"IF IT BE OF GOD YE CANNOT OVERTHROW IT."
By M. E. Cornell
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." Isa. liv, 17. It may not be uninteresting to note something of the progress of the truth in connection with the Mich. Tent. The truth and its advocates have been assailed by both priests and people in the most unrelenting manner. In addition to the usual professedly scriptural arguments, the foul tongue of slander has been brought to bear against us in a manner unparalleled in our experience. Some of their arguments were entirely original, and as foolish as they were novel. We shall only quote a few of the many positions taken, as most of them are familiar to the readers of the Review. Meetings in the tent were adjourned, and the people repaired to the meeting-house to hear Eld. B., Presbyterian, and Eld. W., Methodist, in defense of Sunday-keeping, and the immortality of the soul. Eld B. takes up the Sabbath question. Text, fourth commandment. Positions, 1. No command before the one at Sinai. 2. The substance of the command is, One day in seven and no particular day. 3. A man may break the letter and yet keep the spirit of the commandments. 4. Why take up time about the mere matter of the day? They had better be preaching repentance. 5. We feel that to celebrate the resurrection on the first day of the week is very important, and we cannot give it up. 6. If the churches are keeping the wrong day would God bless them as he did the past winter in revivals? Eld. W. takes up for the immortality of the soul. Text, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. iv, 1. Positions, 1. The latter times have come, and the doctrine of annihilation (or that the human soul can surely die) is of the devil. Reply, The serpent said, "Thou shalt not surely die." 2. If everlasting has an end, then heaven is only just to get there and then be annihilated. Reply, Everlasting, Forever, &c., do have an end. Proof, Ex. xl, 15; Deut. xv, 17; Jonah ii, 6. There are more than one hundred examples of the limitation of the original of Everlasting, Forever and ever, &c., therefore "heaven is only just to get there and then be annihilated." Rule, That which proves too much, proves nothing at all. 3. These men put on a long face and preach the annihilation of the wicked. Reply, We preach the destruction of the wicked according to scripture; while they put on the long face and preach that the penalty for sin is an endless life of misery in hell, in the presence of God, [see Ps. cxxix, 8.] contrary to the scripture which says [2 Thess. i, 9.] they are "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord," and hence they be out of existence "as though they had not been." Obad. 16. 4. They know better than to preach such things. Reply, "God only knoweth the hearts of the children of men." 1 Kings viii, 39. 5. The devil is ashamed of these men. Reply, Then he must be pleased with Eld. W., for we are at antipodes; besides, Eld. W. is teaching the very doctrine that Satan first introduced to the human family, viz., that man does not surely or truly die. Gen. iii, 4. 6. These men are robbing God's day of the glory he himself hung upon it. Reply, Thou art the man; for God sanctified and hallowed the seventh day, not the first, or Sunday. The above discourses and our reviews seemed to accomplish a good work for the truth in Canandaigua. To show how the work is progressing since we left, I will copy from a letter lately received from an "Observer" in the place. "ELDS. CORNELL AND LAWRENCE, Dear Sirs: I write, thinking you might be glad to learn whether any good has resulted from your labors in this place. I am willing to say that I first heard you with prejudice; but I am, as I find many are, now willing to admit that your arguments based upon the Bible are unanswerable! Or at least, our ministers have failed. And we have come to this conclusion after reading the Word for ourselves, and listening to Elds. Branch, Whitcomb and Warren in their attempts to prove your arguments false, and positions untenable. To refute your argument based upon the Bible in reference to Spiritualism's being the work of devils, Eld. Warren denied the truth of the Bible, and in fact denied the existence of the devil. "Elds. Branch and Whitcomb deny the binding force of the fourth commandment, and assert that the Sabbath was changed by Christ and the apostles to the first day. They give us no express command for liberty to make the change, and not so much as a good reason drawn from the Bible. The good that may be seen from your labors is in the fact that most all who heard you are studying their Bibles with a desire to see if these things are so; that they may know whether indeed one seventh part and no particular time is the Sabbath, or the seventh day, according to the express command of God. "I am sorry to say that our Elders have fallen into the same error which they laid to your charge while among us; of spending time in discussing these minor questions of the Sabbath, law, &c., failing to preach repentance and faith, the same they say you ought to have done. They have not preached one discourse upon repentance since you left; all combined force and eloquence have been thrown upon the same minor questions, as they called the Sabbath, &c., when dwelt upon by you and listened to by ministers from their congregations; but now subjects of great importance when considered by them, seeing the field is left for them to harrow and plow with none to molest or make them afraid. O what a rare jewel is consistency at the present day, even when found in a minister. AN OBSERVER." Canandaigua, Mich., July 25th, 1858. P. S. We some expect to remain here another week after this. Can Bro. Frisbie and Rhodes visit Green Bush and Tyrone? We shall not be able to get to either place with the tent, and several in each place wish to be baptized. A two-days' meeting in each place would do good, I think, Also Locke and Perry should be visited. M. E. CORNELL. Lapeer, Mich.