Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, vol. 14
November 3, 1859
RH VOL. XIV.-BATTLE CREEK, MICH., FIFTH-DAY,-NO. 24
Uriah Smith
ADVENT REVIEW,
AND SABBATH HERALD.
“Here is the Patience of the Saints; Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.”
VOL. XIV.-BATTLE CREEK, MICH., FIFTH-DAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1859.-NO. 24.
THE REVIEW AND HERALD
IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY
AT BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
BY 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.
Terms.-ONE DOLLAR IN ADVANCE FOR A VOLUME OF 26 NOS. All communications, orders and remittances for the REVIEW AND HERALD should be addressed to URIAH SMITH, Battle Creek, Mich. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.1
“COME UNTO ME.”
“Come unto me:” Oh, hear the gentle call
Which Jesus makes, so full, so free for all;
Not one of all mankind need e’er despair;
All, all are urged this precious boon to share.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.2
All ye who labor and are laden, come.”
Ye are the souls for whom I’ll find a home;
Ye who of earthly joys have had no share,
Come unto me, your wants shall be my care.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.3
I’ll give you rest”-Oh, precious is that rest,
To live with Thee and be for ever blest;
No more of life’s fatigues, or cares, or woes
Shall rouse us from that sweet, that sure repose.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.4
“My yoke upon you take and learn of me:” Saviour, with gladness would we bear for thee What thou hast borne for us, and not repine: Our cross will be but light, compared with thine. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.5
I’m meek and low of heart.” Full well we know,
Dear Jesus, what thou sufferedst below:
The manger, where reposed thy infant head:
And Calvary, where for man thy blood was shed.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.6
My yoke is easy,” fear not it to wear;
“My burden light,” nor hard is it to bear.
Saviour, we know that, filled with thy pure love,
Our cross will lightened be by God above.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.7
Then while with outstretched arms thou bid’st us come
To those blest mansions, our eternal home,
Jesus, with rapture we accept thy call,
And raise our songs to thee, the “Lord of all.”
[D. S. R.-Am. Messenger.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.8
WARNING TO WATCHFULNESS
(Concluded.) ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.9
Luke 12:35, 36, 40. “Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” “Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.10
Romans 13:11. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to wake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.11
The salvation here referred to must be that which awaits the Christian at his Lord’s coming. In view of the nearness of this perfect salvation, and the dawn of that day which shall reveal Christ from the parted skies, the apostle urges his brethren to awake out of sleep, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.12
1 Corinthians 1:7, 8. “So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.13
1 Thessalonians 5:4. Please read the whole chapter, and obey its instructions. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.14
2 Thessalonians 3:5. “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.15
Hebrews 9:28. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.16
No man, in the scripture sense, can be looking for Christ, who is not from his soul, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,” and living in view of the Lord’s coming. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.17
James 5:7, 8. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.18
Here the character of a real Christian is portrayed. Amid the wrongs and cruelties which the innocent and harmless suffer, it might be natural for him to feel a little impatience to have these grievances redressed by the great Arbiter in person. But he is to be patient and to continue a calm and steadfast confidence in the God of justice, assured that the Lord’s coming draweth nigh. To multitudes, at the present day, this advice is quite superfluous; they are more concerned for a guilty world than they are for the insulted and outraged government of God. But, praised be God, there are some to whom the apostle’s caution is seasonable. Brethren, be patient; do not feel like hastening the divine movements, or to have Christ come merely to save you from the chagrin which you might be expected to feel if he does not come as you expect. Others have waited for this event longer than we have. Millions of saints, who have fallen asleep in Jesus, are waiting as well as ourselves. The prize hung up for us in heaven’s palace is well worthy the exercise of long patience and toil. Let us fill up every moment with duty and diligence, that we may at last receive from the lips of our King, the “Well done, good and faithful servant!” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.19
1 Peter 4:7. “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.20
2 Peter 3:12. “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heart.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.21
Looking for and hasting, or earnestly desiring and reaching forward unto, the coming of the day of God. Yes, brethren, we will do it, though all the hosts of Satan be let loose upon us, and though his sympathizers here charge us with want of pity for those who are to be the sufferers by this, to the wicked, awful catastrophe. If it be right to obey man rather than God, judge ye. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.22
John, who has recorded the principal, grand events which were to occur between his and the closing-up scenes of the last day, has interspersed similar hints and warnings, as in Revelation 3:3. “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” And again, Revelation 16:15. “Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.23
Such are some of the numerous calls and warnings to the Christian to watchfulness with respect to Christ’s second, glorious appearing. They are calls from the highest authority-calls from which no man may with safety turn away. Now, in view of them, we ask-and we ask with emphasis-Where is the professed church of Christ at this moment? You say Christ is your Master. How dare you, then, withhold your obedience to his plain demands? How can those get away from such imperious commands, who have heretofore maintained, with such commendable pertinacity, that the Bible must be our sole guide in all questions of duty or opinion? Where are those who have expressed their abhorrence of all mere tradition, and have contended so manfully for a rigid reference to the pure and unadulterated word of God, honestly, fully and faithfully translated, even to the smallest preposition, and yet, with the Bible fairly teeming with the great truth of Christ’s and his saints’ final glory, and the cautionary advice, found on so many of its pages, to watch and prepare for it-are folding their hands in apathy on both this fact and this duty? where those who can see everything else in the Bible but the Lord’s coming, and the duty to watch for that coming? where those who can so grossly outrage every principle of rational freedom and scripture truth, as to make it heresy worthy of church expulsion either to preach, exhort, pray or sing about the Lord’s coming, and who dare to demand confessions of those who have believed, from a prayerful study of God’s word, that Christ is coming immediately? Where are they? Not in the pope’s chair, nor in the cardinal’s office, nor in the bosom of the mother of harlots; but in our own free, indulgent, and kind-hearted Protestant churches, whose care first gave direction to our infant steps, and whose arms have so long enclosed us from the perils of the way. O, let maternal profession blush, and repent! her children have not lost all affection for the erring parent, nor all sensibility, reason and religion. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.24
But let us deduce a few observations from the parables and precepts which teach the duty of watchfulness with respect to Christ’s second coming. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.25
We observe, first, The grounds of our final acceptance with God are thus clearly seen to depend upon our watchfulness with reference to Christ’s appearing. I would not introduce any forced inferences from these texts; but I ask if this is not one which is plainly and fairly inferable. We find in them no allusion made to former frames of mind or feeling; no allowance for past vigilance or service; no intimation of the “elect” as exonerated from this duty, or saved in its violation. Those alone are seen to gain admittance to the great wedding, who have made themselves ready for the entertainment. To love Christ’s appearing, and to hold one’s self in readiness for it, is certainly indispensable. Blame us not, then, if we put this matter on the same ground as did the great Teacher and his apostles; we do not aspire to the judgment seat; let God be the judge. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.26
We observe, second, The sacredness of a strict and literal observance of the duty enjoined. Mark, it is watching with special reference to the coming of Christ bodily, visibly, gloriously. It is an act, and not a mere state of mind, which is required. Hence, he who amends or substitutes this duty for another is guilty of adding to and taking from the words of the book of this prophecy, and must hold himself answerable at the proper tribunal. Christ and his apostles have decided what shall be believed, regarded, and preached. They undoubtedly selected the strongest motive that could be brought to bear upon the human conscience; and reason as well as experience has proved the wisdom of their choice. The occurrence of death is but a single circumstance; the advent brings with it all other events. Death does not lead us at once to the judgment; the advent does. Death chills and terrifies; but the advent warms, and inspires, and elates. When the mind contemplates death, it seizes hold of this particular event, and there measurably pauses; from its very nature, it cannot be so intensely affected and convulsed by that which is remote as by that which is near. What says observation? the question has been fairly tested. With the first stories of the nursery, to the very last teachings of the pulpit, we have been fed with cries of “Death! death!” Our friends and neighbors have been swept off with pestilence, with the flames, and buried by hundreds in the angry deep; and funeral prayers and sermons have been said over their lifeless bodies. But what has it all availed? How few have had these visitations of heaven, or the warnings which have followed them, blessed to their conversion! Not so with the proclamation of Christ’s coming; the possibility of his sudden coming has almost electrified the earth from pole to pole. Again: will the prospect of the grave comfort the saint under his present trials? Never. But the Lord’s coming will be a healing panacea for every affliction. But are those, who pretend that a preparation for death is all-sufficient, prepared themselves for that event? are they watching for death? Let their business, their cares, their conversation, their devotions, their life, make the answer. “But it is not essential to know about the Lord’s coming.” Well, satisfy yourselves with flying to this subterfuge, if you will; obedience is essential. Essential! but are we to contend for no truth, unless that truth involves an essential in religion? How easy it would be, on this principle, to pare down the whole word of God to a system of non-essentials! Some of us can appreciate this “not essential” doctrine. But hark: the objector’s words indicate a bad heart; he is certainly striving “to climb up some other way.” Let him beware, lest his non-essentials land him where hope and mercy can never reach him. Friends, if you go contrary to your convictions of duty, and to the plain declarations of God’s word,-if you resist the light which is flashing into your mind on this or any other doctrine of Scripture,-you are entirely welcome to your prospects for eternity; for one, I would not hazard my soul where you lodge yours so quietly. The ground of safety is in a strict and literal observance of all that God requires. You must tremble at God’s word, or abandon all thought of heaven for yourselves; you must run at your Father’s call, or be forsaken of him when you shall call. May God’s Spirit incline you to a full and hearty obedience, while obedience may come up before him as a sweet-smelling incense. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 185.27
Observe, third, The importance of using every means for ascertaining Christ’s second coming. A knowledge of the event will be intimately associated with efforts to meet it; indeed, we can hardly suppose how one can be prepared for that which is not expected. It is bringing an event nigh to us that invests it with its reality; for example, we may think much of our own dissolution when there are no prospects of death before us; but it is only when we find ourselves actually on the confines of the eternal world, that all our powers are awakened to meet the solemn crisis. So, unless we can believe the advent and the judgment to be just at the door, instead of far down the stream of time, through successive ages and numberless events, they cannot affect us as when, by seizing the great telescope of truth, we observe that these sublime events are the first to strike the vision, and the next in order to be ushered on to the stage. “The apostles preached these things as nigh in their day.” Then can we do less than this in these last days? Were these inspired men, however, mistaken, as many would seem to insinuate by this objection? Is the event never to occur because they did not witness it? Our opponents will not dispute but that the chronological prophecies, to say the least of them, were designed to awaken a spirit of inquiry and watchfulness as their fulfillment draws nigh. Hence, on their own assumption, they can no longer be indifferent to the times, or blame us if now we place ourselves in an expecting attitude for Christ’s appearing. But few, excepting those whose prejudices against the doctrine are so deep-rooted as to reject all proof of the Lord’s appearing, will dispute but that the signs of the advent, as rehearsed by Christ himself, have already been hung out from the heavens. As the signs, then, justify our expectations of the coming of our lovely Lord, neither they nor ourselves should be asleep at this moment. But few, unless skeptics, and those who are obstinately blind to all light that is shed before us from prophecy, will contend that the Bible is perfectly silent in regard to everything which would serve as a clue to this looked-for event. With this admission, therefore, it becomes our imperious duty to search the Scriptures with diligence, to see if it be not high time to make preparations for earth’s last drama. That some unusual convulsion is just ahead, all seem ready to allow; therefore, none can be indifferent to its character. None but the scorner will pronounce our efforts to alarm our fellow-men idle and visionary. Within a few years past, the tidings of the coming of Christ have gone forth like a whirlwind into the four quarters of the globe, and the world, to some extent, has been fairly rocked on this subject. The doctrine of Christ’s speedy coming is either true or false: in either case, we cannot be idle spectators. If a lie has been so extensively propagated, and the doctrine be, as some hold, of the devil, then such can have no real interest for the cause of truth, unless they are up at once, and begin, with fasting and much prayer, and a fresh examination of God’s word, to neutralize the effect of such a falsehood. Why have they not done this long since? But, if our doctrine be of God, we call upon all to start from their downy pillows; to lay off their Babylonish garments; to abandon their sumptuous feasts; to cast their honors under their feet; to forsake their carnal pleasures; to renounce the maxims of this wicked world; and, like the men of Nineveh, to robe themselves in sackcloth, and sit in ashes before God, if peradventure the Almighty may have mercy on them. Watch! The injunction itself implies that we may foresee Christ’s coming if we will. The particularity with which Christ spoke of the events and signs which should precede his second advent, all go to the same effect. Now, have we, before God, used our best efforts for informing ourselves respecting this momentous event? If we will persist in our ignorance and opposition to all warnings from scripture and from the signs of the times,-if we will suffer ourselves to be laughed out of all concern, and frowned down from all sober investigation of God’s word relative to approaching scenes,-then do we betray the most consummate weakness, folly, and madness, and must abide the heavy consequences of such a course of procedure. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 186.1
Observe, lastly, The guilt of interposing obstacles in the way of the preparation of any for Christ’s appearing. If, as many contend, we can know absolutely nothing about the time of his coming, then why is he not as liable to come now as at any future time? and how do such justify their present indifference? Why take such a course as will necessarily lead to quieting the fears of the wicked? and why provoked with those who are now disposed to watch, inasmuch as the duty now begun, should time continue, will not be abandoned? If we know not absolutely at what watch Christ may come, then no soul, unless speaking by new inspiration, ought to have the audacity to countermand Heaven’s standing orders to watch, or to interpose obstacles that might seem to put that event far in the future. “Prophecy is to be understood only with its fulfillment.” This is about as convenient an argument against the advent as that which is so commonly employed by some of our opponents, for the purpose of getting away from all implied consequences that might result from final indifference to the coming of Christ. They can easily silence all concern, by the soothing doctrine of the saints’ final perseverance; but the same individuals would sit very uneasily on their cushioned seats to listen to more than a single sermon a year, on the abstract doctrine of God’s decrees, or sovereignty. All views of election which interfere with the duty of watchfulness, must be defective. But do those who urge the above objection profess themselves to be in entire ignorance on all prophetic events? I trow not. That prophecy is to be understood only with the fulfillment, is both unscriptural and unreasonable. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Revelation 1:3. Now, here is a blessing promised on those who should study prophecy long before its fulfillment, and govern themselves accordingly. Again: on the ground assumed, we can suppose of but a single motive which could prompt the divine mind in causing prophecy to be revealed; and that is, to convince an infidel world of his own existence and of the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. But where is his regard all this time, for his covenant-keeping people? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 186.2
This doctrine naturally leads to another, viz., that it is difficult to know when prophecy is fulfilled at all; since events frequently resemble each other, and history is so poor a source from whence to gather facts on which to rely with confidence. Yes, says the infidel, that is true, and hence the argument for the inspiration of the Scriptures by comparing scriptural events with events which the profane historian has already recorded, is utterly worthless. So that the grand motive of God in causing the future to be made a subject of prophecy is all lost on the skeptic; while the humble believer is left to grope his way in impenetrable confusion and darkness, with no sure guide for his feet. To say that this is the Bible of the Christian, is to provoke the jeers of the infidel; to tantalize the anxious disciple of Christ, and to cast insult upon the professed Author of revelation. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 186.3
To interpose obstacles in the way of Christ’s coming, is to occasion a violation of the duty of watchfulness. This duty is always binding, independent of what we may think is yet to occur. Now to enumerate events which are yet in the future, and which in the nature of things can occur only with the expiration of centuries, is certainly to cause the infraction of the duty enjoined. No one can pursue this course without casting in the back ground and entirely invalidating all confidence in the prophetic periods, the signs and other aids which Jehovah has employed for the purpose of awakening our faith in relation to the conclusion of all things earthly; or, which is the same thing, without causing a portion of God’s word to be discredited, and forestalling all investigations that might lead to a knowledge of an approaching judgment. Such do the souls of those who confide in their fidelity, a flagrant wrong, by preparing them to be surprised by the terrors of the great day of God; they will be sure to ruin far more than they have ever been instrumental in saving from final wo. Such an one, if he be a preacher of the gospel, cannot honestly proclaim the doctrines of a temporal millennium, and of the return and conversion of the Jews, etc., and at the same time urge upon his hearers the importance of watching for Christ’s return. The most unthinking of his congregation would detect his inconsistency and hypocrisy. With the doctrine of the advent nigh for his theme, as the apostles taught it, he would find full employment for his best powers, full range for his choicest thoughts, warmth and energy kindled up in his own breast, and nourishment and life administered to the souls of his hearers. For example: could he come to the poor, pining object of man’s extortion and oppression, with the soothing words of an apostle, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord; stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh;” or could he, like another apostle, while surrounded by hearts smitten with anguish in view of the loss of dear ones on earth, comfort and console the weeping mourners, with an assurance that the grave must speedily deliver up its captives, and restore them, all adorned with immortal glories, to the embrace of those who now mourn their brief absence; what a healing balm would this be to suffering humanity. Or, like another apostle still, could he draw upon the terrific realities of a burning day just at hand, as a powerful motive to all “holy conversation and godliness,” why, religion would suddenly assume a new aspect in his midst; the dull and the careless would never be satisfied but with a piety that would shine and glow and burn. As it is, however, he stands in his own light; his preaching must be confined to the consideration of a few practical duties, without being supplied with motives sufficiently strong by which to enforce them; it must be a powerless gospel. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 186.4
Says the learned Dr. Breckenridge, “The watchword of the church in the days of the apostles, was, Dominus noster venit-our Lord is coming: it was this that made them missionaries in the true sense of the word. So, if it were preached now, it would give life and power to the whole body. The Lord’s treasury would be in the pockets of his people, and not in funded revenues; it would be forthcoming when and wherever and in whatever amount it should be wanted. The mental, moral, and physical energies of the church, its men and women and children and money and goods and lands, would be forthcoming.” Such we might add, has been the result of this experiment as already tried. The doctrine of Christ’s speedy coming has inspired the hearts of its believers with new life and fresh devotion to the cause of Christ, such as has rarely been known since the days of the apostles. And with all the disparaging and reproachful remarks which such sacrifices have elicited from the lips of the professing church, she can never see the palmy days which she has pictured for herself, until she drinks into a similar spirit and goes heroically and perseveringly to work, as if she really believed her own creed. But the church is effectually defeating her own professed ends; she is proclaiming doctrines that will naturally influence her members to continue to amass property for themselves and their children, and to stint out only an occasional farthing for the heathen; leaving the vast work of evangelizing the world to their equally as prosperous and able successors. Time enough yet, will be the secret preaching of all her sons and daughters. Certainly she cannot expect to achieve her triumphs by a miraculous agency; her present inefficiency, however, would seem to indicate to the contrary; then how vain must be her hopes! Will she never see that she is her worst enemy-that she is casting obstructions in her own pathway, and rolling backward the mighty wheels of her triumphant car? If God never blesses a falsehood, surely her doctrine of a temporal millennium is destined to destruction-and though proclaimed year in and year out, it can never effect the world’s conversion. Let the church come back to her original ground; let her ministers renounce her fables and cherish again the good old scriptural views of the reformers and godly men of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Let them believe and preach the near approach of the judgment, as did such learned and sober Christians as Calvin, Latimer, Knox, Sandys, Ridley, Bradford, Davenant, the divines of the Westminster Assembly, Watson, Thomas Adams, the framers of the Saybrook Platform, St. Romance, and many others, of distinguished note in the church. Let them not go to the judgment with falsehoods in their hands. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.1
But I have quite exhausted your patience. A word more, and I am done. Brethren,-the admonition of the text addresses itself forcibly to us. If we have correctly interpreted God’s word, Jesus is just ready to withdraw the great curtain which conceals him within the inner vail, and to come forth to bless his people. It is the service of our day to make preparations for his coronation as the son of David, and to prepare hallelujahs when he shall ascend his everlasting throne. To the discharge of this duty, the clearest light from prophecy, and the general tenor of God’s word, direct and encourage. But let us not forget that we are liable again to be lulled to repose by business, by pleasure, by novelties, by vain conversation, and by the prevailing and all-contaminating unbelief of the professing church. We are only secure while, with a deep sense of our weakness and dependence, we keep our eye steadily fixed on the great chart-the dauntless Captain of our salvation, and the promised port of everlasting rest. How rich the prize for which we struggle-how the prospects of victory brighten-how comforting and animating the promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.2
Professor of religion,-deceive not yourselves by relying on past experience, or by abusing to your purposes any precious doctrine of God’s word. Beware of Satan’s subtle and deep-laid plots for ruining your souls. It is high time you should awake out of sleep. I know you are not prepared either for this or for an event less serious. What says your closet in your behalf? What proof have you of being accepted, should Christ now burst from his mediatorial throne? What chance of salvation would there be for the majority of the professing church? Some have been known to confess that should this event occur as expected by us they must certainly be lost. Oh, that dreadful storm, it will thoroughly test every hope; will it find you ready? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.3
Sinner,-that will also be a terrible time for you. Mountains and rocks will be invoked to fall on you and to hide you from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Now, there is hope of your salvation; another hour squandered, and all may be forever lost! O, sinner! as your friend, heed this counsel. Say not the advice is unreasonable. Say not the judgment is not expected by a majority of the church and of the ministry. All that may be true; and yet they are as liable to be sleeping over the truth, as we are liable to be cherishing an error. Their silence may be the very means which God has allowed for the purpose of having that day come upon the wicked as a snare, or unawares, as upon the inhabitants of the old world, and of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. How can you meet your Judge, with his government insulted, his providences abused, his judgments slighted, his Spirit grieved and his Son rejected? Pause, then, and propitiate his favor, while mercy is in store, while the flaming sword of divine justice is yet undrawn, and let me meet you on the fair shores of an ever-blooming paradise! F. G. BROWN. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.4
MODERN SPIRITUALISM
a Profane Parody of the Dispensation of the Spirit. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.5
THERE is a remarkable passage in the Hulsean Lectures of Dr. Trench on “The Fitness of Holy Scripture for unfolding the Spiritual life of men,” in which he anticipates a future development of evil and danger to the world in the following striking and prophetic words. The Lectures were delivered in 1845; and it has been reserved for our later years, and pre-eminently for our country, to supply the reality which they prefigured. When this is borne in mind, the term “prophetic” which we have applied to his remarks will hardly seem to any extravagant. We quote from the Cambridge edition of the Lectures, pp.135-6: ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.6
“The hints which in God’s prophetic Word we have, and the course of the mystery of iniquity as it is already working, seem to point to this: that as there has been an aping of the monarchy of the Father, in the absolute despotisms of the world, and an aping of the economy of the Son, as though he already sat visibly on his throne, in its spiritual despotisms, and eminently in that of Rome; so there remains yet for the world, as the crowning delusion, a lying imitation of the kingdom and dispensation of the Spirit-such as in the lawless Communist sects of the middle ages, in the Familists of a later day, in the St. Simonians of our own, has attempted to come to the birth, though in each case the world was not ripe for it yet, and the thing was withdrawn for a time. Yet doubtless only for a time; to reappear in an after hour-full of false freedom, full of the promise of bringing all things into one; making war on the family, as something which separates between man and man; breaking down and obliterating all distinctions, the distinctions between nation and nation, between the man and the woman, between the flesh and the spirit, between the Church and the world, between good and evil.... This adversary [the Antichrist of St. Paul] is not simply the wicked one, but the lawless one; and the mystery is not merely ‘a mystery of iniquity’ but of lawlessness. Law, in all its manifestations, is that which he shall rage against, making hideous misapplication of that great truth, that where the Spirit is there is liberty.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.7
How strikingly and fearfully has this prediction been fulfilled in the course of the so-called spiritual manifestations of these more recent years! through which families have been broken up, that had lived before in the close and holy unity of love; through which hundreds of men, and of women as well, have been impelled to give way to all licentious and bestial impulses, plunging out of the midst of morality and refinement into the vilest sloughs of sin; through which multitudes have been carried to a fearful rejection of all God’s laws, as having for them no more validity; and not a few have been swept off into the outmost darkness of insanity! A lying imitation indeed, or rather a profane and diabolical caricature, of the kingdom of God’s Spirit, has this reign of pride, fanaticism, lust, most palpably shown itself. In that wisdom, in this delusion; in that a sacred and purifying love, in this a gross and vagrant appetite, degrading and debauching; in that meekness, in this the most arrogant and disdainful self-assertion; in that a tendency to all noblest charities, to pureness and self-sacrifice, in this a positive and an ever-increasing predetermination to mendacity, wrath, and every license; in that the silent but bright communications of God’s supreme purposes, knowledges, and judgments of duty, in this the uttermost mockery of instruction, seeming to show either laughing devils or crazy fools working and sneering behind the scenes:- so have the two been revealed to the world. And the wildest dreamer, unless largely instructed by observation and by the Scriptures, could hardly possibly have imagined it beforehand as among the things credible, that such a very midnight of darkness should have undertaken in this nineteenth century to style itself “a day of the spirit;” that such an absolute chaotic reign of terror and madness in the moral world should have claimed an affinity with the illustrious kingdom of holiness and of faith whose first-fruits were the wonders of Pentecost, and whose later results have been shown in a prodigal profusion of blessings wherever the gospel and its cross have been preached! ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.8
Verily may the attentive student of history and of society believe in the utmost susceptibility of mankind to the arts of the deceiver, especially when these strike with their appeals at the infinite “deceivableness of unrighteousness” which is central in the heart. The secret of all lies in the terse words of the Scriptures, “Madness is in their hearts.” And the fact that such things have already occurred, while it shows how constantly man hungers and thirsts in the depths of his nature after the sense of spiritual light, strength, and culture, imparted from beyond himself, can hardly fail also to excite the keenest apprehension in the thoughtful concerning those future developments of impureness and of grossest untruth which may hide themselves in coming years under the same imposing names: “the kingdom of the spirit,” “the day of reunion with unseen spheres!”-Independent. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.9
If you think you are only to believe the gospel, you are mistaken; you are also to live the gospel; you should be a living “epistle of Christ, known and read of all men.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 187.10
THE REVIEW AND HERALD
“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”
BATTLE CREEK, MICH. FIFTH-DAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1859.
THE THIRD MESSAGE
IN our last we gave our views in part of the extent and power of the third message. It is indeed a cheering theme to dwell upon. But we now wish to call attention to the important fact that the work of the third message differs, in some respects, from that of the first and second. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.1
The third is the last, finishing message. It contains great practical truths, and will accomplish for those who obey them a moral fitness for the society of Christ, angels, and holy men of all past ages. Not exactly so with the first and second messages. The first was an announcement of the hour of God’s judgment, and the second declared the fall of Babylon. Those were like the falling of the trees, or the breaking of the turf, while this prepares the ground, and produces the golden harvest; or like the rough marble from the mountain, while the last message hews and polishes it for the building of God. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.2
The first message aroused the multitude from their slumbers, and their dreams of a temporal millennium, and led out a host upon the glorious theme of the restitution at the second coming of Christ. The second called fifty thousand from the churches. A vast work was accomplished in a short time. Heavy blows had to be struck, to break the bars of cast-iron orthodoxy which were holding these souls in bondage who were beginning to drink at the fountain of gospel freedom. There was deep feeling, both with those who came out of the churches, and those who remained in them; and as might be expected in all such excitements, some took extreme positions, went too far, and acted rashly. Fanaticism existed; it is no use to try to conceal this. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.3
But such great and good reformers as Luther and the Wesleys have received their deepest wounds from the existence of fanaticism in their very midst. The existence of fanaticism in the Advent movement no more proves the movement wrong, than its existence in the very midst of the reformers, proves the reformation of past centuries wrong. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.4
We can excuse the rash Peters of the first and second messages somewhat, on the ground that those messages were of a very stirring and exciting character. And in the absence of the great practical truths of the third message which we now have to steady us, it is no marvel that minds not well balanced pitched over into fanaticism. Some of these have been reached by the third message, and for a season run well; but such minds especially love excitement. Even fanaticism is a congenial element. And here has been their danger in supposing that when the third message should move right, it would move with all that noise and rashness that attended the first and second. This error must be corrected before such can prosper, or the cause prosper around them. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.5
How awfully solemn is the message of the third angel! How dreadful is the threatening! Again, mark the practical truths of this message. Behold the law of God with all its authority and majesty, finding its way to the hearts of men, turning out the love of this world, and worldly, selfish interests, to give place to the two great principles of the government of heaven, viz., supreme love to God, and love to our neighbor as to self! “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Here, under the third message, the principles of God’s law, with all the definitely specified duties of the New Testament, must find a large place in the mind and heart of God’s people, to prepare them to exhibit pure religion on earth, and to fit them to be translated to heaven without seeing death, to see God, come into the presence of Christ, and to mingle with angels, and all holy men of past ages. What a mighty work to be wrought in men! How much breaking down before God! What a yielding of self before Jesus can come in and rule in the heart, and cleanse it from all sin! While this refining process is going on, you will witness more tears than shouts; more agonizing groans, than vain, odd, and reckless remarks. The spirit and work of the third message is expressed by the prophet thus: “Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you; seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Zephaniah 2:2, 3. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.6
O Lord correct the errors of thy people, and lead them to understand and love the spirit of the present truth. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.7
J. W.
“HAVING EYES THEY SEE NOT.”
THE following extract is copied from an article in the Family Guardian, entitled, “A Plea for the Sabbath.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.8
“There are certain primeval doctrines concerning the seventh day, that no treatises ever written can gainsay. First, there is the declaration of the Saviour, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’ The next is, that the day of rest is coeval with the creation; it is not as many would have us believe, a Hebraic institution, coeval with the promulgation of the ten commandments. Our record of it is coeval with the work of creation; it followed the creation of MAN; it was coeval with that other divine and wise, unerringly wise, institution, which men try equally hard to subvert as old fashioned, the institution of the human family. But though men in their madness say of these two witnesses for God: ‘Let us break their bands asunder, let us cast away their cords from us,’ yet do they but ‘imagine a vain thing.’ Immutable are the decrees of the Almighty, and as at the beginning of the world so now doth ‘he set the solitary in families,’ and bless the seventh day and the man that keepeth it holy.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.9
The writer in the same article confounds the seventh with the first day, and speaks of “Sunday desecration” with as much assurance as though Sunday had been blessed of God, and its observance enjoined in the commandment. It seems strange that any one having eyes to see the facts set forth above, should not also see the following truths: ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.10
1. Not a single “primeval doctrine” can be adduced to sustain the claims of the first day of the week. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.11
2. The “primeval doctrines” of the Bible explicitly “gainsay” every argument in favor of the first day. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.12
3. The claims of the first day are not only independent of facts coeval with the work of creation, but they contradict or subvert these facts making them of no effect. Thus: ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.13
(1). The fact that “God blessed the seventh day” is no reason that the first day is holy. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.14
(2). The fact that man was commanded to keep holy the seventh day is no reason for observing the first day. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.15
(3). The fact that a blessing was promised to them that keep the seventh day is no reason why any are blessed for keeping the first day. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.16
(4). The fact that the Lord calls the seventh day “My holy day,” is no evidence that the first day is “the Lord’s day.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.17
It is plain enough to be seen by any one that they who endeavor to sustain Sunday by Bible doctrines, “imagine a vain thing.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.18
Bibles are plenty enough, but professed Christians talk, write, and act, as if they had none. “Eyes have they, but they see not.” “The spirit of deep sleep” is fast being poured out upon this people, and when such plain “primeval doctrines” are so abused and perverted, it is no wonder that the “sure word of prophecy” is to them “as the words of a book that is sealed.” They will not know the time of their visitation! J. H. W. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.19
MEETINGS IN IONIA AND LIVINGSTON COUNTIES
ON our way from Burns to Matherton, where Bro. Leander Kellogg had invited us to hold a series of meetings, we stopped at Orleans, at which place we had previously given ten lectures, ending Aug. 24th, after which four decided to keep the Sabbath. Here the school-house was open again for us on Sabbath and first-day, Sept. 24th and 25th, and the people seemed to listen with the same interest as they had before, and the believers were strengthened and encouraged. We were again invited to Mr. K’s., some way from the meeting, to see and converse with him, as he was prevented from attending the meetings by reason of sore eyes. He had heard Bro. Frisbie, and became much interested to learn our position. Said he, My companion tells me about the meetings, and your subjects, but I wish to converse on some points that I cannot so clearly understand. Said he, I hope to be able to attend the Conference that Bro. and Sr. White are going to hold in North Plains in Nov. Another who was on business from Wisconsin became deeply interested and furnished himself with books, and said, I want to go to Battle Creek and keep the Sabbath with the brethren there. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.20
Sept. 27th, commenced a series of meetings in the village of Matherton, Ionia Co., under very encouraging prospects which were soon dispelled, as we learned the Methodist society had appointments ahead of us, and there was no other opening in the village for our meetings. We gave but four lectures here to which a good portion of the villagers listened with attention. At the close of our meetings a stranger introduced himself to us as Dr. Beaucanon formerly of Philadelphia, and when there interested in the first message. Moving west soon after, other things occupied and engaged his attention. Said he, I want you to come and see me. I wish to know the present position of the Advent people. We will appoint a meeting for you at our school-house in Hubbardston, two miles distant. After our first meeting here where our new friend and his companion had become much interested to hear and read our books, they were obliged to leave town for several days on business, much to their regret, and also ours, as it left us with no stopping place short of Bro. L. Kellogg’s some four miles distant. We held four meetings here, however, and trust our labor was not in vain in the Lord. We think these two places are now open for a series of lectures by any of our preaching brethren who may go there. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.21
Oct. 6th, by invitation of Bro. W. J. Mills, commenced a series of meetings in Conway, seventy miles from Hubbardston. On first-day P. M., 8th inst., Mr. Lee, a Methodist minister, occupied the school-house in fulfillment of his appointment where we were holding our meetings. His text was James 1:25, “The perfect law of liberty.” He spoke like one accustomed to public speaking, but in his zeal to make the gospel answer for every requirement of his hearers, he declared most positively that this “law of liberty” was the gospel of Christ, legislated by God in heaven. Dr. Clark was quoted for proof, false teaching denounced, etc. I thought Mr. Lee might have saved much of his hard labor if he had carefully read onward a few verses from his text [chap. 2:8-12] where James explains the “law of liberty” to be the ten commandments of God, by which men are to be judged. No liberty was given to speak, meeting was dismissed, and class-meeting commenced. We were told after we left the house, he charged the church not to go to hear me preach; he told them I spiritualized the word; and said he, The Devil is among you but you don’t know it. We had a pretty good congregation without them, but some of them ventured to come and hear. Before my meetings had progressed far, I felt that disease was fastening upon me, and had to close for two evenings. The people continued to come, hoping to hear; on the Sabbath I felt an assurance from the Lord to finish my work on the first day of the week: part of the time I had to keep my seat, still the people seemed indisposed to move until I closed. Poor souls, I yearned for them, seeing them so anxious to hear, and I had no more strength to speak out the precious truths of the third angel’s message. I believe God has some precious jewels there but so surrounded with wrong teaching it seems almost impossible to draw them out into the light of present truth. Bro. W. J. Mills drove me through the country to Chelsea, from whence I was drawn on the freight train, and arrived here by the blessing of God, in about three hours. I soon reached the water pail in the station house and drank water enough to quench in part, the fire that seemed to be consuming my very vitals. 1 ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.22
JOSEPH BATES.
Jackson, Oct. 20th, 1859.
Peace and love are worth a good price, and if we will have them, we are often called to pay dearly for them. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 188.23
BE YE PERFECT
WHAT a glorious mark! Perfection of beauty! What a height of excellence! Holiness! How terrible, yet how mild is holiness! How godlike! How high, how pure, how noble! How generous, yet how meek and humble! How calm and peaceful! ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.1
I have seen a few who walked, and moved, and spake, as holy men and women. I felt a hushed awe in their presence, and their influence I still feel; yet they were the most broken and contrite of heart. Alas, that such precious ones are so few! Yet I thank God, I have looked upon a few such, and felt their influence upon my obdurate heart, as holy, heavenly dews. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.2
But they are not my standard; no, Jesus is the perfect rule. Yet in such instances of proficiency I take courage to press forward; for what God has done for others of his children, he is willing to do for me in this pursuit. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.3
Is it impossible for God who rules the universe to make his promise good? If I am his, am I not a partaker of his holiness? Why, then, may I not be wholly sanctified? Shall I rest in a partial work? Shall I doubt? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.4
True, in bygone years we have seen those who made their boast of living without sin, while their lives told a different tale. They disgraced the name of Christ; and perhaps this was Satan’s device: to raise up a people who should disgrace the word, and the name of Christ, in order to cast a stigma upon a people who should afterward arise, with a perfect law as their standard. A perfect law, with the blessing of God, would doubtless make a holy people, when united with the faith of Jesus, as it is under the proclamation of the third angel. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.5
Be that as it may, I must confess that disgust for such instances of depravity as I have seen, who held that they lived holy, perfect lives, has been the means of giving a coloring to my views of Christian perfection, which I now discover to have been quite unscriptural and unprofitable. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.6
The light of the third angel’s message is a pure, a clear light: and now in its holy atmosphere I behold a people arising, who have a perfect law, and a perfect faith; and I discover that those who walk in its clear rays, are holy persons, while the imperfect, and the novice, are, as it were, in its twilight; and as they become free from the blighting, withering curse of sin, they too rejoice more and more in its lifegiving light; or, as they let go of the truth, and give way to sin, they recede into darkness. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.7
Here is the mystery unraveled to my dark mind. Those apostates who boasted of perfection, had no law, no test; therefore they fell; for it was not of God to make a perfect people without a perfect law: but now with a perfect law, and the faith of Jesus, under the gathering call of the third angel, God will have a perfect people. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.8
Awake, then, O my soul, to thy glorious privilege; stay not to subdue thy sins only, but eradicate them: do not only cut down the tree, but dig it up by the roots, make clean work; for when the tree is cut down, its roots may grow again, but dig out its roots, and the work is done; severe the pain may be, but the result is sure. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.9
Why shouldst thou despair, O weary, tempted, wayworn wanderer? Has not He who kindles the lightnings, and who holds the winds, promised? and will he fail to perform? Do thy part; stop where thou art; break from the tempter’s power; arise in the Redeemer’s strength, and like Sampson, snap the cords that bind thee; but do not like him lie down in the lap of Delilah, while thy locks are shorn. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.10
Stop short in thy career. Hast thou been long tempted and almost overcome, perhaps quite? Hold no longer parley. Fly to thy closet often, often; stay there till thou dost obtain the victory. Shouldst thou again fall into temptation, go again, and again. What if it is out of season? No matter; go a hundred times in a day or night, rather than be overcome; tempted and proved you must be (Christ was tempted), but do not let Satan get the least advantage. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.11
Encourage thyself with the thought of the glorious reward, but remember it is conditional; God is still the same holy being that he was when he gave the law on Sinai; men have erred; but truth is still the same; unbending, unsoiled, uncorrupted; Moses, the man of God, erred, and paid the penalty; David sinned, but the seer followed up the royal culprit, and with the word of the Lord in his mouth, pronounced a terrible penalty upon the family of the offender; the heart of Hezekiah was lifted up, as he displayed to the nobility of Babylon his choicest treasures, and a woful message by the mouth of the prophet fell upon his ears. O it is a fearful thing to sin against God. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.12
God is still the same; he has never stooped to parley with evil; neither has he, nor will he, tolerate it in his people. It is a glorious fact that God is holy; that Christ and angels are holy; heaven is holy. What godly soul does not leap at the thought of holiness, in its glorious excellence and beauty? its patience and forbearance, its gentleness, its love, its truth, its humility, its industry, its high aims, its noble, generous soul, its perseverance, its intelligence, its order, its strength, its moderation, its faith, its godlike dignity, and its brotherly love? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.13
But words are feeble; the theme is too grand, too exalted for language like that of earth to describe; we must contemplate the living embodiment, as exhibited in the character of Jesus, as developed in the plan of redemption. We must know something of the terrors of the majesty on high, we must realize in some degree the sleepless justice of the royal law, its comprehensive, spiritual sway. The rebel must first see the sinfulness of sin, its utter hatefulness, its deadening, blighting influence, its withering curse and disastrous consequences; and thus, when the Spirit has opened the eyes to understand the evil of sin, we are somewhat prepared to appreciate its opposite-holiness. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.14
I am glad to have a brother say to me, Elevate the standard, consecrate all to God. Everything, all, is laid at Jesus’ feet. After all, what a lame sacrifice! but it is all I have to give. Receive it, blessed Master, and help me to live as my brother has exhorted, “without sin.” O happy freedom! Let me enjoy it, realize it. Hear me, O Jesus; pray the Father to send his Spirit, with all the power I need. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.15
A calm, settled peace fills my mind, as I think and write upon this subject. Such solid ground to rest upon, such durable materials to build with, such a glorious pattern for our example, such a brotherhood to warn and instruct, all owning that one great rule of life, all in the light of harmonious truth, with such glorious prospects. O it satisfies the longing soul. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.16
But it should be holy hands and a holy life, that should set forth to the world a living illustration of holiness. Then let us be holy, without guile. Jesus testified that Nathaniel was an Israelite, without guile. So let us live that he shall so testify of us. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.17
Brethren, sisters, some of you have made great attainments; I would be happy to sit at your feet, and in meekness learn how I might attain to holiness, from your experience; but alas! I know that most of us have yet much, very much, to do, ere we fully overcome. To such let me humbly say, that if we believe the third angel’s message, we must admit that one single delay is fraught with fearful danger. As time passes, dangers thicken. The skies seems to brood with storms, while the distant horizon seems to flash with the tempests of Jehovah’s wrath. Mercy’s door is almost ready to be closed; then, O what a fearful, wailing cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” He that is holy, let him be holy still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.18
Brethren and sisters, it is no false alarm, no echo of fear, but it is the voice of prophecy, the voice of God, and the voice of his people. “Haste, stay not in all the plain.” Stop this moment, overcome every besetment, and be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.19
J. CLARKE.
CONSECRATION NO. 7-SANCTIFICATION (Concluded.)
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. In our last, we noticed the first promise here brought to view. We would now call attention to the latter clause, “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here is something made distinct from forgiveness. What shall we understand by being cleansed from all unrighteousness? It is a privilege, and oftentimes a duty to understand all God has promised, that we may know how to exercise faith. We will compare Scripture with Scripture a little, endeavoring to learn the will of God on this question. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.20
Says Paul [Romans 8:7], “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh (i.e., possessed of the carnal mind) cannot please God.” The apostle is here speaking of the natural man. Does he speak of another state attainable in this life? Verse 9. “But ye are not in the flesh (i.e., possessed of the carnal mind), but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” Then we may get rid of the carnal mind, and not walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit. What shall we understand by the “carnal mind”? It is that part of our nature that is alienated from the Lord by wicked works, which, of itself, in other words, “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Verse 7. All our affections that oppose the holiness of God, and run out after sin, constitute the carnal mind. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.21
Two states are here contrasted; the carnal and spiritual. Of which does the apostle speak in the previous chapter, when he says, “that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I?” Let the preceding verse tell us: “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Then Paul was speaking of himself or of some other person while walking in the flesh. Hear the conclusion [verse 24]: “O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Important inquiry! Paul could command his volitions. He could will to do perfectly right; but how to perform that which was good, he found not. Verse 18. For when he would do good, evil was present with him. Verse 21. How many times have you and I, dear reader, mourned over like failures, and then with renewed courage, with our eye on the prize, resolved and re-resolved to try again: warring, failing, mourning, and pressing on, a perpetual round. Is there any escape? The question comes right home, an all important one to us. Must we forever bear the chains that link us to the putrefying, polluting carcass of this body of death, our sinful nature? Or may we burst the bonds and rise above our carnal minds, free not only to will, but to do just right? Says Paul, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul found a way of escape, not in himself, or by his own strength, but “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Saviour delivers from the carnal mind. Thus John says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.22
Paul could be free; cannot we? Says he, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (This class must live without sin, for every transgression of the law, which is sin [1 John 3:4] brings upon the transgressor the condemnation of the law.) ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.23
But now we would ask, How can one walk after the Spirit, while in possession of the carnal mind, whose law is sin, and which continually leads him into it? He cannot; he must first be free from the carnal mind. But the apostle writes (Romans 8:2), “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath me free from the law of sin and death.” And now, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead (mortal, verse 11), because of sin (original sin made it mortal); but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Also 1 Peter 2:24: “Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins (what is it to be dead to sins, but to be free from them), should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed” (from the malady of sin.) ARSH November 3, 1859, page 189.24
But says one, Paul thought he could serve the law of God, and the law of sin at the same time; for he said, “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Notice now, all of, “I myself” serve the law of God. Was the flesh no part of “I myself”? If so Paul, i.e., “I myself,” could not be responsible for the deeds of the flesh. But reflect a moment. Did Jesus only deliver the mind from the service of sin, while the flesh was left as it was? Paul delighted in the law of God after the inner man before, but he now thanked God for deliverance. From what could he have been freed, if the flesh remained sinful, and hence still at war with the Spirit? Certainly nothing. Of what bondage had he just complained? Verse 23. “But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Then Paul was held in bondage to the law of sin by the carnal mind, and Jesus delivers him from his bondage; consequently when delivered, he must have been free from serving with the flesh the law of sin, and could with his whole being serve the law of God. He could now say, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with (or while in) the flesh the law of sin.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.1
Again hear the inspired teacher, 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (notice, these compose the entire man), perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” I would here make one suggestion to those who are in the habit of defiling the temple of God (“which temple ye are”) by the use of tobacco or in any other way. Says Paul, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” You own tobacco is filthy. What will you do in the day when it shall be said “he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.” Come, ere that day shall dawn, cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, remembering that “God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” 1Thes. And now, let us “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14. Yes, we must be holy before we can see Jesus in peace. Before the time of his coming (for it is added, “behold I come quickly,” hence he had not yet come) the mandate goes forth, “He that is holy, let him be holy still.” When did this class become holy? They are found so just before his advent and consequently he does not make them such at his coming. Do the Scriptures anywhere promise that God will at any future time cleanse us? The promise is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Are we taught that we should wait any longer for the cleansing than for the forgiveness? I cannot find it; but, “Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2. Salvation from what? Certainly from sin, and from its penalty-death. Why not then come just now, and claim the promise? Ezekiel 36:25, 26. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,” etc. You remember David prayed [Psalm 51:10], “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Come, let us follow the example of the man after God’s own heart; then can we “draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” What a precious privilege, in Jesus to “have boldness and access with confidence.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.2
But in order to this we must live in such a way that our heart condemn us not; then have we confidence towards God. 1Jno. We can be brought into the position where we may live in just this way. Listen to Paul again. Hebrews 9:13, 14. “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Do not understand that the Lord changes our constitution. A heart that is purified has natural susceptibilities; otherwise it could not be tempted. It loves: but it no longer loves sin in any form. God is the chief object of its affections. It can obey perfectly the two great commandments. It can love God with all the soul, and its neighbor as itself. It hates; but it only hates sin. It covets; but it no longer covets a neighbor’s goods, for that neighbor’s interests are as sacred as its own. It covets only the “best gifts” which are spiritual; and the possession of such does not deprive any one else of possessing them at the same time. In short, I understand its nature is not changed, but simply its affections brought back and placed upon holy objects. It still loves self; God has placed self love within us, and without it what should we care to secure salvation for self? It is only when our love for ourselves becomes stronger than our love for our fellow beings, in any sense, that it is wrong and makes way for envy, wrath, pride, etc. Do you not see there can be no room for these feelings, these fruits of the flesh, when we love every one else just as well as we love ourselves, and we love the Lord supremely, i.e., above and more than them all? Let me ask, How can we render perfect obedience to God’s ten commandments, until we are brought to comply with the two upon which they hang? and that will be when cleansed from all unrighteousness. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.3
Having lain all upon the altar in consecration to God, and taken hold of the promise (not basing our faith, remember, upon evidences of our cleansing that we immediately see, but because God has promised), then it is we can “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” [Romans 12:1], God having cleansed our entire being. The work is all the Lord’s. Glory, praise, and blessing for ever and ever to his matchless love, his adorable condescension! All that is within me blesses his holy name. His name is a strong tower into which we may run and be safe. Proverbs 18. I would here ask, as I once heard another, How can we be safe in any place with our strongest enemy (and such the wicked heart is represented as being) within us? But let the carnal heart be taken from us, and, oh, how safely, confidingly, we may rest in our strong tower. The world and the Devil, our two remaining enemies (O, is it not a peculiar privilege to be delivered from the greatest of our three great enemies?) may assault us with all their batteries, but while we stay in our hiding place, while we cling to the strong arm of our Deliverer, our tender-hearted, faithful Protector we are safe, and are kept “by the power of God, through faith (and shall continue to be) unto salvation.” But let us trust continually, and “cast not away therefore our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.” The fiercest storm our enemies can bring upon us, cannot cause us to commit one sin, except with our consent, while hiding in God. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.4
Oh, then let us be perfect “even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48. Do you think this is impossible? Then why did Jesus command it? Was he not too wise and too good to require of his followers a thing they could not perform? Perhaps you think he meant, strive to be perfect. Why did he not then say so? Our Redeemer does not mock our weakness; oh, no; he knew our capabilities, and he is perfectly just; consequently he cannot require an impossibility of us. But we may ask in what sense would Christ have us perfect as our heavenly Father is? He had just been speaking of the second great commandment, love for our neighbor, and concludes his discourse on this point with the above command. It were impossible for us to be perfect in every sense as God is, with our present constitution; for he is perfect in wisdom, in power, etc.: but we can keep the two great commandments, and all that hang upon them, without possessing these attributes. We can be perfect in purity (our love perfect, our motives perfect) but only, if you please, relatively so, until we come to perfect judgment; but since sin is not imputed when there is no law, that sin which has been committed through an ignorance that was not willful, is not laid to our charge. It is the consent of an enlightened mind that constitutes sin to us. I believe we can be perfect as far as our knowledge goes, continually, i.e., keep the law perfectly as far as we understand it; till, when we come to a perfect understanding of it, our purity will be perfect absolutely. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.5
That our judgment is not perfected at once is evident from the fact that Peter told his brethren to “grow in grace and in knowledge.” 2 Peter 3:18. We can now understand why it was that Paul said [Philippians 3:12], “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” Paul was speaking of the resurrection, which he says he had not already attained, neither was he perfect in every sense as he would then be; for, says he, We know in part (here is an imperfect judgment, but there is no reference to holiness) and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 1 Corinthians 13:9, 10. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.6
“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3. We have refrained from introducing this term before, fearing it would not be so readily understood as those we have used. Sanctify first means to set apart for any particular purpose-which is done in consecration,-second “to cleanse, purify, or make holy.” Web. In this sense the Bible also uses the word. This is our great privilege, and it seems to me the great truth that is to prepare us to stand the testing trials that are coming upon the people of God, and fit us for a place with the Lamb on the Mt. Zion. But remember, God will not, after sanctifying us, preserve us in this state except as we trust in him. Let go our faith and we have not power sufficient to resist temptation. Thus we may fall from a state of purity at any time, and “of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.7
But oh, let us claim and live up to our highest privilege as our highest duty. It is our duty to be where we can best glorify God, secure our own salvation, and promote the welfare of our fellow creatures. Shall we be content to always struggle on with sin within us as well as without, year in and out, as we have always done, and others have done before us. Let me ask what great attainments you have made, dear brother or sister, in this warfare, towards removing the fountain of sin within? We are trying to prepare for translation. Those gone before us had not this object in view. We expect soon to stand as mortals without a mediator. Shall we be triumphant then, with our carnal hearts within, while one sin would cause our fall? And what is to subdue them previously? Oh come, wash and be clean. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” There is a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; and blood has been spilled that is able to take away the sin of the world. Then surely it is sufficient to cleanse you and me. God has promised; his promises are all yea and amen. Will we not then take him at his word? In the language of Paul, may “the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.8
M. E. S.
THOUGHTS FROM THOMAS BROOKS
[WE take the following passages from a volume entitled “Smooth Stones from Ancient Brooks,” culled by Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, from the writings of Thomas Brooks.-Independent]. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.9
Though Mary Magdalene was very near to Christ, yet she stood sighing, mourning, and complaining that they had stolen away her Lord, because she did not see him. Christians, though you may be very near and dear to Christ, yet till you come to see your assurance, you will spend your days in doubting, mourning, and complaining. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.10
Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.11
It was a good saying of one to a great lord, upon his showing his stately house and pleasant gardens: “Sir, you had need make sure of heaven, or else when you die you will be a very great loser.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.12
It is an honor to be good betimes. A young saint is like the morning star: he is like a pearl in a gold ring. Among all the disciples, John was the youngest, and the most and best beloved. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.13
The ball in the emblem says, “the harder you beat me down, the higher I shall bound towards heaven;” so afflictions do but elevate and raise a saint’s affections to heaven and heavenly things. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.14
The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.15
Titus Vespasian never dismissed any petitioner with a tear in his eye, or with a heavy heart; and shall we think that the God of compassions will ever dismiss the petitioners of heaven with tears in their eyes? Surely no. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.16
In the winter men gird their clothes closely about them, but in summer they let them hang loose; in the winter of adversity many a Christian girds his heart closely to God, to Christ, to the gospel, to godliness, to ordinances, to duties, who, in the summer of mercy, hangs loose from all. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 190.17
THE HEAVENLY VOICE
It comes to me in lonely hours
Of darkest night,
And tells me of those far off bowers
Of beauty bright.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.1
It tells me of those heavenly plains
Where all is love:
Where naught but peace and joy remains -
The heaven above.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.2
It tells me of the angels there,
In robes of white;
Without a sorrow, sin, or care
To mar their light.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.3
It tells me of the joyous song The seraphs sing; Till, oh, my waiting soul doth long That song to sing. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.4
And now it whispers, when each care,
Has ceased to be,
There is a crown of jewels rare
In heaven for thee.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.5
And harp with tone so rich and sweet,
Thy hand shall strike;
And thou shalt sing that song so sweet,
So heaven like.
M. E. W.
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.6
PEACE AND SAFETY
NOT only do false shepherds and hypocritical laymen cry out “peace and safety,” but the nations have caught the cry, so much so, as to call forth the following from a satirical English writer, which I clip from the N. Y. Tribune. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.7
J. CLARKE.
“L’EMPIRE C’EST LA PAIN.”
From Punch. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.8
When will incorrigible doubts be dumb?
When will injurious suspicions cease?
Proclaim anew, with cannon, fife and drum,
“The Empire is Peace-is surely Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.9
Where is not record of the blessed truth?
Read on Sevastopol’s blood-boltered stones;
Read, all the way from Petersburgh to Pruth.
On steppe and waste, in heaps of whitening bones -
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.10
Read, in the rice fields on Ticino’s bank,
Where the green blades wave greener for the slain;
In the blood-fattened grasses that grow rank
From the death-pits on Solferino’s plain -
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.11
Read, in each cold and desolate French hearth,
Bereft of brother, husband, son or sire;
Read in the rapine, ravage, scathe and dearth.
Through Piedmont wrought by hostile sword and fire -
“The Empire is peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.12
Read, in the brow of England grimly bent,
Her hands all busy with the gear of war;
In voted war tax and hot armament,
And out-look as for foemen, near and far -
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.13
Read, in the gathering hosts along the Rhine,
The cannon bristling on each forest front,
The turfed and angled earthwork’s sheltering lines,
On Scheldt or Meuse, against invasion’s brunt -
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.14
Read, in the gloom, as of the thunder cloud,
The stir, as of a pent volcano’s power,
Where, free awhile to speak her thoughts aloud,
Italy, sad and stern, awaits the hour,
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.15
And if the records of the truth be weak,
To sweep your sudden doubts, like dreams, away,
With trumpet-tongue let the armed thousands speak -
Who late through Paris marched in war array -
“The Empire is Peace!”
ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.16
“OH, THAT HE WERE A CHRISTIAN!”
How often do we hear these words! Here a sister utters them concerning a brother beloved. There a wife for a kind and tender husband. Ministers often breathe the desire for young members of their flocks, and friends for those whose generous and manly hearts have won their own. It is the utterance of a sincere, honest, tender interest in the salvation of souls. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.17
We wish to propound a few questions to those who are wont to feel or express this desire. The answer may assist them to measure the depth and fervency of their wish. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.18
What have you done to prove that you are in earnest in your aspiration in behalf of your friend? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.19
1. Have you prayed for him? Your wish is a prayer, indeed, and may not be unheard by him who knows our unbreathed desires. But have you gone purposely to the mercy-seat in his behalf? Have you uttered his name before the great Advocate? Have you sought his salvation with that intensity of longing which could only be uttered with “strong crying and tears?” Perhaps God wills that you should be importunate, while you have been satisfied with a vague wish. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.20
2. Have you spoken to him of Christ? “The redemption of his soul is precious:” have you ever told him of that Redeemer, by whom his soul may be saved? Have you ever affectionately warned or entreated him? He may need a word from you to turn his life to Jesus. Perhaps he may be longing to know how you found your way to the cross, and came to the blessedness of the Christian’s hope. Do you act wisely or faithfully, not to say a word to show the solicitude which you feel for him? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.21
3. Have you sought to persuade him to go with you to the house of God? A few gentle words might win him away from some place of pleasure or vanity to the prayer-meeting. A kind invitation might induce him to enter with you into the place where the gospel is proclaimed. There the Spirit of God may meet him, and renew him. There, at least, Jesus will be held up before him, and the cross meet his vision. Do you do right to separate from him without an attempt to lead him with you? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.22
4. Have you shown him in your own life what it is to be a Christian? How many sermons might be preached every day, and with irresistible point and force, by simple consistency! How many souls might be won by the attractive power of a holy life! Have you tried its virtue with the one whom you wish to win? Have you been a “living epistle,” to be constantly “known and read of him?” Can he see the grace of God working in you, and daily restraining, guiding, and purifying you? What self-denial do you daily show, proving to him your love for Christ? ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.23
Reader! what do you do to make your friend, brother, husband, a Christian? Do something-do everything that God commands you, and patiently, calmly, confidently await the blessing. “It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”-Sunday School Times. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.24
Letters
“Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.”
From Bro. Ross
BRO. SMITH: Since Bro. Barr left this place for Pa., I received a call from West Monroe, to meet with a few in that place who had resolved to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We found eight heads of families who had started for the Mt. Zion, among whom were P. Allen, Dea. of the F. W. Baptist church, and his companion. The first Sabbath that they observed, they held a public meeting at the meeting-house in that place, where Brn. Barr and Wheeler had been laboring before, and since, Bro. and Sr. White labored with and for us at the tent meeting, which some from that place attended. Two weeks from the first meeting Bro. Treadwell and myself met with them again and found them growing strong and bold in the cause of truth. The inquiry is, Where is Bro. Barr? is he coming back? That region appears to be a good field for labor. They say since last winter the truth has been working like leaven, growing out from the reading of those silent messengers, published at the Review Office, which we distributed when we were there. The work is still onward. I have just learned of two others that have laid hold on the Sabbath, and many are interested. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.25
In hope of eternal life.
A. ROSS.
Caughdenoy, N. Y.
From Sister Lightner
BRO. SMITH: The little church here is anxious to have some preacher come this way and deliver a series of discourses; we think there is a prospect of doing good here. Here is a little church of nine members who are striving to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and there are some others who keep the Sabbath, and are waiting for an opportunity to go forward, in the ordinance of baptism. We have all the sects and the world to contend with. We want some help. We would like to have Bro. Waggoner if he can come, as he has been here once and is known. We will pay his expenses and do as much more as we can. If he cannot come, we would like to have some one else; one that can wield the sword of the Spirit, as they will have to contend with mighty men. If Bro. Waggoner cannot come, we want Bro. White, Andrews or Loughborough. Will Bro. Waggoner write and let us know what we may depend upon. Brethren and sisters, pray for us. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.26
In behalf of the church at Russiaville, Howard Co., Ind.
P. LIGHTNER.
From Bro. Smith
DEAR BRETHREN: How important that we get ready for the coming of the Lord! Do we realize that he is coming to change us from mortality to immortality, take us to those mansions prepared for his people, bring us to all the joys of heaven, to holy angels, to the society of all the blood-washed throng, and to enjoy their company forever; even for ever and ever! Think of it, cold-hearted professor, and while the poor of the Lord (but rich in faith) are rising to fall no more, and are putting their shoulders to the car of salvation to move it onward, and you apparently with your arms folded; think of it, and be not deceived, for God is not mocked. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.27
The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. A few more short months and our work will be over, and if faithful to the end we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of our God. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.28
Yours in the patience of the saints.
GEO. SMITH.
Laporte, Ind., Oct. 19th.
Bro. Rew writes from Ordino, Wis.: “There are some twenty or thirty in this place and vicinity who are looking for the coming of the Lord, and are trying to walk in obedience to God’s commandments. We had a two days’ meeting here the 8th and 9th of this month. Bro. Welcome and other ministering brethren were present. There was a general gathering. The blessing of the Lord was poured out upon us: all seemed to partake of the good Spirit, and were strengthened and encouraged. Holiness of heart is our motto, and unless we know that our will is in submission to God’s will and love has possession of the heart, we are not satisfied. When it is so with us, how easy it is to perform every duty! Our crosses become a pleasure, and truly his yoke is easy and his burden light. I would that all might see that Christ came to save us from our sins, and not in them. He has purchased our perfect freedom: the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us from all sin. I praise God that I ever saw that there is a fullness in Jesus: that I was ever able to come to him and rejoice in the fullness of a Saviour’s love. I am determined to be faithful unto the end. My course is onward.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.29
OLD GRUDGES.-A writer in the Congregational Journal says: “I take this opportunity to say, that, according to my acquaintance and prayerful observation of many of our feeble churches, the greatest cause of decline, and of the withholding of God’s blessing, are old grudges among the brethren and sisters, and a destitution of family religion. Old grudges are like old ulcers within the body, unseen except by their effects, wasting away the moral and spiritual life of man, and imparting to it an effluvium that poisons the whole atmosphere of Zion. Those who harbor them never act in character as Christians, for they are always under a more potent influence than that which proceeds from the love of Christ and his cause, yet they take no open stand on the side of the world.” ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.30
SORROW.-It would be a poor result of all our anguish and wrestling, if we were nothing but our old selves at the end of it-if we could return to the same blind loves, the same self-confident blame, the same light thoughts of human suffering, the same frivolous gossip over blighted human lives, the same feeble sense of that unknown, toward which we have sent forth irrepressible cries in our loneliness.-Adam Bede. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 191.31
THE REVIEW AND HERALD
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., FIFTH-DAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1859.
Wanted!
1. SECOND edition of History of the Sabbath, as soon as Bro. Andrews can make those additions he designs, or hopes to be able to make. The first edition will very soon be used up. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.1
2. Bro. Andrews’ discourse on the two laws, delivered in the tent at Battle Creek general conference last June. We want to print 5000 copies as soon as possible. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.2
3. Bro. Andrews is wanted at Mannsville, Jeff. Co., N. Y., to labor in the vicinity a few weeks. The brethren there are anxious for his labor, and able and willing to assist him. If in the Sabbath-History enterprise he wishes to visit New York, Boston, etc., the old friends of the cause on the route, would esteem it a great privilege to hear a discourse or two from him, and help him on his way. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.3
We hope to meet Bro. Andrews at the conferences at Wright and Monterey. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.4
JAMES WHITE.
Ohio Conference
THE tent season in Ohio closed with a general conference at Lovett’s Grove in Wood county. At this conference we had hoped to see a general gathering of the disciples of our Lord, but having large crops of sorghum to be gathered, and oxen to be proved, many of our brethren begged to be excused. But as the holy women of old hasted to the sacred sepulchre from whence the Lord of life and glory had arisen, while their brethren sat at Emmaus, sad hearted and despondent, so did the sisters on this occasion. From all directions they might be seen coming, in wagons, buggies, ox-carts, etc., any way to get to the conference where the general interests of the cause at large were to be considered. May God’s blessing attend them. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.5
Our hearts were much cheered to see the zeal manifested by those who embraced the present truth in Fulton Co., this summer, nearly all of whom came from twenty-five to thirty-five miles to attend the meting, and not as idle spectators either, but to cheer the true servants of God with their warm and earnest testimonies. We hope our older brethren will not only follow this example at the next conference, but also set them an example in turn, worthy of their imitation. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.6
According to previous notice given in the Review, conference convened Oct. 14th, and organized by appointing G. W. Holt chairman, and T. J. Butler secretary, and after appointing a committee composed of delegates from the following churches: viz., Portage, Turkeyfoot, Jackson, Republic, Wauseon, Delta, Cass, Greenspring, Townsend, Ayresville, Gilboa, and Lovett’s Grove, to consider measures to be taken to pay up past indebtedness, and still carry on the message, the business meeting was adjourned till evening after Sabbath. First-day evening, met pursuant to adjournment, when the following resolutions were presented by the committee, and unanimously sustained by the conference. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.7
1st. Resolved that we procure a new tent for the coming season. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.8
2nd. Resolved that Brn. O. Mears, Jno. Clarke and J. Mears (Lovett’s Grove), act as a central tent committee, to transact all business connected with the tent enterprise in Ohio, J. Clark being chairman, and O. Mears treasurer, of said committee. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.9
3rd. Resolved that the sum of twelve hundred dollars be raised by the first of June next, for the following purposes. 1st. To liquidate past indebtedness. 2nd. To purchase a new tent. 3rd. To defray the expenses of the general cause in the future. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.10
4th. Resolved that the conference recommend the plan of systematic benevolence to all the churches in Ohio, for their adoption. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.11
5th. Resolved that Bro. Waggoner be invited to labor in Ohio the coming winter. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.12
6th. Resolved that the respective members of the financial committee act as solicitors in the various churches to which they belong in raising the sum specified in the 3rd resolution. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.13
During the conference, able, heart-cheering and animating discourses were given by Brn. Waggoner and Holt, and it is hoped that an impetus was given to the cause of present truth at this meeting, which will not die away with the autumnal flowers, but that will go on, gaining new accelerations of strength, until hope is turned to full fruition. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.14
G. W. HOLT, Chairman.
T. J. BUTLER, Secretary.
Oct. 24th, 1859.
P. S. For the encouragement of those who have a heart in the cause, but were not at the conference, we would say that over seven hundred dollars were subscribed to raise the sum specified in resolution 3rd, by the few brethren present, with a fair prospect of those fully converted to God and rejoicing in present truth, subscribing the balance, without the necessity of laying any burdens on the half-hearted. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.15
T. J. B.
How to be like Enoch
Do you seek Enoch’s introduction to the living God? Go to him, as Enoch went, believing that he is, and he is accessible [Hebrews 11:6], and seek to get into the same just and realizing knowledge of him that Enoch got. He is revealed to you more amply, perhaps, than he was to Enoch. Believe. Believe that he is not far off, but nigh. Believe that he is not hostile, but propitious. Believe that he is all that Jesus said—that he is all that Jesus was—and believing this, walk with him. Admit him into your home, that he may bless it. Admit him into your hourly occupations, that he may elevate and expedite them; admit him into your happy moments, that he may enhance them; and into your hours of anguish, that his presence may tranquilize and transform them. Let his recollected presence be the brightness of every landscape—the zest of every pleasure—the energy of every undertaking—the refuge from every danger—the solace in every sorrow—the asylum of your hidden life, and the constant Sabbath of your soul. Learn, with all reverence for his greatness, but with equal reliance on his goodness—learn to make the eye that never slumbers, the companion of your nights and mornings; and the ear that never wearies, make it the confidant of your weakness, your solitude, your ecstasy and woe. Learn to have not one life for God, and another for the world; but let your life be divinely devoted, and divinely quickened; let every footstep be a walk with God.—Dr. Hamilton. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.16
SICK DIVINITY.-It is estimated that there are one hundred and fifty D. D.s in the Northern Methodist Church; while ten years ago there was less than a dozen. When, some forty or fifty years ago, a Presbyterian divine inquired of a Methodist elder with whom he was traveling, “why the Methodist church had no doctors of divinity,” the Methodist promptly replied, “Because our divinity is never sick.” It would seem, however, from the above statement, that its health has declined rapidly during the past ten years. Independent. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.17
APPOINTMENTS
Providence permitting, we will meet with the brethren in General Conferences as follows: ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.18
| Lapeer, Mich., | Nov. | 5, 6. |
| North Plains, ” | ” | 8-10. |
| Wright, ” | ” | 12,13. |
| JAMES WHITE. |
Business Department
Business Notes
J. Lindsay: We have none of Rest for the Weary on hand; will file your orders till we have a supply. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.19
Letters
Under this head will be found a full list of those from whom letters are received from week to week. If any do not find their letters thus acknowledged, they may know they have not come to hand. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.20
L. M. Gates, A. Worden, P. Vedder, Wm. F. Cole, J. P. Hunt, J. B. Frisbie, L. H. Winslow, L. Sheldon, I. B. Meader, E. S. Huntley, S. Howland, E. L. Barr, I. M. Davis, J. H. W., J. Lindsay, G. W. Amadon, A. C. Hudson, H. Bingham, T. H. Moffet, J. Edson, T. J. Butler, E. P. Wilkins, J. W., A. Ross, D. J. Stocking. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.21
Receipts
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 November 3, 1859, page 192.22
FOR REVIEW AND HERALD
J. Edson 2,00,xiii,1. H. Strong 1,00,xvi,1. M. Willey 2,00,xvi,14. E. Coleman 2,00,xvi,10. G. Castle 1,00,xiii,17. S. Howland 1,00,xvi,1. J. Kimble 1,00,xv,1. P. Vedder (for P. Hoard) 0,50,xvi,1. P. Vedder 4,40,xviii,14. L. M. Gates 1,00,xvi,1. I. M. Davis 1,00,xvi,1. L. Sheldon 4,00,xiii,1. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.23
FOR ILLS. & WIS. TENT.-Church in Spring Grove, Wis. (S. B.) $16,28. D. Hildreth $3. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.24
FOR MISSIONARY PURPOSES.-A. C. Hudson $4. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.25
Books Published at this Office
HYMNS for those who keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus. This Book contains 352 pp., 430 Hymns, and 76 pieces of Music. Price, 60 cents-In Morocco, 65 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.26
Supplement to the Advent and Sabbath Hymn Book, 100 pp. Price 25 cents-In Muslin 35 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.27
Spiritual Gifts, or The Great Controversy between Christ and his angels, and Satan and his angels, containing 224 pp. neatly bound in Morocco or Muslin. Price 50 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.28
Bible Tracts, Two Vols. 400 pp. each. Price 50 cts. each. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.29
Sabbath Tracts, Nos. 1,2,3 & 4. This work presents a condensed view of the entire Sabbath question.-184 pp. Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.30
The Three Angels of Revelation 14:6-12, particularly the Third Angel’s Message, and the Two-horned Beast. 148 pp. Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.31
The Atonement-196 pp. Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.32
The Bible Class. This work contains 52 Lessons on the Law of God and Faith of Jesus.-Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.33
The Prophecy of Daniel-the Four Kingdoms-the Sanctuary and 2300 days. Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.34
The History of the Sabbath, and first day of the week, showing the manner in which the Sabbath has been supplanted by the heathen festival of the sun. pp.100, price 10c. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.35
Which? Mortal or Immortal? or an inquiry into the present constitution and future condition of man. pp.128, price 10c. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.36
The Saints’ Inheritance. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.37
Modern Spiritualism; its Nature and Tendency-an able exposure of the heresy-Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.38
The Law of God. Testimony of both Testaments relative to the law of God-its knowledge from Creation, its nature and perpetuity-is presented. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.39
Miscellany. Seven Tracts on the Sabbath, Second Advent, etc. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.40
Facts for the Times. Extracts from the writings of Eminent authors, ancient and modern. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.41
The Signs of the Times. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.42
The Seven Trumpets. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.43
The Sinners’ Fate. pp.32, price 5c. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.44
The Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, with remarks on the Great Apostasy and Perils of the Last Days. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.45
Bible Student’s Assistant. A collection of proof-texts on important subjects. 36 pp. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.46
The Celestial Railroad. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.47
Perpetuity of the Royal Law. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.48
Last Work of the True Church. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.49
Review of Crozier. This work is a faithful review of the No-Sabbath heresy. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.50
Brief exposition of Matthew 24. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.51
Review of Fillio on the Sabbath Question. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.52
Brown’s Experience. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.53
The Truth Found-A short argument for the Sabbath. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.54
SIXTEEN PAGE TRACTS. Who Changed the Sabbath? Unity of the Church-Both Sides-Spiritual Gifts-Judson’s Letter on Dress-Mark of the Beast.-Price $1 per 100. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.55
EIGHT PAGE TRACTS. Wesley on the Law-Appeal to Men of Reason, on Immortality. Price 50 cents per 100. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.56
These small Tracts can be sent at the above prices, post-paid, in packages of not less than eight ounces. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.57
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 message till she fell asleep in Jesus. Price 25 cents. In paper covers, 20 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.58
Time and Prophecy. This work is a poetic comparison of the events of time with the sure word of Prophecy. Price 20 cents. In paper covers, 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.59
Word for the Sabbath. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.60
The Chart.-A Pictorial Illustration of the Visions of Daniel and John 20 by 25 inches. Price 25 cts. On rollers, post-paid, $1,00. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.61
Tracts in other Languages
GERMAN. Das Wesen des Sabbaths und unsere Verpflichtung auf ihn nach dem vierten Gebote. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.62
A Tract of 80 pp., a Translation of Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.63
HOLLAND. De Natuur en Verbinding van den Sabbath volgens het vierde Gebodt. Translated from the same as the German. Price 10 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.64
FRENCH. Le Sabbat de la Bible. A Tract on the Sabbath of 32 pp. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.65
La Grande Statue de Daniel 2, 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 November 3, 1859, page 192.66
Books from other Publishers
Debt and Grace as related to the Doctrine of a Future Life, by C. F. Hudson. Published by J. P. Jewett & Co., Boston. 480 pp. 12 mo. Price $1,25. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.67
Works published by H. L. Hastings, for sale at this Office. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.68
The Voice of the Church on the Coming and Kingdom of the Redeemer, by D. T. Taylor. Price $1,00. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.69
The Great Controversy between God and Man, by H. L. Hastings. 167 pp., bound in cloth, price 60 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.70
The Fate of Infidelity, 175 pp., cloth gilt. Price 25 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.71
Future Punishment. By H. H. Dobney. Price 75 ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.72
Pauline Theology. An argument on Future Punishment in Paul’s fourteen epistles. Price 15 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.73
Tracts of 24 pages. Church not in Darkness; The Three Worlds; The Last Days; Plain Truths; New Heavens and Earth; Ancient Landmarks. Price 5 cents. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.74
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 URIAH SMITH, Battle Creek, Mich. ARSH November 3, 1859, page 192.75