No shore so silent in the world as that, because life has no place there! A vulture, fat with rotting camel-flesh, may rise, perhaps, as the wayfarer approaches the brink. The foul bird can drink at Tiberias-a hundred miles off-when his beastly banquet is digested and his wings are plumed. Or there may be an Arab afoot from Engaddi or El-Riha, or perhaps a jackal or two, new to the country, or else sniffing sick camels in the marsh. But for these, the land would be dead as well as the sea-birds haunt it; nothing grows near it; the mountains, and then the salt marsh, and then the sand, and then the black pebbles, and then the blue poisonous water, fringed all along with white and brittle skeleton tree-trunks, brought down from green Galilee, and bleached in the sun after a Dead Sea hurricane has tossed them up steeped in the filthy brine-such is the scene! such the elements of which it is composed. It is de rigueur to bathe in the Bahr el Lut, and the traveler strips with delight at the idea of getting out of the fierce heat in to the waves that sleep at his horse’s feet-for the Dead Sea is generally still as death. And the first sensation of the cold buoyant wave is pleasant. The adventurer is held up breast-high, if he knows how to swim well, and his hands cleave a medium which is palpably denser than the saltest ocean in which he ever dived. But let him try experiments with the buoyancy of the lake, and take just one gulp of the nauseous compound! Coloynth, lamp-oil, and Epsom-salts combined, might give a poor idea of the flavor of the first and last sup of the Dead Sea. The odds are, that he will turn shoreward and swim as if for his life-horrified as he looks along the level of the ripples toward Edom and Egypt, at the awful mass of lying venomous liquid which simmers in that vast hollow, and calls itself “water,” by its bright ripple and its cool touch. He will almost believe the lean and hungry Arabs who tell him that “Allah sends the damned to drink there when he is compassionate to them.” And afterward, at a distance from the lake, coming into the thickets of “Asclepias”-the Sodom apple-where, on the greenest immaginable branches, hang the most beautiful golden globes of fruit that can be seen, the branches being deadly poison to the goats, and the fruit full of vile pith and avoid seeds, he will think they are right when the native wanderers say, “The curse of Lot’s Lake curses all.” They do not hold, these lean, hungry, silent Arabs, that anybody can ever understand the curse; they point to spots in the sea, where, at low water, they assert columns of old cities may be discerned and pavements, and the monuments of vanished life; they laugh at volcanic theories, and professors, and Royal Engineers; they only cry, as they hurry for a drink to Jordan, that “Allah is great!” And truly a spot so strange and awful may make the wisest repeat, “Allah is great.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.1
Retrospect
Another year has gone; a crystal globe
Dropped perfect from the hand of God, and crushed
In the rude grasp of earthly life; and now
Amid its ruins, care and sin sit hushed.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.2
Another year has gone; one milestone more
I’ve left behind, and one the less to meet
In the uncertain dimness on before,
Ere the last leaves me at my Maker’s feet.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.3
Leaning a moment on my pilgrim staff,
Amid the gathering darkness I look back
Through the far distance of these faded years,
And mark the lights and shadows of their track.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.4
Here, sown with thorns, and gaping with fresh graves;
There, sharp with flint, and salt with bitter tears;
O God, I cannot bear to face again
The lone fierce agonies of by-gone years.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.5
My Saviour’s, gentle voice dispels the gloom;
His loving glance, his arms outstretched I see;
I place my hand in thine, O mighty One,
Through life or death, content to follow thee.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.6
Humbly I tread where’er his footsteps lead;
Dark falls the night, but Christ is ever near;
And trusting in his tried and faithful love,
I give my soul to him another year. a. h. c. in American Messenger.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.7
Ornaments
There has been no time during the existence of this generation, when so many and so costly ornaments were worn as at the present time. In this respect, one might think the people were returning back to the habits of the heathen nations; and that the tastes of children were gratified, instead of the noble manhood and womanhood that should characterize civilized and Christian nations. The disposition to make a show in the world seems to have become almost universal; as well among the majority of church members, as those who make no profession of religion. This is a sure sign that the church is becoming conformed to the world, and floating away from the true standard of Christianity. But few have courage to come out from the world, and be separate. They do more than Lot’s wife,-look back; they go back to the world, and then claim the world has advanced to a higher position. The returning current is so strong, that but few young people who profess religion, have courage to stand against such an overwhelming influence, and dare to be singular, if they lose every earthly friend. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.8
We find here and there a few who see and feel the importance of doing all to the glory of the Lord; who live as though they believed their actions were known to their Creator, and that Christianity requires more from those who profess it than most believe. There are some who think, when the Scripture says “that women” should “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array,” that this requirement should be observed as carefully as any other, if they would please the Lord, and hear him say at last, “Well done.” Would that more felt the force of this Scripture, and other kindred passages. We have come to an age when men and women trample under their feet the laws of God and man which they do not like, provided it is only fashionable to do so. Fashion rules the conduct of a large portion of society not only of the world, but the church. Instead of being “separate,” as commanded, she follows after the fashions, with Satan for a leader, in the person of some of the lewd women of Paris. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.9
‘Tis true there are some noble exceptions in all evangelical denominations, who shine like diamonds among the dirt. We have recently met several young ladies in different places, who have sacrificed their jewelry, and adorned themselves in “modest apparel,” and with “a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” If others only knew how much better they would feel in their minds, we think they would be willing to make the sacrifice. They would not only feel better, but certainly look better. Beauty needs no ornaments; and deformity only attracts more attention when ornamented, because there is no similarity or fitness between the two. Pure gold needs no galvanizing to make it valuable, or to cause it to shine; so pure religion needs no ornaments to make it lovely and beautiful. Ornaments on a Christian are unbecoming, as rum blossoms on the nose, or as grease spots on fine linen. We hope those who profess to believe in the coming of Christ will lay them aside forever. Make the sacrifice at once, and give the results to the poor, and you will feel richer.
World’s Crisis.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.10
A Female Leading A Meeting
Many good Christians have scruples about the propriety of females taking part in the social services of the church. The mother of the Wesleys, though a genuine church-woman, and a firm lover of good order, ventured to trespass on the regulations of the church of England, and to offend her husband, who was shocked at her violation of church proprieties. Mr. Stevens gives the following account of her proceedings. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.11
“During the absence of her husband, she opened her doors for a sort of public worship, which was conducted by herself. She read sermons, prayed and conversed directly with the rustic assembly. Her husband, learning the fact by her letters, revolted, as a churchman, at its novelty. Her self-defence is characteristically earnest, but submissive to his authority. “I chose,” she says, “the best and most awakening sermons we had. Last Sunday, I believe we had about two hundred hearers, and yet many went away for want of room. We banish all temporal concerns from our society; none is suffered to mingle any discourse about them with our reading or singing. We keep close to the business of the day, and as soon as it is all over, they all go home. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.12
“And where is the harm of all this? As for your proposals of letting some person read, alas! you do not consider what a people these are. I do not think one man among them could read a sermon without spelling a good part of it, and how would that edify the rest? Nor has any of our family a voice strong enough to be heard by such a number of people.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.13
Her husband equally hesitated to approve or disapprove the extraordinary proceeding. Very soon she assembled around her a larger audience than had usually met at the church itself. Some of the leading parishioners and Wesley’s curate wrote to him against the assembly as a “conventicle.” Her reply is full of good sense and womanly feeling. She states that the measure was reclaiming many of the common people from immorality; that it was filling up the parish church; that some who had not attended the latter for years were now seen there. She prays him to releve her from the responsibility of ending these useful services by assuming it himself, as her husband and pastor.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.14
The Christian Comforter
It is a blessed thing to cheer one sorrowing heart, to soothe one pain, to dry one tear; but thrice-blessed is he whose lot it is to comfort and be “a succorer of many.” Who would not rather, like Mary, have laved the weary feet of Jesus than have offered wine from a golden chalice to the proud Herod on his throne? Who would not rather have sheltered his homeless head in that lowly cot of Bethany than have entertained an earthly prince? Who would not crave the place of those meek women who pressed with tearful eyes and throbbing hearts around the cross, in preference to them who nailed him there? Next to placing the cup of cold water to his parching lips, is the honor of giving it to those of his children, who, like him, are bearing the burdens of others. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.15
Tears and Laughter.-God made both tears and laughter, and both for kind purposes; for as laughter enables mirth and surprise to breathe freely, so tears enable sorrow to vent itself patiently. Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair and madness; and laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.16
The best and sweetest flowers of Paradise God gives to his people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of Heaven, a key to let us into Paradise. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 35.17
The Review and Herald
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, JANUARY 2, 1866.
URIAH SMITH, EDITOR.
The New Year
We stand upon the threshhold of another year. “We again change the final figure of our date, and write 1866 upon the virgin page which is to receive the record of the new year.” Concerning the year that is past, we date make only one record-thank God that we can make that—“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth from all sin.” In this gracious provision, let us, through repentance and forgiveness, bury all our wrongs and follies past and pausing a moment to make new resolves, and seek a fresh consecration to God, go forth into the coming year to fill up its days and months with nobler efforts in the Christian life. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.1
Judging from the past, and the sure word of prophecy which is the only lamp to our feet through these dark and perilous times, the year 1866 will reveal to us more startling events than any gone before. They who are waiting and watching for the consolation of Israel will see much to strengthen their faith and revive their hope. Let us be awake. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.2
“Budding fig-trees tell that summer
Dawns o’er the land;
Signs portend that Jesus’ coming
Is nigh at hand.”
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.3
Spiritualism in Battle Creek
Spiritualism in this place has now received three stunning blows. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.4
The first was when Moses Hull, standing within the strong defenses of the truth, gave Mr. Wardsworth, Spiritualist, a complete and utter discomfiture, showing up the inconsistencies and the hideously immoral tendencies of the doctrine. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.5
It was made to stagger again, when the same Hull, having foolishly apostatized to that unhallowed delusion received an equal discomfiture at the hands of Mr. Leland. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.6
And now it receives its heaviest blow, in the illustration of its practical workings, as shown in the poisoning case noticed in another column. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.7
But it may perhaps be said Spiritualists are not responsible for the acts of all who choose to call themselves by then name. They might urge this plea, had not then public action, so far as they have been able to agree in any public action, cut this off. The constitution of the Religio-Philosophical Society, the only form of organization ever generally adopted by Spiritualists, makes this very significant provision:- ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.8
“It is the duty of this Society to receive all who desire to unite herewith, by subscribing to these articles, each individual alone being responsible for views entertained or uttered, or acts performed or approved. And for these reasons no complaint or charge against members of this Society shall ever be entertained, nor shall any member of this Society ever be suspended or expelled from membership.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.9
It is also provided, that ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.10
“No amendment shall ever be made allowing complaints to be entertained against members, nor for then censure suspension, or expulsion; nor in any wise to restrict or hinder any person from uniting with, or withdrawing from this Society in the manner herein before provided.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.11
Individual Spiritualists may, in spite of their doctrine, sustain a good character. But when in their teachings, and in their corporate deliberations, they make their individual members responsible to no one for their actions, the public will throw the responsibility of such actions upon them as a body, and they cannot shun it. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.12
“I look,” said Channing, “with scorn on the selfish great of the world, and with pity on the gifted prosperous in the struggle for office and power; but I look with reverence on the obscure individual who suffers for the right, who is true to a good but persecuted cause.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.13
The Discussion, in Portland, Me
Question. The Seventh-day Sabbath observed by God’s people prior to the crucifixion of Christ is still binding upon mankind. Affirmative, M. E. Cornell. Negative, T. M. Preble. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.14
(Continued.) ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.15
Cornell. Refers to the four questions proposed by Eld. P. in his first speech. Had answered two of them the last evening, by showing that it is the highest presumption for a person to attempt to decide which work is the greater, creation or redemption, in the absence of all revelation upon the subject, and that God’s sanctification of the seventh day in the beginning, could not have reference to the seventh day that was then past, but must have reference to the seventh day for time to come, and hence that it was to be kept in regular order from creation onward. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.16
On the third question remarks: Christ did not refer to a commandment outside of the ten. Loving God was the principle Christ referred to, and that is the vital principle, and the very essence of the first four commandments. On these two principles of loving God, and loving our neighbors, Christ says all the law hangs. Without these the ten commandments could not exist for a moment. Therefore Christ referred to something which was in the commandments, and the very basis of them, not to something which was outside of them. And he said it in answer to the question, “Which is the great commandment in the law,” not outside of it. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.17
To the 4th question. Does not the change of penalty involve a change of the law? Bro. C. replies that it does not. The penalty for murder in Michigan was once death. That penalty has been changed to imprisonment for life; but the law against murder exists now as it did then. Again, the penalty of the Sabbath law has not been changed to any greater extent than the penalty of the other nine commandments; and if they exist in this dispensation, the Sabbath does also. But the real penalty of the law has not been changed. Eld. P. affirms that temporal death was the penalty of the law. I deny it. Let him prove it. That death was not the full penalty of the law. The real penalty for sin, the transgression of the law, ever his been, is and ever will be, the second death; and that will be inflicted in the future on those who die sinners in this dispensation, as well as upon those who thus died in the former. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.18
Having answered Eld. P.’s questions Bro. C. returned the compliment by asking him the following: 1. How do we know that we should observe a day to commemorate redemption? 2. If so, how do we know that we should keep the first day of the week for that purpose? 3. If we are to keep a day, should we not, inasmuch as we have redemption through his blood, keep the day on which he shed his blood? 4. If God sanctified the seventh day after any six of labor, do not the Mahometans, who keep Friday, observe the Sabbath as much as those who keep the first day? [The only answer Eld. P. made to this question, was, I should not have thought my brother would have asked such a question as that.] 5. What law is violated by working on the first day of the week? ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.19
Refers again to Preble’s admission that if it could be shown that every seventh day from creation was sanctified, he would give up, etc., and argues further on the sanctification of the Sabbath. Gives the definition of the word sanctify from Webster, and shows its Bible use from the following texts, Joshua 20:1; Joel 1:14; 2:15; 2 Kings 10:20, 21; Exodus 19:12, 23, showing that to sanctify anything means to set it apart to a special, use, by divine appointment, or by giving a commandment how it shall be used. For whose use did God set apart a day in the beginning? Not his own, but man’s. What day did he thus set apart? The seventh. Here Bro. C. re-argued the point that the day on which God had rested was past when God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Therefore these acts could not have reference to the day that was past, but must have reference to the seventh day of each week for time to come. The fourth commandment merely gives a history of what God did at creation. In Genesis it says that God sanctified the seventh day. The commandment says he sanctified the Sabbath day; therefore it was the Sabbath day in the beginning when God sanctified it. They are one and the same thing, and no distinction can here be allowed. Refers to Hebrews 4, and denies that it has reference to Christ. Eld. P. assumes that. I wait for proof. Eld. P. says Christ purchased redemption on the first day of the week. I say he paid the purchase money on the day he shed his blood, which was not the first day of the week. Redemption was not completed on the first day of the week. The work which Christ came to do here on earth he declared was finished just before his death. John 17:4; and if the entering into rest in Hebrews 4, refers to Christ, as Eld P. affirms, then he rested not on the first day of the week, but on the seventh while he lay in the grave. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.20
Preble. Cannot see the bearing which the last speech of the affirmative has upon the question, therefore has but very little to say concerning it. Eld. C. says the question was concerning a commandment in the law, not outside of it. I did not say outside of the law, but outside of the decalogue. I say so still. I pass over all his denials. I have asked him to give the place where any particular day was sanctified in regular succession for God’s people. Eld. P. here turned to Genesis 2, and re-iterated his assertions that God blessed and sanctified only that particular seventh day on which he had rested, and which was past, and no other, and asks, Will you believe the sophistical reasoning which would make anything else of it? In relation to Hebrews 4, Eld. C. denies. Let that speak again for itself, and see whether it refers to Christ, or to an indefinite being that no one can tell anything about. The Bible is good yet. Reads verses 8-10, and asks, Who was it that has ceased from from his own work as God did from his? I call on him to tell who it is if it is not Christ? I do not know who it can be. Who will he get? I want a little proof of the old Jewish Sabbbath. I cannot see enough force in what he says about Christ’s shedding his blood to purchase redemption, to spend much time with it. I propose now to introduce some things mentioned last evening. Eld. C. says he never claimed Eld. Preble, and yet reads from a certain book, that Eld. Preble first called the attention of Adventists to the Sabbath question, etc. My brother has introduced a witness, but does not tell us what book he quoted from. He makes a serious charge against me that I am trying to do away the ancient Sabbath. I am not trying to do it away. It is holy to the end of the world; but God may change the day on which it is to be observed. It is still esteemed by God’s people as honorable, and is a delight to them now. The idea of the Sabbath as an institution being different from the day on which it is holden, is not new with me. The apostles held the same idea. The reason it is so good is because it is so old. Eld. C. denies that redemption is greater than creation. In the first place he denied the idea of Christ’s having redeemed the world. Luke 1:68. “Hath visited and redeemed his people.” Galatians 2:13. The work is accomplished, it is done. 1 Peter 1:18, Hebrews 9:12 were also referred to. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.21
Eld. P. here produced his strong argument to show that redemption is greater than creation, as follows: Let us remember that God the Father created the world at the beginning, called in the Hebrew, tehvehl. Psalm 90:2; Jeremiah 10:12. But the Lord is going to burn up or melt this world is we learn from Nahum 1:5; 2 Peter 3:7, 12. Thus we see that this present world, this kosmos, created by the Father, is under the curse, and is doomed to pass away by fire. Therefore if it is not redeemed it must be lost. What would it be worth, then? The Hebrew word meaning world, is in the New Testament kosmos; and this is to be redeemed or saved by Christ. John 3:16. “For God so loved the world,” etc. Chap 4:42. “The Saviour of the world;” the Saviour of the kosmos. What does this kosmos embrace? Matthew 13:38. The field is the world. Daniel 7:27. The kingdom under the whole heaven. Matthew 25:34. Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, kosmos. Jesus redeems this and saves it from its lost state. But he did not come merely to redeem the globe but the race upon it. 1 Timothy 1:15. Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Not only the whole globe is lost without redemption, but the people of God are lost also. Our race is lost unless redeemed by Christ. Has my brother lost any friends by death? Which then would be the most to him, the fact that they were once created, or the fact that they are going to be redeemed? ARSH January 2, 1866, page 36.22
Cornell. Admits the truthfulness of most of the negative’s last speech. Believes with him in the redemption of the kosmos, but wants to know what that has to do with the question. We can have no memorial of an event not yet completed. The whole argument is in my favor. Denies that there is any divine law except what is written, and calls upon the negative for a little Bible for Sunday. He asks me to show who is meant, if not Christ, in Hebrews 4. He says it is Christ, I deny. It is not my business to prove a negative. Let him show that it is Christ. To return to the question. If another day is to take the place of the one for which we have a divine command, we must have the most unequivocal testimony for it. That is the course pursued by all law-makers. No power can change a law, but the one that made it. Calls for a record of the change, and denies the fact of the alleged change, because no record of it is to be found. Bro. C. called upon the negative to show one single reason or fact, necessary to make a Sabbath, that belonged to the first day of the week, or to show that God had ever performed one act in reference to the first day, that he did to the seventh, to make it a Sabbath. The rest of this speech was occupied in rearguing some of the main points already presented, and in endeavoring to stir up the negative in some way to meet the argument. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.1
Preble. Claims that he has proved by four texts that the work of redemption is completed. Endeavors to make a distinction between redemption and the work of redemption. Admits that redemption is not yet completed, but the work of redemption is finished. Eld. C. denies that Hebrews 4, refers to Christ, so I shall have to read. Goes back to the third chapter and reads to the 10th verse of chapter 4, and re-iterates his assertion that it must be Christ who enters into his rest; as no other one could be referred to. [Bro. C. subsequently answered this by showing that the entering into rest refers to the believer, and that we enter in by faith.] Says that Eld. C. has not answered what he said about Paul’s preaching at Troas. Hopes he wont deny that. Hopes he wont talk about his stealing the sanctity of the Sabbath to make a memorial for redemption. Thinks he knows what is meant by the remarks thrown out about Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, etc., that is, that Sunday rests upon no better ground than these, because the Papacy has tampered with it. Then prayer, the Lord’s supper, the seventh day, etc. etc., are all gone by the board, because it has tampered with them all. Hopes the affirmative will not take any special pains to rouse him up; for I may, said he, overreach myself, I have a little of the blood of old Commodore Preble running in my veins. [That some of the audience should be reminded by this language of the significant caution given by Mrs. Davis to the captors of Jeff. was not strange. They were very pardonable. Eld. C. afterward explained that he did not wish to rouse him up in the sense of getting him excited, but to stir him up to the proof of his position, and provoke him, if possible, to bring forward some evidence for his side of the question. So the matter was got along with, and nobody hurt.] Before answering the questions proposed by Bro. C. he wanted a little time for reflection. Claimed that God must have sanctioned the keeping of the first day of the week, though he admitted that there was no precept for it. Asks the affirmative to show where any other apostle but Paul observed the seventh day, and claims that he observed it because of the Jews, just as he circumcised Timothy and Titus. Promises to show that Paul held meetings on the first day of the week.
(To be continued.)
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.2
The celebrated John Foster thus describes a bigot: “He sees religion, not as a sphere, but a line, and it is a line in which he is moving. He is like an African buffalo-sees right forward, but nothing on the right or left. He would not perceive a legion of angel or devils at the distance of ten yards on the one side or on the other.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.3
Forgiveness
“for if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14, 15. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.4
As we would be forgiven of God, so we must forgive those who wrong us. To cherish a hard, unforgiving spirit against erring mortals, and to murmur against them, is a sin, especially in a follower of Jesus Christ. Christ should be our example. When contending with the Devil he did not rail on him, but meekly said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.5
Christ led on the battle at the fall of Satan, and witnessed the fall of hosts of angels, who were once obedient to his command. Human language is utterly inadequate to express the insult of Satan, and the wrong here done to Jesus Christ. And Christ was in the great controversy with Satan-he to save, and Satan to destroy souls-from Adam to Moses; and the abused Leader of Heaven witnessed Satan leading most of the human race during that time to ruin. Yet at the grave of Moses he meekly said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” What a lesson of submission and meeknsss! If Christ could thus treat the Devil, his followers should be patient, and take with composure the insults of the wicked. And still more, what tenderness and pity they should exercise toward erring brethren. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.6
Christ preached plain doctrine. He rebuked and reproved. He came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword. His truth must be preached by his ministers. The war must come on the account of truth. We must declare the truth of God. But see Christ near the close of his faithful ministry, so marked with plainness and cutting declarations, in tears over Jerusalem where he had received the greatest neglect and insult. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.7
Here, too, let all learn a lesson. From these and other great facts I am learning a precious lesson. For twenty years my experience has been in the battle for truth. And as I review the past, I see that I have let the apostasies, rebellion, and errors of others grieve me beyond measure, which finally led to murmuring against them, and a lack of that forgiving spirit illustrated by Christ. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.8
I rejoice that I have been enabled to take and maintain a firm stand on truth. But when vile men have assailed I should have said in my heart, “The Lord rebuke thee,” and still maintained a happy, hopeful frame of mind. And when brethren have erred, and made my labors grievous, I should have offered prayers for them, and felt pity always, instead of sometimes murmuring at their course. I now wish to say to all Christian friends, God is doing a great work for me, and I want every wrong removed. I have erred, and as a Christian delight to confess my faults, and ask those who have seen me lack patience and forgiveness toward the erring, to forgive me. Pray for me, dear friends, that I may come out of the furnace purified, and prepared to work more efficiently in the cause of truth, and finally reach the mount Zion I have loved for more than a score of years, far more than all things here. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.9
James White.
Rochester, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1865.
1866
Time, on its swift wing, has numbered another year among the things that are past. The record of 1865 is now completed. As a faithful witness, this record will now stand, to testify either for us, or against us. The testimony it will bear, we, cannot now change if we would. It is too late. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.10
How is it with you, my brother, my sister? Have you left a clean, pure, and spotless record for 1865? Happy, indeed, is your lot if such is the case. With bold hand and unfaltering nerve, you may begin to write upon the new page of 1866. With bright prospects, and in joyful anticipation, you may await the developments of the new-born year. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.11
Or, is the record which you have now just completed, all dark, blotted, and besmeared with the corruptions of the world? Does it tell of unfaithfulness, in difference, and habitual neglect of duty? Does it often speak of pride, selfishness, and love of the world? then, truly, your case is not so cheering. The new year does not open to you with prospects so bright. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.12
But dear brother, dear sister, with the new and clean page of 1866 before you, you may still be hopeful. At the commencement of the new year you may resolve, that in the strength of God, you will yet make a record that will bear a rich testimony in your favor. The blots upon your past record may serve to forewarn you with reference to the one you are now to make. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.13
Doubtless the year 1866 will be a period of marked interest to God’s people. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.14
“We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand and awful time.”
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.15
Adventists are not the only persons that recognize this fact. Thinking men of all classes seem to be deeply impressed with the spirit of impending events. The public pulse beats in harmony with the sublime truth that the end of all things is at hand. The world’s under-current, so to speak, indicates clearly enough, the boiling sea over which we are drifting. Surely, with the unerring chart of prophecy before us, in the midst of all that is transpiring about us, we may rest assured that “the great day of the Lord is at hand.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.16
Brethren, let us awake. Let us firmly resolve, at the commencement of this new year, to make a clean record for 1866. Let us resolve that we will daily try to overcome some fault, and make some advancement in the divine life. Three hundred and sixty-five such earnest efforts would make a good show for 1866. Let us resolve again, that we will spend at least one hour in each week in trying to do some substantial good to others,-in trying to point out the way of truth and life to our friends and neighbors. Fifty-two hours, thus earnestly and prayerfully spent in our Master’s service, would tell well upon the record we now propose to make. Finally, brethren, let us make the most and best of a. d. 1866. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.17
j. m. a.
Note from Bro. Canright
Friday, Dec. 22, I, in company with Bro. Squire and several friends from Ithaca, started for St. Charles. We rode all day through a dense forest of pine, hemlock, etc., without scarcely seeing a house or even a living creature. We thought that this was nearly fulfilling the command, Luke 14:23, to carry the message into the “high ways and hedges!” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.18
There was a goodly-number of brethren and sisters present from Chesaning, Freemont, etc. Perfect union and harmony prevailed through all our meetings. A strong faith in the message, and firm determination to stand by God’s chosen servants, was expressed by all. We felt as though there were some precious souls here whom the Lord loves. Several manifested a deep interest to hear and investigate the truth. One of our friends from Ithaca here resolved to give his heart to the Lord and keep all his commandments. May God bless him. We all felt mutually encouraged to persevere in well doing.
D. M. Canright.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.19
Scatter the Books and Tracts!
There is no way in which the present truth may be preached more effectually than through the circulation of our Office publications. These publications must be handed out. These silent messengers must have access to the people. You, brethren, are responsible for this work in your respective localities. Think not that the preachers alone are responsible for the sounding of the third angel’s message. The time has come when every faithful brother and sister must and will bear a willing hand in this work. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.20
Being thus fully persuaded that our brethren, all over the wide field, should enter most heartily into the work of disseminating the present truth through the agency of our many publications, we introduce, what might be called in legislative parlance, a sort of “enabling act,” by which they, with but little trouble or sacrifice on their part, may be enabled to supply themselves with a good assortment of books and tracts, preparatory to the work in question. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.21
I refer to the following list of publications, which we have selected and put up in nice boxes procured for the purpose, and which we offer for the small sum of eight dollars. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 37.22
Here, brethren, is a chance for you to show your willingness to work in the cause of God. We urge the duty upon you. Will you send in your orders? Who will take the first box? ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.1
These boxes will be sent by express, as may be directed. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.2
j. m. a.
CIRCULATING LIBRARY!
Special List-Price $8,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.3
| No. of Books. | Price. | |
| 1 History of the Sabbath, Bound, | 80 | |
| 2 “ “ “ Paper covers, | 50 | $1,00 |
| 1 The Bible from Heaven, | 30 | |
| 1 Both Sides. Review of Preble on the Sabbath, | 20 | |
| 3 Three Angel’s Messages of Revelation 14, | 15 | 45 |
| 2 Which? Mortal or Immortal? | 15 | 30 |
| 1 Hope of the Gospel, | 15 | |
| 1 Modern Spiritualism, | 15 | |
| 1 The Kingdom of God, | 15 | |
| 1 Sanctification or Living Holiness, | 15 | |
| 1 Miraculous Powers, | 15 | |
| 4 Prophecy of Daniel, | 10 | 40 |
| 2 Saint’s Inheritance in the New Earth, | 10 | 20 |
| 2 Sanctuary and 2300 days, | 10 | 20 |
| 4 Commandment to Restore and Build Jerusalem, | 10 | 40 |
| 4 Signs of the Times, | 10 | 40 |
| 1 Law of God, Testimony of Both Testaments, | 10 | |
| 1 Review of Springer on the Sabbath and Law, | 10 | |
| 1 Christian Baptism, | 10 | |
| 1 Vindication of the True Sabbath, | 10 | |
| 1 Review of Seymour on the Sabbath, | 10 | |
| 4 Exposition of Matthew 24, | 5 | 20 |
| 2 Appeal for the Restoration of the Bible Sabbath, | 5 | 10 |
| 2 Fate of the Transgressor, | 5 | 10 |
| 5 Bible Student’s Assistant, | 5 | 25 |
| 4 End of the Wicked, | 5 | 20 |
| 4 Mark of the Beast and Seal of the living God, | 5 | 20 |
| 2 Sabbatic Institution and Two Laws, | 5 | 10 |
| 2 Perpetuity of the Royal Law, | 5 | 10 |
| 2 Milton on the State of the Dead, | 5 | 10 |
| 2 Brown’s Experience; Consecration etc., | 5 | 10 |
| 2 Sabbath of the Lord. A Discourse etc., | 5 | 10 |
| 5 Second Advent Faith; Objections Answered, | 4 | 20 |
| 5 Scripture References, | 3 | 15 |
| 5 Perpetuity of Spiritual Gifts, | 3 | 15 |
| 5 Dobney on the Law, | 3 | 15 |
| 5 War and the Sealing, | 2 | 10 |
| 6 Infidelity and Spiritualism, | 2 | 12 |
| 10 Sabbath by Elihu, | 2 | 20 |
| 10 Much in Little, | 2 | 20 |
| 10 Death and Burial, | 2 | 20 |
| 10 Preach the Word, | 2 | 20 |
| 10 Wicked Dead, | 2 | 20 |
| 10 Truth, | 2 | 20 |
| 15 Thoughts for the Candid, | 1 | 15 |
| 10 The Seven Seals, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Who Changed the Sabbath? | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Personality of God, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 The Two Laws, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Appeal on Immortality, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Wesley on the Law, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Judson’s Letter on Dress, | 1 | 10 |
| 10 Brief Thoughts; Nature of the Soul etc., | 1 | 10 |
| Box, | 20 | |
| Total, | $10,67 | |
| One fourth off, | 2,67 | |
| Leaving, | $8,00. |
God does not destine us to a quiet life here below; if he call us to peace on the part of Jesus Christ, he calls us to war on the part of the world.-Tyndale. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.4
No persons are more empty than those who are full of themselves. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.5
Echo Poetry
If any be distressed and fain would gather
Some comfort, let him hasten to
Our Father.
For hopeless we, and helpless, all are driven,
Except thou succor us,
Who art in Heaven.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.6
Thou showest mercy, therefore for the same
We praise thee, singing
Hallowed be thy name.
Of all our miseries cast up the sum;
Show us thy joys, and let
Thy Kingdom come.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.7
We mortal are, and alter from our birth;
Thou constant art,
Thy will be done on earth.
Thou madest the earth as well as planets seven,
Thy name be blessed here,
As ‘tis in Heaven.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.8
Nothing have we to use or debts to pay,
Except thou give it us.
Give us this day
Wherewith to clothe us, wherewith to be fed,
For without thee we want
Our daily bread.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.9
We want, but want no faults, for no day passes
But we do sin-
Forgive us our trespasses.
No man from sinning ever free did live;
Forgive us Lord our sins,
As we forgive.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.10
If we repent our faults, thou ne’er disdainest us;
We pardon them
That tresspass against us.
Forgive us that is past, a new path lead us;
Direct us always in thy path,
And lead us,
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.11
We, thine own people and thy chosen nation,
Into all truth, but
Not into temptation.
Thou that of all good graces art the giver,
Suffer us not to wander,
But deliver.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.12
Us from the fierce assaults of world and Devil,
And flesh, so shalt thou free us
From all evil.
To these petitions let both church and laymen,
With one consent of heart and voice say,
Amen.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.13
Triple Murder in Battle Creek
a spiritualist mother sends three of her children to the “spirit world.”
While we continually have occasion to notice the increase of depravity and crime all over the land, we must expect that sometimes it will come near our own doors. The following horrible events which have just transpired in this city, now come in to help swell the great sum total of human wickedness. They afford, moreover, a fair illustration of the fearfully corrupting tendencies of spirit intercourse. The circumstances are summed up by the correspondent of a Detroit paper as follows: ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.14
“The quiet city of Battle Creek was thrown into great excitement on Saturday last by the discovery of the dead bodies of three children under circumstances which strongly induced suspicions of foul play. A coroner’s jury was at once summoned, and a thorough investigation of the affair was commenced, but was not concluded when our informant left. The inquiry has developed a condition of social affairs which is almost too much for credulity to swallow. That, in this latter half of the nineteenth century, in the midst of a Christian community, persons of both sexes should herd together like cattle, in furtherance of a wild religious fanaticism, almost surpasses belief. When they go still further, and add to their previous crimes the most heinous one known to the laws of God and man, the community in which they live may be pardoned for exhibiting symptoms of unusual excitement. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.15
“The circumstances of the case, so far as developed, appear to be about as follows: Last spring a Mrs. Leonard left her husband at Ypsilanti and went to Battle Creek, taking with her five children, two by Leonard, and three by a former husband. It seems that she was a believer in the doctrines of modem Spiritualism, and was led to desert her husband through instructions from the spirit world. She herself possessed the power of communicating with spirits, being in the parlance of that sect a ‘medium.’ By advice from the same supernatural source she dropped the name of Leonard, and being matrimonially joined, according to the ordinances in vogue in the spiritual world, to her first husband, again assumed his name and called herself Mrs. Haviland. When she reached Battle Creek with her children she had $500 in money, and set up in housekeeping by herself. About this period another character appears upon the stage in the person of a Dr. Baker, of Adrian, who was also a spiritual medium of great repute among his sect. Dr. Baker boarded with Mrs. Haviland. The house was a great resort for Spiritualists, there being many of that sect in and about Battle Creek, and ‘circles’ and ‘seances’ were the principal occupation of the gifted doctor and his pupils, for it appears that the Haviland house was a sort of spiritual academy for the training up of female mediums through the spiritual knowledge and gifts of the doctor. A Miss Merrit, of Ionia, a medium, was of the household, and a Miss Hannas, of Battle Creek, a young lady of seventeen years of age, was a boarder in the family. She was developing her gifts, with the help of other mediums, as a ‘test medium;’ that is, the veracity of spirits in general, and the loquacious ones in particular, were tested through her superior gifts. It was said that she ‘developed’ more rapidly than any test medium ever known in these parts, being quick-witted and shrewd. This academy went on with swimming success through the Summer and Fall, and furnished incontrovertible spiritual evidence for the conversion of the unbelieving. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.16
“About four weeks ago the Doctor borrowed $600 of Miss Merrit and bought a lot in the outskirts of the town, upon which he built his castle in the shape of a board shanty with one room. Into this shanty with one room the Doctor moved the three women above mentioned, and the five children, and they all lived together, continuing to ‘develop’ the young lady as a test medium. Wonderful things were related of her powers in that capacity. She could go into a trance, and when she arrived back again to this mundane sphere she would relate wonderful things of what she had seen and heard. She had seen and talked with any deceased friend you might name, and could describe him or her exactly as he or she appeared in this life, the dress, size, color of hair and eyes, ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.17
“‘Wi mair o’ horrible and awful,
Which e’en to name wad be unlawful.’
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.18
“The party were getting ready to travel and astonish the world by a public display of their intimacy with the spirits. Mrs. Haviland had procured a place for her two children named Leonard, and told the other three that she would take care of them. On Saturday afternoon last, some children living in the neighborhood were playing near the shanty, when the two Leonard children made their appearance. On being asked where then older brothers and sister were, they said they were dead. The children ran home and told their parents, some of whom immediately visited the shanty, and found the report to be true. The woman Leonard alias Haviland, said that the youngest, a girl aged four years, died on Thursday about noon; the second, a boy aged six years, died on Friday morning at ten o’clock; and the third, a boy eight years old, died on Friday afternoon at five o’clock. Miss Merrit says she asked the Doctor what they should do with the children if they should die, and he said he would make a box and bury them on his lot. They claimed that the children died with scrofula. It was generally believed, however, that these mediums, wishing to travel and not be encumbered with the children, determined quietly to remove them to a better sphere. Considering that they could be with them and enjoy their society quite as much in the spirit world, without the inconvenience of taking care of them and providing them with bread and butter and clothes, the plan no doubt, seemed a very sensible one. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.19
“A post mortem examination of the bodies of the children was made by Dis. Cox, French, and Saunders, the result of which was, that the children were healthy, and had the appearance of being poisoned. The stomachs were taken out by the doctors, and the contents were in process of being analyzed when our informant left. The Coroner’s jury were awaiting the analyzation before deciding upon their verdict. The parties had been placed under arrest until the facts of the case could be more fully investigated. The affair naturally created considerable excitement in the town, and the greatest indignation was manifested toward the inhuman mother who could perpetrate such a deed upon her own offspring.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 38.20
The wretched mother, as we learn from the last Battle Creek Journal, has since made a full confession of her guilt, stating that she administered to them arsenic. The analysis of the contents of the stomachs of the children, showed the presence of arsenic, thus corroborating her testimony. In her confession, she thus states the motive by which she was actuated in the commission of the foul deed. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.1
“When I looked forward to the time when my children should become men and women, I feared for them; that they would have to suffer for transgressing the laws of the land, and I thought as I had been the author of their existence, in a measure, it was better to send them to the Spirit World while they were innocent. If any one had to suffer, I would do it instead of them.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.2
The Cause in Gratiot Co., Mich
Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 29 and 30, we met with the church at Greenbush. Unexpectedly Bro. Lawrence came in with me. The little company of believers here are all firm in the truth, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. We had a very pleasant and profitable time with them. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.3
Dec. 2 and 3, we met with the church at Ithaca. They are building a meeting-house, which, however, was not quite finished. I believe that it is 36x52. It is a plain, but good substantial house. It will cost them about $1,700 when finished. It is the first meeting-house ever built in the county. The brethren have manifested much commendable zeal in erecting this house. They greatly desired that Bro. White should dedicate it; but of course this is not expected now. The people still manifest a good interest to hear the truth. Our meeting with this church was a very pleasant one to us, and we think a profitable one to them. They were encouraged by having two more start to serve the Lord. One was received into the church by letter. There are many strong, working members in this church. May God bless and increase them. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.4
Dec. 9-13 we were with the church at Alma. This church was founded under very discouraging circumstances; but contrary to all our expectations, it has steadily grown in piety, zeal, and numbers, till it now carries the leading influence in the place. Sabbath is quite a quiet day in the little village of Alma, while Sunday is a thoroughly business day. We have had some good meetings here, long to be remembered. The Brn. and sisters express a mind to take hold with renewed energy, while several made a start for the the first time to serve the Lord. Dec. 13, six were baptized. These with ten more who are keeping the Sabbath, making sixteen in all, were received into the church. This was an encouraging day for the church at Alma. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.5
Systematic Benevolence was re-organized for 1866 to the amount of $390. Probably this will be raised to about $400, by Brn. who were not then present. We think that the Brn. and sisters have done liberally. May God bless them in proportion. They also propose to build a good meeting-house next summer. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.6
This is a new and rapidly growing county. It has a rich soil, heavy timber, and is well watered. Brn. Gargett and Hulbert are the most thorough, extensive, and enterprising business men in the county. Here is a good place for our Brn. who wish to go into business of any kind. Good shoe-makers, carpenters, black-smiths, harness-makers, cabinet-makers, etc., etc., will find a welcome reception here by the Brn., with a good opportunity to prosecute their several vocations. But idle, lazy, shiftless, and disorderly Sabbath-keepers are not wanted. For further information address James Gargett, Alma, Gratiot Co., Mich. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.7
Dec. 16 and 17, we were with the church at Seville. Here the enemy was at work. With sort and flattering words he had sought to draw the Brn. from the truth. Most stood firm, but three or four were nearly caught in the snare of the Devil. For this we were much grieved. But by again listening to the evidences of our faith, they were most, if not all of them, firmly established in the present truth. Said one good old sister, “In the future, if I live, I shall live a Sabbath-keeper; if I die, I die one.” We think that they will not be easily deceived again. Several substantial persons who had not before embraced the truth, now expressed themselves as fully satisfied, and took a decided stand to keep the Sabbath. The Lord was manifestly with us here in all our meetings. We left the brethren much encouraged to press on. Our three week’s visit in this county, has been an encouraging one to all. Some have been added to the church in each place. Many others are interested and even keeping the Sabbath. There we hope soon to see in the truth fully. The truth is bound to triumph in this county. Bro. L. stays here a few days longer. Brn. and sisters remember your Sabbath meetings, and let every one be in his place. Hebrews 10:25. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.8
D. M. Canright.
Report from Bro. Matteson
November 13 to 29, we continued meetings in this place, and the Lord has been good to us. He has commenced a work of grace in our hearts, and given us faith for brighter visions. We have had refreshing seasons meeting together, especially on the Sabbath. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.9
November 30, I started for Deerfield Quarterly Meeting. Went forty miles and arrived there Sabbath eve. Was disappointed in not meeting Bro. Pierce. We had a good meeting in spite of dark forebodings and prolonged business sessions. The Lord was with us and we enjoyed his blessing and presence. I was happy to become acquainted with Bro. Allen, and all the brethren and sisters. We had a solemn and refreshing season attending the ordinances of the house of God. Brethren, press together. Heed the warnings of the faithful Witness. Live up to the principles of the faith of Jesus. Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then the cunning powers of darkness will in vain rise up against you. Their plans and attempts to overthrow will be detected and destroyed. Hear the good Shepherd’s voice and follow him. In him and him only can we be strong. He is “the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.10
Returned Dec. 5, and now labor again in this place, preaching and visiting as I find occasion. Fifteen have covenanted to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Others are expected soon to join. We have commenced a Bible-class, and have regular meetings on the Sabbath and weekly prayer-meetings. We have good reason to believe that those who have commenced will be firm and continue steadfast. May the Lord himself lead on and glorify his holy name. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.11
John Matteson.
Clark’s Grove, Freeborn Co., Minn.
He Had to Leave It
A rich man died. Success had crowned his unwearied efforts and it was well known that a large fortune was the result of a life spent in the accumulation of earthly goods. He died in the morning, soon after the sun had risen, and all through the day that followed, men were commenting on the event: “He died rich.” “He amassed a handsome fortune.” “He was successful in business.” “He left a large property,” said one, who was himself increased in goods. The reply of a poor man standing near, yet one rich in faith, seemed for the instant to startle him out of his own worldly infatuation. “Yes, he had to!” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.12
Men may heap to themselves the wealth of worlds, and gather about them all earthly riches, but they must all come shoulder to shoulder in the march of life; lay down then armor, their burdens, and their treasures at the tomb’s door, and together enter in to explore the mysteries of that unseen state, within whose dark shadows so many have before them entered. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.13
There is but one thing a man can carry with him through the darkness of death. A hope of Heaven through the atoning blood or Jesus is the priceless treasure of which the grave can not rob the soul, for it is not of the earth, earthly, but a heavenly inheritance. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.14
Governor Brownlow on the Situation.-Governor Brownlow of Tennessee, in a late letter, says the entire State of Tennessee abounds with thieves and robbers, who would murder a man for his watch, or a five dollar bill. He has no faith in the rebel professions of loyalty; thinks the war ended at least two years too soon for the good of the country; and adjures the Republican majority not to admit to Congress indiscriminately the representatives from the lately rebellious States. Those States, he maintains, will not elect loyal men to Congress, nor can loyal men be elected governors to them. He believes that the political leaders there have not abandoned their idea of a separate confederacy, and that they are now reorganizing to make another effort at rebellion. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.15
“Cling to the Crucified.”
His death is life to thee-
Life for eternity;
His pains thy pardon seal,
His stripes thy bruises heal;
His cross proclaims thy peace,
Bids every sorrow cease;
His blood is all to thee;
It purges thee from sin,
It sets thy spirit free,
It keeps thy conscience clean.
“Cling to the Crucified.”
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.16
Letters
“Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.17
This department of the paper is designed for the brethren and sisters to freely and fully communicate with each other respecting their hopes and determinations, conflicts and victories, attainments and desires, in the heavenly journey. Seek first a living experience and then record it, carefully and prayerfully, for the comfort and encouragement of the other members of the household of faith. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.18
From Bro. Eldred
Bro. White: I still am striving to live near to God’ that he may be near to me. My desire is to be an overcomer. I expect that the once-despised Saviour will soon come and claim his despised children. I believe that the time is short, and that we must be up and doing, having on the whole armor, that we may be able to stand in the evil day. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.19
The pathway that lies before the remnant is truly a narrow and rugged one, and were it not that Israel’s God is able to save and to deliver even to the uttermost, our hearts would indeed fail us as we view the great storm that is coming on this sin-cursed earth. Although we may be called to pass through deep tribulations, and the world east out our names, and scoff because we believe that Jesus is soon coming to take his faithful waiting ones home, yet let us ever remember that Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock; it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.20
I feel truly to praise Him for his long suffering in sparing me until I saw the light of the third angel’s message. I love the precious truth and wish all could see it; but this I cannot expect; for the time has come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but choose to go in the broad road while few go in the narrow way. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.21
Let us strive to be of that little company that will be permitted to meet in that kingdom where there will be no war nor blood shed, no sorrow nor dying groans but where the redeemed will be, and sorrow and sighing flee away. I want to be ready when Jesus comes. I cannot think of staying back in the city of destruction. I want an inheritance with the saints of God in the earth made new. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.22
Yours waiting for Jesus. John A. Eldred.
Victor, N. Y., Dec., 1865.
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.23
Bro. G. M. Tomlinson writes from Marion, Linn Co., Iowa. The glorious truth of the first, second, and third angels’ messages look good and encouraging to me. We are truly living down near the coming of Jesus. I still believe that God is with the remnant people, that he has used in bringing out the saving truths that are to prepare a people to stand on Mt. Zion without spot and blameless. My sympathies are with those who have been bearing the heat and burden of the day; and I would say to my brethren, Let us try to live up to the glorious truths that we profess. There are a few in this place who are in union with the body, and I feel near to them in the time of trials which they are passing through. I am determined to strive to overcome and stand with God’s remnant people on Mt. Zion. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 39.24
The Review and Herald
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, JANUARY 2, 1866.
This Week’s Review
We open our columns this week with an interesting discourse from Bro. Goodrich. Why can we not have a sermon every week in the Review? It would be well if we had among us several reporters who could take discourses from the lips of the living preacher, as they utter them in the power and demonstration of the Spirit. But until this can be done, will not our preachers, as they are constantly bringing out new subjects before the people, each one occasionally write out one for the Review? In this way the paper would be furnished with interesting matter, they would secure a larger congregation than they otherwise could, and the thousands of scattered ones would get the benefit of their labors. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.1
—The Sabbath-keeper’s Calendar, giving the time of the setting of the sun at the close of each week, will be appreciated by all those who observe the seventh day, and commence it according to the Bible manner, at the setting of the sun. The computation is from the Family Christian Almanac, for 1866. The time given, is for the setting of the sun on Friday night, and marks in each instance the commencement of the Sabbath. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.2
—We commend Bro. Aldrich’s “Enabling Act” set forth in this number, to the prompt attention of all the brethren and sisters. We think it a most excellent plan. By taking one of these boxes, you get a variety of fifty-two kinds of publications. If you want a full set of publications for your own use, here you have them, besides extra copies of the more important works to circulate among your friends. Every family should have a box. Turn back to last week’s Review and read again the article on circulating religious books and papers. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.3
—The Dead Sea, a most graphic description of this wonderful monument of God’s wrath. And while we remember that the cities of the plain are set forth for an example to them who should afterward live ungodly, we look about us, and see the character of Sodom and Gomorrah being rapidly reproduced in the society of the present day. Then the solemn warning of the Saviour comes to mind, “As it was in the days of Lot, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” “Remember Lot’s wife.” ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.4
—Concerning Spiritualism, we need say no more than what is elsewhere given in relation to the murder in Battle Creek. In connection with that article, read “Spiritualism in Battle Creek,” and let all beware of its contaminating influence. If it does not lead a person in this life to the depths of prostitution and murder, it will lead away from God and the truth, and land its victim in perdition at last. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.5
—Bro. Canright gives us a cheering report from the cause in Gratiot Co., Mich.; also Bro. Matteson from Minn. At all these evidences of progress we have reason to be encouraged. Pray for the cause of truth and its defenders. Cease not to plead for the prosperity of Zion. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.6
—A short paragraph, headed, “Governor Brown low on the Situation,” contains much matter for reflection in few words. He thinks the Southern leaders are organizing for another effort at rebellion. One thing is certain: all hearts and all lands are full of the spirit of confusion. There is no real peace. Through the agency of an unseen power, there is a semblance of quiet on the surface of things, but the elements of strife are all aglow beneath, ready at the proper time to burst forth into uncontrollable and unquenchable tumult and war. A little time is now given us to work for the truth in peace. Each moment is more precious than gold and pearls. Shall they be wasted? The time will come full soon, when what we have so often sung will be a living reality: ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.7
“Kingdoms now are reeling, falling,
Nations lie in woe appalling,
On their sages vainly calling
All these wonders to explain.”
ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.8
Sabbath-Keepers’ Calendar,
FOR 1866. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.9
We learn by private letter that the dedication of the new meeting-house at Norridgewock, Me., was a good season, and that the prospect in that section is encouraging. Will Bro. Cornell or Bro. Andrews give us a report for the paper. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.10
Two tracts have recently alighted on our table entitled “Bible Chronology of Six Thousand Years,” by E. Slager. 8 pages. What the tract was designed to prove we could by no means divine, did not the date, 1866, mysteriously appear in a diagram on the first page, from some cause not visible to the naked eye. We conclude that the writer believes that the 6000 years will end in 1866, though we can hardly look upon this tract as an effort to prove that or anything else. Chronology is not a subject which will allow us to begin anywhere and end nowhere. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.11
To Correspondents
Answered by letter. J. A. Wilcox, S. T. Belden, J. B. Frisbie. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.12
Articles Declined. Poetry. The New Earth. The lines lack both measure and rhyme. If the writer will turn his attention to the rules of poetry, we have no doubt he will succeed.-“Bright Spots.” Rhyme good, but measure imperfect and figures faulty. See remark above.-A communication from Mound City, Kansas, closes, “To be continued.” We cannot commence the publication of any article till we have examined the whole of it. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.13
Articles Accepted. The Age of Darkness.-Swine’s Flesh.-Be in Earnest.-Will We Hear that Prophet?-Help Implored.-A Word of Admonition.-To the Toiling.-For or Against.-Largeness of the Promise.-Communication from Bro. Gurney.-Wonderful Organic Remains.-The Gospel of the Kingdom.-Sabbath or not, a. d. 45?-Presumptuous Sins.-Antichrist.-Why Tarriest Thou? ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.14
The inquiries from a correspondent in California in regard to the saints going to Heaven at the second coming of Christ to remain for a thousand years, etc., will be answered as soon as other important matters are off our hands. Other inquiries from various parties we hope to be able to attend to soon. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.15
The P. O. address of I. D. Cramer, is Kings-boro, Fulton Co., N. Y. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.16
The P. O. address of Wm. Russel, is now Mauston, Juneau Co., Wis. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.17
Appointments
The Lord willing I will be at the Monthly Meeting ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.18
| at Roosevelt, N. Y., | Jan. | 6, 7. |
| In Bro. Robinson’s neighborhood, | “ | 13, 14. |
| At Mannsville, | “ | 20, 21. |
| At Adams’ Center, (evening) | “ | 23. |
| At Norfolk, | “ | 27, 28. |
| S. B. Whitney. |
Business Department
Business Notes
D. V. Winne: Where does James Campbell receive his paper? ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.19
RECEIPTS
For Review and Herald
Annexed to each receipt in the following list, is the Volume and Number of the Review & Herald to which the money receipted pays. If money for the paper is not in due time acknowledged, immediate notice of the omission should then be given. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.20
John Hall 28-7, M E Rust 27-1, Amanda Ecker 27-1, A Clark 27-14, Jacob Hamp 29-1, R J Foster 28-1, J W Blake 28-1, C W Olds 28-1, Wm Bolser 28-1, L Shellhouse 31-13, H Rois 28-1, J Ralston 28-1, N N Amway 28-14, G W Newman 28-1, Mis W P Squnes 28-1, C W Corson 28-1, D L Daniels 28-1, N H berry 27-19, D Cramner 28-1, Charlotte Pratt 29-1, A Knapp 29-1, Mrs M Denison 29-1, Mrs. A Denison 29-1, J E Titus 28-1, Hiram Brinsmade 28-1, Joshua Philbrick 28-1, Wm Peabody 28-7, Mrs. J P Kellogg for Mrs O Stanley 28-1, and Mrs. J Deland 28-1, M S Burnham for J W Newton 28-1. $1,00 each. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.21
N G Spencer 29-1, Geo. O Dickinson 29-1, J T Freeman 29-22, M M Leach 29-1, Mrs. J Avery 29-1, A G Smith 29-1, J Allen 29-1, M B Ferree 29-9, H H Page 29-14, Wm Carthy 29-1, Margaret Owen 26-19, E D Wilch 29-1, B S Barnes 29-1, H Gregory 28-1, M Raymond 29-1, D Mellinger 27-18, J Halliday 27-14, O F Guilford 27-11, a d Love 29-1, S B McLaughlin 31-6, S Zollinger 28-20, T Johnson 29-1, Mrs C Howard 30-1, Jesus Ed on 29-1, C C Spear 27-1, John Pierce sen 29-1, A C Warren 29-1, Thomas Armitage 29-1, F Hall 28-1, W H Brigham 30-1, Helen Brigham 29-1, P Alvord 28-4, Mary Moody for Charles Judson 29-1, Harvey Kenyon for A J Taft 29-1, Charles Jones, for Jeremiah Shares 29-1, A P Kenyon for B M Green 29-1, Sarah A Jones for F L Howard 29-1, Geo. W. Frank for H F Guest 29-1, Leonard Ross for Hiram Ross 29-1, Laura A Ross for Olive Tannei 29-1, Alfred Boyington for E S Moody 29-1, John Frank for Andrew Frank 29-1, J Rumery for Lysander Cole 29-1, Ruth D Day for Mary Spooner 29-1, John Pierce Jr for H M McOmber 29-1, Fanny Pierce for James Smith 29-1, B J Rumery for Joseph T Lay 29-1. $2,00 each. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.22
E P Hill 28-1, S Allchin 28-1. 50c each. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.23
Capt. R Reid $4,00, 29-4, J T June $1,25, 27-20, C Whitaken $2,90, 30-1, W Barker $1,50, 27-24, Sarah B Chase $1,50, 27-24. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.24
Subscriptions at the Rate of $3,00 per year
J M Lindsay $3,00, 29-1, S Brooks $3,00, 29-1, J Dudley $3,00, 29-5, L M Gates $3,00, 29-1. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.25
Cash Received on Account
E S Griggs $20,00, Alva True for I D Van Horn $2,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.26
Books Sent By Mail
Daniel Poss $1,00, J C Witter 45c, Geo. Gregory 30c, E Sanford 25c, Mrs. Julia A Dayton $2,00, Jacob Hamp 12c, P Collins 20c, B G Allen $2,10, Miss H C Hilton 60c, Emily T Clark 20c, I C Vaughan 25c, H H Cunningham 55c, S T Belden $2,20, John W Wolfe $1,50, Mary S Foster $1,50, S B McLaughlin $2,75, N W Berry 50c, Charles Lea $1,35, T L Bane Jr. 15c, Hiram Brinsmade 75c, J E Titus 50c, Wm Peabody $1,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.27
Books sent by Express
R J Foster, Coopersville, Ottawa Co., Mich., $7,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.28
To Pay Expenses on Draft Publications
Samuel T Crosbie $1,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.29
Gen. Conf. Missionary Fund
Amy Ridgway $1,00, Thomas Armitage $11,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.30
Michigan Conference Fund,
Church at Alma $20,00, Church at Colon $9,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.31
For Bro. White
S Drake $10,00, T Smith and family $5,00, A Friend $5,00, Church at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa $20,00, Mary Van Horn $3,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.32
For Bro. Loughborough
S Drake $5,00, E M Prentiss $1,00, D Demerest $5,00, J Demill $5,00, H Demill $2,00, Church at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa $10,00, J E Potter $2,00, D E Elmer $1,00, H Edson $5,00, J M Lindsay $5,00. ARSH January 2, 1866, page 40.33