Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, vol. 17
December 18, 1860
RH VOL. XVII. - BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, - NO. 5
James White
ADVENT REVIEW,
AND SABBATH HERALD
[Graphic of the Ark of the Covenant with the inscription beneath,]
“And there was Seen in His Temple
the Ark of His Testament.”
“Here is the Patience of the Saints; Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.”
VOL. XVII. - BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, DECEMBER 18, 1860. - NO. 5.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
is published weekly, at One Dollar a Volume of 26 Nos. in advance.
J. P. KELLOGG, CYRENIUS SMITH AND D. R. PALMER,
Publishing Committee.
Uriah Smith, Resident Editor.J. N. Andrews, James White, J. H. Waggoner, R. F. Cottrell, and Stephen Pierce, Corresponding Editors.Address REVIEW AND HERALD Battle Creek, Mich.
SOON AND FOREVER
Soon and forever! such promise our trust,
Though ashes to ashes and dust unto dust:
Soon and forever, our union shall be
Made perfect, our glorious Redeemer, in thee.
When the sins and the sorrows of time shall be o’er,
Its pangs and its partings remembered no more;
Where life cannot fail, and death cannot sever,
Christians with Christ shall be, soon and forever.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.1
Soon and forever the breaking of day
Shall chase all the night-clouds of sorrow away;
Soon and forever we’ll see as we’re seen,
And know the deep meaning of things that have been;
Where fightings without and conflicts within
Shall weary no more in the warfare of sin;
Where tears, and where fears, and where death shall be never,
Christians with Christ shall be, soon and forever.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.2
Soon and forever the work shall be done,
The warfare accomplished, the victory won;
Soon and forever the soldier lay down
The sword for a harp, the cross for a crown.
Then sink not in sorrow, despond not in fear;
A glorious to-morrow is brightening and near,
When - blessed reward for each faithful endeavor -
Christians with Christ shall be, soon and forever.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.3
THE LAW OF GOD
BY B. F. SNOOK.
CHAPTER. I
1. The term law defined. 2. Its basis, the relation which exists between man and God and man and man. 3. Its nature is moral, i.e., right. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.4
1. The definition. “Law is a rule of action, a rule of direction; that which governs or has a tendency to rule. Moral law, a law which prescribes to men their religious and social duties; in other words, their duties to God and to each other. The moral law is summarily contained in the decalogue or ten commandments written by the finger of God on two tables of stone.” Web. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.5
2. The foundation. The foundation of the law of God is firm and unchanging. It always has been and will ever be the same. It is based (1.) On the relation which man sustains to his Creator; and (2.) on the relation of man to his fellow man. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.6
1. The first four precepts have respect to certain natural duties which man owes to God. He is our Creator, and by creation we are his. These are exalted relations and demand, 1st. That we love him with all the heart. 2nd. That we serve him - that we worship him only, and make him the object of our daily adorations. 3rd. That we speak of his name only in the most reverential and affectionate manner. 4th. That we reverence his institutions, and use them only as he has given us privilege and direction. On these relations is based the first great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.” Deuteronomy 6:5. Also the first four commandments have the same basis, and grow out of the same source. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.7
These relations are the same in all created intelligences. Hence the obligations growing therefrom are the same upon all. Wherever these relations exist, these obligations must exist. This shows the puerility of the position of those who maintain that these obligations rest only on the Jew. If this were true it would then follow that the relations out of which these obligations arise are confined to the Jew. That being true it follows that God is not the God nor Creator of the Gentile, and hence can have no claim upon him for love or obedience to any precept of his law! But how long since these obligations began? Evidently as long as the relations have existed which gave them birth. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.8
It being an established fact that these obligations grow out of man’s relation to God, it follows, 1st. That the obligations did not exist before their source or basis. 2nd. That they began as soon as their basis was created; as naturally as the effect follows the cause, and therefore are as old as the creation of man. 3rd. The last six commandments have respect to the duties which men owe to each other. 1st. All men are creatures of the same Creator. 2nd. Are children of the same Father. 3rd. Possess the same natural and unalienable rights, which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.9
These relations demand, 1st. That they love each other. 2nd. Treat each other with brotherly kindness. 3rd. That they respect and protect each other’s rights. On these relations is based the second great commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Leviticus 19:18. Also the last six which hang upon this, and depend upon it, are based upon the same relations. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.10
These obligations growing out of the above relations, it unavoidably follows that they reach back for their beginning to the time when the relations out of which they grow began to exist. Hence as soon as man was blessed with a fellow man whom he might denominate his neighbor, these obligations rested upon and required him to love and respect him as himself. Thus we see that the law of our heavenly Father is well founded. Its foundation will last while he is our Creator and we are his creatures. No man can violate ONE of the first four precepts who loves God with all the heart. Neither can he who loves God, and his neighbor as himself, violate either of the last six precepts. “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.11
Man would be perfectly happy if he would obey from the heart this law. His peace would be as a river and his righteousness as the rolling waves of the boundless ocean. Joy and peace would ever sit triumphantly enthroned in his heart while sorrows and sighs would never molest him. With the poet he could say - ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.12
“Great is their peace who love thy law,
How firm their souls abide!
Nor can a bold temptation draw
Their steady feet aside.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.13
“Then shall my heart have inward joy,
And keep my face from shame,
When all thy statutes I obey,
And honor all thy name.”
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.14
3. Its nature. We propose to show in the next place that this is a moral law, or a law of morals. The word moral in its common use means “that which is naturally right;” that which is right in the very nature of things. That there is a class of commandments which are right in the very nature of things we presume no Bible scholar will deny. That this class of right or moral commandments is the decalogue, or law of ten commandments, the Bible abundantly testifies. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.15
Proof. David says, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. But David what do you mean by the statutes of the Lord? Ans. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” All is plain. We now understand you, since by the statutes of the Lord you mean his commandments. Again: “Thou camest down also on mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws (laws of truth, margin), good statutes and commandments.” Nehemiah 9:13. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.16
This testimony is the clearest proof as to the morality of the law in question. We will bring forward one more text which we regard as most triumphantly settling the question: “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is RIGHT. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise.” Ephesians 6:1, 2. Paul in giving this requisition refers to the fifth commandment in the decalogue as authority, and sanctions the obligation enforced by it as being right. These witnesses prove the morality of the whole law, and show that as a whole it is right or moral. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.17
But it is objected that the fourth commandment is not moral, but is ceremonial or positive. To this we reply as follows: 1. There is no proof to sustain the objection. 2. The Scriptures which we have referred to prove the morality of the fourth as much as that of any other precept. 3. If the objection is true, David should have said, the statutes of the Lord are right except one, the fourth precept, which is positive. 4. The fourth precept hangs upon the first great commandment as much as the other three which regulate our duty to God: Matthew 22:40. 5. It grows out of the same relations to God that the others do. 6. God proclaimed it at the same time he proclaimed the others, and spake it in their very midst. 7. When graving the others on the tables of rock for their preservation and to denote their perpetuity, he placed it (the fourth) in the very bosom of the ten. 8. It as much protects and guards the Lord’s holy day which is his property, as the sixth guards and protects any property of man. These reasons prove the morality of the fourth precept beyond the possibility of refutation. But if it is not moral, then verily to steal from the Lord is not the violation of moral law, while to steal from man is!! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.18
THERE is no religion in making yourself miserable; God loves to make poor sinners happy; in the Old Testament he bids you delight yourself in the Lord; and promises the desires of your heart. In the New, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 33.19
MISTAKES IN RELIGION
(Concluded.) ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.1
In some who make further advances towards religion, we continue to see it in that same low degree which we have always observed. It is dwarfish and stunted, it makes no shoots. Though it gives some signs of life, it does not grow. By a tame and spiritless round, or rather by this fixed and immovable position, we rob ourselves of that fair reward of peace and joy which attends on an humble consciousness of progress; on the feeling of difficulties conquered; on a sense of the divine favor. That religion which is profitable is commonly perceptible. Nothing supports a traveller in his Christian course, like the conviction that he is getting on; like looking back on the country he has passed; and, above all, like the sense of that protection which has hitherto carried him on, and of that grace which has promised to support him to the end. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.2
The proper motion of the renewed heart is still directed upward. True religion is of an aspiring nature, continually tending towards that heaven from whence it was transplanted. Its top is high because its root is deep. It is watered by a perennial fountain; in its most flourishing state it is always capable of further growth. Real goodness proves itself to be such by a continual desire to be better. No virtue on earth is ever in a complete state. Whatever stage of religion any man has attained, if he be satisfied to rest in that stage, we would not call that man religious. The Gospel seems to consider the highest degree of goodness as the lowest with which a Christian ought to sit down satisfied. We cannot be said to be finished in any Christian grace because there is not one which may not be carried further than we have carried it. This promotes the double purpose of keeping us humble as to our present stage, and of stimulating us to something higher which we may hope to attain. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.3
That superficial thing which by mere people of the world is dignified by the appellation of religion, though it brings just that degree of credit which makes part of the system of worldly Christians, neither brings comfort for this world, nor security for the next. Outward observances, indispensable as they are, are not religion. They are the accessory, but not the principle; they are important aids and adjuncts, but not the thing itself; they are its aliment but not its life, the fuel but not the flame, the scaffolding but not the edifice. Religion can no more subsist merely by them than it can subsist without them. They are divinely appointed and must be conscientiously observed, but observed as a means to promote an end, and not as an end in themselves. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.4
The heartless homage of formal worship, where the living power does not give life to the form, the cold compliment of ceremonial attendance, without the animating principle, as it will not bring peace to our own mind, so neither will it satisfy a jealous God. That God whose eye is on the heart, “who trieth the reins and searcheth the spirits” will not be satisfied that we make him little more than a nominal deity, while the world is the real object of our worship. Such persons seem to have almost the whole body of performance; all they want is the soul. They are constant in their devotions, but the heart, which even the heathen esteemed the best part of the sacrifice, they keep away. They read the Scriptures, but rest in the letter instead of trying themselves by its spirit. They consider it as an enjoined task, but not as the quick and powerful instrument put into their hands for the critical dissection of “piercing and dividing asunder the soul and spirit;” not as the penetrating “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” These well-intentioned persons seem to spend no inconsiderable portion of time in religious exercises, and yet complain that they make little progress. They almost seem to insinuate, as if the Almighty did not keep his word to them, and manifest that religion to them is not “pleasantness,” nor her “paths peace.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.5
Of such may we not ask, “Would you not do better to examine than to complain? to enquire whether you do indeed possess a heart which, notwithstanding its imperfections, is sincerely devoted to God? He who does not desire to be perfect is not sincere. Would you not do well to convince yourselves that God is not unfaithful? that his promises do not fail? that his goodness is not slackened? May you not be entertaining some secret infidelity, practicing some latent disobedience, withholding some part of your heart, neglecting to exercise that faith, subtracting something from that devotedness to which a Christian should engage himself, and to which the promises of God are annexed? Do you indulge no propensities contrary to his will? Do you never resist the dictates of his Spirit, never shut your eyes to its illumination, nor your heart to its influences? Do you not indulge some cherished sin which obscures the light of grace, some practice which obstructs the growth of virtue, some distrust which chills the warmth of love? the discovery will repay the search, and if you succeed in this scrutiny, let not the detection discourage but stimulate. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.6
If then, you resolve to take up religion in earnest, especially if you have actually adopted its customary forms, rest not in such low attainments as will afford neither present peace nor future happiness. To know Christianity only in its external forms, and its internal dissatisfactions, its superficial appearances without, and its disquieting apprehensions within, to be desirous of standing well with the world as a Christian, yet to be unsupported by a well founded Christian hope, to depend for happiness on the opinion of men instead of the favor of God, to go on dragging through the mere exercises of piety without deriving from them real strength or solid peace; to live in the dread of being called an enthusiast; by outwardly exceeding in religion, and in secret consciousness of falling short of it, to be conformed to the world’s view of Christianity, rather than to aspire to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, is a state not of pleasure, but of penalty, not of conquest, but of hopeless conflict, not of ingenuous love, but of tormenting fear. It is knowing religion only as the captive in a foreign land knows the country in which he is a prisoner. He hears from the cheerful natives of its beauties, but is himself ignorant of everything beyond his own gloomy limits. He hears of others as free and happy, but feels nothing himself but the rigors of incarceration. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.7
The Christian character is little understood by the votaries of the world; if it were, they would be struck with its grandeur. It is the very reverse of that meanness and pusillanimity, that abject spirit and those narrow views, which those who know it not ascribe to it. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.8
A Christian lives at the height of his being, not only at the top of his spiritual, but of his intellectual life. He alone lives in the full exercise of his rational powers. Religion ennobles his reason while it enlarges it. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.9
Let then, your soul act up to its high destination, let not that which was made to soar to heaven grovel in the dust. Let it not live so much below itself. You wonder it is not more fixed when it is perpetually resting on things which are not fixed themselves. In the rest of a Christian there is stability. Nothing can shake his confidence but sin. Outward attacks and troubles rather fix than unsettle him, as tempests from without only serve to root the oak faster, while an inward canker will gradually rot and decay it. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.10
These are only a few of the mistakes among the multitude which might have been pointed out, but these are noticed as being of common and every day occurrence. The ineffectiveness of such a religion will be obvious. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.11
That religion which sinks Christianity into a mere conformity to religious usages must always fail of substantial effects. If sin be seated in the heart, if that be its home, that is the place in which it must be combated. It is in vain to attack it in the suburbs when it is lodged in the center. Mere forms can never expel that enemy which they can never reach. By a religion of decencies, our corruptions may perhaps be driven out of sight, but they will never be driven out of possession. If they are expelled from their outworks, they will retreat to their citadel. If they do not appear in the grosser forms prohibited by the decalogue, still they will exist. The shape may be altered but the principle will remain. They will exist in the spiritual modification of the same sins equally forbidden by the divine Expositor. He who dares not to be revengeful, will be unforgiving. He who ventures not to break the letter of the seventh commandment in act, will violate it in the spirit. He who has not courage to forfeit heaven by profligacy will scale it by pride or forfeit it by unprofitableness. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.12
It is not any vain hope built on some external privilege or performance on the one hand, nor a presumptuous confidence that our names are written in the book of life on the other, which can afford a reasonable ground of safety, but it is endeavoring to keep all the commandments of God - it is living to him who died for us - it is being conformed to his image as well as redeemed by his blood. This is Christian virtue, this is the holiness of a believer. A lower motive will produce a lower morality, but such an unsanctified morality God will not accept. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.13
For it will little avail us that Christ has died for us, that he has conquered sin, triumphed over the powers of darkness, and overcome the world, while any sin retains its unresisted dominion in our hearts, while the world is our idol, while our fostered corruptions cause us to prefer darkness to light. We must not persuade ourselves that we are reconciled to God while our rebellious hearts are not reconciled to goodness. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.14
It is not casting a set of opinions into a mould, and a set of duties into a system, which constitutes the Christian religion. The circumference must have a center, the performance must have a principle. Outward observances were wisely constituted to rouse our forgetfulness, to awaken our secular spirits, to call back our negligent hearts; but it was never intended that we should stop short in the use of them. They were designed to excite holy thoughts, to quicken us to holy deeds, but not to be used as equivalents for either. But we find it cheaper to serve God in a multitude of exterior acts, than to starve one interior corruption. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.15
Nothing short of that uniform stable principle, that fixedness in religion which directs a man in all his actions, aims and pursuits to God as his ultimate end, can give consistency to his conduct or tranquility to his soul. This state once attained he will not waste all his thoughts and designs upon the world; he will not lavish all his affections on so poor a thing as his own advancement. He will desire to devote all to the only object worthy of them to, God. Our Saviour has taken care to provide that our ideas of glorifying him, may not run out into fanciful chimeras or subtle inventions by simply stating - “herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” This, he goes on to inform us, is the true evidence of our being of the number of his people by adding - “So shall ye be my disciples.” - Hannah More. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.16
“WHAT! COULD YE NOT WATCH WITH ME ONE HOUR?” Matthew 26:40
IN these most expressive words there is a tone of rebuke, not to say even of reproach. And not without reason. For with Jesus it was the hour of his intensest trial and agony. Never in all his life had there been an hour when he so much needed a dear friend to watch and pray with him. We have no record to show that ever before he had solicited this favor of his friends. But on this occasion he had. Selecting out of the twelve three on whom he could most rely, the same three who were with him in his transfiguration, he had taken them with him to a retired part of the garden of Gethsemane, and had said to them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with me.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 34.17
Such words should have startled them to wakeful sympathy and solicitude. They should have said to each other - Is our master so borne down with anguish that it seems to him he cannot live? “Sorrowful,” he said, “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” O let us watch and pray with him in the hour of his temptation and sore agony! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.1
So it seems to us they should have said; yet it does not appear that they did say or think on this wise. What they did think does not appear from the record; but we have the sad humiliating fact that instead of either watching or praying they fell asleep. The favored three of all his living disciples, the only men of all the myriads who have been redeemed by Jesus’ blood, and whose hearts have loved him, sometimes even to the death, yet out of all this vast family of attached friends, the only three who could be there, thus signally failed him in his hour of greatest need. Viewed in its bearings upon Christ’s people, it is humiliating. We are ashamed that the men who should have represented the responsive sympathy of the whole church universal, and should have consecrated the utmost energy of their hearts’ sympathy, watching and prayer, to his comfort and aid, should have proved so recreant to their high privilege and responsibility. We are almost ripe for indignation and protest. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.2
But we check ourselves with the thought that it would not have been unlike our own human nature, if we had in their circumstances proved as treacherous and unreliable as they. In fact we are afraid their sleep should rather be taken as a prophecy of the cold hearts and heavy souls of most if not all his disciples in all ages and climes. Indeed, we know but too well that it would be so, save as his own grace should avail to stir them to more fidelity and sympathy toward their Lord. A sad picture this of the best human hearts, while not yet deeply baptized in the Holy Ghost. How could they have felt so little sympathy with one so good, one to whom they were so much indebted, yet who was now in a sea of sorrows so deep, and buffeting against waves of temptation so terrible and so well nigh overwhelming! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.3
We must not forget how keenly this very failure of his dearest and most reliable friends must have stung that anguished heart in this hour of its sorrows. Jesus had human sympathies. He chose these three friends and asked them to go with him because his heart was human and he felt the need of human sympathy and prayer. It is not given to us to analyze and fathom all the anguish of his soul in the garden of Gethsemane. It is, however, plain enough that the sum total of the agonies of his atoning sacrifice was present most vividly - as if its contents were compressed into one cup, and this cup was put to his lips in this anticipated hour. He saw it all. He saw it so that he felt its bitterest anguish. He saw what it must be to stand alone, and bear in the sinner’s stead the manifested wrath of God against sin. Ah, he never had known before by experience the darkness and the horrors that come over the soul when God hides the light of his face. It seemed to him insupportable. We do not wonder he should have shrunk back, crying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” Nor do we wonder that the thought came forcibly to his soul - O if I could only have the sympathy and the prayers of a few faithful friends! O, if Peter, James and John might only stand by me while I bear this fearful load, and while I drink this dreadful cup of sorrow! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.4
As we dwell on these aspects of the case it seems hard to forgive our three honored brethren for their sad, and failure to sympathize with Jesus in that hour of his extremest need. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.5
But as we have already intimated, there is in their failure a home lesson which it were not well for us to miss. May not Jesus be saying the same to us? May it not be that already he has ground for keener rebuke and more cutting reproof against us than against them? Have we “watched with him” at every call of his providence, or on every motion of his Spirit? When his cause has languished and seemed to be passing through some eventful crisis of its destiny, and he has most manifestly summoned us to watch with him one hour, has he not found us sleeping? Nay, have we not accounted it our fittest time to sleep, just when, on every side, the Saviour’s cause has been low, and few came to the solemn assemblies of Zion? Have we at all realized this fact - that seasons of declension in the churches are precisely the time of greatest trial and anguish to Jesus Christ, and that it is peculiarly afflictive to his heart that his most reliable Peters and Jameses and Johns should be found not watching and praying but sleeping then? O if our hearts were really in sympathy with Christ’s heart, we should surely think more of the anguish he feels over his church in her days of darkness and spiritual declension. We would rush to his side as we saw him enter the garden of Gethsemane, borne down with sorrow, and should deem it our princely privilege to watch with him one hour then. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.6
But how has it in fact been? Have our hearts been quick to the touch of every appeal from the trembling lips of our Lord to watch and pray with him in the hour of Zion’s need? Do we vividly remember that Jesus - now no longer living among us in human flesh - yet does truly live among us in the life of his own cause? Do we consider that all his soul identifies itself with the welfare and progress of truth and holiness on the earth? ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.7
From this obvious truth we naturally reach the inference that his seasons of greatest trial with his people, are those of widest, deepest declension. As each season of this sort approaches, we may hear him say as to the twelve - “Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.” As the darkness thickens, and the sorrow of his soul becomes more intense, we can understand him to call out Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and tenderly entreat them to watch and pray with him one hour. And what if they should fail him? What if they restrain prayer, sink down under the general stupor of the times, and when the sorrowing Jesus comes back from his prayer of anguish, are found to be fast asleep! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.8
This would be re-enacting the sad, heart-sickening unfaithfulness which we complain of so justly in the case of Peter and the two brothers in the garden. Alas! how sad, and how humiliating! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.9
Who of us, brethren, fall under this condemnation? Who of us in condemning that favored three, have passed sentence on ourselves? We each of us have in our turn the blessed privilege of watching and praying with Jesus in some night of his sorrows; does our heart leap to improve it? With all the sympathy of our soul do we say, Give me many a night of watching and prayer with my Lord in his sorrows over the darkness and backslidings of his church. It is but little at the utmost that I can do in this life for him who bore my griefs and carried my sorrows; let me at least have the luxury of watching with Jesus in prayer over the desolations that pain his heart so deeply. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.10
Beloved, is it not the case with some of us that our Christianity has little of Christ in it, and that consequently the question how He feels in view of our present state of heart and in view of the state of others’ hearts around us, has little to do with our Christian sympathies and activities? Does it often occur to us how much our blessed Lord lives in the prosperity of his cause, and mourns in sorrow over its decline and its low estate? Do we naturally sympathize with these seasons of reviving, or of declension, because we know that Jesus does? This is what we mean by living in sympathy with our divine Lord. Do you know what it is? - Ob. Evan. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.11
A censorious spirit is generally attended with self-complacency; they think most of themselves who are constantly condemning others: he that censures himself, pities, prays for, and sympathizes with others, when their failings are discovered. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.12
WHAT HAVE YOU TO SAY?
“O GENERATION, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness?” Jeremiah 2:31. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.13
There is pertinence in this appeal coming to his people in the word of the Lord by Jeremiah. They had promised to walk in covenant with him, but they had drawn back. Practically this amounted to a declaration that they could not live with him. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.14
Such a manifesto put forth by the actual life of his people was a reproach upon their God. It became proper for him to inquire for the reason of it. Hence the words above quoted: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness?” When they came near to dwell with me, was my presence only a wilderness of desolation? Was it only as sitting down in some sunless clime, some region of the frozen zone where no sunlight returns? Whereas I had promised them green pastures and still, lovely waters, did they find only barren sands - plains and broad sweeps of view, naked of verdure, wherein is no water? How is this? God calls on his people to bear witness if such has been their reception, such their surroundings and supplies in his pastures, and in the fields of his love. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.15
Professed Christian, if thou art a wanderer from God into ways of sinful enjoyment, he asks of thee the reason. Is it that you could find nothing cheerful and satisfying in the life of loving obedience and trust? Has God been a wilderness to your soul? Has the love of your heart to your Lord met no responsive love in return? Has your confiding trust put you to shame with disappointment? What have you to say? If you have any charge to make, the form of this appeal is such that you may properly bring it forward. Bring it out, not too confidently, lest it should be found far other than you think. Subject it to a careful revision, lest it should not bear the light of the searching scrutiny it must have when it comes to the great canvass before Jehovah. Yet bring it forward. Let it be diligently sought out. Cast it into the balances of the sanctuary. Let it be searched under the light of the Saviour’s countenance. Wherein has the Lord dealt ill with thee that thou shouldst have dealt so ungratefully and so falsely towards him? ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.16
It was in the covenant that thou shouldst give him thy heart. Hast thou done it? And if so can it be truly charged that your Lord was still to you as darkness, and shed no light of his love on your soul? It was promised on your part that you would “have Christ’s commandments and keep them;” and then responsively on his - “I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.” Do you propose to show that on your part these covenants have been kept, but not on Christ’s part? This is the precise point to which the word of the Lord by Jeremiah brings you. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.17
Especially it was the genius of that covenant as divinely expressed - “I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not [need to] teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” The spirit of this new covenant is well set forth by Ezekiel’s words: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean.” “A new heart will I give you and a new spirit put within you.” “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.18
Have you taken hold of the promises of this new covenant? If so have they failed you utterly in their fulfillment? Is it not rather you that has failed, in that you have not welcomed these promises to your soul, and sought with all your heart the blessings they pledge to the faith of God’s people? Say, is the failure on the part of the God of this covenant? Has he been a wilderness to you? Wherefore is it that this promised cleansing from sin has so sadly failed of ample and joyous fulfillment? - Ob. Evan. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 35.19
THE REVIEW AND HERALD
“Sanctify them through thy TRUTH; thy word is truth.”
BATTLE CREEK, MICH. THIRD-DAY, DEC. 18, 1860.
“CHRISTIAN SABBATH.”
(Concluded.) ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.1
FINDING that no aid or comfort is furnished in any respect to the Christian Sabbath by Acts 20:7, we proceed to the next text adduced in its behalf, which is 1 Corinthians 16:2: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Upon this Mr. Lee remarks: “From this it is plain that the Christian assemblies were convened on the first day of the week, and that such observance of the day had the apostle’s sanction;” to which we reply that there is no evidence furnished by the text of Christian assemblies, nor that such observance of the day had the sanction of the apostle; for not a word is said about assembling, but about laying by for the poor saints as God had prospered them; and this was not in the contribution box of the congregation, but by each one at his own home. The expression ( ), will admit no other sense. Robinson in his Lexicon of the New Testament, defines this phrase thus, “By or with ones self, in one’s house, at home, French, Chez soi. 1 Corinthians 16:2.” So in John 20:10, the disciples went away, ( ), “unto their own home.” See also Greenfield’s Lexicon, Bloomfield’s Greek Testament, in loco, and Valpy’s do. The old Syriac version renders this passage: “Let every one lay aside and preserve at his own house.” Erasmus (A. D. 1520) paraphrases it: “Upon the first day of the week (that is to say, in the Sunday) let every one of you set aside at home, and lay up as much as he for this purpose thinketh meet.” Tyndale (A. D. 1534) translates it: “Upon some Sunday let every one of you put aside at home and lay up whatsoever he thinketh meet, that there be no gatherings when I come.” The Geneva translation (A. D. 1557) is similar: “Every first day of the week, let every one of you put aside at home,” etc. “The inference deduced from 1 Corinthians 16:2,” says Milton, “is equally unsatisfactory [with that deduced from Acts 21]; for what the apostle is here enjoining is not the celebration of the Lord’s day, but that on the first day of the week (if this be the true interpretation of ( ) each should lay by him, that is at home, for the relief of the poor; no mention being made of any public assembly, or of any collection at such assembly, on that day.” Christ, Doctrine, b.ii chap. 7. “From the last clause in the verse, it has been argued,” says Whitby, that for each “to lay by in store” must signify “to put into a common box his charity; because if they had kept it ‘at home,’ there would have been need of gathering it when the apostle came. But,” he justly replies, “the expression, ( ), ‘let every one place it with himself,’ admits not this sense.” Annotations in loco. In addition to all the above, and agreeing exactly with it, we have two Latin versions, three French, the German of Luther, the Dutch, the Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the Swedish. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.2
This surely is an array of evidence on 1 Corinthians 16:2, sufficient for any mind, be it fair or unfair, prejudiced or unprejudiced, honest or dishonest. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.3
We may remark further that this text like Acts 20:7, not only does not favor the theory of our Sunday friends, but furnishes direct evidence against them: for reviewing the prosperity of the past, and counting up and laying aside gains as the Lord has prospered us is by no means suitable employment for the Sabbath; and this shows that the day devoted to such business could be regarded as no other than secular time. The reason expressed, “that there be no gatherings when I come,” doubtless refers to the collecting necessary for each individual to perform in getting his contribution together (not money exclusively), and having it ready to deliver to the apostle when he should arrive. Paul wanted all this work performed before he came. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.4
It thus appears that those who argue for the “peculiar institution” of Sunday-keeping, are exceedingly unfortunate in seizing the weapon of their defense by the blade instead of the handle. They are unfortunate in springing those mines with a view to blowing up the enemy, which, when discharged, blow up themselves. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.5
Equally disastrous to his own position is the next text which Mr. Lee brings forward in its support, namely, Colossians 2:16: “Let no man, therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days.” On this he remarks: “To what Sabbath does the apostle refer? It cannot be to the Christian Sabbath; for he was speaking of what was enjoined by the law, and that never was. Moreover, the Christian Sabbath was called the Lord’s day and not the Sabbath. It must be then that the apostle refers to the seventh-day Sabbath; and he gives them clearly to understand that they are not morally bound to observe it.” p. 10. How a person, believing in a divinely-appointed weekly Sabbath for this dispensation, one enjoined too by the fourth commandment, could commit such a fatal oversight as to apply Colossians 2:16 to that class of Sabbaths, it is difficult to conceive. For who does not at once perceive that if that text applies at all to the weekly Sabbath, to any Sabbath that ever was, or ever could be supposed to be, enjoined in the fourth commandment, the “Christian Sabbath is as completely swept away by it, as any other? If the apostle by that language gave the disciples to understand that they “were not morally bound to observe” any weekly Sabbath which existed previous to the death of Christ, he as explicitly tells us that we are not morally bound to any such that may have originated since. In his eagerness to demolish the seventh-day Sabbath Mr. Lee here again demolishes his own - like the woodman who ascended a tree to lop off the branches, and stupidly cut off the one on which he was standing. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.6
No-Sabbath men, we are aware, are accustomed thus to wrest this text from its legitimate meaning, and apply the word sabbaths to the weekly Sabbath of the moral law, contrary to the whole context, which, by associating it with meats and drinks, confines it to the yearly and ceremonial sabbaths of the Jews. See Leviticus 23. These ere component parts of that typical and shadowy system; and Paul says that the sabbaths and other things of which he speaks, were shadows of things to come; but the body was of Christ. There was nothing shadowy about the Sabbath instituted in Eden, before the fall, and guarded by the fourth commandment. We were hardly prepared to see a strenuous Sunday-keeper thus deliberately go over to no-Sabbath ground. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.7
And this is the sum of Mr. Lee’s Scripture testimony for the Christian Sabbath. Thus meagre and self-destructive is the evidence he adduces in its favor. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.8
We come now to historical evidence the sum total of which is the following: The expression “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10, and a few extracts from Ignatius, the epistle of Barnabas (!) and Eusebius. We shall detain the reader but a moment on this part of the subject, inasmuch as we need not re-iterate the testimony which has already been frequently presented, and is well embodied in the “History of the Sabbath,” for sale at this Office. Respecting this testimony we will make a few statements, which, if any one questions them, we are prepared to defend at greater length. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.9
By the expression, “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10, John does not tell us what day of the week is meant. The only reasonable conclusion therefore to come to on this text is that that day is the Lord’s day which he openly claims as his. He does thus claim the seventh day. Isaiah 58, Mark 2. He never has thus claimed the first day. In answer to the repeated claim that Sunday was familiarly known as the “Lord’s day,” in the time of John, we reply that no writer of that age applied that title to the first day of the week, till the time of Tertullian, more than one hundred years after the book of Revelation was written. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.10
Ignatius is made to sustain Sunday-keeping by means of a gross fraud. He says nothing about keeping the Lord’s day, as an appeal to the original of his epistle shows. His testimony is about living according to the Lord’s life. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.11
The Epistle of Barnabas is simply a forgery. All writers whose testimony is entitled to any respect admit this. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.12
As for Eusebius, he was a no-Sabbath man, and therefore affords our Sunday-keeping friends no aid in their peculiar theory. He ranks all Sabbath-keeping among the carnal ordinances of the Jews, and not binding on Christians. We tender him as a strong witness that Sunday is not the Sabbath. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.13
We have now followed Mr. Lee through all his fruitless search after evidence for Sunday-keeping either prophetical, preceptive, or historical. One more consideration remains to be noticed and we close. He says that the first day of the week secures all that could be secured by the seventh-day Sabbath. p. 16. So far as the Sabbath is designed merely as a physical blessing to man, this may be true. But this is but half, and by no means the most important half, of the object of the sabbatic institution. The honor of God is concerned in the matter as well as the good of man. Read Isaiah 58:13: If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, etc. But we cannot honor him in Sabbath-keeping unless we keep the very day that he has enjoined upon us, and in the very manner that he has prescribed. No doubt the fire offered by Nadab and Abihu [Leviticus 10], was just as effective in the purposes for which it was used, as the fire from the altar; but it was not the kind prescribed, and God showed his appreciation of such services by consuming them before the people. So far then from securing all the advantages secured by the seventh-day Sabbath, the substitution of Sunday forfeits all the blessings promised to faithful obedience. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.14
To sum up our evidence, we have seen, ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.15
1. That there is no prophetic allusion to a change of the Sabbath. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.16
2. That such a change is wholly uncalled for. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.17
3. That in the very nature of things such a change is impossible, and the institution still exist. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.18
4. That the New Testament contains no hint that Christ or his apostles accomplished any such change. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.19
5. That ecclesiastical history from the first centuries after Christ and onward, contains no evidence for Sunday as a divine institution, but only the melancholy record of the steps by which the heathen festival of the sun, has supplanted the ancient and hallowed institution of Jehovah. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.20
May the Lord of the Sabbath bestow his blessing upon all who are honestly inquiring for the old paths and desiring to walk therein, enable them to see the beauty of his truth and turn their feet into his testimonies, lest they be found among those who are left “without,” when they who “keep his commandments,” according to Revelation 22:14, under the bright escort of angels and the great Captain of their salvation, shall enter through the gates of the city into their everlasting rest. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.21
THE SABBATH
MR. EDITOR: I am seeking light on an important question. It is the subject of the Sabbath. In the position which you hold through the providence of God, you are enabled to accomplish much towards elucidating this question, which, to the minds of many, is obscure. The commandment is plain, but why, I would enquire, has not that commandment been kept by such great and good men as Luther, Whitefield, Wesley, and many others, whom the Lord used as especial instruments in the dissemination of his truth as it is in Jesus? To me it appears most unlikely that such men as the above-mentioned, could, without a good or sufficient reason therefor, ignore as it were, the fourth commandment. I want to keep the commandments. I mean to so do through the grace of God. During the last twenty-two years I have been taught to remember the first day instead of the seventh, apparently in direct violation of the holy word of God. If it be true that I have throughout my whole life so grievously sinned respecting this, may the Lord forgive me, and shed abroad in my beclouded mind light, and enable me to set my face like a flint Zionward, and to turn my feet fully into his testimonies. Much depends upon your reply, if you kindly grant any. If you do notice this, do it as early as possible for I am very anxious concerning it. O for light! I remain your brother in Christ. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.22
HENRY C. BUSBY.
REMARKS. - You say, “The commandment is plain,“ and, that you “want to keep the commandment.” That is a safe position. Hold on where you are, Bro. B., while we take a second view of these reformers. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 36.23
Why the reformers held opinions so unscriptural and various on the Sabbath question probably no one will be able to fully explain. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.1
“As regards the Sabbath, or Sunday” says Luther, “there is no necessity to keep it; but if we do, it ought to be not on account of Moses’ commandment, but because nature teaches us from time to time to take a day of rest.” (Michelet’s Life, Book iv, Chap. 2, as quoted by W. B. Taylor, in his discussion with J. N. Brown.) ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.2
Wesley, on the other hand, teaches the perpetuity of the moral law in a most clear and forcible manner, as you will see by the tract we send you containing extracts from his sermons on the law. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.3
Here are two reformers, Luther and Wesley, taking opposite positions on this question. We cannot follow them both; therefore the teaching and practice of the reformers should have no weight in determining our duty in regard to keeping the commandments of God. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.4
Again, to follow the reformers is to suppose they were exactly right on all points. But in taking such a position we have staring us in the face not only the fact that they differed among themselves, therefore could not all be right, but also another fact, that if Luther was all right on all points of theology, Whitefield and Wesley could not be reformers, but could only enjoy the benefit of the reformation under Martin Luther. We regard Luther, Whitefield and Wesley as great reformers, therefore conclude that God has not laid the great work of reform upon any one man, to be accomplished in his short life time. And why not have a reform as to the Sabbath as well as on other important questions? And is it not possible that this is the very time for it? See Revelation 14:12; 12:17; Isaiah 8:16. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.5
The Lutherans may step with Luther, the Methodists with Wesley, but God’s free-men will go on as the light opens before them from the holy word of God. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.6
We send you also a pamphlet entitled, “Truth Found,” etc., in which you will see that Protestant divines are in confusion on the Sabbath question. As you read, think of what Isaiah says, chap 2:22, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?” Also think of what the wise man has said, Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.7
J. W.
THE JEWS REJECT ENDLESS MISERY
[THE following interesting paragraphs are clipped from a paper published by Universalists. It reveals some important facts concerning the faith of the Jews on a very important point. No one, Jew or Gentile, who understands the letter and spirit of the Old Testament or New, will for a moment believe the idea that God will visit eternal agony on those who fail of heaven. It is an unredeemable dishonor to our compassionate Creator, and some of the greatest and best men since the days of the Apostles have unceasingly cried against it. “Wo to them that utter error against the Lord,” and blessings on the heads of those who teach the truth as it is in Jesus. - C. W. A.] ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.8
One of our partialist papers recently said that the Jews believe in endless punishment. This is not true. The Pharisees in the time of Christ may have believed in endless punishment; we are inclined to think they did. They had been corrupted by the heathen. When Bro. James Shrigley lived in Baltimore, he on one occasion had a visit from the Jewish Rabbi. He sent the following account of the interview to the Trumpet at that time: ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.9
“The Rabbi called at my house, and in a friendly manner commenced inquiries in regard to the belief of Universalists and other denominations of professing Christians. He had not been in this country long, and could not well understand English except in private conversation. He said he had been to hear a Methodist preach, and if he understood the preacher correctly, he stated that the punishment of the wicked would be without end; but he could not believe they entertained such an idea in this enlightened country, and desired to know if it was indeed so. On receiving an affirmative answer, he was greatly surprised. I informed him it was the general opinion, that the Jews believed in endless torments; he replied. “It is done to slander us - what will the Christians say of us next? Do they think we have not sense enough to know that such a punishment would be very unjust - that it could not be according to works? The Bible does not teach us such a doctrine.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.10
I inquired if it were not true that the Pharisees, an ancient sect of the Jews, believed it. He replied, “They did, one sect of them - they borrowed it from the heathen; but the true descendants of Moses never believed in torments without end.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.11
I asked him if he would allow me to state publicly that he did not believe the doctrine in question. He replied, ‘Yes, there is not an intelligent Jew in the city who believes in endless torments. It would be very unjust in God to punish a man to all eternity!’ ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.12
J. S.
On another occasion, Bro. Shrigley was at the house of a sick friend, and in an adjoining room there were seated some Methodist ladies and the wife of a Jewish Rabbi. After Bro. S. had offered a prayer for the sick, the Methodist ladies introduced to the Rabbi’s wife the subject of religion, and spoke of the endless torment of some whom they styled wicked; whereupon the Rabbi’s wife remarked that she could not believe that God would torture any person to all eternity. One of the Methodist ladies inquired, “Why, are you Jews Universalists?” Then the Rabbi’s lady exclaimed with great surprise, “Why, do you think we are all natural fools? I don’t see where you Christians find your endless punishment. You certainly will allow that the Jews understand the Old Testament as well as you do, and we know it does not reveal endless punishment. Your New Testament you call the ‘better covenant;’ now if you are right - if it reveals a state of endless punishment, it must be the worse covenant, for I am sure no such horrid doctrine is found in the Old Testament.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.13
The above facts are worthy of deep consideration. The Jews do not believe in endless punishment; they aver that the Old Testament does not teach that doctrine; and they think it strange, if the New Testament be ‘the better covenant,’ that so cruel a doctrine should have its origin there. Let us save the New Testament from such an imputation. We are as sure that the New Testament does not teach it as the Jew is that the Old Testament does not. In fact, that doctrine is found nowhere in the Bible. - Trumpet. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.14
LITTLE SINS
THE idea has obtained that there are degrees of sin all the way from murder, for instance, down to nothing; that certain actions, though not really proper, are not worthy the notice of God. If some case is mentioned, the reply will be, “O that’s nothing, such little sins are not worth minding.” The careless reader is here requested to pause and point out one place in the Bible that speaks of “little sins” - “sins not worth minding,” or anything like it. When degrees of comparison are used, sin is always called great, grievous, etc. David says, “O Lord pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Psalm 25:11. The Bible throughout holds up sin in its true deformity. No one ever prayed in the Spirit to have their sins pardoned because they were small. It is true that there are degrees of sin, yet no sin is really small. Any act which is a transgression of the law, however small it may appear to men, is sufficient to condemn the transgressor to death, unless he obtain pardon. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.15
For instance, it is supposed to be very innocent to tell a clever falsehood for the sake of playing a trick on another. This is not lying; O no! it is only sport. It is thought to be quite harmless to joke, tell stories, play all manner of games, and have all the fun and sport possible. It is supposed to be nobody’s business how much the mind is occupied with foolish thoughts. It is even looked upon as commendable to get the best end of a bargain by shrewdness and misrepresentation. There are a thousand such things as these that are looked upon as of no importance. But the just demands of an abused law will stare transgressors in the face by and by. Those who will not take heed to their ways now, will be compelled to reflect and to regret when their wine and their revelling have forever ceased. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.16
Scripture testimony will now be produced, and if this meets the eye of any careless one, let him remember that the following passages of scripture and others of like import will stand in array against the sinner at the great judgment day. Many things that are supposed to be of no importance are particularly mentioned in the Bible. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.17
SINS OF COMMISSION
Idle words. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:36. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.18
Foolish thoughts. The thought of foolishness is sin. Proverbs 24:9. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.19
He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth. Proverbs 14:21. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.20
An high look, and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the wicked is sin. Proverbs 21:4. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.21
But if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin. James 2:9. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.22
As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor and saith, Am not I in sport? Proverbs 26:18, 19. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.23
It is as sport to a fool to do mischief. Proverbs 10:23. See also Psalm 109:7; Proverbs 28:9, and many others. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.24
Paul’s conclusion. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.25
SINS OF OMISSION
Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Deuteronomy 15:9. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.26
Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy..... At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it: for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. Deuteronomy 24:14, 15. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.27
Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Judges 5:23. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.28
Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. 1 Samuel 12:23. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.29
Wo unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 23:23; Hebrews 2:1-3. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.30
James’ conclusion. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Chap 9:17. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.31
These are only examples. The word abounds with testimony on this subject. Our words, actions, and thoughts will tell either for or against us in the day of accounts. How careful we ought to live in view of the strict account we must all give by and by. Nothing short of a complete consecration of all to God; nothing less than an entire sanctification of the will, affections and purposes to the will of God will answer his just demands upon us. If the idle words, foolish thoughts, and vain actions of a single year should be written out before us, what a huge scroll it would be! What a catalogue of sin and folly! We should not want to look at it the second time. The heart would sicken and the head would faint. But it is nevertheless the fact that a faithful record of these things is kept in the archives of heaven, and nothing will blot it out but the blood of Jesus Christ in answer to our prayers and confessions. There is no safety outside of the provisions of the gospel therefore turn ye to the Lord and live. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.32
D. HILDRETH.
OPPOSITION
Has a tendency to put those who are worthy of it for the truth’s sake, on their guard, and drive them nearer to the Master, who is able to direct by his word and Spirit, under all manner of trials. Indeed, such seems to be the necessity of opposition, that James is directed to say for the encouragement of the tried: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” Why? Because tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, etc. Peter and John waxed bold under opposition, and many were made confident by Paul’s bonds to “speak the word without fear.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 37.33
Opposition generally brings with it suffering of mind or body, sometimes both. The Captain of our salvation was made “perfect through sufferings.” Let us consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners, lest we be weary and faint in our minds. Says Peter, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” The peace of the child of God is compared to a river; yet how frequently is the ripple, often found in it, in its course towards the great ocean. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.1
JESSE DORCAS.
TIME’S BROAD OCEAN
I STOOD beside an ocean wide,
Twas at the close of day,
And thousands stood on that dark brink,
And fearless launched away.
Among them were the hoary head,
The child, the man of care,
The high and low of every rank,
And thoughtless youth were there.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.2
How strange that they in such frail barks,
Should dare to stem the tide;
And stranger still that they should all
Embark without a guide.
Though false guides many lurked around,
To beckon strangers on,
Who would not own until too late,
That they were going wrong.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.3
Carnal Security was there,
Who boasted of his skill,
And Worldly Honor with his sons,
And obstinate Self-will.
And Pride and Fashion fluttered round,
With many a gaudy show,
And daily led their thousands on,
To wretchedness and woe.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.4
While mists of superstition hid,
The rocks and quicksands there;
And further on their passage lay
The whirlpool of despair.
Still rose before their fancied sight,
Bright scenes and visions fair;
While clamorous shouts and noisy mirth
Rang wildly on the air.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.5
Now just across the billowy sea,
There stood a harbor fair,
Built by the royal King of heaven,
With many mansions there.
And next I saw a famous ship,
Out on the trackless main,
Bravely it stood each swelling surge,
That harbor fair, to gain.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.6
And there were valiant souls on board,
The chosen and the true,
Who for a home on that bright shore,
Had bade their own adieu.
And did they leave the thoughtless crew
Without a warning given,
Thus rushing to the pit below,
With no sweet hope of heaven?
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.7
Oh no! they raised the warning voice,
As loudly they did call,
Make haste, they cried, and come on board,
There’s room enough for all.
Our ship is large and able too
To cross the ocean wide,
All will be safe that stay therein:
We have a skillful Guide.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.8
Mark you those fearful clouds that rise,
They speak of danger near;
You have no covert from the storm,
But we’ve a shelter here.
The way you go leads down to wo,
To darkness and despair,
Nor can you stem the dangerous tide,
You have no pilot there.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.9
O how it pained the tender hearts,
Of their relation dear,
As scoffs and sneers and vile reproach,
Fell frequent on the ear.
But few there were that broke away
And bade their friends adieu,
And hastened on their way with joy,
To join the faithful few.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.10
The mass was left nor would they hear,
But rushing madly on,
The warning died upon the ear,
And the dark night came on.
And loudly did the torrent roar,
Then came the lightnings’ flash,
The thunders pealed from shore to shore,
While the wild surges dashed
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.11
O’er their frail barks, and as they felt
Their strength and courage fail,
Their fruitless shrieks and cries for help,
Were mingled with the gale.
The tempest bursts upon their heads,
And louder thunders roar,
Then in the whirlpool of despair,
They sink to rise no more.
S. ELMER.
Ashfield, Mass.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.12
LETTERS
“Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another.”
From Bro. Fortune
BRO. SMITH: We are told in 1 John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.” John tells us that God’s commandments are not grievous, and if an inspired writer gives his testimony, let us receive it. Let each one of God’s children lift up their heads and rejoice that they have the privilege of living in a time when we hear the sound of the third angel’s message. While the adversary is going over this earth trying to tear down the law of God, each child of God should be careful and build upon the rock. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.13
The interest is gaining ground here through the labors of Brn. Hanners and Caldwell. There has been an addition to the church at this place of three members, and there is a fair prospect for more. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.14
Dear brethren and sisters, pray for us that we may all meet together in that happy land where we shall have the pleasure of beholding him who died that we might have life. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.15
Yours striving for eternal life. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.16
W. H. FORTUNE.
Decatur City, Iowa.
From Bro. Sanborn
BRO. SMITH: I left home Oct. 18, and went to Lodi, Columbia Co., where Brn. Loughborough and Steward hold their second tent-meeting. I spoke seventeen times, and baptized nine, and organized a church of fourteen members. There are a few others there who we hope will yet go with God’s people to Mt. Zion. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.17
Nov. 21, in company with Bro. Ingraham I went from Lodi to Mauston. The uncontrollable spirit of fanaticism which we there met, Bro. White has already spoken of in his report of that meeting. I fully endorse his report, believing that there was good cause for him to have spoken much more pointedly than he did. I hope that the persons under that influence will yet turn to the right way, and go with the body of which Jesus is the head. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.18
From Mauston I went to the conference at Marquette. I remained there and preached two weeks. Some were thrown into doubts and fears from the reports from Mauston; but God gave me great liberty in talking to them, and made his truth powerful. The last Sabbath that I was there I organized a church of thirty-one members. In the evening we met to celebrate the ordinances of the Lord’s house, and after we had humbled ourselves in the ordinances of John 13, while also many spirited, cheering testimonies were borne, we partook of those emblems which show our Lord’s death till he comes. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.19
On first-day I spoke from Matthew 5:5, on the inheritance of the saints, after which we went down to the lake where the brethren had cut away the ice, and I baptized four sisters who had become convinced that immersion was the only true baptism. This church fully adopted the plan of Systematic Benevolence, and also appointed a meeting to elect their trustees who may lawfully hold their meeting-house. If they will be believing and faithful God will be with them and bless them, and add to their number such as shall be saved. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.20
From that place I went to Lodi and preached Sabbath and first-day, Dec. 1 and 2. Quite a number of the brethren and sisters met with us from Hundred Mile Grove. Here also we partook of the ordinances and had a good meeting. This church has also adopted the plan of Systematic Benevolence. Both these churches have accepted the name of Seventh-day Adventists, believing it to be a proper name. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.21
Last night, Dec. 3, I reached home much worn and tired, and my lungs much irritated, as I labored most of the time while gone under a severe cold. Brethren and sisters, I ask an interest in your prayers that I may speedily recover, and again be found in the great harvest-field. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.22
ISAAC SANBORN.
Monroe, Green Co., Wis.
P.S. In behalf of the churches in Wisconsin I invite Bro. and Sr. White, and Bro. Loughborough to come and hold a few conferences in this State next spring as Bro. White has proposed in Review No. 2, Vol. xvii, on condition that the churches will pledge themselves to bear their expenses. Will not the elders or deacons of the several churches speak on this point in behalf of the church to which they belong immediately? ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.23
I. S.
From Bro. Rogers
BRO. SMITH: Permit me through your paper to say to the dear brethren and sisters that we are still striving to live in obedience to the commands of our heavenly Father. We are all alone as yet in this place, having none of like precious faith with whom we can meet, still we are encouraged to go on, feeling that we are in the good and right way, still hoping and praying that we may be the humble instruments in the hands of God of leading some to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. I have been from home most of the time this summer, and have worked five days in the week. Many that I have talked with were willing to admit that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but still they keep first-day because it is Sunday, or as some others say, the Christian Sabbath, and that is all they seem to know or care about it. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.24
I want the assurance that my ways please God, and then come what will I feel safe relying on the righteousness of Jesus, who has said, If ye love me, keep my commandments. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.25
Dear brethren, I feel that we are living in the last days, and while I look around and see many living careless and indifferent in regard to their souls’ eternal welfare, I feel admonished to live near the bleeding side of my Saviour, and to set godly examples before all with whom I have to do, and strive to exert an influence that shall tell for God, to all around; and my prayer to God is that I may so live that I may at last stand with the remnant on mount Zion. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.26
We have no Seventh-day Advent preaching in this place, consequently the Review is all the preaching we have of that kind. There are a great many church members here, and quite a number that style themselves Adventists; but very little vital piety is manifested among either class of professors. It does seem if some of the preaching brethren could come here there might be a work started. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.27
Brethren and sisters, pray for me and my family that we may live in such a way as to meet at last in our Father’s kingdom, there to praise him forever. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.28
Yours in hopes of the soon coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body and fashion it like unto his most glorious body; and then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.29
“O glorious day! O blessed hope!
It lifts the fainting spirit up,
When in that happy, happy land,
We’ll no more take the parting hand.”
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.30
Praise God for the prospect! ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.31
C. L. ROGERS.
From Sister Reid
BRO. SMITH: Having of late commenced to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, I feel a deep interest in those who are endeavoring to show by a well ordered life and a godly conversation, that they have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our sympathies are extended to those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, and request of them that they pray earnestly for the few in Lodi who have taken this stand, that we come off more than conquerors through Jesus. We are few in number, for opposition is strong, and even some that seemed convinced when the tent was here, are now most bitter against us, and taunt us as being Jews, Mormons, etc., so that some who covenanted to keep the Sabbath have never fulfilled their vow. But we trust that good seed has been sown and taken root and springs upward. Our earnest desire is that we may grow in grace, and continue steadfast in the truth, and be delivered from all error and everything that would injure the progress of the truth, for those who shall be counted worthy to enter into the New Jerusalem must be pure and holy. Knowing all these things our desire is to enjoy more and more of the indwelling Spirit of God. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 38.32
I wish to make one inquiry: Do the messengers that are proclaiming the third angel’s message, and the Seventh-day Adventists, believe and teach that the keeping of the Sabbath is the ground of a sinner’s hope, without the glorious gospel, good news, glad tidings? The commission was to preach the gospel to every creature. Sometimes we hear of justification by faith alone. Luther lifted his powerful voice against works as a sinner’s hope. But faith is not the gospel. Having faith in Jesus we are strong in the Lord; and saving faith will enable us to do our Father’s will. As the result, works will follow. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.1
CECILIA D. REID.
Lodi, Wis.
NOTE. As touching our sister’s query, our position is well defined in the extract from Watson in another column, headed, “More Testimony.” - ED. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.2
From Bro. Pike
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I have sometimes thought that I should like to write to you, and let you know how good the Lord has been to me; but when I look at my own heart and see my weakness and unworthiness, I am led to say, Lord, help or I can do nothing. This is my cry when I get into trouble. I believe the Lord is not slack to help in time of need. It has been between eight and nine months since I began to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and I have never yet been sorry that I started to go with the company who are so much despised by the world. It makes me think what our dear Saviour said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” I believe if faithful we shall soon be free from every foe; and even now we are not without a Friend who is able and willing to protect us. The psalmist David said, “I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” Again, “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” O how good the Lord is! I do want to be one of the happy number who can say in the day of his coming, “This is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us.” Brethren, pray for your unworthy brother earnestly desiring to be a perfect overcomer. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.3
C. N. PIKE.
Jamaica, Vt.
Extracts from Letters
Sister F. Hall writes from Swan Creek, Ohio. Dec. 11, 1860: “I feel to thank the Lord for the goodness and mercy shown to me and my husband, in revealing to us the light of the present truth. O the beauty there is in the harmony of the Scriptures! My heart thrills with love to my heavenly Father that we were led by him to see and believe the truth. Praise the Lord! his mercy endureth forever to those that fear and love his name. I can hardly find words to express the feelings that I had when I heard the truth preached by Brn. Waggoner and Butler. May the Lord bless them for their labors in Delta. I have a great deal to overcome, feel my own weakness in serving the Lord, but I can truly say that I feel like pressing my way onward.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.4
Sister E. Degarmo writes from Parish, N. Y.: “I am still striving for eternal life by obeying the truth. I have had a severe conflict with the dark foe, yet Jesus has given me the victory. I am determined to gain the inheritance by obeying all the commandments and walking in all the truth. When I learned of the tent meeting in Marquette, I felt to pray earnestly that a dear sister in the flesh and her family might receive the truth. My prayer has been answered; and they are now keeping the commandments of God. Let us double our diligence, dear brethren and sisters, and cast in our mite into the treasury, that the work may go on and not be hindered for the want of means.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.5
Bro. H. St. John writes from Ayersville, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1860: BRO. SMITH: “We feel thankful for the Review. It is indeed cheering to hear from the dear saints scattered abroad and the progress of the glorious truth; cheering to hear of victories the truth is gaining in different parts. The victories of truth are not like those of war, for the former derives its highest lustre from the number of the saved, instead of the lost.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.6
Bro. D. F. Moore writes from Bridgewater, Mich.: “We should be glad to have any of the preaching brethren call on us. We live three and a half miles from Clinton, on the Clinton and Jackson road, and about the same from Manchester. We would meet them at either depot. We live one mile from the townhouse. Present truth has never been preached in this vicinity. We know of none of like faith nearer than Saline. Brethren traveling from Jackson to Adrian pass our door. We are still striving for the faith once delivered to the saints, and hoping the Lord will raise up a band of commandment-keepers here.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.7
Sister L. Priest writes from Clinton, Mass.: “We still believe that the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus is the present truth. We are satisfied that we are not in the place we should be. Our faith is not in lively exercise. Our hearts are cold to what they should be. We are sure the enemy has bound us with strong fetters, and fain would keep us down, desponding and discouraged; but we call to mind the former days when we were illuminated. We remember different periods of time when for months we have had the assurance day by day that we were striving to do the will of God. When we visited our closets (which was often), it seemed like holding communion with a friend face to face. We sigh to be there again, satisfied that a past experience without a daily, living experience will avail us nothing in the things of God now. Our daily cry is, Create within us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.8
“O how I long to be cleansed from every secret sin! While reading Spiritual Gifts, Vol. ii, I have felt deeply the importance of being a whole-hearted Christian. If pure love for Jesus prompts us to action, we shall have help to double our diligence; if any other motive actuates us, we shall fall. I feel ashamed, that after Jesus has done so much for me, I am so lukewarm and indifferent in his service, so often distrust his goodness, when he has been so merciful to me. He has once more condescended to answer the earnest cries of his people in my behalf. My life is spared and I am enjoying a comfortable degree of health. Of all his creatures I feel that none have more reason to love and serve him with their undivided affections than myself. The Lord helping me I am resolved to continue to search my heart, make thorough work, and if possible, be among the spotless ones when Jesus comes. O who will stand the trying test! who will endure to the end! Clean hands and pure hearts. O Jesus, make me pure and spotless, fit to stand the grand review. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.9
The church in this vicinity are in a low, discouraged condition, but there are some hearts sighing for a deeper work of grace, knowing this to be the only way for the church to arise. We are glad to hear of the prosperity of different churches in the West, and for the union that seems to exist among the brethren. Our earnest prayer is that God will bless and prosper those laboring in this great work. By and by the victory will be won, and they will reap a rich reward. Every sacrifice of time, strength, feelings, all are remembered. I expect all who engage in this great work who faint not, will have crowns with many stars as their reward.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.10
Bro. J. Dorcas writes from Tipton, Iowa, Dec. 5th: “My hope is still in the living God that made heaven and earth. I still hope and am undismayed. During the last few months, necessary cares and duties have pressed us down, so that we could not get far from home, either for our own, or the good of any one else. But thank God we have come to easier breathing, and are determined to be very active in all the duties of a living Christian. Last Sabbath we spent with the church at Lisbon, and are happy to say that with but little exception we found them manfully at their post; and best of all, in a growing and advancing state. O how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.11
“It is over six years since we were first permitted to hear and understand “present truth,” and I feel to praise God that we have not lost our interest, but that it has been growing. Our attachment to the Review and Herald Office during the past six years has become such as cannot be easily broken.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.12
Bro. C. W. Stanley writes from Hundred Mile Grove, Wis.: “Bro. Sanborn came here Dec. 1st with meat in due season, while we were in trial from the report of the Mauston conference. He gave us a full explanation, and showed us the necessity of immediate action in rebuking fanaticism in the church; so now we have great reason to rejoice that the Lord will keep his own church pure, and though we are sometimes permitted to have a trial of our faith, we feel willing to kiss the rod, and ask for strength to overcome the still greater trials that we expect soon to be called to pass through. The church in Lodi feel that Brn. White, Ingraham and Sanborn were directed of the Lord in the Mauston and Marquette conferences.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.13
Bro. P. Shell writes from Pottersburgh, Mich.: “There are five here who are trying to keep the Sabbath of the Lord our God. We have never heard any of your preachers; our only encouragement is our Bibles and the Review. Our prayer is, O that the Lord would send us a strong and faithful messenger to proclaim his truth. We read frequent accounts of your traveling preachers, and have often wished some of them would come this way. We cannot say how they would be received and encouraged, but Advent preachers expect to meet with opposition and discouragements.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.14
Bro. D. Richmond writes from Key Stone, Mich.: “Our little company were much strengthened by Bro. Bates’ visit. We want to know the truth, obey it, and go up to the city with the remnant.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.15
OBITUARY
OUR dear babe - the fourth son - John Herbert White, died Dec. 14th, twelve weeks and one day old. Painful to witness the sufferings of the child for near four weeks - painful to have it buried from our sight - but it sleeps in Oak Hill Cemetery till the coming of the Life-Giver. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.16
Being disappointed of a speaker for the occasion, we spoke to a large assembly of our brethren and neighbors from Jeremiah 31:15-17. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.17
JAMES WHITE.
FELL asleep in Jesus Nov. 21st, at the residence of Bro. James L. Syp. two miles south east of Afton, Iowa, sister E. Brinkerhoof, companion of Bro. Wm. H. Brinkerhoof, aged twenty-six years and eleven months. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.18
Her disease was consumption. She suffered about eight months, and at times her body was intensely racked with pain. She looked forward to a world where sin will not abound, and died triumphing in the hope of the gospel. Our brother has lost a tender companion. May the Lord be with him, comfort and strengthen him in his lonely hours, and may his be a sphere of usefulness in winning souls to Christ. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.19
The writer spoke a few words of comfort from 1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.20
“Asleep in Jesus! O how sweet
To be for such a slumber meet:
With holy confidence to rest,
In hope of being ever blest.”
WM. HEATON.
ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.21
Solemnity befits the subject of religion. In itself it is a solemn thing to prepare to meet God. God is a holy being; heaven is a holy place; and its inhabitants holy beings. But when we consider the awful situation of the world around, and the judgment impending; when we consider the impiety of the nominal Christianity of the day, and the perils, and dangers, and trials of the chosen people of God; when we consider the decisive nature of the present work of our great High Priest, and the distinctness of the third message, as the last to man, and the nearness of the glorious advent; in view of these things, who would not be solemn? ARSH December 18, 1860, page 39.22
THE REVIEW AND HERALD
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, DEC. 18. 1860
MORE TESTIMONY
IT is granted that no one can be saved by the Law while he obeys not the gospel. And it is equally impossible that any one should be saved by the Gospel, while he obeys not the Law. The Law condemns those who disobey the Gospel, and the Gospel condemns those who obey not the Law. They are in perfect harmony. They unite and center in the same object.... ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.1
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS contained in the law of Moses are incorporated into the very system of the Gospel. A system excluding the ten commandments would be a mere shadow. It could not be called a Gospel system. The word gospel signifies good news, but what good news would there be in a system which should exclude the ten commandments? ... ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.2
The Law therefore will not kill men in opposition to the Gospel; neither will the Gospel save men in opposition to the Law. - Samuel Watson, A. M., 1814. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.3
SPECIAL NOTICE
WE now design to commence printing another edition of our Hymn Book about the first of January 1861. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.4
We wish to improve the Hymn Book as much as possible, therefore invite all who feel interested in having a good book to ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.5
1. Point out what defect they see in our present hymns and music, and, ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.6
2. Send to the Office those choice hymns and pieces of music they may have which are not in our Hymn Book. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.7
3. Let this be done before the first of January, otherwise it will be of no use. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.8
4. Find no fault with the new Hymn Book if you neglect this notice. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.9
J. W.
Resignation
BRO. SMITH: I will be thankful for the privilege of saying through the Review, to my Advent Sabbath-keeping brethren and sisters, that as I have so poorly filled the office of a good minister of Jesus Christ, in my ministration of the third angel’s message in the church of God, during eleven years past, I do this day resign this holy office, and retire from my public labors, to a more humble relation to the church with which I have been associated, and whom I still love devotedly. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.10
S. W. RHODES.
Hubbardsville, N. Y., Dec. 8, 1860.
DAILY DUTIES
SUM up at night what thou hast done by day; ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.11
And in the morning what thou hast to do. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.12
Dress and undress thy soul. Watch the decay And growth of it. If with thy watch, that too Be down, then wind up both. Since we shall be ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.13
Most surely judged, make thy accounts agree. [Herbert. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.14
APPOINTMENTS
Monterey Conference. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.15
DEAR BRO. AND SR. WHITE: By request of the brethren here we invite you to hold a Conference with us in Monterey, Sabbath and first-day, commencing Dec. 28, at 6 P. M. As it is, or probably will be, cold weather, we hope those who can conveniently, will bring bedding with them. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.16
Yours in love. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.17
JOSEPH BATES.
Providence permitting, we will be at the Monterey conference. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.18
JAMES WHITE.
Wright Conference
BRO. WHITE: You are hereby informed that at a meeting of the church held on the first first-day of this month, the following resolution was passed: ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.19
Resolved, That we invite Bro. and sister White, Bro. Frisbie, and such others as it may be possible to obtain, for the purpose of holding a conference in Wright as soon as practicable. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.20
JAMES SAWYER, Secretary.
Providence permitting, we will go from Monterey to Wright, and hold a conference, January 5th and 6th, 1861. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.21
JAMES WHITE.
Providence permitting, I will meet with the church at Round Grove, Ills., the last Sabbath and first-day in December. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.22
Also, I will meet with the church at Princeville, Ills., the first Sabbath and first-day in January, 1861. I hope to see the brethren from Galva, Southampton, Mt. Hawley and vicinity at this meeting. Brethren, we have got the truth, and come, praying that the God of truth will meet with us. WM. S. INGRAHAM. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.23
WE wish to say through the Review that the brethren and sisters at Parkville, Mich., request a conference at their place commencing Jan. 11, at 6 P. M. We invite brethren J. N. Loughborough, J. H. Waggoner, J. White, J. Byington, and as many more as can come to labor with us. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.24
And we would extend a cordial invitation to all of like precious faith to attend this conference. Brethren and sisters, come one come all with praying spirits that the Lord may revive his work in our midst. We will accommodate all that will come with such fare as we have ourselves. Teams will be at Three Rivers on Friday to convey to the place of meeting all that may come on the Southern railroad. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.25
In behalf of the church, ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.26
H. KEENEY.
A. HAFER.
By request of the Parkville Church, their conference is postponed to Jan. 11th. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.27
J. N. L.
Providence permitting, I will meet with the church in Marshall, Sabbath, Dec. 22, and commence public lectures evening after the Sabbath, and continue as long as thought best. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.28
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Business Department
Business Notes
A. S. Hutchins: In one of your October letters you ordered Spiritual Gifts sent to L. Bean and J. Parks, and sent the pay for both. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.29
J. H. Cottrell: We do not find L. Coruth’s name at Clarence, and do not remember where his paper was sent. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.30
J. Sisley: Bro. Loughborough will hand you your books when he arrives at your place. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.31
F. Moorman: The money was received, and you will find it receipted in No. 12, Vol. viii, of the INSTRUCTOR, which you have doubtless received ere this. Money for the INSTRUCTOR being receipted in the INSTRUCTOR, and that sheet being issued only once a month, is the reason you did not hear from your remittance sooner. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.32
P. A. Rockwell: Where has Emily Rockwell’s paper been sent? ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.33
Receipts
FOR REVIEW AND HERALD
Annexed to each receipt in the following list, is the Volume and Number of the REVIEW AND 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 December 18, 1860, page 40.34
H. W. Brown 1,00,xvii,1. C. Smith 2,00,xviii,1. C. Smith (for T. Smith) 0,50,xvii,1. H. A. Mead 1,00,xviii,1. Wm. Bryant 1,00,xviii,1. E. Kellogg 1,50,xix,14. L. H. Priest 1,00,xviii,1. T. Hale 1,00,xix,1. T. Hale (for E. H. Clark) 2,80,xviii,1. Wm. W. Osborne 1,00,xx,1. H. Irish 2,00,xvii,14. Mrs. C. M. Cotay 1,00,xviii,1. J. H. Cottrell 1,00,xvii,1. J. Sisley (for Wm. Scott) 0,50,xviii,5. J. Downs 0,50,xviii,5. P. Markillie 1,00,xviii,1. C. P. Finch 1,00,xvii,18. H. Loveland 1,00,xviii,5. E. Rowley 1,00,xii,14. Z. Brooks 1,00,xviii,1. S. Warner 1,00,xviii,1. J. Cady 1,00,xviii,1. C. Fleming 0,50,xviii,1. N. E. Spencer 1,00,xviii,1. S. Peckham 1,00,xviii,1. Maria Fifield 2,00,xix,1. J. Hall 1,00,xvi,16. Geo. Kimble 2,00,xviii,1. J. Kimble 1,00,xviii,1. J. Lunger 3,00,xix,1. J. M. Wilkinson 1,75,xix,1. Mrs. S. Spicklemire 0,50,xviii,5. M. B. Smith 0,50,xvii,14. J. R. Lewis 3,00,xviii,1. J. R. Lewis (for A. G. Bogardus) 1,50,xvi,7. Mrs. Hannah Watkins 0,75,xvii,1. S. T. Belden, (for A. Belden), 1,00,xviii,1. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.35
FOR REVIEW TO POOR. Betsey Bryant $1,00. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.36
FOR MISSIONARY PURPOSES. - F. B. Miller $1,50. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.37
PUBLICATIONS
| Supplement and Addition to Hymn Book. | 35 cts. |
| ” in paper covers | 25 ” |
| Sabbath Tracts, Nos. 1-4. This work presents a condensed view of the entire Sabbath question, | 15 ” |
| The Three Angels of Revelation 14:6-12, particularly the Third Angel’s Message, and the Two-horned Beast, | 15 ” |
| Hope of the Gospel, or immortality the gift of God, | 15 ” |
| Which? Mortal or Immortal? or an inquiry into the present constitution and future condition of man, | 15 ” |
| Modern Spiritualism; its Nature and Tendency. This book should be in the hands of every family, as a warning against Spiritualism, | 15 ” |
| The Kingdom of God. A refutation of the doctrine called Age to Come, | 15 ” |
| Pauline Theology, or the Christian Doctrine of Future Punishment, as taught in the epistles of Paul, | 15 ” |
| The Atonement, | 15 ” |
| Prophecy of Daniel. The Four Universal Kingdoms, The Sanctuary and Twenty-three Hundred days, | 10 ” |
| The Saints’ Inheritance. The Immortal Kingdom located on the New Earth, | 10 ” |
| Signs of the Times, showing that the Second Coming of Christ is at the door, | 10 ” |
| Law of God, The Testimony of both Testaments, showing its origin and perpetuity, | 10 ” |
| Vindication of the true Sabbath by J. W. Morton, late Missionary to Hayti, | 10 ” |
| Review of Springer on the Sabbath, Law of God and first day of the week, | 10 ” |
| Facts for the Times. Extracts from the writings of eminent authors Ancient and Modern, | 10 ” |
| Miscellany. Seven tracts in one book on the Second Advent and the Sabbath, | 10 ” |
| The Seven Trumpets. The Sounding of the Seven Trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9, | 10 ” |
| Assistant. The Bible Student’s Assistant, or a compend of Scripture references, | 5 ” |
| Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment - Apostasy and Perils of the Last Days, | 5 ” |
| Truth Found. A Short Argument for the Sabbath with an appendix, “The Sabbath not a type,“ | 5 ” |
| An Appeal for the restoration of the Bible Sabbath in an Address to the Baptists, | 5 ” |
| Review of Crozier on the Institution, Design and Abolition of the Seventh-day Sabbath, | 5 ” |
| Review of Fillio - A reply to a series of discourses delivered by him in Battle Creek, on the Sabbath question, | 5 ” |
| The Fate of the Transgressor, or a Short Argument on the First and Second Deaths, | 5 ” |
| Brown’s Experience in relation to Entire Consecration and the Second Advent, | 5 ” |
| Report of General Conference held in Battle Creek, June 3-6, Address on Systematic Benevolence, etc., | 5 ” |
| Sabbath Poem. A Word for the Sabbath, or False Theories Exposed, | 5 ” |
| Illustrated Review. A Double Number of the REVIEW AND HERALD illustrated, | 5 ” |
| Spiritual Gifts Vol. 1, or the Great Controversy between Christ and his angels, and Satan and his angels, | 50 “ |
| Spiritual Gifts Vol. 2. Experience, Views and Incidents in connection with the Third Message, | 50 “ |
| Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment. An Argument by H. H. Dobney, Baptist Minister of England, | 75 ” |
| Debt and Grace as related to the Doctrine of Future Punishment, by C. F. Hudson, | 100 “ |
| Voice of the Church on the Coming and Kingdom of the Redeemer. A History of the doctrine, | 100 “ |
PENNY TRACTS. Who Changed the Sabbath? - Unity of the Church - Spiritual Gifts - Judson’s Letter on Dress - Law of God, by Dobney (2 cts.) - Law of God by Wesley - Appeal to men of reason on Immortality - Much in Little - Truth - Death and Burial - Preach the Word. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.38
These small Tracts can be sent, post-paid, in packages of not less than twenty-five. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.39
Home Here and Home in Heaven, with other poems. This work embraces all those sweet and Scriptural poems written by Annie R. Smith, from the time she embraced the third angel’s message till she fell asleep in Jesus. Price 25 cents. In paper covers, 20 cents. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.40
The Chart. A Pictorial Illustration of the Visions of Daniel and John 20 by 25 inches. Price 15 cts. On rollers, post-paid 75 cts. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.41
German. Das Wesen des Sabbaths und unsere Verpflichtung auf ihn nach dem Vierten Gebote. A Tract of 80 pp., a Translation of Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. Price 10 cents. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.42
Holland. De Natuur en Verbinding van den Sabbath volgens het vierde Gebodt. Translated from the same as the German. Price 10 cents. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.43
French. Le Sabbat de la Bible. A Tract on the Sabbath of 32 pp. Price 5 cents. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.44
La Grande Statue de Daniel II, et les Quatre Betes Symboliques et quelques remarques sur la Seconde Venue de Christ, et sur le Cinquieme Royaume Universel. A Tract of 32 pp. on the Prophecies. Price 5 cents. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.45
These Publications will be sent by Mail, post-paid, at their respective prices. One-third discount by the quantity of not less than $5 worth. In this case, postage added when sent by Mail. All orders to insure attention, must be accompanied with the cash, unless special arrangements be made. Give your Name, Post Office, County and State distinctly. Address REVIEW & HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich. ARSH December 18, 1860, page 40.46