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Review and Herald, Vol. 54, No. 6.

THE RESURRECTION

Review and Herald

Jul 31, 1879

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 31, 1879

THE RESURRECTION.

By C. W. Stone

BY C. W. STONE.
(Concluded.)
After the first resurrection and the depopulation of the earth, Satan is bound, and cast into the bottomless pit. Rev. 20:1–3. The Greek word here rendered “bottomless pit” is abyssos. The same word in the Greek Old Testament is rendered “deep” in Gen. 1:2. In that case it evidently refers to the earth in its chaotic state. In Rev. 20:3 it doubtless refers to the earth in the chaotic state to which it will be reduced at the advent of Christ, as has been noticed. See Jer. 4:23–28. Here Satan is destined to remain a thousand years. What is signified by the binding of Satan? Simply this: He will have nothing to do. He cannot leave the earth, and there is not a living man on it. The saints are in Heaven, and the wicked are all dead. Satan is bound, for there is nothing that he can possibly do. He who has spent six thousand years in active labor in the destruction of souls, will find his occupation gone. Ah! there is one thing he can do,—he can wander among the graves and bleaching bones of his victims on this cursed earth, and reflect.
Three parties are spoken of in connection with the thousand years,—Satan, the saints, and the wicked dead. In verses 4, 5, and 6, the attention is called for a moment away from Satan and the wicked, to consider the work of the saints during the millennium. John sees them in Heaven sitting upon thrones, and judgment is given unto them. “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” During this time they participate in the examination of the records of the wicked, and in passing judgment upon them. Paul also states that the saints shall judge the world. 1 Cor. 6:2, 3.
Rev. 20:6 shows that the righteous alone have part in the first resurrection. Verse 5 says that “the rest of the dead,” the wicked, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” That is also to say that at the end of the thousand years they will live again. We now observe that three things are to occur at the end of the thousand years. First, a change in the abode of the saints; for they were to live and reign with Christ a thousand years. Second, the wicked dead are to be raised. Third, Satan is to be loosed. Verse 7.
John does not in this chapter speak of the return of the saints and the descent of the beloved city to this earth, as he is directing the attention particularly to the final destiny of Satan and the wicked; but in relating what these do at the end of the thousand years, he speaks of “the camp of the saints and the beloved city” as being at that time on the earth. Verse 9. After finishing the record of what he saw of the wicked, he goes back to relate some things which he did not mention in this connected account of the wicked; and then he tells us all about the descent of this camp of the saints. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Chap. 21:2. “The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.” Verses 23, 24.
This shows that the saints of God return to this earth when that city descends, which we also learn from Zech. 14:4, 5: “And his [the Lord’s] feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. . . . And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains. . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” Thus the “camp of the saints” is located on the earth. Then the Lord calls from their graves the “rest of the dead,” and they come forth “unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:29.
This is what looses Satan; for he immediately goes out “to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Rev. 20:8. Satan and his angels now find employment. He is determined to make one more grand effort to overthrow the plan of salvation. He goes out among the wicked hosts, and without doubt renders himself visible. He tells them of the city of God so lately descended to the earth. He encourages the mighty men of war to think that they can lay siege to it, and take it. They prepare for war. Immense armies are quickly formed. The command is given, and they come up from all directions, and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. What a company! Among them are “sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” Rev. 22:15. There with them is the man who once professed to love the Lord and hope in his truth. He was careless and negligent. There is the man who devoted all his faculties to making money. There are the giddy youth and the proud lady of fashion.
There stands the city with its dazzling walls and pearly gates. The precious stones, lighted by the glory of the Lamb of God, shine with inconceivable loveliness. The gates of pearl are closed. High upon the eternal walls are seen the saints of God, clad in glorious immortality. The wicked hosts see what the righteous have gained, and what they also might have obtained. Some of them went into the grave self-righteous, deceived. They come up in the second resurrection with the same exalted ideas of self, and immediately they begin to commend themselves to the Lord. They knock at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, open unto us;” and they ask, “Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” But the Saviour will say to them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23; Luke 13:25–27. Anguish of mind settles upon them, racking them with untold pain and horror inexpressible as they see what they have lost, and contemplate their doom. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” Luke 13:28. Vain indeed will all the excuses they used to make for not obeying the Lord, nor receiving his truth, seem to them. Oh! if they had worlds, how gladly would they give them all for an hour in which to repent and find pardon! but it is too late. The awful wages of sin must be received. The vengeance of God no longer waits. Fire comes down from God out of heaven, and devours them. Rev. 20:9.
The saints of God behold this execution of his justice. “When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Ps. 37:34. Every one of them will say it is just. They have lived in the presence of God for a thousand years. They have examined the faithful records of the lives of the wicked, and have sat upon thrones in union with the heavenly court in judging them. And when the judgment is executed they will unite in saying, “True and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” Rev. 19:1, 2.
The eternal fire which descends upon the wicked devours them, burns them up, and leaves them neither root nor branch. Mal. 4:1. Not one will escape; for that very fire, Peter says, will melt the whole earth. “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Pet. 3:7. The earth is reserved to the same fire that is to be the perdition or destruction of ungodly men. How does that fire affect the earth? “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Verse 10. The common punctuation of this verse conveys a wrong idea. It should be punctuated thus: “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” “The earth also” shall melt with fervent heat. Then will exist the lake of fire, the hell (Greek, gehenna, Mark 9:43) in which the wicked will be punished. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Rev. 20:14. The word hell here is from hades, and signifies the grave. It is so given in the margin of verse 13. “Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.” This fire is spoken of in Deut. 32:22. “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell [Hebrew, sheol, grave, same as hades].” The grave is a child of sin, but the lowest one ever made shall be destroyed by the fires of that great day, when the earth shall become a seething, boiling lake of fire. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:15.
But you will ask, Where is the beloved city during this conflagration? I answer, The Bible leaves it on the earth. It rests upon a very great plain, purified and prepared by a special act of Christ when it descended. Zech. 14:4. It will be preserved amid the conflagration by the power of God, as was the ark during the flood. And as the ark bore its living freight safely over from “the world which then was” to “the world which now is,” when the former, “being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pet. 3:5–7), so will the beloved city safely bear its immortal inhabitants from the earth which now is, over the lake of fire to the earth made new. For although “the elements shall melt with fervent heat,” yet the apostle continues, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Verse 13. The marks of the curse burned out and the wicked reduced to ashes, the fires cease, the earth is renewed and becomes the everlasting abode and possession of the righteous, “according to his promise.”
The burning of the wicked, and the protection of the righteous and the city of God, are spoken of in the following extracts from the thirty-third chapter of Isaiah: “Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without. . . . The earth mourneth and languisheth. . . . Now will I arise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted. . . . Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble. . . . The people shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. . . . Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly. . . . Thine eye shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation; . . . not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed. . . . But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams. . . . The Lord is our king; he will save us.”
After the fires of that great day shall have done their work, and the purified new earth shall have appeared, then shall the righteous go forth upon the lovely fields, and “ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 4. Earth shall bloom in its Eden robes of purity again, and the saints of God shall dwell securely therein forever. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23. Glorious assemblies of the redeemed! They shall assemble at the new Jerusalem every Sabbath while eternity lasts, to praise the great Creator and to celebrate the day which God in the beginning set apart as a memorial of his rest when he first “made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” Gen. 2:1–3; Ex. 20:8–11.
When the young earth came from the hand of its Maker, God pronounced it very good. Gen. 1:31. The angels of God were filled with delight as they beheld the handiwork of Him who “laid the corner stone thereof,” and lifting up their voices in strains of sweetest harmony, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. So when the innumerable company of the redeemed shall look out upon the earth renewed, the marks of sin obliterated, and the desert blooming as the rose, again will there arise a joyous song of adoration from immortal tongues, to worship “Him that liveth forever and ever.”
As the beloved John was upon the Isle of Patmos, the angel of the Lord communed with him in vision. He brought the future like a living panorama before him, and permitted him to see the saints in the enjoyment of their glorious reward, and also to hear the songs of deliverance and joy they shall sing. Perhaps it was amid the holy stillness of one of these Sabbath convocations that the grand anthem was sung; but again the seer heard the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy. “And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13.
Such, dear reader, are some of the scenes which follow the resurrection of the dead. Such is the reward in store for the righteous. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Without that blessed portion none can have the reward. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Matt. 16:27. Not until the coming of our Lord shall we receive the reward. Do not wonder, then, that we look with longing hearts for the return of the Master, and with hope for the resurrection of the dead. May reader and writer be prepared for that glad day, is my prayer. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” Verse 20. My heart responds, “Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.”

ONE DAY AT ONCE.

Only one day to bear the strain Of living, and to battle with the pain.
Only one day to satisfy With food and covering, as the hours slip by.
Only one day; to-morrow’s care, To-morrow, if it come, itself shall bear.
Only one day! then waste it not In futile plannings where the Lord is not.
Only one day God gives to me At once; oh, may I use it faithfully!
Only one day to serve my King, And to his feet some wandering soul to bring.
Only one day to fight the fight Of faith, and vindicate my Saviour’s might.
Only one day, maybe, to sing On earth the praises of my Saviour King.
Earth’s day dies down; Lord, lift my eyes Unto the glories of the heavenlies.
One perfect day awaits me there, Nightless and shadowless beyond compare.
The golden day thyself hast won; Thy voice its music, and thy face its sun.
Spring to thy dawn, O day to be! That I may see my Lord who loveth me.
—Word and Work.

WHERE DID MOSES GET THAT LAW?

By Wm. T. Price

A portion of the following article has for a long time been in use with S. D. Adventists, but the reader will gladly peruse it again from sheer satisfaction at knowing that it has appeared in such a paper as the Christian at Work, from which we now take it:—
The wish falls often warm upon my heart that I may learn nothing here that I cannot continue in the other world; that I may do nothing here but deeds that will bear fruit in Heaven.—Richter.
These words of the most charming of the literary Germans, in my esteem, never recur so forcibly as when I am thinking of preparing an article for The Christian at Work.
Somehow it impresses me that to write something about Moses might favor the purpose indicated by Richter’s wish, and that I so earnestly aspire to realize.
It never occurred to me that sincere persons could have any trouble about Moses and his writings, until I entered the ministry, about twenty years ago, and had charge of a group of churches in the Virginia mountains. In one of these, the most important in numbers and promise, the bench of elders consisted of two members.
Upon visiting one of these brethren—a venerable man, over seventy years of age, and the more intelligent and influential of the two—I found him quite exercised over a difficulty he had recently discovered in reading Hebrews 11, which his pastor had once mentioned to him as a portion of Scripture well adapted to encourage and comfort Christians. It appears this aged elder had not found it so, and he was feeling quite badly about the conduct of Moses. “What troubles me,” he remarked, “is that I cannot feel that Moses will do to go by, since he acted so indifferently as to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. It is my idea, and I cannot help it, that a man who will go back upon his mother in that way is not what he ought to be, and really I don’t know what to think or do about minding what such a man should write for my duty.” When this good old seeker for truth became informed as to the facts in the case, his difficulty was satisfactorily disposed of, much to his subsequent peace of mind.
Since then I have been informed of difficulties about Moses from various sources, learned and otherwise, and I have found, upon careful analysis, the ultimate elements of all are about the same as that which troubled my venerated elder—available facts not duly considered.
A ministerial editor in Chicago, who sometimes writes of himself as the Rev. David Smith, D. D., has quite recently taken in hand a son of a deceased clergyman, who seems sorely exercised over some alleged mistakes of Moses.
If this perplexed child of the covenant does not find his perplexities explained by Dr. Smith’s sweetly put strictures, it will be just because he does not desire a solution of his doubts. Dr. Smith, so-called, views Moses with a kaleidoscopic eye, and, in swinging around the historic circle as visible from his standpoint, he points out several forms of the man “Moses”—the historic “Moses,” the Hebrew “Moses,” and the Puritanic “Moses.” He then proceeds to show how the eloquent and humorous preacher’s son has all this while been tackling the Puritanical “Moses” instead of the scriptural “Moses,” thus deceiving himself and misleading the public, in so far as the dear people may be influenced by him.
Should Dr. S. reach Heaven and not allow his modesty to prevent him from telling Moses that he wrote words like these, and have the prudence to be silent about some serio-comic allusions to “the Theologians,” I feel sure the glorified “Moses” will smile approvingly upon his good offices. The friends of scriptural “Moses,” as well as that Moses himself, cannot be otherwise than pleased with sentiments like the following: “To set forth the mistakes of the historic ‘Moses’ would not be an easy task. One doing this would be compelled to ask us to mark the blunders of a leader who planned freedom for slaves; who bore complainings from an ignorant people until he won the fame of unusual meekness; one who did, in reality, what infidels only have dreamed of doing—living and dying for the people; the mistakes of one whose ten laws are still the fundamental ideas of a State; the mistakes of one who divested the idea of God of bestiality, and began to clothe it with the notions of wisdom and justice, and even tenderness; the follies of one who established industry and education and a higher form of religion, and gave the nation holding these virtues such an impulse that in the hour of dissolving it produced Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles; and thus did more in its death than atheism could achieve in all the laws of geology.”
To make sport of such a character as the scriptural “Moses” is something so monstrous that it must be considered an infirmity or an act of injustice. What the history of such a Moses claims is honest dealing and a candid hearing. For illustration, let the example of a converted skeptic be adduced. He experimented long and patiently as a lawyer, to see if he could add anything to the law of the Lord or take anything away, so as to improve upon it. If it could be thus amended, then he would rest in the conviction that it was of human origin merely.
The results reached, he states in this way: “The first commandment, I find, directs us to make the Creator the object of our supreme love and reverence. That is as it should be. If he be our Creator, Preserver, and Supreme Benefactor, we ought to treat him, and none other, as such. The second forbids idolatry, the third profaneness, and all this is certainly right. The fourth fixes a time for religious worship. If there be a God, he ought surely to be worshiped. There should be an outward homage expressive of our inward regard. It is proper some time should be specified when all may worship harmoniously, and without interruption. One day in seven is certainly not too much, and I do not know that it is too little. The fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from the family relations. Injuries to our neighbor are then classified by the moral law into offenses against life, chastity, property, and character. I notice, too, that the greatest offense in each class is expressly forbidden. Thus the greatest injury to life is murder; to chastity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, perjury. Now the greater offense must include the less of the same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; and so of the rest. And the moral code is closed and perfected by a command prohibiting every improper desire in regard to our neighbor.”
“In thinking, where did Moses get that law, I searched history. I find the Egyptians and the adjacent nations were idolaters. So were the Greeks and the Romans, and the wisest and best Greek or Roman never taught a code of morals like Moses.”
“Where did Moses get this law, which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? Living at a period comparatively barbarous, Moses has given a law in which the learning and sagacity of all subsequent times can detect no fault. He could not have risen so far above his age as to have devised it himself. It must have come from Heaven. I am convinced of the truth of the religion of the Bible.”
Thus he was led to Christ, and from that time this song made glad the house of his pilgrimage, instead of gibes and jeers about the mistakes of Moses:—
The statutes of the Lord are right, And do rejoice the heart; The Lord’s command is pure, and doth Light to the eyes impart. They more than gold, yea, much fine gold, To be desired are, Than honey, honey from the comb, That droppeth, sweeter far. Moreover, they thy servant warn How he his life should frame; A great reward provided is For them that keep the same. —Wm. T. Price, in Christian at Work.

RAILING ACCUSATIONS.

By Chas. B. Reynolds

Fierce invectives are sometimes uttered under the delusion that it is but expressing righteous indignation.
Those in positions of trust and grave responsibility, after long prayerful study, and exercise of their mature judgment, make decisions or lay plans that do not happen to agree with our hasty notions; and heedless alike of the warning of the Lord, and of the proved purity of character, love of God, and zeal for his cause which these persons have ever evinced, their plans are fiercely denounced, and railing accusations brought against them.
It is true that after a little reflection, on learning the facts, there is apt to be some regret for the hasty words uttered, and hearty approval of what was so heartily condemned. But this does not always undo the evil influence, nor remove impressions made on some who heard the expressions of bitterness.
Says the apostle, “Presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these . . . speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.” 2 Pet. 2: 10-12.
But suppose we really have occasion for trial, and are justly grieved at the course taken by a brother. Wrongs cannot be set right by hard speeches. “Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus,” who, when contending with Satan, dared not bring a railing accusation against the author of all evil. Shall we, claiming to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, dare to bring railing accusations against our brethren in the faith?
Especially should we be guarded in our home life. Perhaps we are prone to meet the little trials and vexations of the home circle with harsh, loud, angry words; and it may be we sometimes say cutting things, or chide bitterly, because provoked at some trifle. At the moment we may imagine that such outbursts of passion will produce a better state of things; but this is a delusion of Satan. Although our kindest acts may be ignored, our most thoughtful offers of service ungratefully repulsed, yet harsh, loud, fierce words only increase the evil, and destroy our influence for good. Did we realize how aggravating in the sight of God must be our sins against him, we would offer fervent prayers for grace to evince the spirit of the Master, the gentle, forbearing, pitying love of Jesus; and this would make our daily life at home, spite of so-called incompatibilities, far, far, happier.
How many once happy homes have been blighted,—husbands driven to drinking and dissipation, sons to evil associations, daughters to hasty marriages and subsequent misery, or to lives of shame; wives, with crushed and bleeding hearts, to premature graves, from the piercing of cruel words that cut so deeply, though perhaps forgotten as soon as spoken by the one who uttered them. How many sacred friendships have been severed, not by acts of malicious unkindness, but by the thoughtless, hasty, passionate word. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Let us remember, when tempted, that Jesus himself dare not bring a railing accusation against even his great enemy, Satan. May God help us to heed the admonition of the apostle Paul, found in Eph. 4: 29-32. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.

A MORSEL FOR PORK-EATERS.

By J. G. Wood

I extract the following from the weekly Missouri Republican of July 3, 1879, which shows that the attention of physicians in different nations is being aroused to the dangers of pork-eating.
“The physicians are astonished by the number of cases of trichinosis which have recently come to their attention in this vicinity, the disease which is produced by eating pork infected with trichinæ.
“There is considerable alarm on the other side of the water about the presence of these parasites in American pork, and the Privy Council in England has the subject of the inspection of all American pork offered for sale in the market.
“Italy and Greece have already taken prohibitory action upon the subject. The matter has been presented for the consideration of the authorities of Germany. The trichina is an animal parasite which takes its name from the Greek word signifying a hair, owing to its minute size.
“Recently in Brooklyn there were four cases of trichinosis, all of which occurred in the family of the book-keeper of one of the largest dry goods houses in the city. He was a German, and one Friday evening, when his wife's mother, the wife of a wealthy New York jeweler, was visiting them, they made a meal of raw ham, all of the family, including the servant girl, but not the children, eating of the meat. In two days all were sick, and they were treated for malarial fever, sewer-gas fever, and typhoid fever, the symptoms of the latter being marvellously like those of trichinosis; but the disease did not yield to the treatment, and then the physicians in tracing back the diet for some days seized upon the fact of the raw ham to justify their suspicion of trichinosis. The mother-in-law died. . . . The book-keeper got almost well, and was thought to be convalescent, when he suddenly died. The trichinæ were found in abundance in the muscles of his arm, larynx, and even in the eye-ball muscles. Then there was no doubt that both deaths were produced by trichinotic pork.
“These parasites produce a death of great agony. They burrow in the muscles of the human frame, and cause the patient to suffer intense pain, to which the greatest rheumatic pains would be a feeling of comfort. There is nothing for the patient to do except to remain perfectly motionless until death comes to give relief.
“Can medicine do nothing for the afflicted patient? I asked.
“There is nothing powerful enough to penetrate the system, and to follow up the trichinæ. . . . They are the natural parasite of the rat and the rabbit, whose muscles are full of them. . . . A family poisoned by pork are now suffering from the disease in Elizabeth, N. J. They were Germans, and had eaten ham raw.”
Those who have learned to live without swine's flesh should be thankful.
J. G. Wood.

THE SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH.

Putting the word Sunday in place of the Sabbath in the following article, as it is Sunday it speaks of, not the Sabbath, we learn how the Sunday movement is progressing. It is from The Christian Woman, of June, 1879:
There seems to be a general uprising of the people in behalf of the Sabbath. Law and Order Leagues, Temperance Societies, and Ministerial Associations all seem to be putting forth efforts to secure the sanctity of the day and the enforcement of Sunday laws.
At Pittsburgh, Pa., and Newark, N. J., the saloon-keepers, hoping to disgust the masses of people by a rigid enforcement of all Sunday laws when forced to close their saloons, helped on the good cause by forcing the cigar stores, and milkmen, and newsboys to stop their business. But the people were not disgusted. Even irreligious men and women enjoyed the quiet and holy calm of an orderly Sabbath, and openly expressed themselves as willing to forego their Sunday papers.
In Reading, Pa., the mayor has taken the matter vigorously in hand, and is enforcing all Sunday laws with a vigor and determination that makes saloon-keepers and Sabbath-breakers hold their breath for very fear. In Boston, the ministers have taken the matter in hand, and called a convention to consider measures for the proper enforcement of the Sunday laws of Massachusetts.
If ministers, and moral, law-abiding citizens, take the matter in hand, with the determination and courage the cause demands, the Sabbath laws will soon be respected and obeyed.
For years, a few blatant, beer-drinking foreigners, sustained by the lowest and most disorderly and law-defying of our own citizens, have so terrorized over the better classes of our people that they have been timid in attempting to enforce the law; but now that they find that the masses are with them, we may hope for better times.

THE BEST GIFTS.

By Allen Wilson

“But covet earnestly the best gifts.” 1 Cor. 12:31. “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.” 1 Cor. 14:1. “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.” Verse 39.
According to the foregoing texts, is it not as much the duty of the church to desire those gifts as it is to follow after charity? If these gifts are to be earnestly sought after, should we not ask the Father of lights, from whom every good and every perfect gift proceeds, to bestow those gifts upon us? If the churches would occupy the right position before the Lord, and would walk in humble obedience to all his requirements, is it not reasonable to suppose that God would bless them with spiritual gifts?
ALLEN WILSON.

STUMBLING-STONES

By J. Bartlett

“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matt. 7:14.
Jesus has pointed out the way for us to walk in, but some complain that there are stumbling-blocks in the way. This is not true. The stumbling-blocks are all outside of the road; so that if we keep in the track, we shall stumble over none of them. It is when we get out of the narrow way ourselves that we find plenty of stumbling-stones. When our brethren come to us complaining of the stumbling-blocks in their way, it is a sure sign that they are out of the way themselves.
J. BARTLETT.
Continue reading: CHAPLAIN McCABE'S DREAM OF INGERSOLLVILLE